Because it is midterm month, I will take this moment to explain the areas in which I have improved so far in my writing and communications with others. I will also look at the places I have trouble, and how I think I can improve.
I realize that this internship is quite unlike other internships in that I do most of my work away from an "office". This job can easily be explained as a freelance position, and it is important for me to remember this. There are times when I think that I need to be in a corporate setting in order to actually be performing a job; as long as I am free to write (whether with pen and paper or computer), I can carry out my job.
The main area I have improved in is my actual writing. Coming in to this internship, I had no idea how to write a press-release. This was intimidating at first because that was going to be a main job. Through free writings and practice, practice, practice, I have been able to improve my style of writing. I am also able to finalize an article faster than at the beginning of the semester. For the first two articles, I struggled with word count and content in such a way that I could think of little else. Having due dates has improved the amount of time it takes me because I know when I must be done.
Another area I notice an improvement is in email communication. Before my internship, I rarely performed work-related communication through email because I did not trust the systems I used. I have found that Gmail is an excellent provider because it catalogues and houses thousands of emails. Just having an email account that is not MIX has helped--I have lost so many hours of my life fighting with the school mail system to be comfortable with using it for this internship. Gmail makes the email portion of the job easy and rather effortless, so that I can focus on the actual content of the email itself.
The main area in which I need to improve is my time management. All of my previous jobs have been in an office-type setting, and it has taken lots of adjustment to see this as an actual job. I have put aside specific hours of the day and week to work only on job-related material, but I struggle with staying on this schedule. I believe the way to combat this is to move around the distractions that I face. I live in Stalnaker with three roommates, so working alone in the room is next to impossible. There is a lounge right around the corner to my room, and I think that this area would be conducive to my time management because this is the place where I tutor on Thursdays. If I only use the lounge as a work-space, I think it will "program" my head into only looking at it as such.
The second major area that I need to improve is my hours. At this point in the semester, I have completed around 40 hours of work. Since it is midterm, I know I need to step on it in terms of getting 100 more hours, but I am unsure of how to do this. Am I allowed to count free-writings into my hour, even though it doesn't directly reflect on my job? I will easily have the page requirement completed by the end of the semester (I'm at around 11 pages now), but I'm worried about the hours. Any ideas?
Another area in which growth should come is my blog postings. I have given my blog address to my job supervisor so that she can check to see what I am saying and what problems I am encountering. It's rather difficult for her, I'm sure, to come to the site when it has not been updated since I began it. I realize that this does not reflect well on my time management skills, but it has helped me realize that if I say I will use a site for a supervisor to check-in on, I should stand by what I say.
I'm looking forward to the continuation of this internship, and I'm encouraged by knowing what I can do to finish the semester strong!
E-mail, the communication of the future
errr...and the communication of the now! Email is a quick way to get in touch with someone to talk to them. For my internship, though, email is how I communicate with my supervisor, directors, actors, and writers. Without email, I would not be able to do my job because of the variety of people and schedules with which I'm working. Even though email can be quickly worded and quickly sent, I take great care in how I word and send my emails. I read them through at least three times so that I know exactly what I'm saying. If I don't know what I'm saying, I don't expect the other person to know what I'm saying. I follow a certain method when it comes to emailing a director about a show. Because I am knew to the M.T. Pockets community, I do not know any of the people I am contacting. The formula I use helps me establish a connection with them without taking a huge chunk out of their schedule.
1) The most important part of establishing communication is to email the right person. Because I do not know the people I am writing, I need to know that the address I have is the correct one and not someone entirely unrelated to the theatre. This first email contains who I am, who my supervisor is (as a point of contact for them to relate to), and what I am going to be emailing about.
2) The second email I send (after they have replied to mine) is the one where I ask the questions. I preface it with a restatement of who I am and what my job is, and then I let them know when I would like their information back. Then, I ask the questions.
3) The questions can range from the general to the very specific, depending on what Vickie has told me about the show already. I try to find out before the first email what job the person holds in the production of the play, i.e. director, actor, choreographer, etc. This helps me know what kinds of questions to ask. I don't want to be asking a set-designer what choreography is necessary for a duel sequence! The questions are specific to the person and pertain to the article I write. I try not to ask unnecessary questions. This saves them time, as well as lets them see that I can be to the point.
4) As soon as I have gotten a reply, I email the person letting him/her know when I will be done with the article and where they will be able to see it. I also send them a link to the article once it has been published. I want them to be proud of being in the newspaper for all the hard work they have done for the show!
