Today’s Plan:
- Reviewing Your Questions
- Coding Job Ads
- Homework: Brumberger & Lauer Reading and Discussion
Reviewing Your Questions
My question for you is about what the job market looks like for students graduating with their bachelors in English.
I’m going to hold off on answering this one. I think the first project will take care of it.
What is your favorite part about this course? Or, what is the one thing you wish all of your students would take away from this course?
We get to do stuff in the world that actually makes a difference. Internships are really, really important. Despite the generalization that internships are sketchy, my experience has been almost universally positive. Generally, students locate an internship opportunity via Linkedin (etc) and I work with them to submit the ENG 490 internship paperwork.
Thinking of a few internships the past few years:
- Molly Riggs, music blog writer at Audible Addiction
- Carl McDonald, grant writing internship with Impact Locally
- Rand Hooks, grant writing internship with Holocaust Memorial Organization
- Jasmine Day, social media internship with Go West Film Festival
- Katrina Jedue, editorial intern with the CEA Critic
- Keelie Reagan, Denver Scholarship Foundation
what classes available in the writing minor do you think are most beneficial and informative for creating a strong writer?
Obviously, all our creative writing classes. Prof. Zimmerman is amazing. But I’d also bring up Robert Pinsky.
After attending our first meeting, I felt overwhelmed, and wondered if I needed other courses to support my success within ‘Writing as a Job.’ I would appreciate your input and feedback based on my experience, as most of my classmates seemed to have a wide background of writing experiences.
Yeah, a lot of people in this class will have extensive writing experience. But that isn’t necessary to succeed.
I also want to ask for any advice you might have as far as choosing a career and sticking to it goes. I am not always indecisive but when it comes to my future I feel like it’s easy for me to go back and forth about what I want to do because I fear stagnation. I would hate to spend all this time in school studying what I think I want to do only for years to pass and later realizing that I chose the wrong path. Am I focused on the wrong things? What are your thoughts on it?
What’s nice is that writing is a meta-skill. It travels well.
Question for you: Genuinely, how the hell do creative writers break into the job market? I’m a very analytical person and I like to have a plan. And am definitely not stressed about making enough money to stay alive.
This one is tricky.
With that said, I do have a question for you, what is your favorite literary genre? and where is your comfort zone in relation to your favorite literary genre? (e.g. my favorite literary genre is poetry, and it is the most comfortable genre for me to write in, but I also enjoy creative nonfiction).
For reading? Murder mysteries. Almost all of my writing is either academic or philosophical.
How much do you use social media and do you have any tips for being smart on it?
I use it a lot, but mostly as a consumer/lurker. But..
Lastly, I would love to hear your insight on how to take professional writing or editing gigs: Should one work full-time, salaried positions or be completely freelance, completing small individual projects for a wide variety of clients, or somewhere in between?
Get a job that gives you medical benefits.
I was curious about what the requirements of the writing major look like. I only have one semester left of my graphic design degree, but a double major in writing is very tempting to me depending on how much longer it would take me. Also, have you looked any more into Blaseball at all since last Spring? It is still deeply fascinating to me on both an academic and general nerdery level.
A draft of the Writing major.
As someone just getting their toes wet in the sea of academia, I wonder if you have any advice. Do you enjoy working as a professor? Is there anything you have encountered along the way that I should avoid or seek out? What kinds of things can I be doing now to strengthen my candidacy for a Ph.D program and beyond?
Phew. Buckle up.
I don’t have any questions, but I hope you had a good winter break.
I did. I visited my parents in MA. Flying back to Colorado was nerve-wracking, since our original flight was cancelled, but we did manage to get back without catching omicron. Hidden cost of academia.
What was your first job experience?
Dishwasher, then pizza cook.
Without spending too much time, (I’m sure you’re a busy person) answer in what (just a couple) ways have you noticed the incline or decline in life, liberty, and/or the pursuit of happiness since the founding of America?
Phew. This one would take me bit to flush out. A few quick hits. Taxes. Wages. .
Income inequality.
I guess, if you could only watch one single TV show for the rest of your life, what show would you pick. Mine would be the cartoon Steven Universe.
I have questions.
What is your favorite game to play with friends, family, or both? This includes card games, board games, mind games, etc.
I play DnD twice a week. I play Dominion as often as my family will tolerate. I play Destiny 2 for at least an hour every night (often 2). I teach two courses on video game scholarship and research.
How do you feel about pets on furniture? Are you a snuggle up on the couch with Fido type of person, or does Fido belong on the floor or in his own bed type of person?
Practice Coding
We’ll get some practice in using my modified version of B&L’s coding scheme.
Homework
Read the B&L article (.pdf in the files section of Canvas) and the discussion post assignment by Monday at midnight (I will be reviewing them before Tuesday’s class).
