jbacha – Page 2 – MEMORANDUM

Dubble Trubble

By Alex Wright

mortarboard on top of books and diploma — Image courtesy of Adobe Stock

Choosing a college major can be one of the most stressful and important decisions that you will make in your life. A large percentage of students choose a traditional route through college and complete a single major and often a minor.

However, studies have indicated that in recent years we have seen a significant rise in double major students. The option to double major is available at UAB, and sometimes you can complete both majors within a four-year plan.

As a current double major (English with a focus in Professional Writing, and Communications with a focus in Journalism), I have taken a multitude of writing courses that have assisted me throughout my college career.

One Communications class in particular, 210 Newswriting and Reporting with Dr. Shaia, helped me build a knowledge of journalism law and for my publishing classes required for my English degree.

With a strong focus on grasping the finer rules of the English language, Dr. Shaia’s class taught me many “do’s” and “don’ts” commonly seen throughout journalism. Dr. Shaia’s newswriting class also helped me notice many of the careless errors made by young journalists, and the proper steps to prevent said errors.

Newswriting and Reporting helped myself and many writers in the class to recognize exceptional writing from insignificant writing. Learning to recognize quality writing is one of the most useful merits in any journalism-focused major and career. Recognizing a difference in quality is essential if you would ever like to succeed in working for a magazine or newspaper. This recognition of quality is essential, as it enables you to better yourself and develop your writing talents.

Business Writing for Every Major: An Interview with Dr. Cynthia Ryan

By Adele Leon

What is your professional identity? What can you do as a college student at UAB to start creating this identity? Where can you go to learn how to brand yourself? Dr. Cynthia Ryan’s Business Writing class can help you answer these questions.As a member of the Professional Writing Program at UAB, Dr. Ryan teaches students across the disciplines how to create their professional identities for years through a split-level class.

I Need this Class!

Dr. Ryan will likely be teaching Business Writing in Spring 2017. To be prepared for the class, Dr. Ryan says that you need to know what’s going on in the world, and every student should have a regular news feed of current events. This class is listed as an English class, but it is typically filled with students from the Business, Education, Psychology and Communications Departments—just to name a few. This class doesn’t just help students create professional identities; students who enroll in this course will also learn:

How to rhetorically connect to their own brands
How their personal slogans will make them stand out against the competition
How to connect their identities to any constituency

It is important to start developing your professional identity now while you are still a student. Taking this class will open your professional network to the Association for Business Communication, and provide you with an opportunity to join the Ethics Bowl Team at UAB.

This class also covers common skills every student should know in both professional and personal settings. Dr. Ryan teaches students how to operate in a corporate setting—from writing professional emails to presenting themselves professionally and delivering a complete strategy statement. These skills will help students navigate any corporate environment. Rhetorically, students who are enrolled in this class will a

dvance every aspect of their professional identities.

On a more personal level, this class will teach students how to negotiate—their interests, their personal presence, their goals—to succeed in their own branding.

Corporate Communication Textbook — “Corporate Communication” by Paul A. Argenti

Now picture yourself in a classroom full of people like you—people who are ready to start building their professional images. You are looking at Corporate Communication by Paul A. Argenti.

Dr. Ryan walks in and asks you, “What is your professional identity? How will you present that identity in your career?”

How will you answer?

Dr. Ryan will teach you how to answer those questions successfully. Dr. Ryan already has advice for you right now: The key to being successful in 2016 is being able to adapt your professional presence to all genres and conventions of the corporate world. But there are no hard and fast rules in business writing.

Generally, every genre of business writing changes depending on the context. For example, there is no existing standard for memos or business letters that is consistent on Google.

This class will give you more than just example memos and business letters, it will teach you how to navigate different types of corporate climates. But most importantly, Dr. Ryan will ask you to work from your own interests so you can build the professional identity you want for yourself.

If you want to get to know Dr. Ryan a little more before you sign up for her class, check out her blog. You’ll read about how she survived cancer, her travels and how she uses her personal identity to guide the life she wants to live.

