Wanda L. Stitt-Gohdes

Incorporating Facebook and Twitter in a Service-Learning Project in a Business Communication Course

Implementing real-world business writing situations and service learning into business communication courses are not new concepts. Business communication students work through a service-learning project with nonprofit organizations to create communication documents to improve the nonprofit’s communication with the public. Writing for social networking sites is also included in the project. Students are asked to create a Facebook slogan for the nonprofit as well as various other Facebook announcements. Students also write tweets to encourage people to donate and to promote various activities. These activities help students write more concisely and think critically about the key elements of writing and of the nonprofit’s mission.

Factors that influence women's choices to work in the trades

Journal of Career DeUelopment, Vol. 23(4), Summer 1997 Women’s work patterns have been changing radically over the past several decades. Historically, women who worked outside the home have been employed in traditionally female work roles. These jobs are typically in the low-paying, low-status, clerical, retail, and service sectors and are often labeled &dquo;women’s jobs.&dquo; In comparison, male-dominated occupations are traditionally higher-paying and higher-status jobs than the female-intensive occupations and often labeled &dquo;men’s jobs.&dquo; Male jobs are more numerous and are typically higher in both status and income than are traditional women’s jobs&dquo; (Bee, 1992, p. 289). Occupational segregation has contributed in large part to limitations being placed on the occupational achievement of women, chiefly causing a pay gap between men’s and women’s wages. The ratio of women’s 1994 median weekly earnings to men’s is 76.4% (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1995, p. 433). This is simply one measure that even 30 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, much work remains to be done to close the earnings gap between men and women.