Major Speech #1 Assignment

I chose to analyse a print advertisement by Coca-Cola. The advertisement says in a clear white font over a red backdrop "Good things come in fours." To the left of this are four bottles of Coca-Cola, one original Coca-Cola, one Coca-Cola Life, their new lower calorie soda, one Coca-Cola Zero, and one Diet Coke. These bottles are shown with a little condensation on them to seem refreshing and cold. The bottles' contents are shown sloshing to to the left of right to make it seem like they were just set down hard. There is also Coca-Cola's new "choose happiness" logo in the bottom right of the advertisement. This advertisement is a departure from Coca-Cola's advertisements of last year showing individualization. Now they only have four options to choose from, but they still believe there is a type of Coca-Cola for every consumer in the market.

Conference Feedback

I felt that the conferences were very useful. I didn't even realize that my mandatory draft had comments on it until i had my conference. In the conference I got extra feedback on my paper that i couldn't have gotten though the comments posted on my paper. I found that I need to make a list of points about the rhetorical situations in both academic and non-academic writings in corporate finance. I wouldn't have known this if I didn't attend the conference. Although the conferences were useful, I believe they could have been even more useful if they were thirty minutes long in stead of just fifteen. We ran a little long on my conference and I think a little more feedback could have helped my paper even more. Also, in the peer review, instead of twenty questions, make it just five main points of interest that need to be checked. I felt I was reanalyzing the same areas multiple times. In conclusion, keep both the conferences and comments on the paper, but make the conferences a little longer, and shorten the peer review questions to only about five questions.

Informational Report Mandatory Draft

Introduction

Writing in the field of corporate finance is a lot more common than many people choose to acknowledge. It is the basis of all communication in the field. While there is a lot of face-to-face verbal communication in this field, concrete, writing is necessary to fully and accurately communicate information that can be easily referenced and utilized whenever necessary in the world of business. There are many formats of writing within the field, both academic and non-academic. These formats of writing encompass almost all forms of communication in the field of corporate finance.

Non-Academic Writing

 The writings in this field, at least in the non-academic sense, are always very concise, accurate and to the point. There is no room for error or unnecessary information in the field of corporate finance. Everything that should be revealed to the audience will be included, and any information unnecessary to the task at hand will be left out. This is the core principal to all writing in business, however, there are many different formats and types of writing that are used, such as memos, proposals, periodical reports, budgets, etc.

Memorandums, or memos as they are commonly referred to as, are short written messages commonly used in the business world sent from one employee to other employees. They are extremely versatile and general. They can cover any subject or topic and they are the basis of all formal and semiformal communications in corporate finance. While memos are generally rather broad in subject matter they can be very specific as well.

Proposals are used in corporate finance to present a new thought or idea to members of the department. They are rather specific, formal and very official looking. A new idea can be submitted to other employees as a memo, if it is less formal and meant as a casual reminder. But if a message needs to be taken seriously and is meant to be an official idea for action to be taken upon, it must be submitted as a proposal.

Periodical reports are formal statements submitted usually every quarter, month, or week. They are meant as a status report, showing the performance of the company since the past period. They are extremely formal in their structure and diction and usually have certain criteria covered in all periodical reports, such as earnings, losses, future goals, etc. They are only submitted after every specific period and are meant to report on the status of the company.

Budgets are pretty straight forward. A budget dictates where any and all funds used are going. They are usually submitted every quarter but may be monthly. Budgets usually contain explanations of where the funds therein are allocated and why they are being allocated to that project.

When writing any of these commonly used formats of communication in corporate finance, it is important to stick with the main concepts of the writing in the field. The writing in corporate finance is always clear, concise, always deals with hard, proven facts, and is never inaccurate. In a recent interview with Blake, a graduate student studying corporate finance at the University of Iowa, these concepts were very apparent. Blake said, “The writing is very concise, it only sticks to facts and necessary details. There’s no room for opinions in corporate finance. It’s imperative that the idea is presented quickly and clearly.” Clearly these concepts are central to the writing in corporate finance.

Writing is also the most common form of communication in corporate finance. Blake explains it perfectly, “Even when information is communicated in face-to-face discussions between employees, everyone asks for it to be sent in an email anyway. Talking is great, but at the end of the day, no one is going to be presenting ideas to others using information that was communicated verbally. Everyone wants written communications that they can reference and cite when necessary.” Nobody in the field corporate finance would go into a presentation without being sure that they have the correct information, and tangible evidence to support their claims.

