Well, that part is over...

The poster presentation was incredibly fun!  I greatly enjoyed talking to the public and judges about my work.  I had previously only been explaining my work to my roommates and people that knew me, but the presentation allowed me to talk to other supervisors and professors in the English department.

I work in the West Virginia Dialect Project lab during the week with Dr. Kirk Hazen, and was in the lab right before I was to present my poster.  Kirk decided that the labbies needed a "field trip" as he called it, so we all went to observe the posters.  I was able to practice my explanations about the poster with people, and this proved to be incredibly helpful later.

I enjoyed being able to see everyone else's work from the semester.  I was even able to see how diverse being a professional writer is...it is more than just writing up a press release or working as a type of paralegal.  Professional writers can do so much for organizations!  I look forward to working as a professional writer in a business or freelance.

Dr. Brady came by to discuss my project with me, and she asked me what the most significant item was that I learned from my experience.  My answer?  That freelance writing is stressful, time-consuming, frustrating, but so incredibly rewarding!  It might sound cliche, but I enjoyed every moment of the freelance aspect of my internship (yes, some moments were not pleasant at the time, but in retrospect provided great examples of what I can do to better my work and public relations).

I think that working for the M. T. Pockets Theatre increased the kinds of genres in which I was comfortable writing.  I had never worked with press releases before the semester began, and I was able to see a significant improvement in my writing.  I'm incredibly grateful for the experience this internship offered.  Working for a community theatre is, I'm sure, very different from working for a theatre where the actors' only job is to act.  In the community theatre, each person has a job outside of the theatre--even though this could get in the way of the show, the show was always performed well.  I think the same can be said for press releases because, this semester at least, I was working two other jobs and going to school full time.  I couldn't let my other projects get in the way of my writing for the theatre.  The whole process proved to be a rewarding experience with which I know I would love to continue!

Reflections are helpful for more people than just me

Another aspect of the poster is the reflection.  I like being able to include this as part of the poster...I remember the days of high school projects when the reflection was to be part of the oral experience and not the written one.  I'm quite glad I get to include it here.

The following is what I am working with now for the reflection:
I have learned and experienced so much during my semester-long internship at the M. T. Pockets Community Theatre.  Each press release and article allowed me to practice concise wording and summarizing, as well as work with new topics.  Through the freewriting exercises I did, I was able to formulate how to write an article in the most efficient way while not bogging it down with useless information. While waiting for a reply from a director, I would practice my style, focusing on being concise and consistent.  I had to continually work on my length, tone, and content when corresponding with directors in order to get pertinent answers to my questions. This was the most frustrating part of my job because I struggled with getting to the point.  The most valuable item I learned during my internship is that deadlines are vital and I must abide by them.  My internship opened my eyes to the world of freelance writing, and, though it can be stressful and irritating at times, I find it rewarding and full of possibilities.

I'd like to use some visual aids for this part...I think that it's a bit too much for the reader to take in when it's still in paragraph form.  I might try the same thing I did with the responsibilities/activities part, i.e. underlining, bolding, italicizing the most important aspects.  

Fun and now back to writing!

What press release should I use!?

This has proven to be a difficult decision because I've written several during the course of my internship.  I don't particularly want to have the Dirty Spelling Bee article on there...it was so difficult to write, mainly because the topic was one I'd never had to write about.  The Spelling Bee was a fundraiser for the theatre where adults (18+) were allowed to spell "dirty" words.  It was difficult, but I think it turned out to be my best release because I had to be so careful with it.  I've already decided to have a notebook with most of my work in it with my project so that there is more to the poster than just the 2D things.  

I'd like to use the Romeo & Juliet article because I think that, even though it was my first one, it was one of the best examples of my explaining ability.  I had to condense a largely-known text into a press release without giving away the ending that everyone already knows!  To say it was difficult doesn't really cut it...

I think that, because I had to work with a well-known item, Romeo & Juliet would be a good representation of the type of work a professional writer will have to do.  There are always writings coming out with a synopsis of a well-known item that never cease to impress me by the way the writer handled the text from which they worked. 

I would like the whole article to be on the board, but I don't want to overwhelm the reader/viewer.  I think I'll highlight one part of the article so that the eye immediately turns there...the one part would most likely be the synopsis of the work.  

I know that having a notebook full of my work will demonstrate that I did more than simply write a 350 word article every other week.  

Responsibilities and Writing!

The responsibilities section for the poster I think will be the easiest to explain.  I have an idea of what I want to put down based on some of the posters we were shown in class.

