"Good Money and Good Causes"

Karina Stokes' article advising beginning grant writers is of particular interest to me, as a career possibility I have been considering seriously lately.  Stokes segments the article into basic strategies for writing and effective grant proposal, but the bulk of her writing involves rhetorical techniques to persuade the funding agency that this particular cause is worthwhile.  She identifies the ultimate persuasive strategy as the ability to explain why the problem is meaningful to the funding agency, including "why this problem must be solved, who will benefit from a solution, and what will happen if the problem is allowed to persist."  I appreciated Stokes explicitly stating the skills necessary in a successful grant writer: creative thinking, critical reading, and strategic analysis.  Stokes also concedes that grant writing cannot rely entirely on the rhetorical skill of the writer, but the proposed plan itself "must be realistic, and the methods must be practical."

According to Stokes, presentation can be a huge influence on decisions about which proposal to fund.  She emphasizes conforming to deadlines and formal requirements and provides examples of situations where perfectly valid proposals have been rejected because of the writers' failure to adhere to directions stated in the requests for proposals.  Stokes also highlights the necessity of justifying costs explicitly as part of establishing credibility and convincing funding organizations to grant large sums of money to organizations they know nothing of besides information provided in the proposal.  I hadn't thought of the collaborative nature of grant writing, but Stokes clarifies the multiple individuals working on a given proposal and the necessity of communication among all involved in order to compose a coherent and complete grant proposal.

Most of all, I was pleased to read of the rewarding nature of grant writing.  Stokes explains that by following her suggestions for successful grant writing, one can actually make a living in this profession.  But even more importantly, she affirms the humanistic reward of knowing that you have played a part in improving the lives of others.

The Freshest Professional Writer Yet

Lauren Foster is not just your typical twenty-something.  A trim, stylish Pacific Northwester, Lauren is in her first year out of college and already a published professional writer.  With the recent ongoing economic crisis and the financial burden of a private liberal arts degree that includes few “job skills,” Lauren agrees that her situation is remarkable, to say the least.

As Staff Writer for Premier Media Group, which publishes two local bimonthly magazines, Lauren contributes to both 425 and South Sound magazines.  It is not until nearly halfway through our interview, however, that Lauren reveals that she is one of three members of PMG’s editorial staff –the other two being the Lisa Patterson, Editor In Chief and Ethan Chung, Assistant Editor (PMG also employs a handful of freelance writers for feature stories in both magazines).  Lauren admits that this small arrangement is unusual for such a demanding output, but it also means that even as a green member of the PMG staff, Lauren’s voice counts.

But how did she, as they say, ‘land such a sweet deal?’  Lauren is an encouraging real-life example of the results of networking and building professional relationships.  The path to her current position began with the Writing Internship course offered at the University of Puget Sound last spring, Lauren’s final semester of college.  Through the course, Lauren obtained an internship with Jeff Burlingame—a local writer of nonfiction for young adults—conducting research and interviews as well as editing for his current work in progress, Lost Boys of Sudan.  At the end of this internship, Burlingame recommended Lauren to apply for another writing internship with Premier Media Group, where his wife works as Editor In Chief.  Over the summer, Lauren worked as an Editorial Intern for PMG, blogging, writing blurbs for both 425 and South Sound magazines, as well as writing a story with another intern, published later in the summer. 

Lauren shared an insightful anecdote with me about how the internship turned into a fulltime position:  Lisa Patterson, Editor in Chief for PMG celebrated her birthday during Lauren’s internship with an office potluck and Lauren baked cupcakes to share with the company for the occasion.  Lauren elaborated that she loves to bake and this seemed a very natural action to her, as even a temporary member of staff.  Later, when Lisa spoke with the publisher about hiring a new staff writer, he immediately asked if she was considering Lauren, citing the cupcakes as evidence that she fits in well with the company.  Lauren concluded the story with the maxim, “part of being good at your job is working with the people you work with.”

But Lauren is quick to clarify that she did not arrive at this point in her career so quickly because of some fluke of luck and timing.  Although she doesn’t admit it outright, Lauren is an incredibly driven young woman, gregarious and enterprising.  Of course, her experience writing for both her high school and college newspapers hasn’t hurt.  Lauren asserts that her experience and published writing samples have been the most effective aspects of her resume.  At a recent convention for professional journalists, a seasoned writer informed Lauren on no uncertain terms that in order to succeed in this field, experience and publication are far more advantageous than a Masters in Journalism.

