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.

Prompt 4: What is community and why does it matter?

I created this video about Community and Genre for my Eng 200 class last semester and I think this is an useful place to begin our discussion. At around the same time I wrote this blog post – Community: Jumping to become a full-patch member which further extends my argument.

Links from the video (if you want to learn more):
Genre
Memo
Discourse Community
Gangland
Wolfpack

Reflect on this idea of joining a community. What communities have you joined and how has this process been similar or different from the one I describe?

I also want you to begin thinking about the ways that the web has made the process of learning about a community – and joining it – much easier (or perhaps more complicated?). This can help you with your proposal as well as your project.

Look for the web site of a business or organization that relates to your project topic. For example, Teach For America has come up in our goals discussion. Read up about the organization’s mission, goals, and history. How easy will it be to join this organization? What are the steps to becoming a full-patch member?

I also want you to investigate some hashtags (read this post to learn more about hash tags: The Twitter Hash Tags if you still aren’t clear about them) that relate to your topic (and intended community). Here are a few that I suspect will be helpful for you:

#appalachia

#rescue

#teaching

#writing

As the post above describes, hash tags develop organically rather than systematically so you have to play and experiment a bit to find the most appropriate and relevant hash tags. Once you have found a few that will work for your project then investigate the Twitter stream for that hash tag and check out the links that people Tweet. You will often find great resources, blogs, and interesting folks this way. Tell us about them!

Prompt 3: What comes next?

While writing a grant can be challenging, the work does not end with the submitted request. After you receive a grant then you of course have to implement the programs (which frequently involves various marketing and communication efforts that involve professional writing). But more importantly if you want to keep your current grant(s) and possibly receive more grant(s) then you must file the necessary reports. Sometimes those reports are financial and/or accounting in nature (ie. we spent this much on this thing and here is the receipt) but frequently granting agencies want to know a lot more about the details of your implementation of the project you promised. They want to see what they are getting for their investment and that you are delivering what you promised.

This week I'm going to share more of my National Writing Project work by sharing our 2012 Site Report, but first a little background. Check out the National Writing Project web site to learn more about NWP. 

In the past, our funding from NWP and the Kentucky Department of Education was rather automatic. NWP had a line item in the federal budget and occasionally that amount went up. Similarly, the amount we would receive from KDE was fairly stable. We created (as a site) three documents that we submitted to NWP each year. These were a site profile (reporting on activities and programs as well as who attended those); budget report accounting for every dollar spent (that means a description/narrative with almost every line item); and a Continued Funding Application that was a sizable document which was part grant request (for the new year) and report on what we accomplished (for the old year). Also, NWP likes to see lots about the challenges you faced and what you attempted to overcome those challenges as well as details about the outcome and what you learned. The CFA would include a proposed budget for the upcoming year and that budget would have to be approved by KDE and MSU as well.

For most of my tenure as site director for the Morehead Writing Project, however, our state funding has gradually diminished, but we were able to adjust to those changes. Then almost a year ago NWP lost its federal funding. Read more here. This has changed our report cycle as well. We still submitted a site profile and budget report but instead of a CFA (as there is no continued funding at this time) we are submitting a much shorter Site Report and something called a Continued Association form. The Continued Association form simply confirms that we want to continue as an NWP site. I would imagine that there are a number of sites who won't be able to do so because they do not receive the state funding that we do here in Kentucky or the institution support that MSU provides. The form also asks about interest in future funds for specific projects. NWP has told us that they will likely not have large unencumbered funds to give us as they have in the past but do expect to have funding for smaller and more specific projects.

Of course, I believe (based on my experience as a site leader) that we need to make the case for why our site should be eligible for those funds in our Site Report. Unlike the Big Read grant, which I primarily wrote myself, the Site Report is a collaborative effort of our Leadership Team. We need to submit a Site Report by next week and my Leadership Team is sending me their contributions this week so I will share (just as I did with the Big Read grant) in the discussion board when I can. In the meantime, you can begin with journal posts about the Site Report and its purposes. Learn more here.

I also hope you will continue to think about possible project ideas and draw inspiration from MWP's work. For example, our main goal is improving the teaching of writing and our main work toward achieving that goal has been professional development but we have extended our work to so much more than that to include writing conferences, writing camps (much more planned for this year), and the Big Read.Think about your passions and interests and goals. What can you do to extend and improve upon existing programs? What do people need to know or how can you improve understanding about important issues? What problems currently have no good solutions? For example, if you want to improve the plight of homeless and abused animals is the need for more shelters and adoption programs or is to raise awareness, promote adoptions, and increase funding? Your projects can propose solutions or simply investigate options or some combination of the two. You can seek out grants and write proposals on behalf of organizations if you want to do that as well. I need to work on your assignment sheet but may not get it done until tomorrow but as long as you keep thinking about it then you'll be fine.

