The document summarizes the importance of effective written communication. It discusses how the message, audience, and purpose are the three key components, and if any are lacking the communication will not be effective. It also notes that in business settings, written communication leaves a record so writers need to pay attention to tone, clarity, and grammar in all communications. Effective communication requires ensuring the message is clear and the intended meaning cannot be misinterpreted, as well as connecting to the targeted audience.

1. 1
Research Paper
Research Paper
Shakina Morgan
Full Sail University
Sister Soulja is an individual that greatly inspires me because
she embodies everything I associate myself with being in the
near future, such as a community activist. Soulja organized
against racially motivated crimes, police brutality, and the
miseducation of the urban youth. She is most known for what
they now call, “The Sister Soulja Moment,” which originated in
1992 during the President Bill Clinton campaign. Sister Soulja
was a guest speaker at Reverend Jesse Jackson Rainbow

2. Coalition event where she did an interview about the Rodney
King case and was quoted as saying, “If black people kill black
people every day, why not have a week and kill white
people?”…her remarks were connected to a much longer
response and in full context makes sense, but isolated subjected
her to criticism. Clinton compared her to David Duke, the
former politician, convicted felon and KKK Grand Wizard.
Souljah stands by what she has said. “If you ask me my view,
even if it’s not your view, you have to handle that,” she says.
However, when an interviewer ask Soulja to explain ‘the sister
soulja moment’ her reply was, “That’s when you meet a
beautiful, powerful woman—and you just can’t forget her.’”
In 1995, because of her success and sincerity, Sister Soulja was
selected by Sean P. Diddy Combs to become the Executive
Director of his charitable organization, Daddy’s House Social
Program where she built the program and created academic
programs for a total of seven years. In the field of
entertainment, Soulja was the young voice in New York radio
that spoke to the hip hop audience about politics, culture,
business, and social organizations. She was also a featured
speaker in the Million Woman March. She’s also had
appearances on Oprah Winfrey, Larry King and the cover of the
Newsweek Magazine.
Today, Soulja is the author of five national best sellers. In 2007
she became a New York Times Best Selling author and has
since charted in the top ten of the New York Times list three
times over. Soulja wrote the Coldest Winter Ever, which went
on to sell two million copies to date. Even in 2015 Soulja work
still rings bells as it was mentioned on the hit show, “Orange is
the new black,” not for her usual controversial moments, but to
reference her work in the prison library.
She inspires me simply because she is realistic. She was born in
the projects of New York and she grew up poor. She was indeed

3. a product of her environment yet she didn’t become a statistic. I
am from one of the most dangerous cities in America and
according to the food chain I grew up poor as well, but it’s what
we call now “middle class.” I had a child out of wedlock and
being a minority didn’t help my story, yet I overcame that. It
inspires me to see a young, black, woman be strong, be
educated, have class and show strength in a room full of people
who think that their educated enough to overpower you with a
bunch of words that sound intelligent, but makes no sense, all
because your black. I fell in love with the way she fights. The
way she uses her platforms, outlets and celebrity status to
educate young, black, misguided people. I mostly like the way
she uses urban fiction to target her audience all the while
putting one of the strongest messages inside of those words that
makes you identify and think on a larger scale aside from
“urban.”
Sister Soulja made me discover my talent and love for writing.
She helped create a voice in me that I didn’t know I had at the
tender age of 13. It is because of her that I want to pursue this
dream that seem larger than life and almost impossible. I just
want to be as fearless, respected and courageous as she is one
day.
In my opinion, Sister Soulja found her creative task early on in
her career. In her own words, she says, “Sister Soulja is a
person who loves her people and everything that I do, I do with
my people in mind.” According to (Greene 179), “The truth is
that creative activity is one that involves the entire self—our
emotions, our levels of energy, our characters, and our minds.
To make a discovery, to invent something that connects with the
public, to fashion a work of art that is meaningful, inevitably
requires time and effort. This often entails years of
experimentation, various setbacks and failures, and the need to
maintain a high level of focus.” Sister Soulja recognized early
on that she wanted to be apart of a dynamic movement. She

