Post 2
This post is from June 28—sorry it’s taken me so long to get
it up here.
Working remotely has been going really well until this week.
My family and I have had a lot of guests coming and going, and I haven’t been
keeping to my schedule. It’s been hard for me to manage my time well between my
other internship and spending time with my relatives. This week, I’ve crammed
all of my work into a few days, instead of spacing it out. I haven’t left
myself enough time to do as much research as I should, and I am planning to
change that from now on.
I haven’t missed a deadline because Brian doesn’t really set
deadlines, but my usual schedule has been thrown off. Thankfully, Brian has
been understanding, and has rescheduled our meeting for the week so that I have
more time to write and spend time with my family.
I only have one week left in the UK and then I will be going
back to the US, where it will be much easier to manage my time and focus more
on my work.
Post 3
Things are still going pretty well. I just got back to the
states on Saturday, so I’m still adjusting to the time change and trying to
figure out my new schedule. I think it’s going to be easier to find time for my
internship because now I’m working fewer hours at my job.
I’m spending a little more time on my internship work now.
Instead of writing about a topic that Brian has assigned, I’ve started choosing
my own topics. Since I don’t have a background in marketing, it’s a little hard
to decide what to write about and then find information on it. I have been
writing a lot about social media as a marketing tool, since that’s what I know
the most about. I have been doing a lot more research than usual, and I have
ended up spending more time on research than on writing. For me, research is
the least fun part of writing projects but, since the subject matter is
unfamiliar, I know that I need to be doing a lot of research, and there will
only be more to come.
Brian mentioned that he is going to ask me to do a
collaborative project in the next few weeks with Amanda Schroth, who is also
interning at TTS. I’m a little nervous about it because I generally don’t like
to write collaboratively. Luckily, I know Amanda and, although I haven’t worked
with her before, I know that’s she’s a good writer and a nice person, so I’m
hoping that the project will go well.
Glad you're back and had a good time! Glad to hear you were able to have flexible hours while you were away and that things are a little less stressful time-wise back here.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds great that you're getting a little more freedom in choice with what you're writing. I understand your frustration with having to spend so much time on research--I think that happens to a lot of us when we know we have to work on something for so long and in so much detail before we can write it. But I guess the positive there is that it makes the final writing so much more credible and strong.
You probably know what I'm going to say about research because when the moment arises in class I'm always stressing how important it is, so, even though it's a pain, I'm glad you're getting into it.
ReplyDeleteLearn as much as you can about marketing. The field has loads of positions, and every PWRT Champlain grad has the skills to do it. Exposure on the job and/or through your own research and subsequent writing can open many post-grad opportunities for each of you.
The collaboration will be a challenge, I'm sure. You'll do well.
Welcome home!
I hope you had fun in the UK! I know I sure did when I was there. I thinking learning how to market your writing is an essential skill. A writer needs readers, but how does the writer go about appealing to those readers? It's interesting. Take lots of notes! Also, I envy the fact you don't really have deadlines. Oh, how I long for a world like that.
ReplyDeleteIt's really awesome that your boss is flexible enough to sort of let you make your own deadlines. I feel like it's easier to produce your best work in an environment like that, where you are given the chance to research and edit on your own without the pressures of a looming deadline. I'm sure there are downsides to it, too, but I'm with Cameron--coming from a world with deadlines, it sounds really nice!
ReplyDeleteI have worked with Amanda on a few projects before, and she is super innovative in her thinking a lot of the time, so it'll be interesting to see what you guys are able to produce together.
I'm definitely learning a lot about marketing, which is awesome. It's way more interesting than I thought it would be and it will definitely be helpful in my post-grad job search.
ReplyDeleteAs for the lack of deadlines, it is pretty cool not to be forced into time constraints. But it certainly makes it easy to be lazy, which is not good for a procrastinator like me. I have to set up deadlines for myself so I actually get some work done.