Bonus Prompt

I apologize for being an idiot and for doubling your reflection and work load with no notice whatsoever. I will offer this defense and apology.

First of all, as you may remember this is my first time teaching this class and I received the assignment about 10 days before classes started so I didn’t really have time to think through the semester properly and certainly didn’t have time to think about how the other half of my job might usefully inform and contribute to my teaching. And I do really think this will give you insight into professional writing. That’s the explanation for this last minute bombshell. By way of apology, if you willingly engage in this reflection and editing discussion then I will give the entire class a week off from reflection activities later in the semester when the final project deadline looms. This way when all is said and done you won’t really be doing extra work (or at least not much) and really you will be ahead of the game which is always a good thing.

OK, enough teasing. Here is the bombshell: I want you to still engage in the Prompt 2 reflection activities you were already assigned (and many of you have already begun) but I want to add another (bonus) topic. You will still journal, discuss, and tweet about this topic (so in essence you will have two journal entries, participate in two discussion board forums, and post two sets of Tweets this week. I know, I know, that is a lot to ask but think about it as getting ahead.

I am doing this to you (I’d rather think of it as for you but I know that’s not how it feels when a teacher drops this sort of bombshell) because I was working furiously on a grant application (today) and suddenly realized that this would be a great opportunity for you to see the process from the inside. I then realized I would be very remiss if I did not grab this teaching opportunity and use it. Believe me, the last thing I want when fighting a tight deadline is to stop writing, thinking, and editing to teach but I’m hoping it will all work out in the end. I hope this work will also inspire your own thinking in regard to your semester project.

Here is the situation:

My job description at MSU includes teaching two classes each semester and serving as the Site Director for the Morehead Writing Project (basically half-time teaching and half-time administrating). As an affiliate of the National Writing Project, MWP’s mission is to improve the teaching of writing (although we interpret this to improving literacy instruction as you cannot really separate reading and writing). We are supported by a mixture of federal, state, and local grants as well as institutional support (MSU) and our own program income. Our primary purpose is professional development although we also run a number of community outreach programs as well. I am currently engaged in writing a grant for a community outreach project for a program run by the National Endowment for the Arts called the Big Read. You can read more about it here: http://www.neabigread.org/about.php

For your journal reflection, I want you to look at the guidelines and applications instructions: http://www.neabigread.org/guidelines.php and think about how you would review applications. This review cannot be based on your personal preferences and interests. It needs to reflect the parameters and requirements of the Big Read. Specifically look at the criteria and requirements. What needs to be in there? Don’t simply list the requirements again but think about what it really is that they are looking for. What buzz words and ideas will tickle their fancy and/or turn them off, for example. What will capture their interest? What will make them reject a project? Really think about what a successful application would look like.

You might also want to reflect on the work that doesn’t show up on paper. How much groundwork, planning, collaboration, and networking is essential to prepare an application of this nature? Sure I’m writing it but there are a whole lot of people involved.

In Blackboard, I will post the narrative and accompanying documents as I draft them (oh yes, I’m letting it all hang out, and it’s not pretty) and our discussion will center around your evaluation of those documents – not as an editor but as someone on the committee reviewing my application. Where have I gone right, gone wrong, and what do I need to add or take out or expand upon? This is a real, honest-to-goodness work in progress and I’m on a real deadline (Feb. 1). This is not a drill.

And, last but not least, do not forget to Tweet!

Prompt 2: What do you want?

Last week's prompt focused on what we mean by professional writing, but this week we are going to talk about what you specifically want out of this class. All your assignments for this class will center around one specific project/topic. You have a few weeks before you need to settle on that topic and project, but this week we will begin thinking about possibilities.

I want you to begin with journaling about your chosen major and intended future career. Where do you see yourself in five years? ten years? Also reflect about what really matters to you. What are your hobbies and interests? Where do you want to live and why?

Right now I just want you to dream big here. We'll worry about sifting, sorting, trimming, and shaping later. Just throw out lots of ideas for now. We want to explore who you are, what makes you tick, and where you want to go.

In addition to that self-exploration, I want you to begin thinking about the types of writing that are available to you. Think first about this article: Writing is the greatest invention. I happen to believe that rhetoric is incredibly powerful and has the capacity to change the world. It can sway emotions and thoughts, but perhaps more importantly it can make things happen. Think about the actions of people, governments, and industries -- what is really possible without written communication and records? You can get some ideas of the different types of writing that different professions engage in by watching the videos on Write for your life. In particular watch the topics of "Introductions" and "Kinds of writing".

Think about topics and questions you would like to explore or learn more about that connect with your major, intended profession, and/or region. What needs do you see? What would you like to change or do when you graduate?

