Resource sections. Click to go there.

• Analytical reports

• Career development

• ERAU

• Ethnography

• Grammar

• Instructional manuals

• Language and style

• Proposals

• Public speaking

• Technical assistance

• Writing process

• Visual design

• Other stuff

Analytical Reports

• Com 221 - Project 2 instructions - Analytical report (Spring 2012)

• Annotated bibliography - Instruction from OWL Purdue on how to write an annotated bibliography

• How to Write an Abstract - An informative site from the University of Berkeley with many sample abstracts

• Letter of transmittal - This University of Idaho source explains what to include in the letter of transmittal and provides an example

• Report introduction format (PDF) - Review this document for information on what to include in the introduction of your report

• Focus worksheet - Define your topic, research question, type of report, audience scenario, and abstract (just a draft to get started)

• Conclusions and Recommendations worksheet - Draft your conclusion and recommendations

• Extended Definitions - Definition and examples

• Defining Your Topic - Formal, Informal, and Extended Definitions

• Technical Description - with examples

• Report Editing Checklist (PDF)

• Periodicals: Popular versus Scholarly

• Summarizing, Quoting, Paraphrasing - Com 221 Handout

• Summarizing, Quoting, Paraphrasing - Com 221 Activity

• Citing an interview - Handout

• Com 221 analytical report samples (PDFs) - These are good examples of actual student projects, though they are not perfect.

  • Example 1 - Web Page Design: Heuristic Evaluation vs. User Testing

  • Example 2 - Analysis of Veteran Integration at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

  • Example 3 - Feasibility of Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as an Air Superiority Platform

  • Example 4 - Feasibility of Full-Payload Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Alternatives For Use in High-Risk Environments

  • Example 5 - Feasibility of Helium-3 to be adopted as a future fusion fuel source by Chevron Technology Ventures (Spring 2012)

  • Example 6 - Feasibility of the US transitioning from its dependency on oil and natural gas to nuclear energy (Spring 2012)

• A sample journal article in APA format (PDF) - My article published in the April 2011 issue of Eá  Journal

Career Development

Com 221 - Project 1 instructions - Resume/cover letter assignment (Spring 2012)

Course Handouts and Resume/Cover Letter Examples (Com 221)

• Cover Letter Checklist (PDF) - Com 221 - The cover letter for Com 221 Project 1 should follow this 3-paragraph model.

• Model Cover Letter (PDF)

• Project 1 examples (PDFs) - Cover letter and resume. Here are some examples of previous student projects. Note that the instructions have changed. Also, a memo is no longer required.

  • Example 1 - First Officer

  • Example 2 - Engineering internship

  • Example 3 - Airway Transportation Systems Specialist with the FAA

  • Example 4 - Engineering Stress/Mechanical Engineering internship with Rolls-Royce

  • Example 5 - Aviation internship

  • Example 6 - Network manager

  • Example 7 - Internship at Sikorsky Aircraft

  • Example 8 - Airway transportation systems specialist at FAA

  • Example 9 - Aerospace engineering internship

  • Example 10 - Pilot (resume only)

Text Resources

• Purdue OWL's "Resume Workshop"

• Purdue OWL's "What is a Cover Letter?"

• Content and sections of your resume - This excellent site contains examples of entries for various degrees and programs, plus more

• Engineering Resumes and Cover Letters - Please note that some of the examples are bad, bad, bad. However, some are good, and you may get ideas for content from this site.

• A professional resume service with 100+ sample resumes in dozens of fields - various formats

• Pilot Resumes

• Article "Resume Types: Chronological, Functional, Combination, Targeted"

• Samples Cover Letters for various fields - ERAU Career Services

• Sample Resumes and CVs for various fields - ERAU Career Services

• Glassdoor.com - A free look at 84,000 companies

• Content and sections of your resume - by Virginia Tech. Good reference for including academic degrees earned and more

Video and Podcast Resources

• "Why are communication skills important?" video (9:46M) from the California Institute of Technology

• Resume advice video (3:07M) from the California Institute of Technology

• Cover letter advice video (1:46M) from the California Institute of Technology

• Resume advice podcast (11:07M) from Monster.Com - interview with Scott Bennett, author of The Elements of Resume Style

Humorous Items

• The Onion article - "Résumé Font Offends Employer"

• "Impossible is Nothing" - In 2006, self-styled "CEO and Professional Athlete" Aleksey Vayner submitted an 11-page application and video resume to securities firm UBS that executives leaked by email all over the Internet. "The clip, staged to look like a job interview spliced with shots of Mr. Vayner’s athletic prowess, flooded e-mail inboxes across Wall Street and eventually appeared on the video-sharing site YouTube" (quote from Dealbook article below).

  • Dealbook article - "The Resume Mocked 'Round the World" - Background on the situation and a personal interview with Vayner.

  • Original video resume

  • Spoof video resume by Michael Cera

ERAU

• Blackboard course site

• 2009-2010 Course Catalog (PDF)

• Avion - The online version of the Daytona Beach campus newspaper

• The Leader - The Leader magazine is published in the spring and fall by the Office of Communications and Marketing

• Eagles FM Radio - Listen live

• Career Services

• Communication Program degree

• Aerospace Studies degree

• Brand Identity Graphic Standards Guidelines

Ethnography

• Manches Research - A company that creates video ethnographic studies. Site has definition of ethnographic research and video examples

• Example of Ethnographic Study - An Ethnographic Study of the Skateboarding Culture from the United States Sports Academy

Grammar

• Numbers and Abbreviations in Technical Style (DOC)

• Writing Numbers Exercise (PDF)

• Avoiding Run-Ons and Comma-Splices (PDF)

• Comma Usage (DOC)

• Parallel Structure

• The Paramedic Method (PDF) - This handout helps understand how to revise your writing for clarity.

