Prompt 11: What can you learn from my experience?

This is our last true reflection week. After this we will focus on your projects and helping you polish your reports. So this week’s reflection activities are going to take more of a Q-and-A type approach. I’m going to tell you about my career as a professional writer and then encourage you to ask questions about the areas that interest you the most. I hope this will help you think about the variety of options available to you in terms of professional writing.

I graduated from SUNY College at Plattsburgh with a BA in English with a concentration in journalism. While still in college I worked for the campus newspaper as a reporter, layout editor, and editor-in-chief. In addition, I interned in the college public relations office and published my first magazine article in a regional publication.

My first job was with Wolfe Publications – a community newspaper chain in the Greater Rochester (NY) area. I was editor of The Webster Post and a staff writer for the chain. I had a small staff (a couple ladies who ran the Webster office and handled society items) and had access to the photographers and production staff of the main office. I was given great freedom as I worked in a satellite office far away from the powers-that-be. I worked for Wolfe for six years – right up until my husband and I moved to Kentucky.

While I was working for Wolfe I decided to pursue a dream of mine – writing a novel. I wrote a historical romance set in the 1600s in Holland and America. Then I found that was the easy part – trying to sell my novel would be much more difficult. In the end, I did publish it with a small publisher who also contracted to publish the sequel and then went belly-up after paying only one royalty check on the first book and before the second went to press. My search for a publisher did lead me to the Romance Writers of America and I attended a conference in Buffalo, NY, before moving to Kentucky and then in Kentucky I became very involved in the organization – eventually taking on a leadership role in the Kentucky chapter. This gave me contacts and mentors which eventually led to another two-book contract but this time with a major mass market publisher. Those books did get published (both set in Revolutionary War Kentucky territory).

My husband had a job when we moved to Kentucky but I did not and my first two years were marked by a slew of jobs. My first job was serving as editor for a start-up magazine called Lexington This Month which managed to put out three issues before closing up. However, that experience brought me contacts which led to additional freelance gigs including ACE Weekly, The Lane Report (I was on staff there for several years), Kentucky Living, and Kentucky Monthly as well as a short-term full-time contract at Lexington Philharmonic. In addition, I did some writing for a vocational publication. I think that covers most of my jobs.

However, working piece-meal like this is not a good way to get ahead so when the opportunity came to join the staff of the Jessamine Journal doing much the same work I had for The Webster Post I took the job. I worked there for less than a year (I didn’t really like the working situation there) before moving to the Mt. Sterling Advocate as a reporter. After a few years I was promoted to managing editor (which meant I was in charge of the newsroom staff and assigning stories as well as designing each issue).

After a few years of that I realized that there was no real career advancement left for me in newspapers and I was ready for a change.  I decided to go back to school and get a Master’s in English so I could teach at the college level. However, going to school full-time (even with a graduate assistantship) would be a challenge for us financially as it would mean giving up my income. I also suspected that I would miss writing, even though I still had some freelance gigs (The Lane Report plus occasional articles for Kentucky Living and Kentucky Monthly), so I decided to go into web publishing.

I started out publishing two weekly ezines (electronic magazines) – The QuizQueen (themed trivia quizzes) and JustFolks (featuring profiles of inspiring people) and eventually ended up with four weekly ezines and two daily ezines plus a monthly trivia contest. These were actually fairly profitable if time-consuming. Mainly I made money by selling advertising slots (I had a subscriber base in the thousands). I published my ezines right up to the point where I entered my Ph.D. program because they were a nice additional income even after I was teaching full-time. However, I knew the addition of graduate classes to my already full schedule (as a full-time MSU instructor and a mom) would make it impossible to keep up my ezine publishing schedule. However, I had a lot of trivia quizzes and articles written so I decided to switch up my web publishing business to a more flexible model that I could attend to when I had time and let earn passive income when I did not. This meant for a while I had more than 100 web sites with blogs and/or articles posted on theme in various themes – usually with affiliate programs posted on them but even that is time consuming as you need to work to drive traffic and keep up-to-date with affiliate programs so I have let those web sites go and now the only online income I have is through Squidoo because that is totally passive. However, I am still earning a couple of hundred bucks a month and sometimes more which is fine by me. I’m sure I could earn more (I know Squidoo folks earning more than a $1,000 a month) if I put the time into it but I just can’t. However, just to give you an example this lens: Inspirational Messages About Life has earned me $1100 in lifetime royalties ($30 to $50 a month).

