The first week at work

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

During my first week at the design studio, I wanted to be useful before anybody noticed how much I did not know. I answered questions too quickly and nodded at software names I had never heard. My manager eventually asked me to explain a task back to her. The impressive nodding collapsed into a request for help. She showed me the process and asked me to write down the steps.

I had mistaken speed for competence. The people I admired checked details, asked each other questions and sometimes began again. Their confidence included the ability to admit uncertainty. By Friday I had completed one small job properly and understood why it mattered to the next person. It was less dramatic than the instant transformation into a professional I had imagined. It was also more useful. Starting well, I discovered, meant becoming reliable at a limited task before pretending to be capable of every task in the room.

Source B: an original letter in a nineteenth-century voice. This is a period-voice simulation, not an archival document.

Dear Mother, my first week at the workshop has taught me the value of doing a plain task without complaint. I hoped to be set at once upon the finer work. Instead, I have swept shavings, sorted pieces and carried messages. I confess that on the second morning I considered my education wasted upon a broom. The foreman then asked me which timber belonged to which order, and I could not answer.

He explained that sorting was part of learning the materials and the customers' requirements. I now attend more closely, though I still hope the sweeping will not occupy my entire future. There is dignity in patience when it leads somewhere; there is little in being kept ignorant and told to call that humility. For the present, I see a purpose in the smaller duties. I shall judge the arrangement not by whether I am immediately honoured with difficult work, but by whether each week gives me something more to understand.

Refer to the whole of both sources. Compare the writers’ perspectives on learning during the first week of work and how they convey those perspectives. Support your comparison with evidence from both sources.