Digital Communication and Computer Technology

By: Michelle Paley , Daren Kitchen, Ben McConkie

Introduction• Effective digital communication is the ability

to create effective communications in various media, such as blog and forum websites, electronic resumes, email, and online research. Also, there is video, audio, text and multimedia. Digital communication and computer knowledge is a foundation skill for most careers in the business world today. Most individuals will be involved in some form of producing, creating, delivering, and receiving such communications in their jobs and lives. Digital communication and computer literacy has become common place in todays world.

Outline

• Blogs and Forums• Electronic

Resume’s • Email• Online Research

Blogs and ForumsDefinition and Description

• A blog (from Web log) is an online discussion or informational site typically written and maintained by a single writer or a small group of writers with periodic, ongoing posts (short articles)

often focused on a common theme. • A forum is similar to a blog in that it is

content-driven informational site, but rather than being authored by a select number of writers, is a place where readers can post questions or answers and participate in topic-oriented discussions.

Blogs and ForumsSimilarities

• Posts are topic oriented and tend to attract like-minded people.

• Writing style is casual, uses contractions, first person and active voice.

• Should be updated regularly to build an audience and maintain credibility.

• Neither should be used or cited as research or hard-news sources.

• Companies and organizations can use them to attract and connect with clients or customers and to demonstrate strong and relevant industry or market knowledge.

• Can be internal or external to an organization

Blogs and ForumsDifferences

• Content source– The primary content on a blog is the articles.

Comments are typically allowed but are not the primary reason people visit the site.

– The primary content on a forum is the comments. Without active participation from readers in the form of posts or comments, a forum couldn’t exist.

• Length of post– Recent data suggests that

the optimal length of a blog post is about 1,600 words (or about 7 minutes of reading time).

– The length of a forum post is typically more brief than blogs but can vary by user and complexity of the topic.

Blogs and ForumsBest Practices for Blogs

• Keep it current with regular, ongoing posts.• Keep the information relevant to your

audience.• Keep sentences and paragraphs concise.• Use specific titles that accurately describe

the content of each post.• Use the opening line to set the context for

the post.• Use bulleted lists, italics, whitespace and

images to make the text easy to scan and enjoyable to read.

• Use categories or tags (keywords) to organize posts into sub-topics.

• When helpful, post links to other sites and resources.

• If desired you can monetize a blog by securing product or banner ad sponsors.

Blogs and ForumsBest Practices for Forums

• If you are the host of the forum…– Decide how to monitor the forum:

Will it be self governing or watched over and guided by a moderator?

– Allow users to select and post into categories to organize posts into sub-topics.

• If you’re participating in a forum discussion...– Keep the information relevant

to the forum topic.

– Keep sentences and paragraphs concise.

– When helpful, post links to other sites and resources.

Blogs and ForumsCaution Items

• Do not post information that is confidential or sensitive to your family, friends, or employer.

• Do not post information that you would not want an employer to see or read.

• Do not talk harshly or negatively about or to any competitor or other users.

• Do not use foul language or imagery.

Electronic ResumesDefinition and Description

• An electronic resume refers to any resume in a digital format such as Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF.

• Can be a private document shared by email between relevant parties or a public or semi-public document posted online for employers and companies to search and review at their leisure.

• The term web resume can refer to a resume you post to your own website or a resume you upload to a job board such as indeed.com or monster.com

Electronic ResumesDefinition and Description

• The Business Writer’s Handbook defines a scannable or plain text resumeas a scanner-friendly printed document that should be mailed to prospective employers.

• A more current line of thought defines a scannable resume is a digital copy (PDF, DOC, TXT, etc.) of a keyword-rich document intended for upload to a job board. In many cases the website performs an instant parsing of text for relevant keywords. This process allows employers to search a large number of resumes by required skill or keywords.

Electronic ResumesBest Practices for Web Resumes

• Posting a resume on your own site:– View your resume on several different

browsers to make sure it looks the same (or better) on each.

– Consider building a multipage site that includes a separate page for education, employment history, achievements, letters of recommendation and a portfolio if appropriate. – Use a contact form instead of

posting your personal phone number or email address to protect your information from phishers or digital predators.

Electronic ResumesBest Practices for Web Resumes

• Posting a resume on a job board or third-party website:– Always view your resume after uploading

to any website, to be sure it looks the way you want it to. (Pay special attention to formatting, spacing, bullets and fonts.)

– Include relevant industry and job-skill keywords (see also: scannable resumes).

Electronic ResumesBest Practices for Web Resumes

• Emailing a resume:– Use fonts that come standard on most

users’ computers such as Arial, or Tahoma.

– If the retention of formatting is important, save the resume as PDF to make sure it looks the same to all users on all platforms and operating systems.

Electronic ResumesBest Practices for Scannable

Resumes

• Research job boards and postings to gather a list of keywords common to the type of job you want to interview for, and make sure these keywords (if truthful and relevant) are included in your resume.

• If possible, include the most relevant and important keywords toward the top of your resume to optimize your ranking in employer searches.

