Thank you for a wonderful class experience. Here is my web portfolio:
http://sites.google.com/site/theeportfolioofdenitajones/
It was a period.
16 years ago
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The End is Approaching...
It seems to be that time in the semester when stress starts affecting me, and my progress. I'm not sure if I work well under pressure or not. I don't think I have ever received any feedback about it either way. I just know that I end up getting less sleep and my body's reaction isn't the best. I am a little concerned about this, considering I don't know what path my Professional Writing and Editing concentration will take me down. It could be that I deal with this type of pressure and stress everyday in my career, I don't know.
Anyway, I feel like I'm not necessarily behind in my work right now, but I'm sitting on that fence. I have started a few drafts of the letters I plan to send to congressman, but I was really hoping to get them sent before this legislation session ended. Unfortunately, I don't feel as if I will have time to committ to that goal. Plus, I'm pretty sure the bills I researched and drafted the letters about were already voted on. I'm not sure. It is frustrating, thinking that I could have had a part in those decisions, had I been a little more on top of my game. So I figure there will be more research and drafting in my near future. Add to that the projects for this class and the end of the semester assignments for the rest of my classes and you have the typical stressed out college student. I'm pretty sure most of you can identify with this situation.
Well, I will continue to work on my time management skills and try to accomplish the rest of the goals I have for this semester. Good Luck!
Anyway, I feel like I'm not necessarily behind in my work right now, but I'm sitting on that fence. I have started a few drafts of the letters I plan to send to congressman, but I was really hoping to get them sent before this legislation session ended. Unfortunately, I don't feel as if I will have time to committ to that goal. Plus, I'm pretty sure the bills I researched and drafted the letters about were already voted on. I'm not sure. It is frustrating, thinking that I could have had a part in those decisions, had I been a little more on top of my game. So I figure there will be more research and drafting in my near future. Add to that the projects for this class and the end of the semester assignments for the rest of my classes and you have the typical stressed out college student. I'm pretty sure most of you can identify with this situation.
Well, I will continue to work on my time management skills and try to accomplish the rest of the goals I have for this semester. Good Luck!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Web Portfolio Plan
The following is a plan for my web portfolio. It is modeled after the example on pages 60-61 of The Web Protfolio Guide. I would greatly appreciate any kind of feedback, as I feel like this will be an ongoing process from now until the end of the semester. Thank you in advance for your suggestions and or comments.
Purposes:
The main purpose of my web portfolio is to present the projects I completed in my internship to my internship director for evaluation. Secondly, I'd like to present my professional skills aquired from both my classes and my internship experience with examples to illustrate those skills. I would like to be able to use this in the future as a resource for future employers. I am considering providing both my progress as well as some of my best works.
Audiences:
My main audience will be my internship director who will be evaluating the progress I've made in my internship. He deignated criteria that I will follow such as 20 pages of polished work, contextual statements that describe my thinking and writing process, and other documents that display my growth as a professional writer and intern. I am assuming he will be looking mostly to the contextual statements for information regarding my progress and intentions for specific documents. He will be evaluating different parts of the portfolio as well as how they work together.
I also plan to use my portfolio for professional purposes, so it could possibly be viewed by potential employers. They will generally be viewing the portfolio as a whole and will be mainly concentrating on the finished documents and the skills I demonstrate within each. They will also be looking at the contextual statements to see what career skills I have aquired through my classes at WVU and my experince with my internship.
It will also be viewed by my fellow intern peers and classmates.
Look and Feel:
I really want to have a professional look while showing my creativity with visual design. I was thinking about going with different shades of green background with a contrasting white text, or maybe just light shades of green for the background and a darker green for the text. I'm still thinking about graphics. I think I might just use a single picture of me and make it cohesive throughout all pages. I really like the heading that Chris Bell from MSU used with his head shot and name. It was really creative. I also really like the links on the horizontal plane. That look seems to be very clean.
Page Design:
Like I said before, I think I'm going to go with the top menu style because I think it looks more clean and I don't have as many pages to create links to. I think the names of my pages are going to be as follows: home, professional writing, professional editing, creative writing, and resume. I'm really not sure what size pixels I should make my page I would really like some suggestions here. I like having a frame inside the page with some "white space" surrounding the frame.
I'm also still deciding what papers I'm going to include in the portfolio. It is an on going process, but I think I'm making steps toward the final product.
