Blog Web Address

Here is the following address for my website:
http://community.wvu.edu/~naa004/index.html

Taking Stock No. 10 pg. 48

I do agree slightly with what I wrote on my first taking stock. I really think that I will be able to excel in my reflection skills due to the fact that my capstone professor drilled us over and over (twice per week) on reflections that would be required to be somewhere between two to six pages long sometimes. In regards to creativity, I do find myself to be creative, but I find my creativity to be a little tacky for the poster project. I like using glitter, stickers, cut-outs, pop-ups, and complimenting colors. However, for the poster, I am trying to use the complimenting colors, be neat and organized in presenting the information, and keep the poster looking simple yet interesting as well. Also, I do not think that I am used to composing something so precise in terms of a portfolio because in my other capstone portfolio, I honestly did not try my hardest because the portfolio was not for our benefit: the portfolio was for the English Department's benefit and we were not graded on it! However, I will have to be precise in my word choice, organization, and explanation of what I want others to see in my work and most importantly, my improvement.

Tedious Tasks

I will only have one more task where I will produce or create something probably. Since, I worked a 40-hour work week the conference week, three weeks were shaved off my time. However, I am still going in at least two times a week for about 4-6 hours to help Mary, my boss, out even though my time finished two weeks ago. Mostly, I am calling people about whether they attended the conference or not for paperwork purposes to process the scholarship recipients. Also, I am writing letters for a re-do of their W-9 because they may not have put down the correct information if any at all! Like I said, I will only have one more creative task to do and that is have another meeting with the assitant editors of the journal on another manuscript that I copyedited. It is unbelievable to think that I worked nearly three months on a project that lasted three days and now it is over! It is a complete, satisfying feeling, but I am quite bored (and tired) now. The conference was wonderful in terms of running smoothly and getting information to the participants and attendees; yet, in the words of my boss, "It is like planning a party that we don't get to go to!" which is exactly true. I did not get to attend any of the sessions except mine and another poetry reading. I stayed behind the counter with scholarship registration for three days, but I was able to help tremendously with some of the questions because Mary prepped me for them for nearly a week before working.

It's Over!

The conference is now over, and I am pretty much out of work now! I only have a few more hours to work after my 42 hour week last week, so I will not be going to the office as much as I used to. The conference went wonderful: it was the largest that ASA has ever had.
On Friday and Saturday, I worked the scholarship desk where people had to come up to receive their scholarships, sign off that they will receive them, and sign a W-9 form for ASA's tax purposes next year. I did leave at 2:00 on Friday to do my presentation. As I stated before, I felt as if I had to completely redo my presenation due to audience. I really wanted to affect the people who were watching. I believe I did that, but I am not really sure if that was the goal (which I thought it should be). The other presenters talked about their specific research that really wasn't relative to any of our lives. One presenter in my session talked about the lives of five different girls from Appalachia and their journey throughout high school and college, but they didn't make any conclusion or state any relavence that this had. Also, another presenter talked about making maps of home and what the patterns were in terms of gender, race, heritage, education, etc. HOwever, he did not relate these or make conclusions about how people think. I believe my presentation went well in terms of how I was relaxed and being organized. However, I know that I should have incorporated more of my actual research project and the fossil idea into it.
The highlight of my weekend though was seeing Silas House, a novelist, who was absolutely brilliant and hilarious in his talk about Appalachian people and coal mining. I can't wait to attend and hopefully help with it next year.

Abstract: Almost Ready for the Conference

We are almost ready to begin the conference--only three days away! Things have surprisingly been pretty slow probably due to the fact that we have all been working so hard for the past three months on this conference, and everything seems to be in order. I received an email from plenary session leader, and she wished to receive an abstract and a bibliography in order to introduce my presentation.
Unfortunately, I realized that my audience is much, much more different, and now, I am forced to take another direction with my presentation. The first presentation on my research was in my capstone class: the assignment was to present on something that we felt like presenting on. For maybe half of the presentation, I read excerpts from my research paper which was on Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Bean Trees. I looked at identity and how the main character, Missy, wanted to get away from her rural surroundings. However, like I said, I am going to have to change my presentation somewhat. I feel that my audience is going to be different and they really won't find any relevance for me analyzing a book. Therefore, I am going to present on out-migration in West Virginia and use an idea of a "fossil" which in this case acts as a negative thing that sticks in someone's mind and changes other ideas that come their way. I am re-writing much of my presentation and I will be briefly describing what I started researching to get to what I am presenting on now. First, I introduce myself and then talk about the problem of youth out-migration, what a fossil is, how it works, some of the "fossils" that we get like the media calling us hillbillies, rednecks, etc., and then talk about what this does to our mentalities. I think that this approach will be much more effective in touching someone's life.

Press Releases

I just finished work on two press releases on the Appalachian Studies Conference and the music that will be offered after the conference. I found this to be a challenge. I had to become familiar with the layout of Marshall University press releases. Most seemed to introduce the event broadly in the beginning and then go into detail in the middle and beginning. I found that it was difficult to fit all of the information into the nine to ten very short paragraphs. Also, I had to be very specific in which words to use to describe the conference since it was so limited: I felt like I was writing a poem! Thankfully, my boss only wanted a rough outline of each press release, so he could tweak and add where he saw appropriate. He did include some quotations from the president of ASA, Shauna Scott. He also included some information about the plenary sessions. He has not reviewed the music press release yet, but I believe that he will find the press release to be better than the first. I tried to organize it in chronological order--performers on Friday and then Saturday. I used phrases from the little information he sent, knew, and was available on the local musicians. However, he will be completing two paragraphs on artists that I do not have information on.

WPG Tasks 2 and 3

WPG Task #2

My portfolio will be a best work portfolio that will display all of the previous documents that I have edited and created. I am only half way through my internship and I already have five or six large projects. Since my internship is a little bit different in being that I am not a Professional Writing major, I want to show the broad range of skills I've learned and basic concepts I have learned about being a Professional Writing major through the course of work in my internship. I will be including all of the documents I have stated already in the previous posts. I'm not sure but I don't think I should have a goal of showing how knowledgable I am about all of the things I've been doing: I have just started this process this semester and can only expect to understand a broad range of topics and tasks that can be taught in a semester of Professional Writing instead of four years like many of the other majors. Again, I wrote all of the different sections of the web portfolio in the "Internal Portfolio" as in stating the different classes I've taken, the pictures that inspire me, the projects, etc.

Task #3

Like I said earlier, I want to show that I have gained some hands-on knowledge of different tasks. I touched on some of my goals in the "Internal Portfolio" again, but I have decided not to include other classes with my writing process. I want to show my progress through all of the projects. I am going to restate what I want to do within my portfolio though

1. An introduction page for what to expect in the portfolio, my purpose (to show that I've engaged and worked with others in producing the best documents under certain amounts of time), my goals (to show that I have gained some initial PWE knowledge), how to navigate through the webpage, and briefly discuss how I achieved my goals
2. A conclusion that restates what I achieved and how I achieved it
3. Separate the writing into processes with reflections that intervene between the drafts (with the help of the blog reflections I have been writing)
4. Design an easy, yet creative way to navigate through the pages and display links
5. Include an inspiration page with pictures of my daughter, fiance, nature, passions, my home, etc. that keep me grounded and motivated
6. Include an about me section
7. Inventory of classes (not sure if this fits with my new goals)