Despite her experience with journalistic writing, Lauren has found plenty of challenges in transitioning to writing professionally.  In fact, she has worked incredibly hard over the last several months, as her responsibilities and recognition have increased.  In adapting to this particular media, Lauren has learned the specific voice of each magazine and adjusted her writing style to fit each.  She explains that within each issue there are additional nuances of style, from the brief informational blurbs in the “Finds” section in South Sound to the feature articles she imbues with more of her personal voice in conjunction with the voice of the magazine.

Another feat the recent college graduate faces as a Staff Writer is the responsibility of writing professionally itself.  Although she took writing as a student seriously, Lauren explains, “It’s different when you’re writing for [publication] than when your writing only affects you and the professor.”  In the professional setting, Lauren continues, a longer chain of individuals is affected by her writing.  If Lauren makes typo, for example (which she openly admits to be one of her faults as an academic writer, just as many of us also fail to reread our works thoroughly), multiple editors have to take the time to fix the error and return it to her before it can be passed on to publication and shared with the world of readers.  Lauren has found an amusing solution to this problem, however, using what she calls a “creepy man voice” application on her computer, which reads her articles aloud to her so that she can locate those errors before passing them on to her superiors.   Odd though it may be, Lauren asserts that this tool has become invaluable in timesaving for her as well as her editors.

Lauren is finding even more applications of the writing skills she developed in academia to her new position in the working world.  With a fresh Bachelor of Arts in English, Lauren is thrilled with the extent to which she uses her unusual emphasis in Writing, Rhetoric, and Culture in her daily professional life.  This specialization offered by the University of Puget Sound offers a degree emphasis studying the ways in which various types of writing respond to and shape rhetorical and cultural contexts—an interdisciplinary approach to the study of writing that has equipped Lauren with critical thinking skills actually applicable to the professional world.  Lauren explained that the Premier Media Group interviewers emphasized that in order to succeed in writing for them, she would need to visualize her articles—a WRC skill Lauren “didn’t necessarily think I would use and [now] I use on a daily basis.”

 “I think our generation has a sophisticated eye for visual and text,” she continues, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the PMG editorial and design staff, and the intellectual tools she developed in WRC courses as essential to work on both magazines.  Working on a magazine editorial staff is as much about understanding visual rhetoric as it is about researching and writing the articles themselves, Lauren explains.  This modern way of thinking about rhetoric in the world of journalism extends to the prevalence of technology in Lauren’s work.  She mentions blogging and tweeting as facets of both her internship and permanent position with PMG, as well as contributing to the upkeep of the websites for both South Sound and 425 magazines, recognizing the niche available to a young generation of writers participating in the sphere of professional journalism.

Lauren fully acknowledges the challenge of locating that niche for young members of the working world.  She considers herself lucky to have found herself in a job for which she is both skilled and passionate.  Lauren lives with two close friends from college who work for Target and Boeing corporations, and she identifies a distinct difference in the attitudes they adopt regarding their current professions.  When her friends physically leave work for the day, they also check out mentally, compartmentalizing so that work life does not interfere with their personal lives.  Lauren, however, cannot seem to stop thinking about work-related issues.  Rather than expressing frustration at the constant presence of her professional life, Lauren’s eyes light up and she leans a little closer as she explains how she cannot help but jot down ideas when story ideas strike, or when a new resource occurs to her.  “When you’re a writer,” Lauren notes,” you never really stop thinking about it.”

However demanding her work may be, Lauren seems not to care.  “It’s kind of amazing,” Lauren admits, that the pieces have come together so successfully this early in her professional life.  The combination of her experience both from writing for educational newspapers as and from internship opportunities as well as her specialized skill set have truly catapulted her into a professional writing career staggeringly early in life.  When I asked Lauren if she had any future career plans, she just laughed at her inability to even fathom what might come next. Too thrilled with her current work with Premier Media Group to consider what could be greater in life than doing what she loves, Lauren exclaims, “My life is just blowing my mind right now!”

"For Hire: Fine Art Appraiser"

Cate Lineberry's Smithsonian article about Nan Chrisholm's career is interesting enough, but weakly formulated.  The finished product is, for all intents and purposes, a transcript of their interview.  The article reads very much like an interview with a celebrity in a style magazine of some sort--connoting a lack of substance and also lacking in the interviewer's personal interpretation.  Chrisholm's responses to the questions are thorough and informative but the article really suffers for the absence of the writer.  Although I didn't appreciate the article from a format-reader's perspective, as a fellow business writer I picked up some tips on the types of questions I should be asking in my profile interview.

I'm not sure what's going on with the title of this article.  It seems rather disconnected to the actual content of the article.  It almost feels like the title is trying to imitate a personal advertisement for Chisholm, but if so, the joke falls flat.  Again, more presence of the writer's perspective would have provided the opportunity to connect the title more closely to the content.

