Essay: SWOT Analysis Of Academic Writing Skills And Critical Thinking.

Conduct a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis of your academic writing skills. An example can be found on page 16 of the prescribed textbook. The SWOT analysis should be presented in a square with four (4) quadrants or in a list as it is presented in the textbook. Each quadrant/section should have at least two (2) unique points. In addition to the SWOT analysis, you should outline some strategies to address one of the weaknesses that you identified in your academic writing skills. That is, if you identified ‘lack of good grammar skills’ as a weakness then describe at least two strategies that you could use to overcome that weakness.

Significance of Critical Thinking in the ICT Profession

According to Jackson, (2015), Critical Thinking is developed with a lot of definitions depending on one’s understanding of a situation at which they analyze the term. For example, critical thinking is a reflective thinking where one chooses what to believe in. Also, critical thinking can be defined as a self-directive discipline in choosing between right and wrong. But with all the definitions Critical Thinking narrows down to the analyzing of facts, evaluating and understanding them in one's terms and basing them to make a full judgment

For ICT professional to effectively and efficiently perform their objectives critical thinking is a paramount aspect of having. This is because critical thinking helps in saving time when making decisions. This fits well with the ICT profession as it is based on critical decision making due to the problems that they are required to solve. This is evident as with critical thinking one does not need to analyze all the data available, or call for consultation meetings to resolve a situation. On the other hand, critical thinking builds a better framework on the professional to present their ideas, better-defined course of action, and well-outlined recommendation when tackling an issue or communicating while at work. This kind of importance brings ease at the workplace where it provides the ICT professional with a better transition of their objectives (Fu, (2013).

Critical thinking also supplements the fostering new ideas at the work place. This develops as, when professionals are posed by a challenge where solving it poses a problem. But though the implementation of critical thinking, and teamwork which is also an aspect of critical thinking. The development of new ideas is very easy and quickly delivered. Bringing in even greater ideas to plan for safety measures, to prevent the problem in the future. 

Reference

Fu, J. S. (2013). ICT in education: A critical literature review and its implications. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology, 9(1), 112.

Jackson, S. L. (2015). Research methods and statistics: A critical thinking approach. Engage Learning.   

A SWOT Analysis on my academic writing skills

So as to fully discover one's strength in writing, the SWOT analysis in a vital tool to act as a guideline on the improvement framework of one's writing skills.

Organization-the flow of my writing ability, is well balanced as the requirements from the expected writings, for example, assignments and letters. The capacity to flow points sequentially, from the strong points to the minor points in terms of support strength to the topic. This helps in better presentation and brings in the readers affection for reading the writings.

A SWOT Analysis on my academic writing skills

Creativity- being able to make a captivating document, based on better research, which I critically frace and produce well-fitted points that are artistically and captivated in a well-defined way.

Handwriting- my handwriting is a bit off the accreditation part, as it is not presentable and comprehensible to many.

Lack of writing motivation- am reluctant in writing, which brings in the lack of passion in the academic writing activities, as I require being pushed or allot of motivation to start the writing.

Extensive reading- this can develop more of my abilities to a high level, for example, extensive reading can help one improve their creativity, in terms of developing better word selection and much more.

Being self-directed- by developing high discipline attitude, the problems of lack of motivation in writing will be a thing of the past. The control will help develop a better time management and planning.

Building on the past, this can be achieved through applying previous mistakes, as a learning opportunity for the development of future writings. By the learning experience and more so avoiding them on the future opportunities for academic writing.

Supporting evidence- through providing supportive statements and examples on my writings will improve the credibility of my writings and improve its quality as a professional writer.

Spelling mistakes- this brings down my writing skills as most of the academic terminologies are hard to collect spell out.

Lack of passion- with the lack of passion, one is not able to provide the writing skills to their best performance. The problem later develops a lack of time management leading to tight deadlines where on is expected to deliver quality writing but later produces poor work because of the time constraints.