Providing Peace of Mind

By Michelle Love

University Writing Center sign — The UWC, located in Sterne Library

As a student’s academic career progresses, the amount of research papers and related stress follows suit. It does not help that the list of rules when writing research papers seems to always be changing.

Thanks to UAB’s University Writing Center (located on the first floor of the Mervyn Sterne Library), students no longer have to feel alone.

How We Help You

By using face to face and online counseling, the University Writing Center helps students create polished papers to get the best grade possible and in the process teaches students helpful writing tips that will improve their overall performance.

UAB professor Jaclyn Wells is the Director of the writing center and also one of the many tutors offering guidance. “We have three types of folks [offering services]. We have adjunct instructors from the English department, we have grad students from the English department, and we have undergraduate students that serve as friendly greeters when people come in.”

No One Left Behind

While some younger students may believe they do not qualify for the center’s resources, Dr. Wells wants them to know that is simply not true. She said the center is open to students of all levels, whether freshmen or graduate students, and all majors. Students are also encouraged to bring in their papers no matter what stage the assignment is in.

“Some people have this idea that they can’t come to the writing center until their paper is finished, and that’s not true. We encourage people to come to the writing center during any stage of their paper writing. They can come in with an idea or they can come in in the middle. It really does not matter. We just want to help you.”

Providing Opportunities

Recently, the UWC has started offering an internship program in coordination with UAB’s internship director Cynthia Ryan. “If students want to intern here they have to take the Tutoring Writing class and then they can follow up with Dr. Ryan.”

Consultations are available by appointment and Dr. Wells wants any students skeptical of visiting the writing center to know that there’s nothing to be ashamed or afraid of.

“Everybody needs feedback on writing,” she said. “It’s not just a beginner thing. And by coming to the writing center, you’re doing what good writers do. Good writers get feedback, good writers revise. So when you come here you’re already doing what a good writer does just by virtue of coming here.”

Why It Is Important

As a Professional Writing major and aspiring writer, I feel that the University Writing Center is more than just a valuable asset to a young writer’s career: it should be considered a requirement.

It’s easy for students to feel safe with their writing style while they’re still enrolled in school and believe they don’t need help polishing their composition. But as someone who has taken the plunge into the professional writing world outside of an academic setting, I can say that going to the writing center is vital to creating a more sophisticated writing style.

The UWC staff will teach you the do’s and don’t’s of being a writer, and can help you grow a thicker skin when it comes to taking constructive criticism. I believe everyone should visit the writing center, if not for the sake of your college writing, then for any future job prospects you may have after graduation.

Why Do We Give a CRAP?

By Luke Richey

Discovering Design

Visual Rhetoric Flyer — Visual Rhetoric flyer

Design permeates virtually all aspects of professional communication—from writing resumés, memos and cover letters to pitching a new product line or advertising an upcoming event. How that information looks matters and can be the difference between it being picked up or thrown away.

Backtrack to Fall 2014, when I had just entered my first professional writing course at UAB and was asked to design the cover for that issue of MEMORANDUM with absolutely no idea what or how to design.

Being a complete novice at the medium, I searched for help anywhere I could find it. Between Robin Williams’ (not the comedian) book, The Non-Designer’s Design Book, and a fellow UAB student and graphic design major, I learned a few tips that could help any professional writing student who wants to start dabbling in design.

Williams stresses the need, when designing, to make CRAP—but the good kind of CRAP. Williams’ CRAP stands for Contrast, repetition, Alignment and Proximity. Which, in a nutshell, means:

make the design stand out and create an impression on the viewer
introduce and repeat common themes throughout the work
do not throw space on the page haphazardly
organize elements in a way that makes the design “flow” well

When designing, a balance between consistency and contrast creates an effective and appealing design that grabs the viewer’s attention and keeps them interested. When designing, nothing should be arbitrary. Words, images, figures, etc. should work well together to enhance the composition rather than of weaken it.