This formula has worked two out of three times. The one time it did not work is the time when the snow caused the power-outage and I had to submit the article without hearing back from the director. Currently, I am awaiting a reply from the organizer of a fundraiser the theatre is putting on. She, my supervisor, and the company of "Poe" traveled to the SETC competition this weekend. She has not been able to reply because of workshops and performances she is attending. For this reason, email is the best way to handle this interview. Without email, I would have to further press her for time so that I could get my article written.
I emailed my supervisor letting her know that I would not have the article at the specific time due to the competition. Because my supervisor is also there, the entire situation was resolved through email.
Because I want to go into editing and possibly branch-off into freelance, email will continue to be helpful to my job. This internship has already helped me realize exactly what needs to happen to get effective responses to queries.
1) The most important part of establishing communication is to email the right person. Because I do not know the people I am writing, I need to know that the address I have is the correct one and not someone entirely unrelated to the theatre. This first email contains who I am, who my supervisor is (as a point of contact for them to relate to), and what I am going to be emailing about.
2) The second email I send (after they have replied to mine) is the one where I ask the questions. I preface it with a restatement of who I am and what my job is, and then I let them know when I would like their information back. Then, I ask the questions.
3) The questions can range from the general to the very specific, depending on what Vickie has told me about the show already. I try to find out before the first email what job the person holds in the production of the play, i.e. director, actor, choreographer, etc. This helps me know what kinds of questions to ask. I don't want to be asking a set-designer what choreography is necessary for a duel sequence! The questions are specific to the person and pertain to the article I write. I try not to ask unnecessary questions. This saves them time, as well as lets them see that I can be to the point.
4) As soon as I have gotten a reply, I email the person letting him/her know when I will be done with the article and where they will be able to see it. I also send them a link to the article once it has been published. I want them to be proud of being in the newspaper for all the hard work they have done for the show!
This formula has worked two out of three times. The one time it did not work is the time when the snow caused the power-outage and I had to submit the article without hearing back from the director. Currently, I am awaiting a reply from the organizer of a fundraiser the theatre is putting on. She, my supervisor, and the company of "Poe" traveled to the SETC competition this weekend. She has not been able to reply because of workshops and performances she is attending. For this reason, email is the best way to handle this interview. Without email, I would have to further press her for time so that I could get my article written.
I emailed my supervisor letting her know that I would not have the article at the specific time due to the competition. Because my supervisor is also there, the entire situation was resolved through email.
Because I want to go into editing and possibly branch-off into freelance, email will continue to be helpful to my job. This internship has already helped me realize exactly what needs to happen to get effective responses to queries.
The Interim: What to do when there is no work to do
I find that I work the best when I have work coming out my ears. So it can be quite frustrating when there is no work to be done for the theatre. (This opening reminded me of the blog examples we read in class and the person mentioned that there had been nothing to do...) I think that, even though there was not an article to write or a program to be proofed, there was plenty of work to be done. This kind of work, though, does not have a due date. What is this work? Free writing!
I first used free writing as a helpful tool in English 301--I had actually never had to use it before. Free writing for me is a type of brainstorming. Instead of brainstorming ideas for how to finish something, I brainstormed ideas about how to improve something--my articles. My first article was featured in the Dominion Post. This was a treat, but I realized that the amount of time it took me to write the article did not reflect in the quality present. To put it plainly, it didn't measure up to my standards. I felt that the only way to improve my writing was to write press releases and articles for movies and plays I already know and to make them new and interesting. This is how I used free writing.
I used notebook paper to write these, so I'll need to make print copies of them at a later point. But I did articles promoting such plays as "Kiss Me Kate", "High Society", and "Gigi". I decided to start with these because I already knew the subject matter--my would these have been helpful beforehand on "Romeo & Juliet"! Oh, the things you learn! Then, I used plays and movies that I have heard a bit about but have never seen--i.e. "Pulp Fiction" and "Fargo". I tried to explain these in fewer than 500 words because a usual article/press release is around 350-450 words.
The best thing about free writing like this is that it is fun! It's discouraging when people remark that writing isn't fun--it can be, and they can make it fun! As soon as I finished writing the actual article and before I started free writing, I thought that there was no way I could do anything productive for my internship without something being due. I learned, though, that even doing something as simple and entertaining as explaining a movie in paper form can help one create new ways to better their own writing. I'm definitely going to be free writing when I don't have an article to do, and I look forward to being able to revamp old ideas!