Conclusion

So as to eliminate the challenges developed in the SWOT analysis in my academic writing,

To regularly do extensive reading, this will help eliminate the spelling mistake encountered and also, develop creativity

Look for a mentor, someone who can help me develop a passion for writing and more so help me develop personal discipline when it comes to academic writing   

Reflective writing is a response document where one reflects on the past events, information or experience, and base a record of what they have learned in relation to how the plan to implement the learned lessons to avoid future mistakes. The following is a reflective writing in line with my academic writing

 On a preview of the previous writing and remarks that were presented by the tutor, it was evident that there was room to improve on. On the previous writing, one was to submit a document about themselves with regards to their current studies, achievements from the studies and the work experience gathered all along. One was to base their ideas on the topics above and present a well stated academic reflective writing in relation to information technology skills acquired from the unit.

Reflective Writing

One fundamental lesson learned from the remarks was how to provide precise points without giving a lot of information that was irrelevant, as per the requirements (Lee, (2010). This was evident by the fact that my previous writings, I provide a lot of examples and punctuation that proved irrelevant to the topics in discussion lowering my writing quality skills. The other lesson was grammar as the writings were done fast, which brought about some sentence error constructions, a lot of grammatical mistakes that made the documents lack the flow of points and the cultivation of the tutor's interest be weak on presentation. With the fact that some of my points presented never seemed to flow, or make full sense to the reader, this is because of the hanging points that developed a lack of clarity for my writings. But other than the negative part, the document was well phrased, delivered on time, and more so all the requirements were well presented on a positive summary of the paper requirement well noted by the tutor, which is a motivation on one's writing skills, to do more.

In the future, when presented with such an objective, one thing to avoid is the previous mistakes that were outlined as negative by the tutor. That is grammatical errors and providing unclear points, with reduced explanations so as to captivate the reader and also present my writings on a professional level, with regards to skills. This is to be achieved through time management by the fact that I will be in a position to state my ideas and have a chance to go through my document at least twice for error correction. And by this kind of implementation, my writing skills will inevitably develop positively, where the flow of points, grammatical mistakes, and the spelling mistake problem will be a thing of the past (Cunliffe, (2016).   

Reference

Lee, L. (2010). Fostering reflective writing and interactive exchange through blogging in an advanced language course. Recall, 22(02), 212-227.

Cunliffe, A. L. (2016). Republication of “On Becoming a Critically Reflexive Practitioner.” Journal of management education, 40(6), 747-768. 

With regards to ethic and morals of the ICT profession. In such a situation I would try and validate the information to make sure that it is based on true fact. The investigation will be done secretly without telling anyone. After proving that the illness data is true, and the fact that the husband has only six months remaining. I will design and refer the decision-making process, in comparison with the ethics and my morals. At this point, the first thing to do is analyze the good side and the bad side of the situation if I was to tell her about the problem. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages, I would refer to my manager about the issue, with the intentions of fetching some ideas for the manager. After compiling my decision and the ideas collected. The decision to follow would be should it tell her?

Conclusion

Regarding the question, my answer will be yes, I should tell her. And the challenge would be how to provide the information to her. And the best solution is to pay them a visit to their home when both she and the husband are in, where I would present the news to, precisely choosing my words and how I express them.  After doing so, I would take the obligation to do a follow-up of the situation to make sure that they are able to deal with it. This will be achieved through regular visits where I would provide emotional comfort and advice (Shepherd, & Rudd, (2014). 

Reference

Shepherd, N. G., & Rudd, J. M. (2014). The influence of context on the strategic decision?making process: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(3), 340-364. 

Providing service in good faith- this is based on honesty, as in consideration to the situation, I would present the problem to my friend and do it to at most good intentions

Responsibility- as expected of me by the employer I would present the problem to the manager and also tell my friend about the problem, which is my responsibility to take care of her.

Professionals deal mostly with people's information on a personal level, for example, salaries, health information, educational background and much more, it is important for them to be ethical. This is because

The professional develops their work career fast because of the professional discipline and honesty that comes with the ethics policy that they apply. This is done by the fact that the professional brings out a positive image for the company of business and on the other hand he/she develops an admirable image

Ethics also brings up the role model aspect to the professional, to other employees, as it motivates the dependability and trust for the employees and the managers as the are sure of accountable results for the obligations provided to the professional.