"Profile Article of Delancey Street's Director, Dr. Mimi Silbert"

Halle Stockton's profile of Dr. Silbert and her work at Delancey Street is quite admirable.  Stockton's heavy use of quotes indicates that she was very thorough in her research as she was able to quote multiple subjects.  I found it interesting, however, that she never actually quotes Dr. Silbert herself.  While the article is fascinating and Silbert is portrayed as an incredibly dynamic individual, I almost feel like Stockton did not actually talk to the Director at all--and I imagine that it would be rather difficult to write a profile article on someone one had never met.  Stockton vaguely follows Brow's formula for writing a business profile article in structuring the article mainly around the individual within the workspace but including bits of her personal history to create a rounded understanding of Dr. Silbert.  However, I think the blatant absence of direct quotations from Silbert weakens Stockton's article significantly enough that the praise of the other members of Delancey Street cannot compensate.

"A Formula for Writing the Business Profile Article"

Gerald Grow's highly prescriptive article on the format of a business profile article will be incredibly helpful later this week, when I tackle the raw material of my personal interview.  Having perused the different requirements according to Grow's article, I now how a strong sense of what content to look for in my interview.  Grow's emphasis on paying attention during the interview for a potential closing quote was particularly helpful.  Additionally, I found Grow's breakdown of the article structure very helpful in terms of pacing and the expectations of business readers.  The 'Personal History Loop' and 'Subject in a Home Environment' caused me a little trouble in terms of their appropriateness within the article--I reconciled the personal history with the relative proportion to the 'Subject in a Business Environment' section, but the home-life section seems a bit overly ambitious for the type of article we are preparing for class.

"How to Conduct an Interview"

The article describing how to conduct an interview is helpful, if a bit overly prescriptive.  I found it a little unnecessary to require that the interviewer bring two pencils and a stenographer's notebook or legal pad.  Many of the preparatory recommendations seemed common-sense to me, but I suppose the writer is assuming the reader has never conducted an interview before, so it is necessary to be thorough.  I did appreciate the arrangement of the article--specifically the distinctions between the four stages that precede writing.  Additionally, the separation between arrangements and preparation is useful in illuminating the different steps required in before conducting an interview.  I found the suggestions for reconstruction were most helpful to me, since they gave specific tips about how to process the interview (as) immediately (as possible) and make sense of notes in order to utilize them best in the actual writing process.

"An Alphabet that Thinks"

Richard A. Lanham's discussion of electronic text in The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information begins effectively enough, illuminating the gap between the ability of the new media to "make complex arguments easier and quicker to understand" and the limited extent to which textual expression in the digital realm has been realized (130).  However, the critical flaw in Lanham's argument is his failure to define "an alphabet that thinks," the term around which he shapes his argument (130).  While his commentary on the talismanic properties of physical books versus the non-visually informative electronic books is interesting, it lacks insight because of his unclear framing thesis.  Furthermore, Lanham describes a series of barriers to the progress and innovation of electronic text but fails to engage readers in the import of the technology itself.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

Nicholas Carr's substantial article in The Atlantic ironically addresses the difficulty readers face in tackling and processing lengthy text either in print or online.  Actually, I switched over to Carr's article after a few pages of our other assigned reading for this week's class for that very same reason: I, too, have been struggling lately to focus my attention long enough to consume lengthy texts with any sort of intellectual depth.  My challenges may be slightly more complex than Carr's and those anecdotal examples he uses.  For instance, Carr mentions the convenience of the internet as a factor in changing the way he thinks over the last decade or so.  As a member of a generation thirty years younger than Carr, I have experienced the influence of the internet in nearly all of my academic research and writing--perhaps this influence has been even more potent on my impressionable intellect?  Certainly I have grown up among the generations who take the internet for granted.  And as a result I have encountered the challenge of vacillating between printed text and the pervasive resource of the web--the latter of which undoubtably caters to the short attention span of today's American youth (or perhaps it reflects its needs?).  Moreover, having recently spent a semester on a study abroad program that was much more like taking a semester off and living in a metropolitan city while reading some novels and going to the theatre--in addition to a semi-relaxing summer at home with very little responsibility--I have found this fall's return to academia painfully challenging.

While I value Carr's exploration of Nietzsche's experience switching over to a writing via typewriting--I share the notion that writing through type is a wholly different experience from handwriting text--and each method produces a distinct writing style--I criticize his inability to comment on what to do with these changes in ways of thinking.  After battling through that lengthy web article, the least Carr could do is offer readers some tips on extracting information from dense texts!


http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/