Applications – MEMORANDUM

Professional Writing as a Major for Pre-Health Students

University Hall, courtesy of UAB Image Gallery

By: Wyatt

If you’re like me, you came to undergraduate school wanting to be a doctor of some sort, whether that’s as a dentist, optometrist, surgeon or physician. If you’re even more like me, you grew frustrated when your initial advisers wouldn’t tell you what the best major is in relation to that goal. As a senior who’s gone through the application process for optometry school, I can finally confirm that there is no right answer for this conundrum, but Professional Writing has worked well for me.

Something other than Biology?

Like many other pre-health students, I initially opted for a Biology major due to the crossover with my prerequisites and because I found the Discovery Channel fascinating as a kid (and still do). As you have probably learned by now, it’s nothing like the latter. As for the former, the crossover was a little bit too convenient. If I continued as a Biology major, I would have ended up in a position with enough empty credit slots to decide between tacking on a minor or branching out with my major.

In talking with the admissions committees of various optometry schools, I’ve learned that they have, frankly, gotten used to the endless tide of Biology majors applying each cycle. For you, this directly translates into more competition and an even greater need to stick out amongst the crowd. While there’s nothing at all wrong with the Biology major (and here at UAB, it has an excellent reputation), being able to make your folder stand out on the admissions table is the first step to being considered.

You’ve probably heard a lot about being “well-rounded,” and it’s more than a platitude. Everyone who applies to a health school will have finished the same prerequisites, but if you have an entirely separate field of experience from the rest, that’s a significant step toward differentiating yourself from the crowd. In many ways, acceptance to a health school is like getting hired for a job.

What are your options?

Put bluntly, there are many science prerequisites (enough for a chemistry minor by default in optometry), and the Core Requirements at UAB also demand dabbling in a plethora of fields. Ideally, this would translate into finding something that interests you, but it takes an early investment of time to manage your science prerequisites. It’s also difficult to squeeze in those Core Requirements right off the bat.

With that in mind, some research and introspection would be in order. The UAB Course Catalog is a great way to learn about the requirements of a field you’re curious about. The first thing to consider should be the number of credit hours required for the major you’re interested in. The smallest majors I’ve heard of at UAB are English, Philosophy, and History: all weighing in at 42 or fewer credit hours.

Chemistry is slightly less common than Biology, but not particularly unique when it comes to health school applications. Neuroscience might be the third most popular, based on talking to fellow applicants. Any major can be a viable path, of course—they simply might not all be particularly distinctive ones.

Why Professional Writing?

To quickly summarize the English major, a student can have one of four Concentrations:

Professional Writing
Literature
Creative Writing
Linguistics

Each influences the types of English classes you’ll take, though the major’s elective requirements translate into significant potential for exploring the other concentrations, depending on your interests. I wanted something I could, at some point, use—and whether it’s technical writing for referrals or professional communication for the business side of a practice, Professional Writing prepares its students. Mastering minutiae like the basics of usable document design or even composing a resumé are necessities you’ll have to learn eventually.

Fundamentally, I enjoyed English and I liked the prospect of including it in my coursework as an alternative to something like Inorganic Chemistry. The fact that it is directly relevant to my goals was the thing that led me to English rather than, say, Philosophy—which was also a compelling option at the time.

When and how to decide?

Earlier, I talked about the smaller size of the English major in relation to most others. This is crucial, as it means you have more flexibility in deciding. If you’re interested in Professional Writing, the introductory course is a non-committal way of testing the waters. I didn’t switch until right before my Junior year, so there’s still hope for those of you a bit farther down your path.

As with everything mentioned in this article, you are the one planning your path and should take the time to consider all aspects of this decision: your time, preferences, requirements and goals.

Professional Writing in Applications

By: Hannah Jurkiewicz

I recently took EH 315: Intro to Professional Writing and I found the skills required to write professionally translate outside of writing careers. Many scholarship and fellowship applications have word or character limits making it important to choose your words wisely.

Introductory professional writing courses provide students with the skills to write effective and clear documents, ensuring their readers will understand their purpose.

When applying for competitive scholarships, fellowships and grants these skills will be beneficial and may help to set your application apart.

The Seven Cs of Professional Writing will help you complete your scholarship application with ease.

What are the Seven Cs?

Clear
Coherent
Complete
Concise
Courteous
Concrete
Correct

When it comes to applications with word limits, it is important to emulate these seven characteristics.

Oftentimes, applications ask for personal essays and responses to questions to gain an understanding of you and your goals. You want to convey yourself in the most complete and clear way possible so your audience can see how you stand out and are the best recipient for the scholarship.

Begin by understanding the prompt for the application and start writing what comes to mind. Having an understanding of what you are being asked to write will help you provide the most correct response.

It might be helpful to begin by writing your narrative response with all the information you want to say. Then, through editing, you pick out what is most important to the story for the application. Editing down allows you to be more concise and concrete about what you want the reader to gain.

Continue to reflect on the prompt and narrow down the details you find most pertinent to your response. The editing process will also aid in creating a coherent and complete narrative for your audience.

"Through understanding and editing your responses multiple times, you will have a product you feel conveys you as best as possible."

Scholarships are highly competitive and require time and effort to apply to. Scholarship applications challenge candidates to be concise through limitations. These applications also require the applicant to have a concrete understanding of themselves and the ability to convey that well through writing.