For example, right now I am infuriated by the changes taking place in Montgomery County Schools and at Mapleton Elementary School in particular. This is my mother-bear instinct kicking in big-time but what is happening also appalls me as an educator and as someone who works with teachers (and future teachers). I won't bore you with the details because I'll start ranting (you can read My Child will be Left Behind if you really want to know more). However, I am currently pondering the ways that I can make sure my child is intellectually challenged in some sort of Saturday or after-school program. So I could make my project about researching and proposing such a program.

Under course documents I have included a list from Dr. Royar about topics that people have used for past semesters. I had students do a similar project when I taught Eng 292 and those topics included investigating a particular new development for their employer, providing a clearinghouse for community support services, developing a medical news hotline, and studying the business development needs of a community as well as specific educational and social services programs.

Prompt 1: What is professional writing?

I want to start out by reflecting on and discussing the topic of this class. Just what is professional writing?

It can actually mean a lot of different things and some academic programs and some employers use it rather interchangeably with terms such as business writing or technical writing. And of course, just to further complicate things sometimes the word writing is replaced by communication so it can incorporate more media (as for many writing implies working with print media only).

Some examples of programs:

·         Texas Tech (where I earned my Ph.D. & so I know lots of folks)

·         University of Cincinnati (where I have friends on faculty)

·         Eastern KentuckyUniversity (I earned my MA there and taught there for a while before MSU)

·         Michigan State University program about jobs in professional writing

In the end, it all boils down to one word: rhetoric.

Please watch this video about rhetoric: http://youtu.be/BYMUCz9bHAs

And read a blog post I wrote about rhetoric a few years back: http://masclemetawriting.blogspot.com/2010/03/forgotten-r.html

While you probably are not faced with the same identity question, I do want you to think about where your interests lie now and where you think they might take you in the future. Certainly all educated professionals will use rhetoric in the future.

In fact, if you read communication journals there has been talk for decades now that we are now in an information age and what is necessary are “knowledge workers” (what I would call rhetoricians). You can read an article about this here: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95dec/chilearn/drucker.htm (skip down to the section “The Rise of the Knowledge Worker” if you don’t want to read the whole article).

Written language was actually born out of the necessity for government officials and business people to communicate about transactions. It was not until much later that writing was used for the literary purposes we take for granted today. It is also important to remember that it was not until the 20^th century that literacy became commonplace. Actual college courses focused on professional, business, and technical writing were first offered by colleges in the period after the Civil War. Prior to the Civil War most colleges were small and catered almost exclusively to the sons of wealthy landowners and professionals. The two Morrill Acts (1862 and 1877) founded and promoted land-grant agricultural and mechanical colleges that dramatically increase the availability of higher education and changed it in many ways – in both focus and student body. With a change from a more liberal arts/ humanities focus to more technical subjects and an increase in the number of students who came from less privileged backgrounds (without private tutors, for example) it became clear that more attention would need to be paid to writing. First came the advent of required composition courses in the early 1900s (trivia note: these started at Harvard) then the professions began to demand that future members be trained to write coherent reports as well as simple business letters. Professional and Technical Writing really came of age after World War II in part due to the GI Bill but also a tremendous growth in technical writing due to the use of technology during the war (WWII was the first truly technological war). Today we find professional writing in many more places than engineering firms and places of business and professional writing is much more than simply technical or business writing. It's now grown to include all these things and more.

Professional writing falls into two basic categories: professionals who write on the job, such as engineers, nurses, scientists, etc;. and people who write as their profession. But there is one simple truth: professional means getting paid for what you do.  

·         My friend Lisa’s description of Tech Comm: http://www.tek-ritr.com/tech_comm/pmwiki.php?n=Foundation.WhatIsTechComm

I love technical communication now but when I was an undergrad many many moons ago it wasn't even on my horizon. I did know then that I wanted to be a working writer. Do you? What does that mean to you? How do you define professional writing? What is a professional writer? What kind of professional writer do you want to be? What is rhetoric to you (definition)? Do you consider yourself a rhetorician? Write a journal post (you can find your journal in BlackBoard under tools) exploring and reflecting on these ideas and questions.

Then Tweet some response to your journal entry. Try to include a hashtag (label) so your response becomes part of a wider conversation. Some possible hashtags include #writer #writers #writing #jobs #techcomm #rhetoric #communication #media

Finally, participate in the Blackboard reflection discussion for your Week 1 prompt.

Help us become a community

During the first three weeks of classes (and hopefully beginning BEFORE classes) we will use Twitter to get to know each other as people. One of the greatest drawbacks of an online class is that we do not get the opportunity to get to know each other as we would in a face-to-face class through discussion and regular interaction.

You will need to take three steps to help us learn more about each other. First, you will need to follow your classmates (check the list of people that the class account is following. The class account will only follow your classmates--you can ignore those Twitter accounts related to writing). You will need to keep checking the class "following" list as that will change over time as people join the class. It is entirely up to you whether or not you want to follow me on my personal account. You may decide that you already hear enough from me. I am more concerned with getting to know you and for you to get to know each other.