4. recognized that the youth of African American had been greatly
misguided. It became her passion and her goal to help aid in the
process of educating young black America.
(Greene 180) stated, “It is often wise to choose something that
appeals to your sense of unconventionality and calls up latent
feelings of rebelliousness. Perhaps what you want to invent or
discover is being ignored or ridiculed by others. Soulja did this
by teaming up with one of the most controversial groups in hip
hop, Public Enemy. She put out an album titled, “360 Degrees
of Power” which she calls an amalgamation of all her thoughts,
personal and professional experiences here in America. The
album was produced by Eric Sadler, one of the producers who
created music for Ice-Cube, another controversial artist. This
was a great way for her to use her creative mind. What better
way to evoke the thought of young black America than through
rap lyrics. The community and audience that she was trying to
reach would listen because she wasn’t a woman who was
throwing her education around saying ‘listen to me because I
have degrees.’ She was down to earth, she was from the ghetto
and her passion was visibly sincere and this made her target
audience pay attention to the important message. According to
http://hiphopandpolitics.com, Soulja was also offered a job by
Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis of the United Church of Christ
Commission for Racial Justice, which is a church sponsored
civil rights firm which she developed, organized and financed,
through hip-hop music, a sleep away summer camp called the
African Youth Survival Camp for children of homeless families
and ran it successfully for 3 years. Soulja have spoken on the
same platform with Jesse Jackson, Minister Louis Farrakkan,
Rev. Ben Chavis, Rev. Calvin Butts and Nelson Mandela.
In using the creative mind, Soulja, in my opinion definitely has
left her mark of creation. I believe this has a lot to do with her
education intelligent. She is holding a BA in American History
and African Studies. Also studying in Europe at the Univerisity

5. of Salamance and has traveled to England, France, Spain,
Portugal, Finland and Russia. I once heard Soulja speak about
her teachings through According content in Mastery, (Green
180)
I relate The Creative Breakthrough process to Soulja because
she’s unlike any other urban fiction writer. As much as her fans
love her and anticipates her creation she makes us wait. When
asked why it takes her years to finish a novel, I remember her
response was that she makes her audience wait so they can
retain the information given. It isn’t that she has forgotten
about us or it isn’t done out of spite, but she wants to keep the
same excitement, that hungry and that dedication going because
she puts in additional work by studying for her individual
characters. For instance, her character development for
Midnight caused her to moved to Japan to study the culture of
his love interest. Soulja states she wants her audience to grow
with her characters mentally. She was quoted saying, “I write
books because they are a great way to reach people in a moving
and entertaining way.” I believe she creates, not only books, but
literature and that is why she is so great in her craft. Green
says, “If we remained as excited as we were in the beginning of
our project, maintaining that intuitive feel that sparked it all, we
would never be able to take the necessary distance to look at
our work objectively and improve upon it.” I believe this is the
point that Soulja was making.
In my opinion, the emotional pitfall that Soulja experienced was
conservatism. Soulja work emerged when there was limited
competition for her genre and also social media was non
existence. Green states, “You become subtly addicted to the
material comforts you have acquired and before you know it,
you uphold ideas that you think you believe in, but that really
are tied to your need to please the audience or your sponsors, or
whomever.” This was to be true for Soulja because she wasn’t
use to marketing her products by the way of the internet. When

