NO GRAMMAR

SIMPLE AND STRAIGHTFORWARD ENGLISH

Book reading is spark CHAPTER 4

• • Understand how self-evaluation drives excellence
  • Explore why accountability is so rare
  • Recognize how by owning our mistakes we inspire others and create a culture of candor
  • Realize that every path to overcoming challenge starts with accountability
• READ Chapter 4, provide one insight from the reading that you found interesting or helpful and why you found that point significant. Then, answer at least 1 of the following questions from the chapter
• The authors state that blaming someone else (for problems) has become a cultural norm. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Share your perspective.
• Can you recall a time in your life when demonstrating accountability was challenging? What were the circumstances?
• What are little things you can stop or start doing to develop your ability to demonstrate accountability?
• Sean shares a story of how he felt after making, and having to disclose, a significant mistake to his team (when he had failed to plug in his g-suit, causing him to lose consciousness when flying). Can you relate to this story? Share an example of a time when admitting your mistake was difficult for you, but valuable for others.
• A leader’s actions under stress are mentioned again in this chapter as Courtney shares, “Stress has a funny way of bringing out unhealthy, unproductive emotions.” How does stress impact your personal behavior as a leader? How will you become more accountable to minimizing others’ exposure to your stress reactions?
• At the end of the chapter, the authors share that, “The more consistent your ability to be accountable becomes, the more consistent success becomes for you and the teams you are a part of. ” Why do you believe there’s such a strong connection between accountability and success?
• We have reached the midpoint of our SPARK Experience. How is this book and/or our group having an impact on you?
• READ CHAPTER 5
• Reading Focus:
  • Why intentional action matters
  • The importance of imagining a future that is consistent with your values
  • Awareness that continuous learning allows you to clarify your path forward
  • By understanding we have limits to our capacity, we recognize we have to say “no” to some opportunities in order to say “yes” to others

  READ Chapter 5, provide one insight from the reading that you found interesting or helpful and why you found that point significant. Then, answer at least 1 of the following questions from the chapter

• • In this chapter of SPARK, the authors are encouraging us to envision the difference between where we are today and where we want to be. Angie, Sean and Courtney discuss how they don’t support a “quit your job and change your life” mentality. Instead, they suggest deep reflection on how you want to direct your life so you can achieve a better future. Then, you can make the small choices necessary to get you closer to living the life you want to lead.
  • What are simple aspects of your life that you’d like to change?
  • What are the commitments you recognize you need to make in order to move in this positive direction?
  • If you think about your professional self five years from now, what’s one thing you want to be true? How will you go about making that happen?
  • Was there a story or example in this chapter that you could relate to?
  • Why can it be difficult to imagine or re-imagine our future?
  • The authors talk about how humans are not machines and that we have maximum capacities. Do you find it challenging to say “no”? What are your best practices for saying “no”?

• READ CHAPTER 6/7

• Reading focus:Chapters 6 & 7 explore the concepts of service-based leadership and confidence. From the reading you will:
  • Learn how by understanding and meeting the needs of others you’ll build the trust needed to lead.
  • Realize that service to others can happen in the simplest ways.
  • Become aware of how insecurity can often accompany success.
  • Recognize that confidence comes from within as well as the steps to build it.

  After reading the Chapters 6 & 7, provide one insight from the reading that you found interesting or helpful and why you found that point significant. Then, answer at least 1 of the following questions from each chapter

  • What did you know about service-based leadership prior to reading this chapter? Is this a practice that you’ve heard promoted before?
  • Our instincts for self-preservation and self-focus can be pretty strong. Overriding these instincts and instead working to understand and meet the needs of others can be challenging. Why do you believe it’s challenging for you to be a service-based leader at times?
  • Angie shares the story of “Coca-Cola,” a tough, demanding — yet compassionate — leader who had no problem holding others accountable to performance standards. How did this story impact you?
  • Courtney shares that the presence of service-based leadership can be palpable. Have you ever worked for a manager who was also a service-based leader? How was that experience valuable for you?
  • Angie, Courtney and Sean challenge us to create our own leadership laboratory and focus on serving others for at least ten minutes a day. What would you do and what type of impact do you think it’ll have?
  • One particular challenge of being a service-based leader is follow through. We can have great intentions to take action on behalf of others, but then neglect to do so. Why does this happen, and how can we prevent it?