Identify, Inspect, Innovate

From the graphic design student, whose name unfortunately eludes me, I learned to play with colors and fonts, get inspiration from other sources, and make the design unique—tailoring it to my own preferences.

Design can be fun; don’t be afraid to play around and look for things that appeal to you. And yes, it’s alright to look at other designs and other people’s work. This inspiration can spark a concept—an image—that takes from that design and works well with what’s already visualized in your head.

Finally, remember to create your own brand, a design that is unique to you and your personality. Just like writing, creating a design that does not fit you can come off as stale and uninteresting. Trial and error is always a part of the process and will make your designs that much better.

If you’re interested in understanding more of the basics concerning the four principles of design, Williams’ book can be purchased here.

Braving the Professional Writing Department

writing in a notebook — My first professional writing class

By Anne Marie Lovell

As someone who is not an English major, signing up for a professional writing class can be intimidating. I was nervous not only because I am an Art major, but also because it had been years since I’d written anything that could be described as professional.

What would it be like to be in a class full of people who’d been honing their writing skills in college via beautifully crafted essays, with nothing to offer in comparison aside from my rough, run-on sentences?

Before finding the proper resources and receiving encouragement, I doubt I would have enrolled in any of these classes. Now, I am planning to get a minor in professional writing.

Professional writing is something that non-English majors can benefit from, but that many probably haven’t heard of. It isn’t only about writing and editing articles; the professional writing department includes classes on medical, business and technical writing. You can learn how to build a website or how to develop digital documents.

The professional writing club even hosts resume and cover letter workshops—something that all students could use. The professional writing minor (or even just a class) is something that any future professional should seriously consider.

I was lucky to have been told to look into writing classes by my academic advisor. After some research, I found Dr. McComiskey, who is both the contact and director for the Professional Writing program. I wrote to him, explaining that I was an art major interested in taking one or two classes to work on my writing skills, and I promptly received a response.

He told me about classes that would be offered in the upcoming semester, as well as other classes that would be offered in the future. Dr. McComiskey also suggested that I consider the minor in Professional Writing, which was something I never would have done on my own.

With the encouragement of my academic advisor, the helpful email from Dr. McComiskey and a little bit of nervousness, I signed up for my first professional writing class. A few weeks in, I’ve realized that this is something that many students should be doing. Instead of intimidating, the class is interesting, and will no doubt be of help when applying to jobs. I earnestly suggest ignoring any fear of writing you may have, and to look into these classes yourself.

The Professional Writer’s Path to Graduate School

By Andrew Faustmann

screenshot of a google search for professional writing graduate programs — Looking for graduate schools

Many students attend graduate school to further concentrate their skills and knowledge for their future career; however, not every school is going to have the curriculum that supports your personal goals. So, instead of wasting two years of school and several thousand dollars, make sure to research each school carefully before applying.

Where Should You Attend?

When searching school programs that will further your professional writing skills, you need to be aware of the various names for each program. A majority will either be called “Rhetoric and Composition” or “Technical and Professional Writing.” However, you will sometimes find the term “Communication” instead of “Writing.”

This process is quite similar to searching for a job, so persistence is key. Depending on your proximity of school searches, the website Gradschools.com may be of assistance for a more national search. If you are restricted to only a handful of localized schools, you can jump straight to each school’s website.

You may want to look for a school that employs professors who share a similar background to your own. Many professors typically had or still have jobs as a professional writer with a corporation. This will open up networking opportunities and also knowledge from first-hand experience.

Go to the faculty page on the English department’s website and rummage through all of the professor’s profiles.

Typically, most professors will provide a short bio, recent courses, relevant publications and even their own website, but you may even have to dig a little deeper. You can either email those professors directly or research their names in scholarly databases, such as CompPile, JSTOR, or Proquest.

While specific areas of research may not be 100% relevant to your career pursuits, their individual research will inform you more of their academic and professional interests, which will help you decide on the most suitable courses.

What Financial Assistance Do Graduate Schools Offer?

