Alexandra graduated in May of 2010. Young and ambitious, she now lives in Queens, New York, and works on the upper east side of Manhattan for Planned Television Arts, which is a division of Ruder Finn that specializes in book publicity. Her official workplace title is social media manager.
Like a lot of professional writing jobs, Alexandra’s job entails a bit of everything. As she puts it, she’s a “Jill-of-all-trades.” She runs the company’s interactive department, which means that she’s in charge of client management, recruiting new clients, crafting and submitting proposals and letters of agreement, and networking at industry events. She also manages a team of two full-time staff and two to three interns. As the social media manager, she keeps the website and blog up-to-date and relevant.
Alexandra feels very fortunate to be a part of such a collaborative work environment, and to have “an amazing dream team working with [her] within PTA Interactive.” She also has the ability to work on a wide variety of books — from social media marketing books to Harlequin romance and thriller novels.
She credits Laura Julier’s WRA 455 Portfolio Workshop and Dean Rehberger’s WRA 453 Grant and Proposal Writing courses for her success in the workforce: “In WRA 455, we were taught how to market ourselves for the workforce, and I gained a wealth of confidence and composure that I’m not sure I would have been able to tap into naturally. … In WRA 453, I learned to abandon my tendency to embellish essays and instead to compose concise essays that had clearly stated points and goals.” Two qualities she appreciates greatly and have helped exponentially on the road to a career.
Now living and working in New York City for reddit (reddit.com), Jena has found a niche for herself among its staff. As an entity, reddit is a community of strangers who rate internet content by voting it “up” or “down” in relation to other hot topics on the reddit.com homepage. Her job title is business development manager, which entails creating revenue-generating programs for reddit, like advertising and sales strategies for their web space.
Jena loves everything about her job. It is definitely an exciting time to be working in media, especially in New York City and at reddit, which has a passionate and engaged community. Today, she feels “lucky enough to be encouraged to spend [her] workday on reddit learning, exploring, and discussing.” With the opportunity to meet new, interesting people everyday, be it virtually or face-to-face, she’s quite excited to be a part of reddit’s team.
She attributes much of her success to her experience, some of which came via undergrad PW courses such as WRA 415 Digital Rhetoric and WRA 202 Introduction to Professional Writing: “In Digital Rhetoric, I was introduced to new tools that aid communication and collaboration and made me more curious about innovations happening online around communities.” While in the program’s intro course, she learned valuable project management skills. The PW program’s strong focus on internships enable Jena to find an internship at WIDE (Writing In Digital Environments), which she credits for giving her the real world insight she needed to advance in her work life. Jena is another happy professional writer in New York.
Ben graduated with a B.A. in Professional Writing in August of 2010. He is currently living and working in Grand Haven, Michigan, for Media 1, a learning technology company. Officially, his title in the workplace is web developer but he is often asked to engage in a variety of tasks that require different skill sets.
Says Ben, “The company I work for is a pretty small custom shop, so I am afforded the opportunity to work on a variety of projects.” Most of the time he is designing learning portal sites with Microsoft SharePoint, a content management system for large enterprise companies. Designing these learning portals involves using Adobe suites to manipulate and create media, then coding HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and XML. “Other times,” he says, he works with the companies’ flash production team for whom he manipulates e-mercials and creates learning modules. He also works with the content team, writing storyboards and scrips for narrators.
As PW professors stress, it’s versatility that defines a professional writer. What Ben enjoys most about his job is the flexibility. He is always invested in a variety of projects that mix up his day and keep things interesting. Whether he is working directly with clients and creating a customized website or providing the educational tools under the label of Media 1 that increase sales numbers for businesses, Ben is satisfied to know at this job, he’s making good use of his skills are well implemented and making a difference for a variety of companies.