I first used free writing as a helpful tool in English 301--I had actually never had to use it before. Free writing for me is a type of brainstorming. Instead of brainstorming ideas for how to finish something, I brainstormed ideas about how to improve something--my articles. My first article was featured in the Dominion Post. This was a treat, but I realized that the amount of time it took me to write the article did not reflect in the quality present. To put it plainly, it didn't measure up to my standards. I felt that the only way to improve my writing was to write press releases and articles for movies and plays I already know and to make them new and interesting. This is how I used free writing.
I used notebook paper to write these, so I'll need to make print copies of them at a later point. But I did articles promoting such plays as "Kiss Me Kate", "High Society", and "Gigi". I decided to start with these because I already knew the subject matter--my would these have been helpful beforehand on "Romeo & Juliet"! Oh, the things you learn! Then, I used plays and movies that I have heard a bit about but have never seen--i.e. "Pulp Fiction" and "Fargo". I tried to explain these in fewer than 500 words because a usual article/press release is around 350-450 words.
The best thing about free writing like this is that it is fun! It's discouraging when people remark that writing isn't fun--it can be, and they can make it fun! As soon as I finished writing the actual article and before I started free writing, I thought that there was no way I could do anything productive for my internship without something being due. I learned, though, that even doing something as simple and entertaining as explaining a movie in paper form can help one create new ways to better their own writing. I'm definitely going to be free writing when I don't have an article to do, and I look forward to being able to revamp old ideas!
Proofreading=The Job I Love the Most
Ever since I learned how a sentence should be properly constructed, I have loved grammar and proofing. I think that I am a constructive proofreader because I provide examples and explanations for how an article or pamphlet can be improved. After I finished the article for "Romeo & Juliet", I proofed the program for the play.
This program was different from many that I have proofed in the past because it included more than just a cast list. Because the M.T. Pockets Theatre is a community theatre for the Morgantown area, businesses here contribute and market themselves through the programs for each production. I have not asked yet, but I believe that if I were to find an error in one of the advertisements that it would have to be corrected on their end and resubmitted to our program. Thankfully, though, I did not find any errors in the ads.
One area of writing that I find poses a problem for me is that of continuity. When working with groups of people, I tend to call each person a different name instead of keeping their name the same. Since I have to carefully pick up on each instance where I do this, I notice it quickly in another's work. The director for the play is named Ariel Elizabeth Barnhart. In the program, she was listed twice as her full name, once as Ariel E. Barnhart, and once as Ariel Barnhart. I suggested that she be referred to as Ariel Elizabeth Barnhart because that is was appears on the website, and her previous press releases.
I did have to look up the correct form of a word used in the program because I was unsure if it could be used in the particular form and mean the same thing. The word was "Shakespearean" as opposed to "Shakespeare" when both are used to explain the type of performance this specific actor was portraying. The exact quote was, "this is her first Shakespeare portrayal". Once I had concluded my research on the differences in the words, I marked it with a note stating that they could be used interchangeably for this specific instance. "Shakespearean" is the preferred form of the word, but both are correct in this instance. In order to check the grammaticality of the words, I used Google searches and the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) online. I found both immensely helpful.
I have not as of yet been able to proofread another program. But there is a show being performed this next weekend, and I should be getting the program for that at the beginning of the week.
I find proofreading one of the most important parts of the writing process because it allows someone else to read your work without knowing what you went through to write it. The longer one looks at a text, the more caution slips--errors begin to creep up, and a good way to guard against that is for a proofer to catch them and help them be corrected.
This program was different from many that I have proofed in the past because it included more than just a cast list. Because the M.T. Pockets Theatre is a community theatre for the Morgantown area, businesses here contribute and market themselves through the programs for each production. I have not asked yet, but I believe that if I were to find an error in one of the advertisements that it would have to be corrected on their end and resubmitted to our program. Thankfully, though, I did not find any errors in the ads.
One area of writing that I find poses a problem for me is that of continuity. When working with groups of people, I tend to call each person a different name instead of keeping their name the same. Since I have to carefully pick up on each instance where I do this, I notice it quickly in another's work. The director for the play is named Ariel Elizabeth Barnhart. In the program, she was listed twice as her full name, once as Ariel E. Barnhart, and once as Ariel Barnhart. I suggested that she be referred to as Ariel Elizabeth Barnhart because that is was appears on the website, and her previous press releases.
I did have to look up the correct form of a word used in the program because I was unsure if it could be used in the particular form and mean the same thing. The word was "Shakespearean" as opposed to "Shakespeare" when both are used to explain the type of performance this specific actor was portraying. The exact quote was, "this is her first Shakespeare portrayal". Once I had concluded my research on the differences in the words, I marked it with a note stating that they could be used interchangeably for this specific instance. "Shakespearean" is the preferred form of the word, but both are correct in this instance. In order to check the grammaticality of the words, I used Google searches and the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) online. I found both immensely helpful.
