I’ve had the opportunity to go through all of your introductions, and I wanted to synthesize answers to your questions in one place. So here we go.
Where and when will this class meet?
Once I get back to Colorado, our schedule will be pretty simple. On Wednesdays, we will meet in the Ross Computer lab. On Mondays and Fridays we will meet in the traditional classroom in Candelaria.
What are we going to learn in this class?
If this course is a bit weird, it is that I don’t often teach you *how* to write. I’ll do a little bit of this–talking about genre, syntax, editing strategies. But this is more a class on what you can do with writing. You’ll take plenty of other classes that emerge you in writing. I assume that, even if you aren’t now, you will all be strong writers by the time you graduate. But English can be a tricky major, in that the work you do in a lot of classes doesn’t directly translate into what people will pay you to do. This class is meant to ease that transition and–especially for freshmen–to give them an idea of where they need to be when they graduate. As I hope the first major project will show, there’s a lot of different possibilities–I just want to make sure you have a sense of that range to inform the choices you make the next few years.
In our first project, we’ll spend a lot of effort analyzing job ads. Along the way, you will learn how to structure and code a qualitative analysis.
Generally, as we look at job ads, I will highlight 4-5 specializations for people with English degrees:
- Editing (hint: this can mean different things; you probably do not want to be a copy editor)
- Design/Marketing (someone has to create web ads, write copy for marketing emails, write marketing presentations, design marketing PowerPoints–these jobs pay well and are often looking for English majors)
- Grant Writers (these are for people who love research and writing; they are highly competitive, but if you can break into this industry, then you are looking at a high paying career)
- Social Media Managers (pretty self-explanatory)
- Sales (someone has to make phone calls and write emails to customers, give marketing presentations, manage and grow accounts, etc. English majors end up here more than you might think)
What technologies will we use? Are there technological expectations for this class?
The range of technologies depends on your specific specialization as we move through the course.
- Folks who want to work on document design will work with Canva, an online, template-driven document design site. This group could also work with Photoshop.
- Folks who want to work on social media will work primarily with Instagram; this project is less tech-heavy and more about understanding what kind of rhetorical research goes into managing the tech. Because we are developing content for a whole year for Instagram, it is likely that folks in this group will develop ready-to-publish posts in Photoshop. (but photoshop skills are not required to be in this group)
- There’s the opportunity to work on video-editing, which we would likely do with Adobe Rush (a lightweight video editor); I’d also love someone to design a video intro, which might require the use of Adobe Premiere. I’ll talk more about this possibility later, to see if anyone has video experience and wants to put this kind of project on their resume.
- The Grant Writing project centers around using the Foundation Center database at Greeley’s Farr library, in addition to a few databases at UNC’s library. This might not sound “sexy high tech,” but knowing how to use these databases really opens you up to grant writing jobs. I need at least 5-6 people to work on this project, and it is my recommendation for the book-loving-technophobes
Essentially, our extensive non-profit community project gives you an opportunity to think about what kind of work you might want to do after graduation and gain some experience doing that work, so you can talk about it on a resume or in a cover letter (or during an interview).
Do I need to buy a/the recommended book(s)?
In terms of the recommended books, you will *eventually* need to purchase one of the following. Don’t do this yet, wait until we talk about it as a class.
- Grant Writing: Karsh and Fox, The Only Grant Writing Book You Will Ever Need (Recommended)
- Document Design: Golumbiski and Hagen, White Space is Not Your Enemy (Recommended)
- Social Media: McCarthy, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips (Recommended)
Your choice should be determined by your interests/career trajectory. Grant writing is best for those who want to be “traditional” professional writers. It is a lucrative career path, and suits anyone who wants to be a researcher/writer.
Document design has benefits in a lot of different areas. It is a useful life skill. It also involves learning fundamental principles of accessibility and visual rhetoric that will carry over into other mediums (like, say, web design, video production, photography, etc).
Social media is probably the most self-explanatory. There’s a bunch of jobs out there today for people who can responsibly handle professional/corporate twitter, facebook, instagram, snapchat, etc accounts. I just got a message that the social media book is unavailable at the book store, but this shouldn’t be an issue. There’s a million of these kinds of books on amazon and virtually any of them will work (in fact, it might be better if everyone on the social media team buys a different book.
I was also going to talk about the possibility of an AP Style editing project, which would involve buying the 2019 AP Style guide.
I’ve done some creative writing in the past, but never published
You need to publish. UNC offers several possibilities for undergraduates to publish fiction and non-fiction, most notably the Crucible literary magazine. Austin Huber is on the editorial board, so talk to him.
More importantly, you should be an active member of the organization. They meet regularly–the website lists Mondays at 5 p.m. in Ross 1155–but I am unsure if that is current. Anyone is welcome to come by and ask how they can help. LISTEN TO ME: basically the only way to get a paying job is to do that job for free until you have enough experience that someone will pay you for it. If you want to be an editor, then this is an opportunity to do that work for free.
I think I want to go to graduate school?
Plan on coming to office hours to talk to me about this. I can help coach you through the process; I reviewed PhD applications at my last job for years. I will also make sure you are aware of the stark realities of the job market for higher education.
Why do you call cats “murder rats?
Here is a kind of explorational thought experiment.
If your dog woke up tomorrow and was the side of a horse, it would probably kill you. In its glorious excitement at seeing you, it would trample you to death. But it would feel really bad about it.
If your cat woke up tomorrow and was the side of a horse, it would straight up murder you without a sign of remorse. It would play with your entrails until it grew bored.