Many schools offer financial support in the form of assistantships, scholarships and conference funding.

The assistantship typically includes full tuition remission and a stipend to survive on while you complete your degree in two years—unfortunately, the stipend typically ranges from $8,000 to $15,000 per year. While each school has different programs set up, you could be working for the school as a tutor, research assistant and/or teaching assistant. This opportunity not only allows you to receive a fully-funded education but also to gain experience working at the university.

The assistantship is not for everyone, as a great full-time job is not to be given up lightly. In this case, many English departments and graduate schools offer scholarships to assist with the cost of tuition.

It is also encouraged that you present at conferences related to your field of study. Even though conferences are directed towards those who wish to publish academic research, the experience gained from presenting is transferable to any workplace. When contemplating this, see if the schools offer conference funding for travel costs.

Go Start Applying

Pursuing a graduate degree to advance your success as a professional writer is a great decision, yet you must make sure that the school you attend has a program that will help you build the skill set to achieve your goals.

Therefore, search for programs, professors and courses that will help advance your skills and knowledge while also noting the multiple options regarding how you are going to pay for that education.

Web Design for Creative Writers

Books on a computer — Building an online presence

By Jenna Summers

So you want to write a novel?

You imagine droves of fans lining up in a bookstore waiting for you to sign the crisp new copy of your book. But how will you let your future fans know about your book? This is where professional writing and online content comes in.

But You’re Creative! You Don’t Like That Boring Professional Stuff

Often, creative writing students overlook professional writing courses because they believe that professional writing is boring. In reality, professional writing includes a wide variety of outlets for creative expression including web design and the creation of online content that is complete with eye-catching designs and memorable titles. Not only is professional writing a different way to approach the written word but it is vital to the success of creative writers.

Okay. It’s Not Boring But Why Do You Need a Website?

Imagine that it is your near future. You have finished your first novel and it is brilliant. You are confident that this book will catapult you into international stardom. Then you realize that you do not have an audience and you have no way to build an audience. How will your adoring fans discover your book?

The best solution to this dilemma comes in the form of a website. By creating a website, you will be able to instantly reach an audience from around the world. For more information on the effectiveness of online content in marketing see Six Benefits of Internet Marketing.

Your website can also serve as an extension of your book. For example, it can include information about you as the author or it can even serve as a host for an online version of the first chapter of your book.

Some authors such as J.K. Rowling have even created extensions to their books online. Through Pottermore, Rowling is able to continuously add onto the world that she originally created in the Harry Potter books.

There are a nearly unlimited number of uses that your website can serve. It is only limited by your creativity and willingness to learn.

How Do You Learn to Design a Website?

Web design skills can be learned through a variety of online sources or through in-person classes. There are courses at UAB such as EH 455-Digital Publishing which are extremely helpful in cultivating web design skills.

Career Spotlight: Online Content Editor

By Kalyn Wells

XML coding

With everything becoming more web-based, it is no surprise that there are more careers evolving around this medium in publishing today.

For example, online content editors spend most of their day creating content for the web. In addition to working with and adding content on the web, they must code their content with HTML and XML codes to properly publish it on the Internet. They strategically plan how the website should be laid out based on research and statistics of previous approaches the company has put forth on their website. So, getting to know the company and the company’s online history is a crucial part of this type of career.

Similar to most publishing careers, communication, research and proofreading are all skills an online content editor should acquire. An employer looking to hire an online content editor would look for these skills in a potential employee, but they would also look for a person who has developed coding and computer skills in order to successfully publish text and images onto the company’s website.

Creative Pool is a helpful site that gives more information about what online content editors do, what kind of environment they work in and more.

UAB offers courses in the Professional Writing curriculum that will help a student succeed in this type of career. There are courses such as Developing Digital Documents in which a student will learn more about Adobe software and how to construct a publication. Digital Publishing is another helpful course in which learning how to code for websites is one of the important objectives of the course.