6. her novel, “Coldest Winter Ever,” was released, it was during
an era when you could sell a copy out of the truck of your car
and that be sufficient. Word of mouth was the best marketing
plan back then. When Soulja released, Midnight, she noticed
that her sales has not picked up at full speed because no one
knew her new work was published. By getting into the social
media phase of Twitter she quickly learned that 120 character
was not the new word of mouth and she can reach six times the
amount of people with one click of a button. It was number 7 on
the New York Times Best Sellers list and has sold 1 million
copies. Her first novel sold over two million to date and it was
published in 1999. Soulja has to overcome Conservatism and
realize the new way of things can be an enhancement.
If I had to associate Soulja with one of the people from the
Creative Active phase, it would be Yoky Matsuoka. I believe
there are similairties because both her women and both are
perceived as, different. Matsuoka had a love for physics and
mathematics, but then shifted to biology and she later enter in
the program of robotics. Soulja started off as activist and
ventured into rap for the benefit of being heard and changed her
titled to “raptivist”. Just like Matsuoka story there was not too
many women activist that spoke for the black American youth.
So like Matsuoka, Soulja took a different approach and started
working urban fiction literature to use as a education. She
needed something that will not bore the youth and something
that was relatable. So she used what they knew. Money, drugs,
violence, police and tainted friendships to overcome the saying
that black people don’t read. She went on to sell over two
million copies. According to Green (p231), Your project or the
problem you are solving should always be connected to
something larger—a bigger question, an overarching idea, an
inspiring goal.

7. (Greene 231) Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books,
11/2012. VitalBook file.
(Greene 203) Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books,
11/2012. VitalBook file.
(Greene 200) Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books,
11/2012. VitalBook file.

8. (Greene 180) Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books,
11/2012. VitalBook file.
(Greene 180)Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books,
11/2012. VitalBook file.
(Greene 179) Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books,
11/2012. VitalBook file.
(Greene 180)Greene, Robert. Mastery. Penguin Books, 11/2012.
VitalBook file.
Marshall, E., Staples, J., & Gibson, S. (2009). Ghetto Fabulous:
Reading Black Adolescent Femininity in Contemporary Urban
Street Fiction. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(1),
28-36.
Guerra, S. F. (2012). Using Urban Fiction to Engage At-Risk
and Incarcerated Youths in Literacy Instruction. Journal Of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(5), 385-394.
doi:10.1002/JAAL.00047
http://www.sistersouljah.com/biography/
http://hiphopandpolitics.com/2012/06/13/20-years-ago-the-
infamous-sister-souljah-moment-occured-we-look-back/
1

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APA#is#Easy###
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The Importance of Written Communication
#
How one chooses to use language in written form can and often
will strongly affect the

13. intended message that is perceived by the targeted audience.
This is true of designers when
someone visits a website of a new artist and isn’t familiar with
that person’s sensibilities.
Hobbies, likes, dislikes and the sort may be misunderstood if
the communication is poorly
thought out.
The three imperative components of effective written
communication are the message, the
audience, and the purpose. In the message, one wants to inform
the audience of a specified topic
and for a specific reason. If any of these elements are lacking,
the entire concept of effective
communication is lost.
There are some considerations one has to make in order to
make sure that his or her writing
is communicating the proper idea. If the message isn’t entirely
clear, or the meaning of the
message is subject to interpretation, the more one has to
monitor and consider the methods used
to form the message.
A failure to communicate can be a failure to connect with the
audience. If one cannot

14. proffer a connection to the audience, there can be no reasonable
expectation for the audience to
follow or even consider any persuasion by the message even if
the message is full of merit.
Consider how the audience connects to what is being said and
how the message is conveying this
information.
Communication in Business
Any type of communication in a business setting makes an
impression on co-workers,
clients, and managers. Everything written in a business setting
is a record, so writers should be
aware of tone, clarity, and grammar, even in communications
that have a tendency to feel
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informal, such as e-mails and online chat sessions. According to
Thompson (2007),
“Communication is one of the basic functions of management in
any organization, and its
importance can hardly be overemphasized. It is a process of
transmitting information, ideas,
thoughts, opinions and plans between various parts of an
organization” (¶ 1). Thompson
emphasizes clarity here, showing that through the transfer of
information, ideas are

17. brainstormed, plans are challenged, and directions are given.
Effective communication in managerial positions is also
important. In the workplace,
productivity and efficiency are paramount to make sure that
tasks are accomplished (Baird,
2007). Below, Baird highlights the significance of
communication in business relationships
(2007):
Communication is an important factor in any relationship, be it
a couple or a large
company such as a casino. Business surveys of American
companies cite written
communications as their employee's biggest skill problem. In
fact 80% of the businesses
surveyed cited written skills as their biggest problem. Those
same surveys also stated that
90% of top executives say that effective business writing is the
skill most needed for
professional recognition. (p. 48)
It is important to understand the methods and applications of
effective communication when an
idea is being proposed. The message must be clear, the audience
must be well defined, and the