Second, over the first three weeks of class you will need to post at least 10 updates (spread over 10 different days). These are Tweets so they are short. Just give us a glimpse into what you are thinking, feeling, and/or doing. You can do more than that. Post every day if you life. Post more than once a day if you like. We are just trying to break the ice here and help us see you as a person. You don't need to share your deepest secrets or anything terribly personal. This is just meant to help us overcome the fact that we won't actually "see" you in person and know that you are suffering from allergies or a truly horribly haircut or that you just had an awesome weekend or are sporting the perfect shoes (note you can even send pictures of your perfect shoes, cute dog, or funny kid with applications such as http://twitpic.com/.

Finally, you will need to read the Tweets of your classmates and participate in some conversations. Ask people about their six-word memoirs or their updates. Commiserate with those struggling with campus parking or long lunch lines or expensive books. You don't need to respond to everyone and you don't need to do this every day but try to do it at least a couple different days.

Notes:

To send a public reply to someone use @username (such as @mascle200)

To send a private reply to someone use D username (such as D mascle200)

To link your post to a larger conversation use hashtags (such as #masclepw or #sixwords) to label a conversation. Some other examples include:

#iamsotiredof

#fail

#fun

#notfun

#college

#writing

Introduce yourself to the class…in just six words

Your challenge is to write a six-word memoir.

Why just six words? Because that is the rule of the game! Learn more about the Six-word Memoir Movement:

The book:



It began (and continues still) at Smith Magazine

Some examples if you need inspiration:

On Twitter and more Twitter!

This is the six-word memoir I created for my Fall 2010 class:

And my Spring 2011 class:

This summer I wrote this six-word memoir for my Morehead Writing Project work:

Head too full...it's gonna blow!

These are some six-word memoirs created for other classes:

Mr. Ream’s 9th grade class:


Mr. Wright’s Creative Writing Class:


After you have created your Twitter account and the class Twitter account is following you (it might take a day or so for that to happen) then post your six-word memoir to your Twitter account. Please include @6_word_memoirs #sixwords at the end of your post to "label" it and link it up with other 6-word memoir Tweets.

Also add your six-word memoir to your Twitter "bio".

Not required but strongly suggested: Share your six-word memoir on Smith Magazine so you are officially a part of the movement!

Get ready to Tweet

As I told you in the welcome message, we are going use Twitter this semester to provide an important channel of communication within the class but also with the outside world.

Learn more about Twitter:
http://twitter.com/about
http://tweeternet.com/
http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialnetworking/a/what-is-twitter.htm

So how do you get started?

In order to begin you will need a Twitter account. Register here:
https://twitter.com/signup. If you already have a Twitter account it is OK to use that one.

Add your bio and pic & then follow the class Twitter feed:http://twitter.com/masclepw . Look at the list of followers on the the class Twitter page as those are your classmates and you will need to follow them as well. Over the next few days you should check back regularly. As I get notifications of new followers I will have the class Twitter feed follow you. 


You should also do some searching for other Twitter accounts to follow. You can find many celebrities. For example: my son is a huge Mythbusters fan so I follow Adam Savage. I mostly follow friends and people who interest me professionally (with my personal account) but I do follow some accounts which I think are funny such as: Some Grey Bloke and Fake Pew Research. A great way to get started is to search key words or phrases about a topic that interests you. For example, I searched for some Twitter streams about professional writing and found: TC_Chat, ATC, Technical Comms, STC_Org, Technical Writing, and Elance. The class account is currently following these writing feeds but I may unfollow them once the class starts Tweeting.

You should put some thought into how you want to keep track of Twitter for this class. You can simply check your Twitter account and the class blog @ http://masclepw.blogspot.com/ (see the feed for Twitter in the sidebar) but this doesn’t really harness the power that Twitter offers you to stay informed.

I have my Twitter account displayed on my computer’s home page (I use Netvibes to watch my email, Twitter, FaceBook, and the weather) and I also have an app on my Ipod as well as my Kindle Fire that allows me to read and post to Twitter. I have a lot of friends who use Twitter via their smartphone. Making Twitter easily available will mean that you actually check it – regularly! Between Netvibes and my hand-held devices I easily check my Twitter accounts multiple times a day.

Welcome

Hello. I’m Dr. Deanna Mascle. I am your Professional Writing instructor for Spring 2012.

When you signed up for this class you probably thought your instructor would be Dr. Royar. However, thanks to some last-minute schedule changes in the English Department you are getting me instead.

Please check out this video to learn more about my plans for the semester: http://youtu.be/70e7d3TBcUs

You can find the course syllabus here.

Talk to you soon!