It comes to no surprise that Ben is also grateful for what he took away from intro-level PW courses, especially WRA 202 Introduction to PW, WRA 320 Technical Writing, and WRA 260 Rhetoric, Persuasion and Culture: “Only when I came to my job did I find out how valuable the knowledge from those classes has been.” These are the courses that gave him the skill set to think critically and strategize about his rhetorical missions. A large majority of his work is web site development, and those classes taught him what he needed to know to design and build websites well. On a daily basis, Ben uses the skills he gained in WRA 415 Digital Rhetoric, particulary the emphasisis on teamwork. “Because of the collaborative nature of projects in that class,” he said, “we worked in groups (as you do in the workforce) to analyze problems, and creatively produce solutions to digital projects.”
For more information about Ben’s work, contact him at bfroese@gmail.com
twitter: Argylic
Steven Ong is an advertising junior who had just transferred to MSU when he was enrolled in WRA 150 last fall. As you can imagine, Steven wrote many papers in the course, but one may have opened up an opportunity that has changed his life. This summer, Steven will be interning in New York City, thanks in large part to a paper assigned by his WRAC professor, Stephanie Amada.
“We were supposed to write a paper about a possible area of interest that we had. My major is advertising but I also have a strong interest in fashion and Ms. Amada encouraged me to write about that,” Steven said.
Stephanie explained that this paper is an assignment in most of the First-Year Writing courses. “My goal for my students was to make sure that they understood what their major entails. I’ve seen a lot of students come in with a major that they don’t know very much about. Sometimes with this paper they realize they want to do something different.”
Steven’s paper ended up being about the fashion industry. One of the requirements of the paper was to conduct an interview with a “role model,” so Steven contacted a designer in New York named Zang Toi, who, like Steven, is originally from Malaysia. After contacting the designer, Steven got a call back, but not just for an interview; he was offered an internship in New York City with Zang Toi.
“I’m not sure what the internship entails yet but I do know I’ll be helping prepare for the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week,” Steven said.
He said he is nervous, but also excited about the opportunity he has been given. “It’s a stepping stone to see what I can do. I got another internship offer in Seattle where I’d be doing work similar to I currently do for The State News, but I decided to stick with the NYC offer because an internship should be a way to experience something I’ve never done before, like working for the fashion industry, as opposed to just doing the same thing again.”
Stephanie said she couldn’t be prouder of Steven and what he has been able to achieve with his work in WRA 150 and that she hopes to have similar experiences with her First-Year Writing students in the future.
Every year, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) sponsors the Academic Leadership program. The Big 10 Universities (plus the University of Chicago) select Leadership Fellows to participate in the program. Michigan State University selects six faculty members, and this year Ellen Cushman, WRAC associate professor, received one of the six.
The purpose of the fellowship is to develop faculty leaders who are knowledgeable about Michigan State and the issues that face education (budget cuts, changing student populations, increasing pressures from external sources). The fellowship gives faculty an introduction to the university beyond their college (for Ellen, beyond the College of Arts & Letters). During the next year, Ellen will be meeting with the other six faculty who have received fellowships and with university administrators. The MSU fellows will also travel to Indiana University, University of Chicago, and Penn State for meetings of all the CIC-ALP Fellows from all the CIC institutions.
The department congratulates Ellen on her selection.
In September, WRAC Graduate Student, Bonnie Williams got a chance to go to the IGALA Conference. WRAC asked her to describe the conference; this is what she said.
In September, WRAC Graduate Student, Bonnie Williams got a chance to go to the IGALA Conference. WRAC asked her to describe the conference; this is what she said.
Spring brings a whole slew of teaching and faculty awards to WRAC.
Phill Alexander (pictured right), a graduate teaching assistant for WRAC and a PhD student in the Rhetoric & Writing program, received the 2011 AT&T Faculty Award in Instructional Technology. He won the award for creating a content management system for his WRA 210: Introduction to Web Authoring course.
According to the awards committee, the award is a response “to the growing use of online technologies for instruction at Michigan State University,” and is meant “to both recognize and encourage best practices in the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.”
Alexander received one of the awards this year because he eliminated ANGEL from his classroom. While he agrees that ANGEL is an impressive content management system, he felt that a more editable and personal system would be conducive to his teaching style–so he created one. Using WordPress, Alexander developed a content management system that allows his students to review course materials, link to pertinent information, and share personal blogs and social media accounts (though the last feature is optional).
Using this system Alexander taught a course that was “100% in person, 90% online,” as he describes it.
