Giving Young People a Chance To Gain Experience and Skills
By Denny Lancaster
Does this sound like a familiar story? A middle school student applied for a job and his prospective employer said, I am sorry but you cannot be employed because you are not yet 16. Then when reaching 16 years of age, the student applied again, only to be told he lacked the experience.
Website Award Programs listed within WebsAwards, UWSAG and AS!, to name just three award program rating services have much in common, all which would give young people a chance to gain experience doing research, writing and feed back, analysis and developing skills in communication, team work and reading.
A typical award program has a staff and training opportunities for young people.
Even early teens would be mentored by an experienced staff members who administer the stated objectives of the award program (mission statement), apply what the owner considers to be an excellent website (criteria), score a website after a thorough review and offer objective reasons for improvement, communicate with the website owner and other staff members (through out the whole process). Then finally inform an applicant of the review process results and make the necessary additions to the award program website.
As you can easily determine from the above a rated award program is professionally run by and experienced staff, not just one person and there are ample opportunities for involvement in the process. Below is a discussion of the process.
Communication: Conference calls using MSN or other software collaborative devices, correspondence by email with staff members and a complete understanding of what the award program owner expects requires an emphatic ear and a skill to communicate effectively concerns or questions.
Analysis: A website awards program has a criterion which is a list of what not to do and what to do. A reviewer would thoroughly go through the website to compare what is written or presented and make notes what has been found and if it meets the criteria. Writing comments about particular aspects of the website, rather than general judgments, a rating or score, by drawing attention to some of the factors which influenced a decisions, are part of the analysis.
Writing: Writing a laudation or website review is an art, which award program owners and their staff takes particular pride, because it is the culmination of the lengthy and professional process. Writing what has been found which does not meet the criterion is also an art which must be positive and encouraging in both tone and content.
Research: A website being reviewed by an award program is read in its entirety. Content is checked for accuracy, copyright and privacy. The ability to determine what is factual is checked by footnotes, citations and reliable sources which support the content being reviewed. Which will may require a dictionary, encyclopedia, going to the library, especially if the reviewer is not familiar with the content of the website.
Team Work: Professionalism is exhibited by website award owners and their staffs by checks and balances, a division or specialization of duties, input by the entire staff which results in a website review by a dedicated team which works together for the common good, which is to reward authors who take pride in what they publish on the Internet.
Website Design: Although website award programs are similar in some respects, they reflect the individuality of the owner. But all review a prospective award winner with respect to initial reactions, design and layout, reader usability and functionality. Because each website award program is different, a young person is exposed to different opinions which are expressed in a mission statement and a detailed criterion on which a website is evaluated.
In this process a greater understanding of website design which will benefit everyone is developed by a participant or staff member of an award program.
Tags: analysis, Communication, research, Team Work, website design, writing