(1)GO online and find 2 different structural engineering consulting firms: one from Alabama and one

from anywhere else. If you cannot find the required information, choose another firm until you do! Each

answer should be labeled (a1 ..etc…) and they should be answered in complete sentences.

(a) You are to write a short description of firm1 that must include: (a1) the firm’s website, (a2)

how long firm has been in business (or a state you cannot find that), (a3) how many people

the company employees, (a4) discussion of whether they are local, regional, national, or

international in the projects they do, (a5) a description of two projects that they have done

recently, and (a6) describe some particular aspect of the company or its culture that you

found interesting or appealing.

(b) You are to write a short description of firm2 that must include: (b1) the firm’s website, (b2) how long firm has been in business (or a state you cannot find that), (b3) how many people

the company employees, (b4) discussion of whether they are local, regional, national, or

international in the projects they do,, (b5) a description of two projects that they have done

recently, and (b6) describe some particular aspect of the company or its culture that you

found interesting or appealing.

(c) Write a short comparison between the companies explain differences and similarities (~3-5 sentences)

2- GO online and find 2 different environmental engineering consulting firms: one from Alabama and

one from anywhere else. If you cannot find the required information, choose another firm until you do!

Each answer should be labeled (a1 ..etc…) and they should be answered in complete sentences.

a- write to a short description of firm1 that must include: (a1) the firm’s website, (a2)

how long firm has been in business (or a state you cannot find that), (a3) how many people

the company employees, (a4) discussion of whether they are local, regional, national, or

international in the projects they do,, (a5) a description of two projects that they have done

recently, and (a6) describe some particular aspect of the company or its culture that you

found interesting or appealing.

b- You are to write a short description of firm2 that must include: (b1) the firm’s website, (b2) how long firm has been in business (or a state you cannot find that), (b3) how many people

the company employees, (b4) discussion of whether they are local, regional, national, or

international in the projects they do,, (b5) a description of two projects that they have done

recently, and (b6) describe some particular aspect of the company or its culture that you

(c) Write a short comparison between the companies explain differences and similarities (~3-5 sentences)

(3) After completing 1 and 2, think about the two different types of companies: structural and environmental engineering and about how they present themselves. ~1/4 page (12 pt new roman 1.25” margins) discussing your impressions about differences and similarities between structural and environmental firms. Discuss anything you notices in terms of difference in the corporate culture they presented.

For this assignment, you will complete the preliminary steps for writing the data analysis of a contemporary ethical case. The final contemporary ethical case will cite a minimum of eleven references and include two visuals. You may include more references, but annotations are required for only five.

The Rationale for Secondary Documents
Although the inspiration for your case study should begin with the original article, you should not rely solely on the original article to imagine, explain, and analyze the ethical dilemmas that can be identified in your case. For example, an article may appear to be about immigration, but technology plays an important role in regulating and policing immigrants. You may also want to use articles about different subjects to help you reveal a new or surprising connection to your own. For example, you might read about how Facebook collects and uses user data to analyze how an company that manufactures autonomous vehicles might collect and use data.his may include peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters that offer a particular argument about one or more aspects of your case. If you are not sure what a secondary document is, please consult your professor or a librarian. For the purposes of this assignment, only social studies of science, technology, or medicine (i.e., documents written by historians, sociologists, anthropologists or philosophers about science, technology or medicine see https://www.4sonline.org/resources/journals (Links to an external site.)) count as secondary sources.

Visual Explanation
Explaining technical information in a way that connects with an audience is a skill and habit of a good engineer. Visual data can be far more effective than written or spoken language. To practice this skill/habit, create a visual that helps explain some aspect of your case. This may include utilizing open-access or creative commons images or clip art. If you are not sure what an open-access image is, please ask your professor or a librarian. Label this figure with a caption containing a brief paragraph describing the contents of the figure, and how it relates to your contemporary ethical case.