• When possible use nouns instead of verbs to describe experience and skills. Example: ‘designer’ instead of ‘designed’

Electronic ResumesBest Practices for Scannable

Resumes

• Use a common, easy-to-read font such as Arial or Times New Roman.

• Avoid using underlining, shading or other text decoration

• Consider having both a formatted resume for emailing to employers, and a plain text resume for uploading to job boards and forums.

Electronic ResumesCaution Items

• Do not give false information.• Do not post information publicly

that you would not want a former employer to see or read.

• Do not talk harshly or negatively about a former employer.

• Do not use foul language or imagery.

Definition and Description• E-mail (or email) functions in the workplace

as a standard to exchange information and share electronic files with colleagues, clients, and customers. E-mail messages may take the form of informal notes. E-mail messages often function as business letters to those outside organizations and memos to those within organizations.

E-mail Communication Etiquette

• When is e-mail the appropriate form of communication to use?

• When is e-mail NOT an appropriate form of communication to use?

• Who is your audience?

E-mail Communication Etiquette

E-mail Communication Etiquette

The Do’s and Don’ts of an effective e-mail• Subject Lines:

– Do convey the main point of your e-mail or the idea that you want the reader to take away from your e-mail.

– Don’t use word subjects such as “Hi,” or “FYI” these are not informative and don’t give the reader an idea of how important your message is.

• Greetings and Sign-offs: – Do use some kind of greeting and some kind of sign-off.– Don’t just start with your text and Don’t stop at the end without a

polite signature.

• Cc: and Bcc: (‘carbon copy’ and ‘blind carbon copy’): – Copying individuals on an e-mail is a good way to send your message to the main recipient, while also sending others the same email.– Don’t over do it on the Cc and Bcc.

E-mail Communication Etiquette

Tips for writing more effective e-mails

• Think about your message before you write it.

• Reflect on the tone of your message. When you are communicating through e-mail, your words are not supported by gestures, voice emphasis, or other cues, so it may be easier for someone to misread your tone.

• Strive for clarity and briefness in your writing. Miscommunication can occur if an e-mail is unclear, disorganized, or just too long

and complex for readers to easily follow.

Online ResearchOnline research methods (ORMs) are ways in which researchers can collect data via the internet. They are also referred to as internet research, internet science (iscience), or web-based methods. • Effective Online Research reduces the amount of time

spent researching• Research projects raise important questions.• When you conduct academic research, you join a

community of scholars in a chain of conversation and truth seeking that has gone on for centuries before you.

Online ResearchBest Practices

• Know what you are really searching for. Direction is key.• Know which sources to trust!• Make good decisions regarding the quality and appropriateness

of your information sources. including assessing whether a resource is trustworthy and up-to-date. (has info changed?)

• Know who has rights to the work you use.• Know how to properly give others credit for their ideas.• Know the extent to which you can ethically remix or synthesize ideas and information in your own work.

Online ResearchBest Practices

When using search engines such as Google, remember that there are incredible amounts of information. Google will pull the most relevant information based off of your search and rank it by page. Page one being the most important or most accurate. Here are a few tips on how to properly search.• Punctuation symbols that help refine your search.To search for results from certain sites and domains--Place “site:” in front of the site or domain from which you want to pull results  Ex: apple watch c

• Definitions for a given word: Enter “define” followed by your • desired term.• Nutritional facts, or compare nutritional facts: Enter the

name • of the product, or enter “compare” followed by the items you • want to compare.• Prices: Place a dollar sign ($) before the value. Ex: canon $400

Recommended Research Ideas

Definition and Description• E-mail (or email) functions in the workplace

as a standard to exchange information and share electronic files with colleagues, clients, and customers. E-mail messages may take the form of informal notes. E-mail messages often function as business letters to those outside organizations and memos to those within organizations.

E-mail Communication Etiquette

• When is e-mail the appropriate form of communication to use?

• When is e-mail NOT an appropriate form of communication to use?

• Who is your audience?

E-mail Communication Etiquette

E-mail Communication Etiquette

The Do’s and Don’ts of an effective e-mail• Subject Lines:

– Do convey the main point of your e-mail or the idea that you want the reader to take away from your e-mail.

– Don’t use word subjects such as “Hi,” or “FYI” these are not informative and don’t give the reader an idea of how important your message is.

• Greetings and Sign-offs: – Do use some kind of greeting and some kind of sign-off.– Don’t just start with your text and Don’t stop at the end without a

polite signature.

• Cc: and Bcc: (‘carbon copy’ and ‘blind carbon copy’): – Copying individuals on an e-mail is a good way to send your message to the main recipient, while also sending others the same email.– Don’t over do it on the Cc and Bcc.

E-mail Communication Etiquette

Tips for writing more effective e-mails

• Think about your message before you write it.

• Reflect on the tone of your message. When you are communicating through e-mail, your words are not supported by gestures, voice emphasis, or other cues, so it may be easier for someone to misread your tone.

• Strive for clarity and briefness in your writing. Miscommunication can occur if an e-mail is unclear, disorganized, or just too long

and complex for readers to easily follow.