Professor Jeff Charnley (pictured left) won the 2011 Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Humanities for his extensive and innovative coverage of wartime literature, memoirs, paintings, sculpture, and music in his IAH 231B: War, Moral Issues and Efforts to Limit or End Wars course.
In using his military experience and vast historical knowledge of war-time art and human responses, Professor Charnley is not only able to make topical connections to societal war response, to the experiences of the artists, and to the necessity for this art. Professor Charnley received raving reviews from many of his students, who were deeply interested and moved by the course curriculum.
The Fintz Award is a prestigious award; it intends to “honor teachers for distinguished practice and to encourage others to follow their examples,” according to Kirk S. Kidwell, director of the awards committee.
According to the committee, “In a field of very distinguished candidates for the Fintz award for IAH 211-241 courses, Professor Jeffrey Charnley impressed [us] with the innovation, creativity and rigor of his course, as well as the extraordinary responses of students to his teaching.”
Dr. Danielle DeVoss (pictured right) received the 2011 College of Arts and Letters Faculty Leadership Award for her consistently excellent service to the college.
The award, initiated in 2007, recognizes a CAL faculty member who has provided exemplary service to the college, and who has served as a leader in thinking, doing, and making across college initiatives.
DeVoss helped to launch the Digital Humanities Specialization in CAL; she has coordinated and run website focus groups for the college in 2007; she has served as a CAL URI mentor for several semesters. She also coordinated a CAL Faculty Community on Experiential Learning in 2009, and she has offered more than a dozen workshops for faculty and students in the past year, reaching an MSU audience of more than 2,000 people.
According to the awards committee, “this award seeks to recognize, honor and reward the kind of leadership that embraces collaboration and joint deliberation, facilitates active and deliberate problem-solving, and engages in goal-setting, and consensus development.”
While the pool of submissions was extremely competitive–a testament to the excellence the College of Arts and Letters contributes to higher education–DeVoss’s “nomination was the most deserving of this recognition.”
Special congratulations go to Alexander, Charnley, and DeVoss for their outstanding work.
Spring brings a whole slew of teaching and faculty awards to WRAC.
Phill Alexander (pictured right), a graduate teaching assistant for WRAC and a PhD student in the Rhetoric & Writing program, received the 2011 AT&T Faculty Award in Instructional Technology. He won the award for creating a content management system for his WRA 210: Introduction to Web Authoring course.
According to the awards committee, the award is a response “to the growing use of online technologies for instruction at Michigan State University,” and is meant “to both recognize and encourage best practices in the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.”
Alexander received one of the awards this year because he eliminated ANGEL from his classroom. While he agrees that ANGEL is an impressive content management system, he felt that a more editable and personal system would be conducive to his teaching style–so he created one. Using WordPress, Alexander developed a content management system that allows his students to review course materials, link to pertinent information, and share personal blogs and social media accounts (though the last feature is optional).
Using this system Alexander taught a course that was “100% in person, 90% online,” as he describes it.
Professor Jeff Charnley (pictured left) won the 2011 Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Humanities for his extensive and innovative coverage of wartime literature, memoirs, paintings, sculpture, and music in his IAH 231B: War, Moral Issues and Efforts to Limit or End Wars course.
In using his military experience and vast historical knowledge of war-time art and human responses, Professor Charnley is not only able to make topical connections to societal war response, to the experiences of the artists, and to the necessity for this art. Professor Charnley received raving reviews from many of his students, who were deeply interested and moved by the course curriculum.
The Fintz Award is a prestigious award; it intends to “honor teachers for distinguished practice and to encourage others to follow their examples,” according to Kirk S. Kidwell, director of the awards committee.
According to the committee, “In a field of very distinguished candidates for the Fintz award for IAH 211-241 courses, Professor Jeffrey Charnley impressed [us] with the innovation, creativity and rigor of his course, as well as the extraordinary responses of students to his teaching.”
Dr. Danielle DeVoss (pictured right) received the 2011 College of Arts and Letters Faculty Leadership Award for her consistently excellent service to the college.