So journal about what you would love to see happen in your own future career (write for a living, publish a novel, work for a nonprofit), ask questions in the discussion board about my experiences, and Tweet something key.

Prompt 10: What is good writing?

This is a question that writing teachers struggle to answer, but it is at the heart of what you are learning through your work with this class. If you can begin to answer that question then you are on your way to become a reflective writer which will in turn result in your continued growth and development as a writer after you leave this class. That continued growth and development is my goal for you because I can only hope to effect so much change in one semester – certainly not your complete transformation as a writer – and also because at some point you need to accept your own responsibility for your growth and development as a writer. I can give you advice and tools, but ultimately you are the one who determines your future as a writer.

So let’s reflect on what makes good writing as we consider what others have to say about the subject:

·         The Principles of Good Writing

·         What is Good Writing?

·         What is Good Writing?

Nothing too earth shattering here, right? Probably all ideas you’ve heard before and came up with as you considered the question yourself. It is not that these ideas are wrong BUT they are too limiting, in my opinion. Is all good writing the same? If you are a good creative writer does that automatically mean you will be a good journalist or technical writer? Once you’ve achieved the status of a “good writer” does that mean you will never struggle as a writer again?  OK, that question made me laugh out loud and if I addressed it to my friends who work as professional writers they would probably smack me on the back of the head.

So writing with purpose, organizing your ideas, and observing the conventions is not enough to be a good writer. It is true that organization and conventions play a role in all forms of writing, but simply having a clear purpose is not enough – your purpose has to serve the needs of the intended audience. It is not enough to know what you are writing, you also need to know whom you are writing for and what they need and want from your writing. Good writing achieves your purposes and serves the needs of your audience.

Organization and conventions are important in every piece of writing BUT without understanding the expectations of your intended audience and the conventions of your intended format and genre you still could generate “bad” writing even if it is well organized and grammatically correct. Most audiences/communities expect good writing to observe grammar, spelling, and punctuation conventions but they are more willing to forgive the occasional convention error than your misunderstanding of the essential function of your piece.

Too often school writing is all about form (the surface structure and appearance) but in reality good writing is much more about function. This is not to say that grammar, spelling, punctuation, organization etc. are not important – they are very important as they can distract from and even interfere with the function of your writing and certainly influence the reader’s judgment of the value of your writing. However, in my belief as a professional writer and a writing teacher, it is the function that ultimately determines what is good writing and what is not.

What I want you to think about now, after considering the implications of this is to think about what this means for the evaluation of your writing. I have not yet created the scoring guide for your formal report (the big assignment which will culminate your project) and thought it might be helpful for you to work with me to create it. This is in part so you can create your own checklists for future projects as well as take another step in your development as a writer by making you more self-regulating.

Your job for the reflection cycle is to think about what qualities we need to consider in terms of evaluating your reports. Look at the scoring guides I created for the proposal and literature review.  What I do first is to come up with a list of topics or qualities that I consider essential to a “good” proposal or literature review and then begin phrasing the question or statement that covers that quality and sets us up to assign an appropriate value on the scale (5 = definitely to 1 = not at all). I may decide that some qualities should be weighted more heavily than others. I’m not asking you to create the whole scoring guide – just a list. I hope through our discussion this week we will be able to combine and refine a list that helps us all learn a bit more about evaluating writing. Your reflective Tweet can touch on that lesson rather than your evaluation list.

Prompt 9: Community Analysis

While we join communities all the time, we rarely study them. However, this could be a terrible oversight if this is a professional community we want to join. There are a number of ways you can study a community and that is what we are going to explore this week. These activities are going to require a bit more from you than our typical weekly reflection discussions but I think you will find the effort worthwhile.

