In this refection I would like to discuss Midterm Project Part 2: Political Structure. For this assignment we had to research the statistics of two swing states in order to write an informed memorandum to aid the campaign of a fictional presidential candidate. I chose swing states Colorado and Iowa. 

This exercise helped me learn more about Excel spread sheets. In regards to the format of this assignment we were instructed to research statistics about our swing state’s income, education, ethnicity, and categorize voters by age.  We then had to present this information in the form of a chart.  The most efficient way to create these charts was to input the information into an Excel spreadsheet and let MS Word translate the statistics into a chart.  I’ve had to work with Excel in other jobs, but only had to put names and dates in the corresponding boxes.  I’ve never had to make a chart using Excel, so it was a good “learn as I go” experience.  Luckily I’m from the Youtube generation and know how to find instructional videos on how to do anything.

 

          More than the technical aspect of research, this assignment brought to my attention the many population statistics that make up our individual states. I have never seen a census bureau breakdown and was fascinated by detailed statistics such as median household income and percentage below poverty level.  These categories were not just one flat number, but broken down into sub categories that covered age as well as families with one parent. This fascination lead me to research other states I’ve lived in and draw conclusions between its statistics and how it’s population votes. Needless to say, I found this assignment interesting and because I was engaged it took me more time to prepare than any other assignment. I wanted to show all of the facts I researched and took the opportunity to go beyond what the assignment called for. Which leads me to the next lesson I learned from this assignment: Nobody cares about your intensions if the technical needs are not meant.

 

          Yes, that’s right. I learned that even though you may have put a tremendous amount of interest and energy into an assignment, all of this effort will be for nothing if you fall short on including specific technical aspects required.  For example, the assignment required us to include statistics for secondary and post secondary education.  I lumped these two categories together and shwoed one number to represent a portion of the population that had a bachelor’s degree or higher. To the instructor this did not count and I lost a whopping four points.  In my mind the fact that I lost almost half credit for this assignment over this aspect is something I don’t agree with, but enforces a lesson learned; nobody cares about how much time, effort, or interest you put into an assignment. If the technical aspects are not met, you will not succeed.  This is just a fact of the real world that college teaches us. It’s not the intensions that matter; it’s the results that matter.