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Revise, revise, revise. You can do it til you go insane. And that definitely happens. As future professional writers and editors, revising is arguably the most important work we do. Our finished pieces have to be polished and ready. Like Stephanie said, it is important that you understand the audience of your portfolio, and understand that they may not be familiar with your internship. In my portfolio so far, I’ve been using the sandwich method – explain the example, show example, explain again. It gets a little redundant for me to write when creating the portfolio, but I think it will end up being best for the reader. Hopefully, they will never have had to hear of WVU and they don’t need to know anything about the admissions process or college in general.
I was trying my very best to make my portfolio translate from the “college project” to a professional resume-supplementer. I really was. But I’m having issues with this. I wanted to show my main project in its completed, published stage. Time will not allow for that. I’ll simply have to put the content that I wrote for it in its raw form, which is disappointing to me. I’ll have to continue to revise later and add that if I want this to not look so much like a college assignment.
One of the readings discussed copyright information. This has always been really confusing to me, and it mostly just makes me angry about how picky people are. But I guess maybe when I do something worth copying, I’d be angry if someone took it from me, too. Now more than ever as we enter the workforce, it is important that we are aware of these laws. In this profession, ignorance is no excuse.
Portfolio design and coming up with an overarching theme is really important, and (for me anyway) it’s one of the hardest things to do. I’ve been working on my portfolio all semester, thinking that that would be the easiest way to go about things. That way I could just upload content and organize it as I go. Well, it’s an okay idea, but I’ve changed my mind about how I want to present my work about 10 times. Because I’m working as I go along, that means I’ve had to reorganize things about 10 times. I think, though, I’ve finally come up with a way to present my portfolio that I’m happy with. My homepage is pretty much a letter explaining my internship and the type of work I did, and what to expect from the portfolio. This is as the authors of PTPC said to do; start with the general and then narrown down to the specific. I’m having different pages for each of the types of work I’m creating (i.e. one page for emails, one for letters, etc.). I’m then introducing each work and showing either a snapshot sample or the whole thing; I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to upload longer works, probably just put a link to them in PDF format?
So I guess I’m going from general to specific, and having different cattegories for everything. It’s seeming to work out best for me. But I know some people have been working on things that they can’t necessarily cattegorize like that, so I’ll be interested to see what everyone else comes up with!
It seems most of us like the idea of online portfolios. I think it is a great idea, and it is one that I had never thought of before this class. I think WordPress is a great site for a project such as this. It is easy to use and can do a lot of things, like the plugins. And really, you can figure out how to use it on your own. The book of WordPress that we have for this class is helpful, but all the basics of WordPress seem pretty self-explanatory to me. And they should be to anyone who has used any type of blog site before.
As someone mentioned earlier, it is awesome for having a writing sample that you might need for an interview. Our online portfolios will be more comprehensive than anything that we might be able to print out and actually bring to the interview. Do you think, though, that giving an employer the link to your online portfolio is good or will they see it as weird or being unprepared I can imagine people would react in many different ways.
This week’s readings were all about creating your online portfolio, and then how to execute it. Having a web presence in today’s world is very important. All it takes is one Google search from future employers fr them to decide whether or not to hire you. It’s much better for the employer to find your professional portfolio over those pictures your friend tagged you in from last weekend…
As is says in W24T, the theme you choose is really the backbone of your WordPress site. Although it’s nie to have a pretty site, the author really emphasizes functionality over design. This is basic editing practice. Don’t be afraid of white space. It is better to have a simple but functional design over an ornae and confusing one. People have come to expect certain customs from websites, and it is important to follow those customs. Having a simpler theme will help your site to look more professional as well.
You can customize your WordPress theme after you pick one to add widgets, plugins, change the colors, font size, and pretty much everything you would ever want to. The book points out, though, that your customizations to your theme are lost if you ever change themes. So you don’t lose time later, it is important that you get your theme right the first time, or atleast get it right before you make any major customizations.
Plugins are a really cool feature. They are extensions of WordPress, which allows for greater customization. You can have plugins for almost everything you could ever want on your WordPress site. You can have Facebook plugins, Twitter plugins, photo plugins, and contact forum plugins just to name a few. This discussion forum is a plugin. Plugins are really cool and all, but I’m not sure what kind I’m going to use on my portfolio site for this class. Maybe a contact forum would be good, s that potential employers could easily get ahold of you. Of course, this works with just putting your email on the site. What kinds of plugins do you guys think you will use?
I think performance reviwes are more necessary for out internships than we think. Certainly they are more important than I think Celeste implied in her post. It’s true that most of us are not interning for our dream job, but they all atleast relate to the field we want to go into. These internships get your foot in the door and help us establish professional contacts. The better we do in these internships, not only the better grade we will get in this class, but the more likely we will be able to use this experience as a key part of our future resumes. Even in a smaller scale, this semester’s internship might just lead to a summer job or a referral to another office or organization for a similar or better job. Even now, as we are students, we are beginning to climb the corporate ladder. These performance reviews discussed in this week’s readings are essential now and for the rest of our working lives.
I like the idea from the Zimmerman article about first evaluating yourself. I believe that the best employees are always their own biggest critics. If you’re being honest with yourself, in a normal situation, you shouldn’t be surprised by whatever review you get from your boss. I think the information in this article was really helpful. It gave some good advice on how to interact with your boss and how to react to feedback.
I thought the Katz artile was interesting in the case of “Darlene.” Yes, she had the right background for the job, but I like that what set her apart from the others (and why she got promoted ahead of schedule) was her expertise as a writer. I feel like writing is an essential skill that people often overlook. People look down on English majors because (supposedly) everyone can read and write, so why study it? Well, the truth is, that not everyone can. Writers are essential to the work force, and it is a very valuable skill to have. I like that Katz took the time to actually conduct a study regarding this.
The Varhol article was similar to the Zimmerman one in the respect that you really have to evaluate yourself. From what I understand, the performance review is more of an experience that you are a part of, not just some unfortunate event that happens to you. The Messmer article went along with this same concept. The performance review is really more like your resume all over again. You make a list of your personal and professional accomplishments within the company, and then basically remind your boss of them.
So far in my internship, I haven’t really experienced any major stressors or seemingly unfair situations like the girl does in the Stitts article. I have been fortuante, so far, to have a very understanding and nice supervisor. As the intern, I do a little bit of everything. Although they know that my main purpose of being there is to do PWE-type work, I am often asked to do very mondane, every day tasks such as sorting mail or putting together packets of information for prospective WVU students. These everyday things are things that the secretaries do, so it kind of makes me feel like I’m not needed. I grin and bear it, though, and it should get better because they are hiring a student worker to do that sort of thing soon. Yay!
I can relate to the Potts piece. I enjoyed reading it and thought is was funny. On week two of my internship I got my very own cubicle. I didn’t realize it until Potts said something in the article about the “padded walls” of a cubilce, but it is somwehat reminiscent of a psycho ward. Although she didn’t go any further with this, I can only hope that’s what she was alluding to.
As with anything in the real world, it is very important to have a positive attitude and keep your emotions in check. I feel that I have done this well so far, but that’s mainly due to the good office environment I am in. If I were to have any unprofessional situations happen to me, like the girl in the Stitts article, I would be really upset and can only hope that I could handle my emotions with class.
In all reality, Sara should have not kept her back turned to someone who was talking to her. If I were her superior, I might have been offended. That’s just rude and very unacceptable for someone (especially someone, like an intern, who is on the bottom of the totem pole) to do.
In the day-to-day workings of the office, I feel it’s best to live by Ron Burgundy’s example and “stay classy.”