Academic Writing

Academic writings are very different from the aforementioned non-academic writings. Academic writings in the field of corporate finance are very similar to academic writings in other disciplines within the business sector. These writings are professional and very informational, containing graphs, figures, formulas and advanced principles, not usually comprehensive to those outside the field. These articles are very complex and fast-paced in their stance.

Academic writings are formatted much different from non-academic writings in the field. The structure is very professional, often employing a two column format. The two column format will usually contain a narrative of information on the right side and citation, background information or a continuation of the narrative on the left. There is no title page on academic writings in corporate finance, but there is a centered title at the top of the first page. Below the title in a smaller font aligned to the left is the author, or authors, that wrote the piece and their credentials and affiliations. Following that is the abstract. An abstract is a short summary of the information featured in the piece and should contain all points discussed in the writing. Some authors may not utilize an abstract and may skip directly to the introduction, jumping straight into the piece instead of providing an overview for the reader. Abstracts are very useful to readers because instead of having to read a great deal of the piece to encounter much of the information contained in the writing, they can just read a short summary of the piece in the abstract. All academic corporate finance writings will be concluded with a list of the references used in the piece, still in two column format.

Conclusion

Writing in the field of corporate finance is very professional in content matter, stance, and diction. In the non-academic sense, ranging from most casual to most formal formats of writing, there are memos, proposals, periodical reports, and budgets. In the academic sense the writing is very strict in format and contains many complex formulas, graphs, and figures, all trying to argue a point, or points, stated in the abstract. Writing in both academic and non-academic senses must be clear, concise, accurate, and very formal.

Sources

Whittaker, C. (2002). The UK Financial Sector's Place in the Critical National Infrastructure. Information Security Technical Report, 7, 65-74. Retrieved September 15, 2015.

Hu, W., Lai, M., & Huang, H. (2009). Rating the relative efficiency of financial holding companies in an emerging economy: A multiple DEA approach. Expert Systems with Applications, 5592-5599. Retrieved September 15, 2015.

Alles, M., & Piechocki, M. (2012). Will XBRL improve corporate governance? International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 91-108. Retrieved September 15, 2015.

Source Summary

The academic sources I will be using in this paper are:

1. "The UK Financial Sector's Place in the Critical National Infrastructure," by Colin Whittaker
2. "Rating the Relative Efficiency of Financial Holding Companies in an Emerging Economy: A Multiple DEA Approach," by Wen-Chuan Hu, Mei-Chi Lai, and Hao-Chen Huang
3. "Will XBRL improve corporate governance? A framework for enhancing governance decisions making using interactive data," by Michael Alles and Maciej Piechocki

These sources were very informational in their structure, tone, genre, audience, stance, and emotion. There are a lot of charts, graphs, equations, and other materials not usually seen or discussed in everyday life. these writings are very straight forward and to the point, but also other very accurate and useful information.

Interview Summary

I did my interview with a guy named Blake, a graduate student at the University of Iowa studying corporate finance. He gave me great information that I believe will be imperative to the success of my paper. Blake said that what is most important in the field of corporate finance is to get idea across quickly and clearly, without changing the information you are communicating. He said that the most common genre would be non-fiction, because of all the memos, proposals, periodical reports, monthly budgets, plans and summaries often used in corporate finance. According to Blake, the culture of corporate finance is fast paced, constantly moving and constantly changing, and its a lot more formal than other departments in business, such as marketing. The main skill that makes someone an effective writer in corporate finance is communication. Being able to effectively express an idea quickly and clearly to someone, without context or background, and knowing how to explain numbers and other statistics is very important in the field. The audiences most written to in corporate finance are senior members, shareholders, and peers, both in the department, and those outside the department. Much of the communication in corporate finance is written. Face-to-face talking is important, but to communicate different numbers and information effectively it must be written. Blake gave me a lot of information to work on and I will definitely be incorporating much his interview into my essay.

Quotation Exercise Sample

1. B: This passage had a good introduction, solid quote and a nice explanation, but the introduction to the quote doesn't really flow well
2. A: This sample has good analysis, but the quotes are too short and there's too many.
3. C: This has a solid introduction, but the quotes don't flow well and there's no analysis.
4. D: This is the worst passage in my opinion. It has a good introduction, but the quotations and analysis are short. 

APA Citation

Ellis, B. E. (1991). American pycho: A novel. New York: Vintage Books.

Rosenblatt, L. M. (1968). Literature as exploration.