- Brief Introduction
- Beginning of Class Writing Assignment
- Click on the title of this blog post, “Week 8,” scroll down to the comment area, and write at least 250 words in response to this week’s readings. You can summarize the readings, you can relate the readings to your own experience or something else you have read or learned about, etc. Any writing of 250 words or more that are related to the readings are fair game for this weekly assignment at the beginning of class.
- Post your comment after 15 minutes even if you don’t reach the 250 word minimum threshold.
- Why we are doing this: It helps you organize your thoughts before discussion and it gives you regular writing practice.
- Discuss the readings assigned for Week 7.
- Morford, M. (2015, September 26). How not to be a networking leech: Tips for seeking professional advice. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/jobs/how-not-to-be-a-networking-leech-tips-for-seeking-professional-advice.html
- J. Bloch, “Envisioning career paths in technical communication: A survey of participants in a technical communication graduate program,” 2012 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, Orlando, FL, USA, 2012, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/IPCC.2012.6408639. [Download from https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/document/6408639]
- Department Website at Northern Kentucky University
- Dr. Block’s LinkedIn Profile
- Discuss internships
- Where is everyone at in work or applications?
- Write It Forward
- Weekly Log
- Remember to add an entry to your logbook for each week until the end of the semester and keep all of your logs in a single file (Google Doc, Word docx, OpenOffice odf, etc.). Include the first date of a given week for each entry at the top of the page. Write at least 250 words about your current or past experience as appropriate. For example, if you are currently in an internship, your logs should record your experiences, thoughts, challenges, solutions, etc. that you find significant each week. Or, if you have completed your internship, your logs can be about experiences, projects, interactions with people in the workplace, challenges, solutions, etc. based on your past experience. And, if you are continuing in a new internship for additional experience, you can write about that, too. The point is to write at least 250 words per entry with one entry per week about your experience in the internship.
- Why we are doing this: It helps you articulate your work experience so that you may better reflect on, consider, remember, and act on those experiences as you transition into the workplace. Additionally, it gives you extra writing practice, which research shows will automatically improve your writing ability.
- Review readings and homework for next week.
Janel Bloch, an associate professor in the Department of English at Northern Kentucky University. She received her Ph.D. Degree in Rhetoric and Professional communication from Iowa State University.
In her writing in “Envisioning career paths in technical communication: A survey of participants in a technical communication graduate program,” Bloch reports the results of a survey distrbuted to individuals taking coursework in a graduate program n technical and scientific communication at Miami University. At Miami’s universities graduate program, their goal is to help enhance communcation writer’s skills. Not only do they wat them to be good at writing and editing, but also being good at problem solving and critical thinking. During the time of writing this piece, there was a total of 36 participants in the survey. Miami’s graduate program gave students opportunities to teach undergraduate business or technical communication courses. 29% of the survey respondents indicated that teaching was a key benefit as well. Bloch also mentions networking and connecting with others is key to be successful in the field. Stating that networking skills help keep employment. Another important thing to keep in mind when being in the field is continously updating your knowledge of technology. She also mentions that keeping up with current technologies and trends is important.
Kimball discusses a study using a modified Delphi method. The results mentioned are from a study focusing on Education and Training. The four rounds of data collection consisted of surveys, face-to-face group and synchronous online focus group.
There is a worrisome factor within the three skill sets: basic writing skills, technical communication skills or strategic skills based on domain knowledge.
Overall, the research depicts that there is an importance of basic technical writing skills and traditional credentialing. Professionally, many felt hindered to further their career as a technical communicator. There is a conflict that arises in the mind between an ideal and real path to and through the profession.
Cal Newport writes about her experience with making a decision and sticking by it regardless of all the different obstacles you may have to overcome. She uses logic and it seems that she isn’t someone who determines her next step by the amount of love being felt towards the work. Instead of reminding herself that she is in a place of excellence and M.I.T’s standards she followed through by working hard and by staying there she learned more. Her overview is that passion will follow you and you shouldn’t follow it. She makes sure to mention that it will follow you but you have to put in the work.
The second NYT article spoke to the readers about patience and from a psychologist’s point of view explains how the reality is not the same. So, dont “follow your passion, foster it. Julia Child is mentioned to prefer someone who found her calling in her 30s.
Personally, I am someone who likes to put pen to paper, so the idea of writing down who you love most sounds like a good way to reflect. The emotion of seeing your own handwriting and recalling the moment/feeling you had when you wrote it down.
In Training and Education: Technical Communication Managers Speak Out, it talks about technical communicator managers’ view on skills and how certain skills are advantageous and becoming necessary. It also talks about professional development and how you can advance your career.
In Follow a Career Passion? Let It Follow You by Cal Newport, the author talks about her experience choosing what she would do out of three choices she got in the spring of 2004. She got to choose from a job at Microsoft, an acceptance letter from the computer science doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and writing her first nonfiction book. She had to choose what was right for her. The advice you get growing up is to follow your passions. Following your passion is not easy because it takes deliberation and if we are not careful someone’s true calling they could end up missing. Even after a choice is made, there is always doubt especially when work becomes hard. Doubt creates “anxiety and chronic job-hopping”. The right question is “What am I offering this job?” The wrong question is “What is this job offering me?” The author ended up going to Massachusetts Institute of Technology which she chose “mainly because of a slight preference for the East Coast”. While she was at school, the author wasn’t sure she found her true calling but as she grew more competent she knew her sense of fulfillment over time would grow. Now, the author is a computer science professor at Georgetown University who loves her job. The advice the author gives to young people who wonder if the grass is greener elsewhere is “Passion is not something you follow. It’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world”.
In Graduating and Looking for Your Passion? Just Be Patient by Angela Duckworth, it talks about how to look for your passion. You should not “follow your passion” but “foster your passion”. You should move toward what interests you, seek purpose, and finish strong. Finish strong is to work hard and do a great job as much as you can.