And also ethics supplements in the decision-making process where the profession is not faced with dilemmas on what to choose in a particular situation.   

In a conclusive approach to the unit, Professional Skills for Information and Communication Technology. There was more to learn both academically, and the technical know-how too. That is:-

The importance of interpersonal communication skills, where one can express their ideas effectively, and logically based on the listening, communication, reading and writing skills acquired. For example the effective academic writing skills.

Teamwork- where one is able to know the importance of teamwork and its value when working as a team, compared to working as an individual. For instances how teamwork eliminates challenging tasks and narrows it to a small challenge because of the shared ideas.

Ethics- the unit brings about the importance of ethics and how to behave as an ICT professional in terms of the code behavior. Where one is enlightened on their expectation with regards to legal issues and privacy measures to consider.

Another objective learned is how ICT can supplement growth in an organization with its impacts if well implemented and good staff personnel. For example improved efficiency and reduced human errors.

The unit also developed a scope of new trends that are in line with the ICT profession and how one can keep track of the technological evolvement in the filled which proves very beneficial to an aspiring ICT professional

The interpersonal skills were well implemented in a particular meeting with a friend where each had a proposal on how to start a business. The listening and communication skill were effectively applied which lead to an effective meeting at the end.

By applying the reading skills acquired in class, my spelling mistakes are expected to improve as it assists me in pointing out the spelling and pronunciation of the difficult worlds which are a problem in my academic writing skills.

This will be well implemented on the next group work assignments, where respect to everyone's opinion will be paramount. This is because one of the teamwork skills is respect, which will in turn help in problem-solving as it will bring in the aspect of respect, between members (Loughry, et al. (2014).

The importance of ethical behaviors, and social, privacy and legal aspects of the ICT

As an ICT profession and the available access to people's information. The legal, privacy and ethical behaviors are important to adhere to. This is because, the aspects helps one's image and the companies too, towards the target market. Which can directly lead to more revenue as clients can base and develop a trust relationship with the company. The other issue is that by legally following the expected requirements as an ict profession, one can avoid the offenses and penalties that come with such effects (Burmeister, et al. (2014)

Cultural diversity is the existence of deferent and diverse culture in a particular society or a defined area. So as to deal and understand the deferent cultures from people, one needs to understand the deferences that exist between the cultures, be open minded on the changes like how people perform their activities or eat. And the other way to deal with cultural deferences is being ready to learn and develop a friendly relationship with the other people which can lead to a much strong understanding relationship that would help in the co-existence, of the involved parties (Banks, (2015)

One primary thing that ICT has impacted in the business world is communication, where it is easy to communicate regarding emails, and mobile phones anywhere any place. The fact that ICT has also cut the cost of organization operations regarding paperwork, it helps increase revenue for the business. And also the fact that it has supplemented greatly to the decision making process in the organization activities where, applications like Google Calendar and Mind mapping software like X Mind, which help in planning (Tarut?, & Gatautis,  (2014).

Teleconferencing applications, as multiple people can have a meeting at the same time but with each at the deferent location. This helps businesses because it is cheap and convenient.for example the shared whiteboards software application.

Instant messaging. This is a platform where people communicate direct and fast in relation to text messages, according to Cheese man, (2012) 

Reference

Burmeister, O., Al-Saggaf, Y., Schwartz, M., & Johnson, L. (2014). Internet resources to help Australian ICT professionals identify and solve ethical challenges. ACIS.

Banks, J. A. (2015). Cultural diversity and education. Routledge.

Cheese man, S. (2012). Communication and collaboration technologies. Neonatal Network, 31(2), 115-119.

Tarut?, A., & Gatautis, R. (2014). ICT impact on SMEs performance. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 110, 1218-1225.

Loughry, M. L., Ohland, M. W., & Woehr, D. J. (2014). Assessing teamwork skills for assurance of learning using CATME team tools. Journal of Marketing Education, 36(1), 5-19.