Purposes:
The main purpose of my web portfolio is to present the projects I completed in my internship to my internship director for evaluation. Secondly, I'd like to present my professional skills aquired from both my classes and my internship experience with examples to illustrate those skills. I would like to be able to use this in the future as a resource for future employers. I am considering providing both my progress as well as some of my best works.
Audiences:
My main audience will be my internship director who will be evaluating the progress I've made in my internship. He deignated criteria that I will follow such as 20 pages of polished work, contextual statements that describe my thinking and writing process, and other documents that display my growth as a professional writer and intern. I am assuming he will be looking mostly to the contextual statements for information regarding my progress and intentions for specific documents. He will be evaluating different parts of the portfolio as well as how they work together.
I also plan to use my portfolio for professional purposes, so it could possibly be viewed by potential employers. They will generally be viewing the portfolio as a whole and will be mainly concentrating on the finished documents and the skills I demonstrate within each. They will also be looking at the contextual statements to see what career skills I have aquired through my classes at WVU and my experince with my internship.
It will also be viewed by my fellow intern peers and classmates.
Look and Feel:
I really want to have a professional look while showing my creativity with visual design. I was thinking about going with different shades of green background with a contrasting white text, or maybe just light shades of green for the background and a darker green for the text. I'm still thinking about graphics. I think I might just use a single picture of me and make it cohesive throughout all pages. I really like the heading that Chris Bell from MSU used with his head shot and name. It was really creative. I also really like the links on the horizontal plane. That look seems to be very clean.
Page Design:
Like I said before, I think I'm going to go with the top menu style because I think it looks more clean and I don't have as many pages to create links to. I think the names of my pages are going to be as follows: home, professional writing, professional editing, creative writing, and resume. I'm really not sure what size pixels I should make my page I would really like some suggestions here. I like having a frame inside the page with some "white space" surrounding the frame.
I'm also still deciding what papers I'm going to include in the portfolio. It is an on going process, but I think I'm making steps toward the final product.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Ongoing Projects
Now that my larger project is being milled around by the post members, I have had a chance to work on some of the smaller projects that I agreed to do. I was able to research some legislation concerning veterans and was able to start drafting letters that I plan to send to WV representatives such as Capito, Mollohan, and Rahall. I was also able to write thank you notes to send to the local businesses that were kind enough to donate to the auxiliary's Cancer Benefit.
I was also recently voted in as chariman of the legislative committee for the auxiliary for which I will be sending monthly reports of services that we participate in. The most recent project taken on by the auxiliary I am working for is researching and gathering information that would help identify Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian gravesites. This includes interviewing Vietnam War Veterans, finding photos, and information on locations of battles or burial sites. There are still over 300,000 MIAs from the Vietnam War alone.
I feel deeply about these types of projects, and as you can see it sometimes makes it hard to say no. I don't know how much information I can gather but I am going to try my best at every project they try to throw my way. I did sit down and go over a progress report that I drafted with the President of the Ladies Auxiliary. She was pleased to see how much I have accomplished so far and was able to see how much I have agreed to take on. To be honest, I feel that the communication in the organization could use a little work, because she didn't realize that I was getting projects from all sides of the field. Not only is the auxiliary expecting me to do projects for them, but the post asked me to take on some as well. Through drafting this progress report as Dr. Wible suggested, I was able to get my superiors to see just what they were asking of me on paper, which inturn gave them a perspective of how much they were expecting from me.
I was also recently voted in as chariman of the legislative committee for the auxiliary for which I will be sending monthly reports of services that we participate in. The most recent project taken on by the auxiliary I am working for is researching and gathering information that would help identify Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian gravesites. This includes interviewing Vietnam War Veterans, finding photos, and information on locations of battles or burial sites. There are still over 300,000 MIAs from the Vietnam War alone.