You can find more Professional Writing course offerings in the UAB Catalog. A student could also take additional courses from the Communication Studies curriculum to help them gain more knowledge on the history of media.

A Word For All: Ethics, Usability and the Singular “They”

greeting sign with they/them/theirs pronouns — Inclusivity in professional writing

By Em Wiginton

In professional writing, audience dictates the language, form and content of every document. These considerations often bring up questions of ethics: how do we create the most usable, inclusive document for a certain set of people, and how can we make sure we are intertextually humanizing our readers?

At the intersection of ethics and usability in professional writing lies the issue of audience and gender—and more specifically, use of the singular “they.”

Much of the time, we use the singular “they” without even thinking about it—“Someone left their phone in class,” for example—but it has still met criticism based on the belief that it can only be used as a plural pronoun. Even my high school English teachers insisted that we use “he or she” in our academic papers, but where style and larger conversations about gender intersect, these standards are changing.

“They” and Ethics

Recent discourse has brought into question whether or not “they” can be used as a singular pronoun. However, as understanding about gender and inclusivity evolves, the use of “they” has become the best way of making sure you’re referring to everyone in your audience.

This made news in December 2015 when the Washington Post cited the singular they as the solution to the gender problem in writing. “They” includes every gender in a given audience, but also validates the existence of gender-neutral individuals, who may prefer “they” as their pronoun of choice.

“They” and Usability

The singular “they” is also the best option in terms of form. The APA Style Blog, which is the user-created counterpart to the style guide that many professional writers adhere to, suggests “they” instead of s/he, (s)he, he/she, or alternating use between he and she, as these can be awkward and distracting to the reader. The AP Stylebook has officially accepted the singular they, but the APA Style Guide has yet to change its standards on its use.

The Future of “They”

The failure of style guides to catch up with conversations about inclusivity and ethics raises an interesting dilemma: What exactly are writers to do when it comes to gender and audience?

Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness discusses how “biases can creep in when similarity and frequency diverge.” In other words, it can be easy to lump people into stereotypes and use non-inclusive wording, especially when style has yet to encourage otherwise. However, professional writing is, above all, a humanistic genre—one in which we must be activists and advocates for our users.

In all issues of audience gender, class, race and ableness, our writing should always be inclusive of and be usable by everyone.

Professional Writing for Individually Designed Majors

By Alexandria Smith

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock

As a student with an Individually Designed Major at UAB, I have specific career goals that required me to create my own course of study. I created the Cultural Communications major which combines Theater, English and Communications Studies. My ultimate goal is to do voiceovers for cartoons and write jingles for radio commercials.

While creating my curriculum, I thought it would be beneficial to add an edge to my coursework. This edge was provided through my professional writing classes.

From the Classroom

The Professional Writing program at UAB prepares students who have a desire to work with both print and digital formats. The professional writing program educates critical thinkers. Principles of rhetoric and language play a crucial role in academic, artistic, professional, personal and public settings. Having professional writing experience in the classroom provides me with skills that other majors might lack.

For example, in EH 315: Introduction to Professional Writing, my classmates and I created the brochure for the entire English Department. This is now the official brochure that is distributed to all freshmen upon entering orientation. Professional writing students learn the importance of:

Working in a team
Serving clients and customers
Exercising leadership
Negotiating
Dealing with diversity

To the Professional World

Professional writers have a wide range of other academic disciplines in the humanities, sciences and social sciences which makes them valuable. Through the professional writing program, I have learned how to communicate effectively to specific audiences, which is necessary in my future work. Writing jingles for radio commercials requires knowledge of the specific group you are trying to reach. My experience in the professional writing program has helped me focus on the audience I am trying to persuade so that I can convey my message clearly and effectively.

I’ve had the chance to work with multimodal presentations which allowed me to record my voice for a final presentation. Although it was not a silly cartoon, I still had the chance to do something that I love in a professional writing course.

Students with Individually Designed Majors should consider branching out while creating their curriculum. By including professional writing courses, I have learned valuable skills that I would lack if I did not participate in this program.