The following I think works for now:
My responsibilities as the professional writer for the theatre included 

· Researching shows and actors
· Contacting & Interviewing directors, actors, and playwrights
· Writing a press release for each show
· Developing new ideas for writing press releases
· Creating articles about fundraisers
· Providing my supervisor with information regarding my projects
· Meeting the deadline

My number one priority was to get the news of an upcoming show to the public. This included supplying them with the correct information, as well as a brief synopsis of what show they would see.

I want the list to be bulleted so that the viewer can easily glean the information from the section without having to read every word.  I might use underlining and bolding to get the point across better.

Descriptions are helpful little things...

How does one go about concisely explaining a theatre?  And a community theatre at that...

This has proven to be a major source of ire through the poster because the theatre is such a vast thing!  I'd like to incorporate aspects of the theatre's website explanation in mine because it used vocab that I was not familiar with before this semester.

I'd like to start by saying where the theatre is located because I have not met anyone who knows about it or about the Mon Arts Center.  I'd also like to explain the community aspect of the theatre for the viewer.  I keep reminding myself that the poster will be on display hours before I am actually there explaining it.  Because of this, I need to have all the information for the poster on the poster and not in my head.  For those students who pop-in during the day to see the exhibition, I want to show them each aspect.

Here is a current sample of what I have for the description of the organization:

The M. T. Pockets Theatre Company is located in the Monongalia Arts Center (MAC) on High Street. This community theatre strives to improve the arts in and around the Morgantown area by performing works that promote women and minorities, and by providing aspiring playwrights and directors with a venue to showcase their works.

I think this works as a stand-in description because it highlights aspects of the theatre that the general public won't know without consulting the theatre website reflection and such.  I'll keep working on it, though!

Rhetoricalness is importanness...

One of the components for the poster is the rhetorical decision aspect.

For the press releases, I have a very rigid set of rules that I have to abide by in order to write one correctly.  By "correctly" I mean in a way so that my supervisor doesn't have to rewrite them.  I have not yet run into a situation where this occurred, but it almost happened with my first release because it was almost 50 words over the maximum required.  Oh, the joys!  My supervisor had one legacy document that I could check my work by, and this one was three years old.  I asked several questions about whether or not the release could be more than that and such, but I never received a straight answer regarding it.  I was able to piece together information from the legacy release so that I could write mine.  The following are the rules that I realized pertained to each press release:

· Write no more than 350 words

· Include only the necessary information (when, where, cost, plot)

· Ensure that formatting is standard and font is TNR size 12 pt.

· Use clear spelling with no complex phrases or clichés

· Do NOT give away the ending

· Leave enough room for an entire cast list

· Insert comments if there is anything needing to be added by the supervisor, like the last name of an actor

· Meet the deadline

I would like to place these in a central location on the poster board so that the viewer can easily see that these applied to everything I wrote for the theatre.  

From my understanding, these would be the "rhetorical decisions" part of the poster because I had to keep them in mind and not blatantly express them in my writing.  

Planning the Poster

One of the main reasons I was incredibly excited for this semester was because I'd get to put together a poster about my internship experience.  I think that the posters are an excellent way to explain the semester-long process because it forces the students to concisely explain their work to an audience that both understands the writing process and the work required by a professional writer in an organization.  I look forward to being critiqued by my peers and the Masters students because both groups know what being a professional writer takes.  I think that the whole process works well to help the students with their explanations.

For my poster, I want to show the side of the theatre in which I worked.  I was not in an office environment as many of my peers were, but rather I worked freelance from my residence.  Living in a dorm, I soon realized, is not very conducive to writing press releases (or much else, for that matter).  I would like to walk the viewer through my writing process so that he/she can better understand what I did and how.

I greatly appreciate the fact that the syllabus clearly explains the various parts of the poster.  By looking through the syllabus I was able to make a checklist of everything I needed to meet the requirements.

The requirements are as follows:  Title, Brief description of the organization, Brief description of your internship experience where you interned, 2-3 professional writing documents that illustrate your internship experience, Your analysis of each document, Visuals.

I think that each component is vital to the success of the poster because each aspect builds off the previous and helps to connect the dots for the viewer.  I think the hardest part for me will be coming up with a clever title!  Current ideas:  Seven Days 'til Tuesday (which would confuse the viewer because the presentation is on a Thursday...), Six Days 'til Curtain Time (eh...doesn't sound too professional...), Six Days 'til Showtime!!! (I like this one the best because it incorporates the jargon of the theatre into the poster immediately...it also brings to mind the idea that the deadline is incredibly important.)

I'll keep working on each component of the poster...I love putting together posters and haven't had the chance to do so since high school.  Yay posters!