18. purpose should not be vague or abstract. These elements are
also effective in the workplace, as
efficiency and easily understood communication makes
everything smoother for all involved.
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21. APA#is#Easy###
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References
Baird, B. (2007). The importance of written communication
skills. Indian Gaming, p. 48.
Retrieved April 13, 2008, from
http://www.indiangaming.com/istore/jun07_baird.pdf
Thompson, S. (2007). Importance of communication in an
organization. Retrieved April 13,
2008, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Importance-of-
Communication-in-an-
rganization&id=423299
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WEEK
2
|
15%
Research
Paper
1
Assignment Goal
Identify someone who is successful in your desired area of
Mastery, and write an in-
depth research paper that correlates his or her journey to the
course textbook concepts.

25. Project Specifications
For this week’s project you will research and outline the
following:
• Research the path of someone in your area of Mastery.
• Outline key learnings about their Mastery journey from your
research into the
three “Keys to Mastery” steps of the creative task, the creative
mind and the
creative breakthrough (Mastery, p. 175 – 201).
• Provide a reflection on which of the “Emotional Pitfalls” (p.
202 – 204) your
Master may have faced.
• Reflect upon which of the nine people profiled in the
“Strategies for the Creative-
Active Phase” (p. 205 – 246) your Master’s journey is most
closely related to.
APA formatting is required for this research paper. Use at least
four research resources
(with at least two of the sources sourced through the Full Sail
University library research
databases such as EBSCOhost and LexisNexis Academic)
Deliverable Due
• Complete a research paper that is 3 - 5 pages maximum, not
including cover page
and reference page.
• Assignment should be free of grammar, punctuation, and
spelling errors.
• Cite all research sources in text and on reference page.

26. Resources
• Review the course materials.
• Review this week’s Go To Training presentation (Attend the
live session or view
the archived video).
• Full Sail’s Library Research Tutorial (See attached “Using the
Full Sail Library
for Research”).
• Review the attached APA Sample Paper and in the References
review the
“Academic Integrity and Proper Use of Sources: Best Practices
for Students,”
which includes links to APA Resources (page 3).
WEEK
2
|
15%
Research

27. Paper
2
Grade Weight: 15%
Grading Rubric for This Assignment
Style: This paper demonstrates your ability to write and conduct
research at
the graduate level. The paper is free of any grammar or
punctuation errors
and includes a well-written introduction, body and conclusion.
You
successfully apply concepts from the book to your master’s
journey in a
clear and logical manner. The paper is organized and includes
thoughtful
reflections.
X/20
Personal Hero: You described the path of a personal hero in
your area of
Mastery. X/15
Key Insights: You included key learnings about your personal
hero’s
Mastery journey and cited research into the three “Keys to
Mastery” steps
of the creative task, the creative mind and the creative
breakthrough

28. (Mastery, p. 175 – 201).
X/15
Emotional Pitfalls: You provided a reflection on the “Emotional
Pitfalls”
(p. 202 – 204) your hero primarily faced. X/15
Creative-Active Phase: You provided a reflection upon which of
the nine
people profiled in the “Strategies for the Creative-Active
Phase” (p. 205 –
246) your hero’s journey is most closely related to.
X/15
Evidence and Support: You used a variety of evidence
appropriately and
effectively. Evidence is used logically and supports argument.
Published
sources are well chosen and properly cited. At least four print
or digital
sources are referenced (including a minimum of two sources
from Full Sail
Library databases).
X/10
APA Format: The paper, including cover page and references, is
in
compliance with all APA style requirements. Be sure to review
the sample
APA paper included on your assignment page.
X/10

29. Total X/100
Comments:
(The instructor may provide additional comments here)