The basis for professional writing and communication stems from the 7Cs, but these characteristics of communication will be helpful outside of the job market as you utilize them in your personal narratives and responses for scholarships.

Cloud Computing: Get on Board

Cloud computing services have become a vital part of communication, collaboration, and the acceleration of producing documents. If you’ve used a computer in the last decade, you’ve used “the cloud”. Before this beautiful thing became a “thing,” computers were the source of immeasurable frustration. This is because computers were originally set up like an old fashion strand of Christmas lights. Operating systems, applications, and hardware were all built on top of one another, so when one failed, the whole system went down. Cloud computing systems made this inevitable domino-effecting-meltdown a thing of the past because cloud systems separate and disperse these connections to any number of servers in any number of places.

Cloud services allow you, and anyone you afford access, to contribute to a document simultaneously from any computer with an Internet connection. For example, you and three others have a presentation to construct, but time and space don’t allow you to physically meet. You can create a folder within Google Drive and invite your comrades. The cloud service permits you each to work from your own computers because the document is in an application that doesn’t actually exist in your server, it exists in one or multiple

communal servers that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. The server being used is part of a “cluster” of servers which prevents overload of users and data because when someone tries to access the document within the application within a server that has reached or neared capacity, the user is directed to the same document in the same application via a different server. Because there is no limit to contribution or access, cloud services make constructive work easier than ever. Basically, if you’re about production, you’re about “the cloud.”
iCloud is Apple’s cloud system that they developed to accommodate their vast line of products. This why an iPhone user can download a song on his or her cell phone and find it in their computer’s music library without connecting the two physically. iCloud is great for syncing data to all of your devices automatically but that’s only if your devices are all made by Apple.

Egnyte is another highly touted cloud service that allows you to upload files of any size and store them locally on a device without losing the cloud accessibility – however, it lacks the ability to stream media.
Google Apps separates your content into its respective categories – which can be both convenient and hindering depending on the need – such as: Docs (for word docs, presentations, etc.),

Picasa (for photos), and the most popular, Gmail.
These three cloud systems are among the best available services to date and yield nothing but production – something anyone in the world of professional writing can easily get on board with.

Finding Your Professional Identity In Fonts

By Jay Haywood

three examples of font — Convey the right message with your font choice

When transitioning from the academic to professional world, several decisions are made to ensure getting a job.

Accomplishments, work experience and internships are all compiled into résumés and adjusted to fit a potential career. However, a résumé should not just be a reflection of a person’s work history. The document should also reflect the identity of the person submitting it. Otherwise, your résumé will blend in with a stack of other listing similar education and work experience.

Reflecting academia, Times New Roman is an industry standard of typefaces. In terms of fonts, it is clean, concise, and professional. It is easy to read when formatted smaller and leads the eye easily when going through a document with lots of information on it. However, Times New Roman is also everywhere, which means that it can also be perceived as bland, unthoughtful and lazy.

Some people assume that they are expected to create their résumé in Times New Roman, partly because they wrote with the font for their entire college career. There are great alternatives to the font that will help identify you as an individual while still looking professional.

If you are looking to change your style but still want to stick close to traditional fonts, consider a font called Calisto MT, found within Microsoft Word. Stylistically it seems similar to Times New Roman, as it contains serifs, and is easy to read at a small typeface. However, the weight, or thickness, of Calisto MT is slightly heavier than Times New Roman, creating a layer of depth that is lacking in the latter.

If you are looking to branch out even more, consider a sans-serif font. Sans-serif fonts are regarded as clean and modern, and can definitely help a résumé stand out. I found a font called Lato on Google Fonts, a service provided for free through Google, that is an excellent choice. When compared to Times New Roman, Lato seems sleek and contemporary.

While both of these fonts are great examples, they may not represent you, and that’s fine! Browse the web to find a font that reflects you both personally and professionally.

The True First Impression of a Job Applicant

line of people sitting for an interview — Image courtesy of Adobe Stock

By Rebecca Martin

The job search process can be daunting, especially when it comes to creating a resume. Much attention is given to the content of the resume but the truth is that the appearance is just as important, if not more so.

Having worked as a recruiting specialist for four and a half years, I know that appearance can put a resume on the top of the stack or the bottom, or sometimes even in the trash. The decision is made before a single word is read.

Think of it like this: you dress according to how you want to appear for a job interview. The same applies to your resume. Just remember that employers are people too. Having been one of those employers, I can give a little insight into the thought process when looking at a resume:

A resume that clearly did not take any effort says that you do not really care about the job. If you do not put in the effort to write it, why should I in reading it?
Time is money. So a first glance can tell if your resume is organized and makes the desired info easy to pick out.
Resumes are boring. They blur together. So a resume that catches the eye is more apt to be read first.

So what should you do? Start with a font. Times New Roman gets pretty old and really does not make an impression. Just do not go crazy; you want your resume to look professional. It is not the time to show your personality flair.

Use lines, bullets, and a border. Separate sections with lines then bold the title of each section. Bullets are great for listing information and making it stand out. Long blocky paragraphs are not likely to be read. Finally, a simple border can actually do a lot for the overall look.

Regent University has a great page that shows how they transformed a very blah resume to a better-looking resume. While still very simple, you can see the transformation process and the difference it makes.

There are plenty of places to see examples of resumes online or get templates. Online Resume Builder has some great ones that are even sorted by the type job you are looking for. Just remember that your resume is your first impression when finding a job.