I have not as of yet been able to proofread another program. But there is a show being performed this next weekend, and I should be getting the program for that at the beginning of the week.
I find proofreading one of the most important parts of the writing process because it allows someone else to read your work without knowing what you went through to write it. The longer one looks at a text, the more caution slips--errors begin to creep up, and a good way to guard against that is for a proofer to catch them and help them be corrected.
"Romeo & Juliet"--The Internship Begins
When I met with Vickie for the first meeting, she mentioned that "Romeo & Juliet" was the play for the month of February. She said that I could write the article for it. As soon as she mentioned me writing it, I remembered the all-important phrase I learned from Dr. Gouge's Editing class: "do you have any previous documents that I could look at to find out the normal format?" Vickie directed me to the section of the main website that houses the past articles that have been featured in the Dominion Post during the last theatre season. I asked her to get me contacts for each show so that I would be able to start as soon as I got them. She jotted down the note, and we concluded the meeting.
Leaving her office, I knew that I wouldn't be able to start writing the article until I had an understanding of what a press release entailed. I had a general understanding, of course, but I had never actually written one. I Googled the term and found lots of examples. The structure seemed to be quite strict, which I had already gathered from Vickie--she said that she wants my articles to be articles and not just press releases. She wants them to be creative and fun to read. I then went on the M.T. Pockets' website and found the previous releases. The format for this one seemed pretty rigorous, too, but I used it as my example to begin writing.
I took notes on the format of the example; and I noticed that, like any good newspaper article, it explained the show concisely to the reader. I began to get worried--how does one explain the plot of "Romeo & Juliet" without giving away the ending to the world-renowned play? I used several websites dedicated to the play in order to get an idea of the basics of the show. I played around with several renditions of the plot, and quickly came up with a way to explain it without giving it completely away.
The next step in the writing process was to talk to the director. It took a while to get the actual contact info for her from Vickie. I quickly emailed the director, Ariel, asking to attend a rehearsal to interview her and observe what she was currently doing with the play. After the interview and rehearsal, I still had questions for Ariel about the play. Because there was a week in which to put together the article, I emailed her and waited for her response. Ariel, unfortunately, lived in a part of Morgantown that lost power during the large snowstorm. She had no way to get back to me with the queries until the night after I had to submit the article. Working with what I had, I finished the article and submitted it to Vickie.
She had asked for it by noon that Monday, and I had it to her by 1:30 pm--I was rather frustrated with the entire process because I did not know until that Saturday that I was supposed to submit the article on Monday. I need to be able to have a due date for each article, and I did not have that for this first one.
Because some time has passed since this occurred, I have since gotten a list of articles and due dates that includes contact information. That is for another blog post, though.
Leaving her office, I knew that I wouldn't be able to start writing the article until I had an understanding of what a press release entailed. I had a general understanding, of course, but I had never actually written one. I Googled the term and found lots of examples. The structure seemed to be quite strict, which I had already gathered from Vickie--she said that she wants my articles to be articles and not just press releases. She wants them to be creative and fun to read. I then went on the M.T. Pockets' website and found the previous releases. The format for this one seemed pretty rigorous, too, but I used it as my example to begin writing.
I took notes on the format of the example; and I noticed that, like any good newspaper article, it explained the show concisely to the reader. I began to get worried--how does one explain the plot of "Romeo & Juliet" without giving away the ending to the world-renowned play? I used several websites dedicated to the play in order to get an idea of the basics of the show. I played around with several renditions of the plot, and quickly came up with a way to explain it without giving it completely away.
The next step in the writing process was to talk to the director. It took a while to get the actual contact info for her from Vickie. I quickly emailed the director, Ariel, asking to attend a rehearsal to interview her and observe what she was currently doing with the play. After the interview and rehearsal, I still had questions for Ariel about the play. Because there was a week in which to put together the article, I emailed her and waited for her response. Ariel, unfortunately, lived in a part of Morgantown that lost power during the large snowstorm. She had no way to get back to me with the queries until the night after I had to submit the article. Working with what I had, I finished the article and submitted it to Vickie.
She had asked for it by noon that Monday, and I had it to her by 1:30 pm--I was rather frustrated with the entire process because I did not know until that Saturday that I was supposed to submit the article on Monday. I need to be able to have a due date for each article, and I did not have that for this first one.
Because some time has passed since this occurred, I have since gotten a list of articles and due dates that includes contact information. That is for another blog post, though.