I feel deeply about these types of projects, and as you can see it sometimes makes it hard to say no. I don't know how much information I can gather but I am going to try my best at every project they try to throw my way. I did sit down and go over a progress report that I drafted with the President of the Ladies Auxiliary. She was pleased to see how much I have accomplished so far and was able to see how much I have agreed to take on. To be honest, I feel that the communication in the organization could use a little work, because she didn't realize that I was getting projects from all sides of the field. Not only is the auxiliary expecting me to do projects for them, but the post asked me to take on some as well. Through drafting this progress report as Dr. Wible suggested, I was able to get my superiors to see just what they were asking of me on paper, which inturn gave them a perspective of how much they were expecting from me.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Second Newsletter Proposal
On Monday, March 2nd I presented my second proposal for the VFW Post newsletter. This time, it was in front of all of the members, rather than just the House Committee. I felt a great deal better about this proposal than I did my last one. My presentation included goals that I thought the newsletter would achieve with a handout that illustrated the main points. Some of the goals included gaining membership, outreach to uninvolved members, post recognition in the community, and more program participation. I also outlined the costs involved and provided both a color and black and white example of the newsletter itself. I think this time around I had more of a response to the content of the newsletter, than just questions pertaining to costs involved.
I gained experience adjusting my presentation in order to appeal to my audience. I had to do a lot of “knowing my audience” editing to my presentation, because of who they were and what their main objectives as an organization are. The audience I am presenting to at the VFW consists of both men and women ranging from the age of 50 to 84. Through understanding my audience, I was able to create a proposal with appropriate language and interests of the post.
I also got the chance to help put together a benefit for Cancer Aid and Research. The Auxiliary celebrated their 30th annual benefit last Saturday. It was a great opportunity to work and raise money for an illness that has directly affected my family. Some of the professional writing and editing projects that I helped with for the benefit included a letter addressed to local businesses encouraging them to donate to the evening, promotional flyers, and thank you notes. I also included a short article about the benefit in the newsletter mentioned above.
I gained experience adjusting my presentation in order to appeal to my audience. I had to do a lot of “knowing my audience” editing to my presentation, because of who they were and what their main objectives as an organization are. The audience I am presenting to at the VFW consists of both men and women ranging from the age of 50 to 84. Through understanding my audience, I was able to create a proposal with appropriate language and interests of the post.
I also got the chance to help put together a benefit for Cancer Aid and Research. The Auxiliary celebrated their 30th annual benefit last Saturday. It was a great opportunity to work and raise money for an illness that has directly affected my family. Some of the professional writing and editing projects that I helped with for the benefit included a letter addressed to local businesses encouraging them to donate to the evening, promotional flyers, and thank you notes. I also included a short article about the benefit in the newsletter mentioned above.
Friday, February 6, 2009
First Newsletter Proposal
On Tuesday, Feb. 2nd I presented the newsletter to the House Committee and they have tabled it until their next meeting on March 2nd. I came out of the meeting with my head spinning. Ultimately, they needed more information on the cost projection. Going in I felt prepared, but after experiencing my first proposal, I walked away with several things I could have done better. I presented a three page newsletter with categories such as "How Our Programs Help You, " "How Our Programs Help the Region," and "How Our Programs Help the Nation." It was presented in color and they asked me to present both a black and white copy and colored copy at the next meeting. I also brought an application for non-profit organization bulk mailing rates and the information I researched about it online. Apparently, there's more involved to getting a non-profit permit than I thought, so I have to do more research at the post office. They really liked the idea and thought that the draft I brought to the proposal looked good and included the information they wanted. I'm not sure if I should update the newsletter for the next meeting to include information from Feb. or just keep the draft I have and wait until it is approved to start the next month. I also found out that there was a little communication issue with how I presented the dates of publication. I presented the newsletter as a bi-monthly newsletter, to be published every two months, 6 publications total per year. However, I think they may have misunderstood and thought I meant twice a month publications. I am also working on researching bills within legislation that concern veterans. The auxiliary is wanting me to write letters to state congressman about their support for and against certain bills. If anyone knows of any, it would be helpful for when I go to research them. Thanks!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Internship Final
It's final, my internship will be with the Veteran's of Foreign Wars Post 5501 in Ripley, WV. I am a little concerned about the distance I will be traveling. I like the opportunity because I have been a part of this organization for around two years now and haven't had the time to commit, until now. The president of the ladies auxiliary as well as the commander of the VFW have projects for me to take on. The commander has me working on a newsletter that they intend to circulate to the members. Their main goals with the newsletter are to boost membership and to get older members to become more involved. My ideas so far include updates, articles on the previous month's news, and a calendar of events. They haven't presented this idea before, so I will have to go in front of the House Committee with a presentation on the newsletter and it's benefits to the post.
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