Submit the following:
1. Visual/ Figure
2. Annotation 1, 2, 3 ….5

• • Bibliographic Reference
  • Summary
  • Three bullet points They Say/I Say

  Writing an Annotation (150-200 words) One annotation should be approximately 150-200 words, including the bibliographic reference, paragraph, and three important points.Type the full bibliographic reference, in your preferred citation format, for this article or book chapter Use bullets to pull out three important points of scholarly argument and/or empirical data that help you to think about your research. VERY IMPORTANT: For each of these three important points, separate each bullet into two parts: what “They say” (e.g., a piece of data, a quote, a logical premise, etc. that you cite from the article) and what “I say” (your own assertion, original thought, or reflection about what they have said).

You MUST send your 1 – page literature critique in MS Word ( .docx or .doc) formats.

Literature Critique Format Instructions:

The only accepted font size must be 12 pt and Times New Roman font type is required. Critiques must be word-processed, single spaced and at only one page. Also, you must have a minimum margin size of 1 inch and a maximum margin size of 1inch on all sides of your submitted assignment. The paper should contain 4-5 well-written paragraphs with proper grammar and spelling. In the final paragraph, briefly discuss something from the article that really impressed you. Only the last paragraph can be written from the first person point of view, but not in any other location of the literature critique should 1st or 3rdperson be used (i.e., do not use ‘we’, ‘you’, ‘I’, etc.).

At the top of the assignment, please include the following:

Literature Critique #2
Date Due: Month Day, Year
By: FirstName M.I. LastName (suffix if applicable)
In addition, a proper bibliographic reference MUST appear at the top of the paper. Although many reference styles exist, the only style that will be accepted in this class is the APA-style as shown below:

First Author’s Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial., & Second Author’s Last Name, First Initial.Middle Initial. (year of publication). Title of the article with only the first letter of the first word in title or sub-title as well as proper nouns and acronyms are capitalized. Name of Journal in Italics, volume in italics (issue number in parenthesis and not in italics if known), first page number-last page number.

Pay very close attention to the details of the APA citation format (such as the location of periods, commas, use of italics, etc.) This skill becomes very critical as you pursue your endeavors beyond the walls of MSU.

Sample citation with two authors:

Pitts, Jr., R.A., & Ventura, J.A. (2009). Scheduling manufacturing cells using Tabu Search. International Journal of Production Research, 47(24), 6907-6928.

Sample citation with >2 authors:

Jerald, J., Asokan, P., Prabaharan, G., & Saravanan, R. (2005). Scheduling optimization of flexible manufacturing systems using particle swarm optimization algorithm. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 25(1), 964-971.

1)Chapter 10 – Policymakers are tasked with making decisions on issues characterized as wicked problems because of controversies, unknown relationships between causes and consequences, and uncertain futures. From this perspective, Moody and Gerrits (2015) think that its desirable to get decisions mapped ahead of the possible outcomes prior to the actual decision-making because that would generate certainty in ambiguous situations. Looking closely at the Technological perceptions, technology is thought to revolve around humans. It reflects on questions of who drives technology.

Q: Please identify and name a few of those questions discussed in this debate and provide a brief explanation around your thoughts?

2)Chapter 11 – From the chapter, we learned that the pattern of behavior arises from fundamental psychology and in particular, the following: a) our capacity for habitual behavior, b) the difference between intelligence as the manifestation of the coping mode of cognition and understanding as the manifestation of the pervasive optimization mode, and c) the phenomenon of authoritarianism as the need for external authority through a lack of understanding of one’s living environment. On the same line of thought, Andringa (2015), stated that the combination of these phenomena leads to a formal definition – the Bureaucratic Dynamic – and this is where the prevalence of coercive formalization scales with what the author terms as “institutional ignorance” – a measure of how well workers understand the consequences of their own actions both within the organization as well as the wider society…

Q2: In conclusion, the author presents a view that most people may agree with – that “All human activities benefit from some form of formalization, and that formalization allows automating routine tasks, to agree on how to collaborate, determine when and how tasks should be executed, and when they are finished.” The author offers a key reason(s) why procedures should not be changed too often. What are those reasons? Provide a brief explanation.