Publicity

From the moment you can speak, people are asking you what you want to do with your life.  For most, the answer changes more often than the seasons.  Between graduating from high school and beginning my second year of college, my thoughts and ideas about future careers have changed countless times--from personal shopper to foreign ambassador.

Being in the World of Work class, I have had to spend time thinking about what I truly enjoy doing and what is a feasible path for me to pursue.  Advocacy is the one career path the particularly stands out to me.  In the field of advocacy work, whether I am in a political or humanitarian advocacy group, publicity is a necessary part of the job. Advocacy groups are always working to spread their influence.  Working in publicity with these groups appeals to me because their causes not only benefit those they directly help, but also the greater community.

Fall Break and Motivation

I was able to go home for the first time since I moved in this Fall Break.  This might not seem to be an extraordinary feat.  But when you are from a small city in the mountains and daily get to cuddle with your dog (who is your best friend of course), it can be tough.  Especially when living four hours away in close quarters with other people who have somewhat hypocritical views of cleaning the room.  All of that aside, fall break was refreshing.  I was lucky to not have much work and few commitments.  Being able to lay on the couch with my dog while watching T.V. with my parents--River Monsters is so much better with them--was the best part of the whole thing.  Yes, homemade food, shopping, and seeing friends were great but the simple act of being at home and with my family allowed me to re-energize for the last bit of the semester.

Returning from break, it can be hard to stay motivated.  After such a restful break, however, I feel much better about handling my workload.  One thing that will keep me motivated is that I will be going home two more times before the end of the semester.  Breaking up the time into manageable two or three week chunks will make the time pass more quickly and easily.

Contract Improvement

Not being a morning person, it is challenging for me to be positive some mornings.  I can normally do a decent job of it, but I know that is something I can improve upon.  Also, I occasionally get behind in my blog posts.  Sometimes  I do not finish them all on the day they are assigned and I know that doing so would help me be able to contribute to class better.

I do not have much to ask Professor Goddu to improve on.  I wish we had had more time to review APA formatting.  Also, clarity on how to find feedback for your assignments would have been nice.

Bits and Pieces

What of Zinnser's Bits and Pieces chapter really stood out to you? What might you apply from this chapter in your own writing?

The importance of active verbs stood out to me from this section.  I often fall prey to passivity in my writing, causing all of my sentences to sound similar and have redundant style.  Zinnser encouraged the use of action verbs that carry meaning (eliminating unnecessary adverbs and adjectives).  This can be applied to my own writing very simply.  When writing academic papers, the passive voice becomes my first choice out of habit.  Using active verbs in those setting will make for more interesting writing.

The focus on eliminating unnecessary adverbs, adjectives, and qualifiers also stood out.  I feel the need to qualify my writing and explanations to clarify my writing.  I have become aware that that practice can bog down my writing.

Use of Writing Professionally

Writing is an inevitable part of life.  In the professional setting, e-mails, reports, and memos circulate on a daily basis.  In the future, I hope to be an event planner.  Clear communication is crucial in this field as you are coordinating with several vendors with another person's checkbook.  E-mails, memos, and promotional material will be some of the ways writing would be required.  E-mails and memos would be used to communicate with clients, vendors, and other staff members.  Promotional materials would be used to advertise or invite people to events.  In either situation, there is a definite necessity for clarity.

In these forms of communication, I will have to work on only providing the essential information.  I occasionally give too much information in fear that something important might be forgotten.  Better editing and planning can help me avoid this problem.

Writing Pet Peeve(s)

Picking one grammar or writing pet peeve is next to impossible.  Because once you have picked one, another one appears and infuriates you just as much.  But as with most things, there is a top-three list.

• Your/You're; Their/there/they're

No.  Do not do this.  There is no reason for this.  This mistake is common due to the fact that all of the words sound the same.  But do not be fooled.  They are all very different words that can completely different words that when confused, can make you seem foolish. One way to avoid the confusion is to avoid using contractions.  "You are" and "they are" can then be removed from the pool of possibilities.  Continually making this error can become an impediment to communication as others read your writing (be it an email, paper, or Facebook status) and judge your work.

• Unnecessary Ellipses...

This just does not need to happen.  Only use an ellipses when abbreviating a quote or indicating trailing off speech.  Meaning prose and quotations are the appropriate places for ellipses.  Not the Subject line of your email.  Why do you need to say "This Week's Meeting..."?  Is there something more or ominous about this meeting I should know?

• Contradicting Yourself

Just do not, please.  You write your own work and you should not contradict yourself.  These are your words and your arguments which makes this mistake particularly foolish.

Why Plagiarism?

As academia has grown over the years, so have the reported incidents of plagiarism.  Numerous learning institutions are seeing these rising numbers and are wondering why and what they can do to change that.

Most students today will unashamedly say they are procrastinators.  It becomes a competition among friends to see who can procrastinate the most and get the best grade.  Some joke about getting a degree in procrastination.  These jokes can all be funny and are often not harmful. However, there is a correlation between the fine art of putting things off until tomorrow and academic dishonesty.
When you have given yourself only five hours before a deadline for a paper to begin, you may feel slightly pressured but optimistic.  As those five hours dwindle down, you begin to remember just how much work it takes to really write a good and thorough paper.  Surely, your professor won't notice a cut and paste here or there, right?  With minutes to spare, you submit your paper.  The use of even just these few sections (be they phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or entire papers) is plagiarism--an offense often punishable with the harshest repercussions.

It is easy to see procrastination give way to plagiarism.  Another common cause of plagiarism is simply being uninformed of unaware of how to properly cite a source.  This form of plagiarism is often regarded as unintentional.  However, just as with procrastination, it is preventable.  There are numerous books and websites that can clarify the process to prevent accidental plagiarism.  When in doubt, always cite.

Professors and educators making a point of addressing plagiarism and enforcing strict repercussions is an important part to curbing the widespread nature of plagiarism today.  However, it is equally important to not abuse that power and to take full advantage of the learning opportunities in those situations.

Favorite Word

Every now and then, a link will pop up in your newsfeed or on a website listing interesting articles and facts.   It will say something like "Words that Cannot be Translated."  I can never stop myself from clicking on these links and soaking up the foreign words that I will likely never use.  My favorite word was found in one of these articles.

Hyggelig.  The  Danish word is best described as a feeling.  It connotes coziness and homeyness.  Relaxing with friends; a genial feeling.  Think warm blankets and good company.

This word to me encapsulates what I love to feel most and how I want others to feel.  Comfort and belonging are important to me and I always hope to positively impart those feelings to others.  The basic meaning of the word and the way it sounds makes me feel warmth inside.  The fact that there is a word to encapsulates these feelings is amazing and inspiring.