My Journey as a Writer

Over the past three weeks I have definitely grown as a a writer from my Feature Writing class. I feel like having such a fast paced class has allowed me to be more creative with my writing because I am learning lessons  and remembering mechanisms to apply to my next article. The phrase, “practice makes perfect” definitely stands when it comes to the progression of my writing abilities over the past few weeks.

            I now feel more comfortable writing and feel like my articles flow better and the ideas come more natural because I am doing some form of writing each day. With that said there are many areas that I need to work on. I find  myself being repetitive in my writing using words such as, ‘however’ and ‘therefore.’ I also find myself attempting to sit down and write my pieces in one fell swoop. By doing this I thing that this is preventing me from losing my train of thought or transitions to other topics. I think that if I give myself a break between my writing it will aid the flow of the piece and the accuracy of the grammar. Another idea would to write down the main ideas and the important transitions that pop into my head and re-visit them later to add more and gradually build the piece up to its full potential.

            The fun part about writing is the fact that I get to express myself through my writing style, not necessarily writing about myself. I think it is interesting to write a piece about something that doesn’t sound interesting, but putting my own twist on it to make it alluring to readers.

            In the end, I want people to read my writing and enjoy it. I also want them to be able to read something written by me and know that I am the author without that information provided to them. Obviously this would be difficult, but it is a lofty but achievable goal to set for myself! What draws you in to an article? What mechanisms turn you off?

Writers Block.. and a Little Up-Chuck.

Writers block is something that I occasionally struggle with. My last writers block occurred yesterday when I was making the final revisions to my “Personal Experience” article for Feature Writing. The subject I was writing about is a very sensitive one and I was unsure as to how do word it or approach the topic of divorce. I was in a rut.

            What did I do in this situation? I went for a walk. As I walked with my Chihuahua/Yorkie, Juno, I made sure to think about all possible things EXCEPT my paper. We walked two miles and when we go home I was still salty about the paper subject and dreaded working on it. I began to procrastinate some more and made myself a cup of tea, watched some ‘Friends’ on TV, and took a quick power nap to refresh my brain. I woke up, sat down at the kitchen table, and wrote. It all seemed to come naturally to me after that and just flow to the paper. As much as I wanted to be passed out like my dog, laying on his back with his paws folded over and his nose twitching from his dream, I had to continue. I completed my paper at last!

            It was time to celebrate. I treated myself to some FroYo from The Yogurt Shoppe in downtown Whitewater, looking like a loner sitting outside by myself with my EuroTart flavor and snickers pieces sprinkled inside of it. It seemed like a great night; I took Juno for a walk, took a nap, finished my homework for both classes and got myself a tasty treat. I laid down to finally go to bed and, of course, Juno puked on my pillow. OF ALL PLACES, MY PILLOW. I know it was not his fault but it was still frustrating and delayed by bedtime by 45 minutes… Just the way I wanted to top off my day… haha In retrospect though, it is pretty funny!

The Journalist at Work

I wrote both of my pre-writes today for Feature Writing and I have to say, I am more nervous about writing about my personal experience than I am about the elderly man in the bar. This got me thinking; do I keep myself busy to avoid coming to terms with my personal life challenges?

            I am taking 12 credits this summer, working, and continuing my internship at Harley-Davidson. I am busy every day of the week but I love it! I sleep well, take care of my dog, and have a routine. However some people are consumed by nothing. I predict that this is the case for the man I am interviewing for my Personality Article. This elderly man sits on a bar stool at Station 1, a bar in downtown Whitewater, keeps to himself, has a soda, and silently observes patrons. I am fascinated with his silence. Someone who can be so silent must be used to the silence around him.

His eyes say heartbreak and his silence says loneliness. I feel for the man, but is he really one to be pitied? Who knows, he may be perfectly content and come to terms with his life and himself, but chooses to sit and fill his days with silent observation.

This makes me think of what would happen if I put my life aside and evaluated myself. This thought brings fear to me that I would find an emotion that I have never felt before, or that I would find a feeling that would flash me back into the experiences of my past. As I am brainstorming questions to ask the man in the bar, I ponder if I should be asking myself the same questions.

In reference to my previous post, I am still trying to find my path in life and who I “really am.” But is who I am not something that I am pretending to be, or something I have conformed myself to that has become permanent? Or, am I just over analyzing this whole life thing and have to come to terms with the fact I’m going to be six feet under some day?

What is our purpose here?

On that deep, philosophical note, goodnight!

Who am I?

