Tag: Management Communications

Which of these bullet points reads more smoothly?

• Teamed with a French software engineer in conducting monthly variance analyses and was providing information to Division Management in France.
• Conducted monthly variance analyses with a French software engineer and provided the information to Division Management in France.

If you said the second one, then you’ve experienced the value of parallelism. This grammar technique prevents awkwardness, promotes clarity and helps us to be more concise in our writing.

The trick is to create a flow by balancing verb tenses with verb tenses, nouns with nouns, participles with participles, and so on. When these parts are out of balance, our sentences tend to be choppy and hard to read.

The proper use of parallelism makes a good impression on résumés and PowerPoints, so go with the flow!

To make an appointment at the Management Communication Center (MCC), click here.

This semester I had the pleasure of taking Management Communication and working on the Management Communication Client Project. The project brought in six corporate clients from the St. Louis area with real life communication issues for students to tackle.

The clients included Rubin Brown, LLP; Enterprise Bank & Trust; Boeing Company, Defense, Space & Security; Energizer Holdings, Inc.; Innovate St. Louis; and Edward Jones. My class worked for Energizer on revising their existing Employee Value Proposition.

Over the course of the semester, all of the participating groups researched their project extensively and formulated solutions unique to each client’s needs. Several components were incorporated along the way including an initial team pitch, a project report with an executive summary, and a final PowerPoint presentation.

On the night of the Showcase Finale Event, six teams had been selected to represent their respective classes and present the collective recommendations to a live audience comprised of fellow students, faculty members, and the clients.

A professional aura filled the room; the auditorium was a sea of dark suits and well prepared individuals. As each group came forward to present, it became clear that a significant amount of time and effort had gone into the finished product on display. The teams had confidence with the microphone, well polished speaking skills, and quality suggestions. They handled the question and answer sessions with relative ease and represented Olin well over all.

After the presentations, everyone flooded upstairs for a social, complete with lemonade and appetizers. It was a celebration of the success of a very valuable experience.

Photo credit: talk bubbles, Mark Wathieu, Flickr; microphone, visual.dichotomy, Flickr

Annette Veech, Senior Lecturer in Business Communication, passed away July 1 after a long and valiant battle with cancer.  She had taught at Olin Business School since 1998.

A funeral service is scheduled for 11:00 a.m., Monday, July 8 at St. Mark Presbyterian Church, 601 Claymont Dr., Ballwin, MO 63011. Visitation will be held at the church Monday from 10:30 a.m. until the time of the service.

Annette earned her PhD. from the University of Illinois. She held management positions at Maritz, Inc. and Arthur Andersen & Co. prior to joining the Olin faculty.  She won numerous teaching awards during her tenure at Olin.  She is survived by her husband Steve Bernstein.

Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Humane Society of Missouri or a charity of your choice.  Friends may sign the family’s on-line guestbook on the Schrader Funeral Home website.