First, think about a national-level professional organization that you will join (or at least be eligible to join) when you graduate. You might need to do some web searches (for nurses association, for example) to locate the best group for your purposes. Now explore that organization’s web site and gather information about the organization and its members (which will hopefully include you one day). You will specifically want to look at their mission, goals, and values as well as code of ethics and best practices. What you want to glean from this information are the priorities of this organization and what this means for you as a practicing professional. But you should also look for information about student options and publications (things that you can use now as well as when you enter the job market). You should also look for opportunities to network with your peers as well as those who might someday be in a position to hire you. For example, I spent my Spring Break in St. Louis at an academic conference – well actually it was two conferences rolled into one – and came home with a slew of business cards and contact information for people whose work intersects with mine as well as people who might need to hire a rhetorician some day. Many professional organizations also offer some sort of clearing house for jobs or even career fairs. You don’t always need to travel across state lines to network. I belong to several professional email lists which allow me to connect with my peers (as well as possible future employers). Also, many national organizations have state and/or local chapters that can help you make local connections. In your journal, note what you have learned about the values and interests of this professional organization as well as the resources that it offers for you as a professional in that field. If your semester project involves a slightly different topic then I would recommend conducting a similar study of a professional organization related to your topic. You might discover some great resources.

Now, I want you to launch a similar investigation into a specific professional site – a place where you want to work, or at least could work, when you graduate from MSU. For example, let’s say I want to work at MSU (don’t laugh). Some key places I (and this really is me here so I’m looking specifically in areas that concern my field) would study on http://www.moreheadstate.edu/ include searching out general information about the organization (community/institution) as well as specific information that relates to the exact job I might expect to apply for. So how do I learn more about MSU’s core values and institutional history? I’ll certainly explore the About MSU information as well as the Employment links. I will also search around (reading news feeds as well as institutional documents to get a sense of the problems the administration and faculty face as well as how they handle those challenges. As I expect to teach at MSU I want to learn more about the students so I will look at the links under Future Students, but I will also look specifically at the English Department. What kinds of classes are available that I might want to teach? What are the specialties of my potential colleagues? What kinds of activities are sponsored by the Department, College, and University that interest me? Remember, even professional designed web sites rarely have good navigation systems so you will need to do a fair amount of poking around and simply exploring. Don’t just scan the menu or do a quick site search. Play and explore.

Finally, I want you to look for people already working in your intended profession on Twitter using Twitter hashtags  (ie. #accounting). Do some searches for hashtag variations so you can locate the best choice(s) for your purpose. Then spend some time studying your chosen Twitter hashtag stream and gather information related to those same areas. What can you learn from and about these individuals that confirms or contradicts what you learned from the professional organization and site? Spend some time checking out (clicking on their names and links they provide) the individuals who post to the Twitter stream. Do any of these people have blogs and/or web sites? Perhaps consider “following” some folks of interest and posting to the stream yourself. These are people you may network with in the future and some of these people may well prove to be resources for you when you embark on your professional career. Of course, you do not want to leap into that relationship right now, but you can plant some seeds and nurture some relationships now. Once you have established some of those professional relationships you might be able to talk informally with people about their own professional experience and/or even shadow them at work, but first you will need to establish contact with other professionals.

Make notes about what you learn through these three investigations in your journal but you don’t need to give us a full report in the class discussion and on Twitter. Those posts can simply reflect the highlights and key lessons.

FYI, in the future you can (and should) conduct similar investigations about future employers. Use this information when crafting your application materials and to prepare for interviews. The more homework you do the more sure you can be that you are good fit for the job and the more support you can have to convince the hiring committee you are too.

Prompt 8: Midterm Evaluation

We have arrived at the middle of semester and I’d like for us to take stock of our class experience so far and chart a course for the remainder.

In your journal, reflect on these two questions about the class:

1.      What’s working well?

2.      What could be done better?

Also, as you may remember, this is my first time teaching this class so while I have ideas about what to do for the rest of the semester I don’t have a firm plan. What topics would you like to see covered in our remaining weeks together? Consider the topics we’ve already explored and what you need to know to complete your project as well as write in your future profession. Quite simply what else do you want to know or learn from me and this class?

Then discuss these same issues with your classmates in the discussion board and, of course, Tweet the highlights.

Prompt 7: Information Literacy

Our topic this week is information literacy. This is important to consider as you begin working on your next assignment (the literature review).

What is information literacy? Well, it is something you have been working on your entire college career (and hopefully before). According to Plattsburgh State (my alma mater),  Information literacy is the ability to recognize the extent and nature of an information need, then to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the needed information. Some more information from your future alma mater as well as the University of Idaho and Wikipedia.

Many people make the mistake that it is about finding information but it is much more than that – it is about evaluating and effectively using it.