As young adults make their journey through college, the main goal is to obtain an education and graduate within four years, if you’re lucky. However, during this time is when we truly find out ‘who we are.’

            Who am I? That is a question in which I am growing closer to the answer. I am entering my senior year here at UW-Whitewater majoring in Public Relations and minoring in advertising. I am graduating in a total of three years, this is just one example of the driven and motivated person that I am.

            I am striving to enter the professional world of public relations. This profession requires dipping your toes into all aspects of communications from writing, to speaking, to design. I am beginning the class of Feature Writing this week and I am extremely excited to see what it has in store for me. I am comfortable with writing and it seems to come naturally for me, however I do not know about my ability past writing papers and press releases for school. I am confident in my talents, however I have only written for a publication once through my internship. I was guided by my boss through this process and do not feel completely comfortable doing something like this independently.

            By the end of this class I want to feel comfortable writing in different situations and for different purposes. I hope that this class molds me into a well rounded writer in order to aid me in my professional career.

           

Now, I ask you to tell me: Who are you?

Mock Interviews - Nov. 13

The November 13th event at the Hudson Business Lounge was such a learning experience! We were subjected to an interview-like situation, and then we were able to pick the brains of other PR professionals. I sat down with Cassandra Sura from Rush University Medical Center, Kristin Khail from MillerCoors, and Matthew Wisla, Senior Communications Executive. Each professional I sat down with had amazing words of wisdom for me, which served to be very valuable for the present and future. Informational Interviews were new to me, but I would definitely be interested in participating in them again. I was able to ask questions I would not normally be able to ask, such as the downfalls of their job. These interviews made the job seem much more 'real' and not as much as a fantasy for me anymore. It really got me thinking about what my path in the PR world will look like. 

At the beginning of the program, the president of Big Shoes Network came and spoke to us students about tips for interviewing, as well as what to look for when we are job searching. One thing that was really stressed was to make sure we like our job. Some of the examples of past clients of his he gave us were quite interesting, proving that money does not buy happiness. 

I have always been pretty confident in interviews, so these were no different. They asked the typical status-quo interview questions. However, I was asked by Matthew Wisla, "Why do you want to go into this profession?" As simple as this question may sound, I was stuck. Why do I want to be a PR professional? I love the major so far, and I love how hands on it is. However, I had never really thought what it is about this major that keeps me pursuing it. I am going to stick with my major and my dreams for my PR career, but I need to think about exactly why it is I chose this path.

The mock interviews certainly got me thinking about all aspects of my college and professional career. I hope to someday be sitting on the opposite side of the table interviewing students like myself, but for now I need to be worried about graduation and internships before I start dreaming big!

Cision

Cision is a company that aids the media in distribution, research, and monitoring of information. This tool is used by PR practitioners and journalists, this makes the jobs of these professionals easier and is great for expanding. The most fascinating part of Cision for me was how many updates they perform. In one day, they made 17,000 updates and 4 million updates over the past year. Practitioners are able to search for people and companies involved in the media by using the ‘smart search’ tool. This accesses the occupation of the person, information and statistics about the company, and takes the user to the profile page. Cision allows the user to create a blurb about themselves and what they would like the viewers of their page to know. This is great for networking, it creates connections with people who are similar to you and intrigue them when they visit your page. When viewing a page, you are also able to create notes about them. This is a great refresher for when you refer back to them later.  One thing that surprised me about Cision was the fact they had actions that you could favorite and follow. This is much like Twitter, which comes in handy and is easy to adjust to for new users. Cision is very valuable because it allows you to search for organizations within the area all in one place, and also allows you to search for many types of media sources such as newspapers, TV, magazines, and internet sources. For more information please visit http://us.cision.com/.

The PR Student (2)

Well, it’s me again! I have recently begun a new PR class, PR Tactics II. This class will expand on the things I learned in my summer class, PR Tactics. I am extremely excited about this class because it will be expanding on the information I previously learned. School has started since I last posted and I am now a sophomore in college! I am currently living in my sorority house with 22 other women. This is nice because a good majority of my sisters are PR majors as well, so I have them to go to if I need assistance or guidance. I have also recently received an internship with the Janesville Jets Hockey Team doing PR work. I am this so far! I am actually getting some real life, hands on experiences in a professional setting. I am surrounded by a team of professionals who assist me in any way they can to help me learn the ins and outs of the PR field. One thing I have learned from both my sorority and my internship is that networking is everything. It really is all in who you know. Creating a linked in and a website was they best networking I could have done for myself.