• Passive/Active Voice - Mistakes were made ...

• Why punctuation matters

Instructional Manuals

• Instructions on writing instructions with examples

• WikiHow

• Rhetorical Functions in Academic Writing: Writing instructions

• Six important tips for writing instructions

• Google Earth User Guide

• User manuals and guides for products such as mobile phones, cameras, motherboards, monitors, software, TVs, etc.

• More user manuals ...

• Five Principles of Writing Instructions

• Usability Testing

• Re-Writing Instructions Exercise

• Usability Testing handout

Language & Style

• Signal Phrases

• APA Research Style Crib Sheet

• OWL Purdue's APA Style Guide

• Another APA quick reference for references page entries

• MLA Research and Style Guide (2009) - By OWL at Purdue

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary

• The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Readability Formula

• Reverse Dictionary and more

• "The Principles of Newspeak" from Orwell's 1984. A full text link and introductory video.

Proposals

• Elements of a Proposal

• Proposals - A guide to proposal writing

Public Speaking

• How to Make Your Speaking Easier and More Effective - Advice on public speaking, focused on teaching, but good advice for oral presentations in general

• Video of two short oral presentations, one better than the other

• Video example of talking just to fill space

• Video example of lack of audience awareness and ... inappropriate presentation style

Technical Assistance

• Microsoft support "How to create a Word document that uses different page numbering formats"

• Microsoft Office resource "Add and format page numbers"

• Video tutorial on using multiple types of page numbering in MS Word (4:21M)

• Video tutorial on creating a table of contents in MS Word (2:06M)

Writing Process

• Audience analysis - "Five Types of Audiences and How to Write for Them" by Eastern Carolina University

• OWL at Purdue - An excellent resource for help with the writing process. From the OWL site: "The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction."

• Writing At Yale - Using Sources

• Model document gallery - This Bedford Martin site contains model documents in Business and Technical Writing, the Humanities, and Natural and Applied Sciences

• Progress report sample

• Rhetorical functions in academic writing

• Tips for Evaluating Web sources

• Memos - From OWL at Purdue. Discusses what a memo is, describes parts of a memo, and provides explanations and sample document

• Emails - A good article about writing business emails

• Writing Guidelines for Science and Engineering Students - a site with instruction and model documents from Penn State

• Video about identifying scholarly sources

• Sample documents: reports, letters, and more, including Progress Report sample (for Assignment 2)

• Plagiarism - ERAU Humanities and Social Sciences Department Statement

• Concept mapping - "The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them"

Visual Design

Com 221 - Assignment 3 instructions - Create table or figure (Spring 2012)

Graphics: Figures and Tables

• University of Idaho's "Graphic Aids: Using Figures to Present Data"

• "How to Create a List of Figures in MS Word 2010" how-to article

• Examples of graphs and charts from the US Energy Information Administration site

• Guide to creating tables and figures from SurgicalCriticalCare.net

• Bates College's "Almost Everything You Wanted to Know about Making Tables and Figures" - excellent resource. A bit long for online reading. Here's the PDF version to print.

Presentations: Text Resources

• Presentation Zen - A blog about professional presentation design issues by Garr Reynolds

  • Presentation Tips - Organization & Preparation, Delivery, Slides

  • Handout - "How to Design & Deliver Presentations" - Review this handout!

  • Wa: The key to clear harmonious, design (from Presentation Zen) - Seven useful design principles

• Edward Tufte design - An expert on presenting data and information

• Blog "Understanding Rhetoric" - Examples of icons, logos, symbols, photographs, and other images

• Lessons from TED: 5 Simple Tweaks - Professional presenter offers advice on slide design based on presentations at the TED Conference

Presentations: Sample Slides

• Six Minutes - Sample slides from SixMinutes, a public speaking and presentation guide\

• Slideshare.net - Thousands of digital presentations

  • "Thinking Visually" - sample presentation

  • "Visual and Creative Thinking: What we learned from Peter Pan and Willy Wonka"

  • Slideshare.net Contest - Visual presentation contests and prize-winning presentations

  • "Healthcare Napkins All" - 1st Place Winner of 2009 World's Best Presentation Contest

  • "Sheltering Wings" - 2nd Place Winner of 2009 World's Best Presentation Contest

  • "Feels Bad on the Back" - 3rd Place Winner of 2009 World's Best Presentation Contest\

• Death By PowerPoint - Popular presentation on giving presentations ...

• Six-Word Memoirs - Example of visual presentation

Presentations: Video

• Best Practices Video - Steve Jobs, Barack Obama ...

• How Not To Do a Powerpoint - Video

• Breaking News - The Onion - "News" clip mocking news networks vacuous stories and visuals - Warning: Explicit content

• TED Presentations - Ideas Worth Spreading - From the site: "TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design."

  • Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide - TED Presentation (5:34)

  • David Gallo shows underwater astonishments - TED Presentation (5:25)

Other Stuff

• The Onion

• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

• Bartleby.com - Literature online

• "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two" by George Miller

• Stephen's Guide to Logical Fallacies

• Cooks Illustrated - Learn how to chop tomatoes and deal with leeks

• Six-Word Memoirs

• Random Word/Phrase/Sentence/Paragraph Generator