We live in a knowledge economy (remember Drucker and the rise of the knowledge worker) and we are surrounded by more information than we can possibly process, use, or even store. This means we need to become good at Crap Detection.

Traditionally information comes to us in a variety of forms. Periodicals traditionally offer more current information than books, although of course the web usually has the most current information. Newspapers, popular magazines, trade journals, and academic journals are all examples of periodicals. You have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages for your particular rhetorical context. Different communities and different genres will privilege one over another – although even then that may depend on purpose. Some strategies you can use to evaluate information.

Prompt 6: Genre

There is a tendency, especially in an English Department such as ours that focuses more on literature and creative writing, to think of genre as something related to creative writing and literature (see Merriam-Webster & Dictionary.com). However, genre is a lot more than that. Wikipedia does a better job describing genre and here is a brief overview of genre I created some time ago. I really like this description of genre on Wikipedia: “Genres are formed by conventions that change over time.”

Some key readings that I think will help you understand genre:

·         Rhetorical situation

·         Ecology of Genre

·         Audience

·         Chapter 1: Assessing Audience and Purpose

Some key points to take away from your reading: Bitzer argues that the situation controls the type of rhetorical response (the genre) that takes place. Bawarshi uses the metaphor of an ecosystem to describe genre and its relationship to community.

Check out this video about rhetorical situation.

As Wikipedia notes, “genres are not always precisely definable,” but understanding genre is essential to your role as professional writers because “genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read” and genre “creates an expectation.” Your understanding and execution of the purpose, form, and conventions of a particular genre for a particular rhetorical situation will reflect on you individually, the group (business, organization, community) you represent, and the achievement of your purpose and goals.

Think about how horror fans might feel about this story:

From: http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/laurajosephsen/Genre.png 

Does it meet the expectations and conventions of the genre?

Short video about genre and rhetorical situation.

When you join a new community you will need to learn the genre conventions and expectations of that community. You can do this by studying artifacts (examples), talking with other writers, and getting feedback from representatives of your intended audience.

Prompt 5: Networking

Last week we talked about community and genre, but this week I want to talk about what is perhaps the single most important tool in your professional arsenal – networking. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “It's not what you know but who you know that makes the difference,” in some form or another. I could tell you story after story after story about how networking has impacted my life, but I don’t want to bore you. Instead I want you to think about the two key ways that I believe networking provides advantages to you – information and opportunities.

When I was an active journalist and freelance writer my network played an important part of my daily work. It was important for me to cultivate relationships with key people in my regular beats. Sometimes those key people were important leaders (the mayor or town supervisor, for example) but often times it was more important that I maintain good relationships with administrators or secretaries. As a reporter it was also very helpful to know people who keep their ears open. For example, my brother-in-law Patrick is a friendly guy. He will talk with anyone, anytime, anywhere. He knows a lot of people and he knows a lot about what is happening in his town as well as surrounding towns. If you want to know the inside scoop on something go talk to Patrick and if he can’t tell you then he can point you to a person who can. My neighbor is another person. I honestly don’t know why we take our local newspaper (misplaced sentimental loyalty?) because Jimmy always knows all the real news – and a lot sooner and with a lot more detail and history. If you want to join a particular community and you want to write in/for/about that community then you need to begin developing a network. Not only to provide important facts and information, but also to help you understand how information is exchanged within the community. As a writer I have always found that I cannot know everything about everything, but if I know a lot of different people who are experts in specific things then I will be just fine.

Your personal networks do more than provide information. They can also provide opportunities. I cannot tell you how many jobs (full-time and freelance) I have gotten throughout my career simply because of my personal network, but it is a lot. Sometimes it meant a friend contacting me about an opening they know about and sometimes it is an employer contacting me because of a personal recommendation. I have found that we really do live in a small world. I really do believe in the concept Six Degrees of Separation.

So how do you build a network? You have to join a community and as we talked about last week that may be a lengthy and challenging process. Some communities are more eager and open to welcoming you than others, but usually you will have to prove yourself in some way and usually you will have to give something to the community as well as the specific individuals in your personal network. This is usually some kind of goods, services, and/or information. You need to be sincere and you need to share/give of yourself. This is a quick article about making connections.

Your next assignment will require networking so this week I want you to think about the network(s) necessary to help you complete your project. The email assignment is about contacting someone to help you explore your topic and understand the needs it will address as well as what others know about the issue.