The award, initiated in 2007, recognizes a CAL faculty member who has provided exemplary service to the college, and who has served as a leader in thinking, doing, and making across college initiatives.
DeVoss helped to launch the Digital Humanities Specialization in CAL; she has coordinated and run website focus groups for the college in 2007; she has served as a CAL URI mentor for several semesters. She also coordinated a CAL Faculty Community on Experiential Learning in 2009, and she has offered more than a dozen workshops for faculty and students in the past year, reaching an MSU audience of more than 2,000 people.
According to the awards committee, “this award seeks to recognize, honor and reward the kind of leadership that embraces collaboration and joint deliberation, facilitates active and deliberate problem-solving, and engages in goal-setting, and consensus development.”
While the pool of submissions was extremely competitive–a testament to the excellence the College of Arts and Letters contributes to higher education–DeVoss’s “nomination was the most deserving of this recognition.”
Special congratulations go to Alexander, Charnley, and DeVoss for their outstanding work.
Fiction 440: It’s flash fiction–complete works of fiction in 440 words or less–and it’s here in Lansing. No excerpts, no poetry, no exceptions. You get a prompt, you write the story, and you present it to an audience at a local watering hole.
Fiction 440 is relatively new. It is the brainchild of Aaron Matthews, an attorney heavily involved in the Lansing community and a friend of Jeff Grabill. Jeff says Aaron “was on a plane reading the in-flight magazine, and it had an article about flash fiction. He thought that this was a great idea and perfect for Lansing as part of the larger project to make the area more culturally innovative and engaging. He brought the idea to me, Ivy Hughes, and Suban Nur Cooley (both local writers), and we decided to make it happen.”
Why is Fiction 440 so amazing? Grabill explains that it’s low-impact, meaning it doesn’t take much to plan and execute the events. Additionally, it’s easy to access. As Jeff says, all it takes is “the desire to write, and a little courage.” And finally, there is a wide range of people who can enjoy andattend. Gathering “creative, engaging people together leads to positive outcomes for the community that exceed the sheer entertainment value of a flash fiction event.”
The atmosphere at Fiction 440 is amiable, comfortable, and full of people laughing, talking, loudly applauding, and cheering. It’s a no-judgment zone, and those who read their stories seemed at ease. There was a story about how life is like a John Hughes movie, a story about meeting Sting and following him back to his hotel, a story about a couple whose marriage is saved by dancing the Waltz, and a story about a groupie and her love for music(ians).
Fiction 440 is a great place to wind down, to meet up with friends, and to listen to touching, funny, and just plain good stories. Submit or don’t submit; you should come regardless.
Check out the website and come to the next Fiction 440. The prompt: include the words Ireland, flip-flop, and virgin in your story. Submit on the website. We hope to see you there!
Welcome to our department. We have played an important role in writing instruction in US universities for a long time. We were founded in 1944 as the department of Written and Spoken English as part of widespread changes in higher education in the post-war period. Such a department was fairly unique at that time, and our faculty were important to how writing instruction developed in higher education.
Today, we continue to lead and are committed to preparing excellent communicators in the culturally, technologically, and economically dynamic environments of the early 21st Century.
Manhattan for Planned Television Arts, which is a division of Ruder Finn that specializes in book publicity. Her official workplace title is social media manager.
Now living and working in New York City for reddit (reddit.com), Jena has found a niche for herself among its staff. As an entity, reddit is a community of strangers who rate internet content by voting it “up” or “down” in relation to other hot topics on the reddit.com homepage. Her job title is business development manager, which entails creating revenue-generating programs for reddit, like advertising and sales strategies for their web space.
for Media 1, a learning technology company. Officially, his title in the workplace is web developer but he is often asked to engage in a variety of tasks that require different skill sets.
college.
Why is Fiction 440 so amazing? Grabill explains that it’s low-impact, meaning it doesn’t take much to plan and execute the events. Additionally, it’s easy to access. As Jeff says, all it takes is “the desire to write, and a little courage.” And finally, there is a wide range of people who can enjoy andattend. Gathering “creative, engaging people together leads to positive outcomes for the community that exceed the sheer entertainment value of a flash fiction event.”
