The Start of Fall Term

I am a total nerd when it comes to the start of school, whether it was growing up or now as a college student. I love the opportunity of a new fresh start and especially buying cheap school supplies. This semester is going to be a busy one as I take on 5 classes and an internship. However, come December 5, 2011, I will be one class away from a bachelors degree. So it will be well worth all the hard work for the next 3 months.

I have mentioned in my blog before my internship with The Trendle Group, but never in great detail. The Trendle Group is a site selection and contract negotiating firm that I have the privilege to work for as an intern. I found myself with this opportunity after my Principles of Public Relations class, taught by Kate Strickland President and CEO of The Trendle Group.

Last semester I worked as an intern, trying to get my feet wet in the world of event planning and public relations. After having a job in the construction industry for 10 years, I felt a little behind when trying to compete with my peers. Thankfully, they have allowed me to come back this fall semester and complete my required internship.

It has been such an amazing learning experience and a reassuring sense of confidence that I am moving in the right direction with my career goals. I was able to use my contacts from the construction industry to gain my first client with The Trendle Group. I am currently working on their event but will wait to share details about that experience later.

I will try to keep my promise to this little blog space of mine to be more active. But for now, I must continue trying to finish reading the three chapters assigned for Mass Communication Research class. Wish me luck.

To my special follower Kelly Warren, my mentor and "the wizard", thank you for always encouraging my to follow my dreams. Every day I come to school I think of you and how I better make better grades or Benny is going to stick his boot in my ---.

Summer Semester Down...Two More to Go

Fall Semester begins in exactly 9 days, where did the summer go? Oh yes, I remember, I spent it in 5 classes at the Univesity of North Florida, worried about how I was going to pass Law & Ethics after a poor mid-term grade and fighting my biggest enemy, Accounting. But I made it, a few cuts and bruises, but I managed to make it out alive with 2-A's, 1-B, and 2-C's. As my dear friend Benny would say, Im going to stick this boot up your... I am not exactly thrilled with my 2-C's however, like some say at UNF, "C's get degree's!"

This next semester is going to be a doosy...5 classes and an internship. I aced my Public Relations Cases class over the summer semester, which gives me confidence, I am in the right field. I was also reminded my AP writing skills could use some serious work and I should really learn how to create graphics.

After this Fall semester, I will have one semester to go to have my Bachelors in Communication! After all this time, I finally will have my four-year degree.

I had a lot of wonderful experiences this past semester, a successful group project and a great internship. Here is to a wonderful all A's Fall Semester...a girl can dream right?

Time, where did it go?

The last time I blogged, I was in the middle of my first writing course at UNF. Now, I am halfway through my second round of summer classes, and I have to ask the question, "Where did the time go?"

The past couple of months feel like a whirlwind. I completed my first semester at UNF with 1-A, 2-Bs and 1-C. The C was in the writing course for which I started this blog. Overall, I considered it a successful start for my journey to a bachelor's degree.

I am now an intern at The Trendle Group, a hotel site selection and contract negotiating firm. I am loving this new adventure and finally feel energized about my career ahead.

There is so much I want this blog to become and I am making a new commitment to this space I all my own in the blogging world. In the near future I will post a few of the events I have put on, discuss in more detail my experience with my internship and try to apply my classroom experience here in the real-world.

But for tonight, I say goodnight, to study for a mid-term tomorrow.

Broadcast vs. Print

In my home I am a little ashamed to say we do not receive the daily or even Sunday newspaper, however, we do pay over a hundred dollars for our cable. Which raises the question, how much do people rely on the printed news versus broadcast news?

We started learning about writing for broadcast in class next week and so I paid a little more attention to the news. I was surprised how much the station I was watching incorporated online polls in their broadcast stories. They would discuss a story followed by what the audiences opinion was through the online poll.

I have to admit I do not read the paper on a regular basis. I know this is a bad thing considering I am a communications major but I just can't find time to flip through the paper that my son likes to tear apart. However, when I do read the paper it is usually the feel good section or special topics section.

I don't use the paper to get my hard news. I usually click on the yahoo story board to get information or go to the online article the ladies are discussing at work. I think a large majority of people are getting their hard news stories through mainly through internet but through broadcast as well.

The owners of the company I currently work for have televisions in their office, with CNN running on different days. They get the latest updates on whatever is going on in our world today. Today at lunch the restaurant had CNN and FOX News on covering President Obama's speech about energy sources.

The vast majority of our society has a right-now attitude approach to news. They want to know what is happening in a quick, concise manner. There are probably a very long list of reasons why, maybe the unrest in our world today has also created this feeling of urgency to know what is going on. Maybe this is a good thing maybe its not.

Learning about writing in the different types of media is interesting. Like I said before, I like sparkle and fluffy, so I am not really sure where I fit into this world of media writing. It sounds pretty naive but I just want to plan special events! I know life is more complicated than that so for now I will hope one day I will completely understand how to properly use a comma and when to use a hyphen.

Articles with Fluff or Sparkle: Profiles

Before Spring Break we worked on Profile writing in my Advanced Writing for the Media class. The teacher assigned us our partner we were to interview and we worked on the project for two weeks. My partner was so interesting, to a point I felt my writing didn’t due her justice. She was a teacher to young children, which spoke to my heart, because I want my son to grown up in an environment that promotes learning. In addition to that talent, she had lived in Belize, taught primary school there with her husband, and adopted her son out of her classroom, all after running away with her boyfriend. (Side note: Her boyfriend then became her husband.)

In class I sat staring at the screen trying to give this woman justice on paper. While thinking in my head, these types of stories are in the fluffy sections, as my professor refers to them. I like fluffy or as I like to call them things with sparkle.

So, I went to my local Times Union to try to find a profile to help me understand what I was learning in the classroom.

I found A potent pair: Gloria Steinem, Dorothy Pitman Hughes in the Skirt section of Monday’s Times Union.

I had seen these women on my local news station and was very interested to read more into their relationship. This profile article was written differently than our assignment in class. The writer provided a question and answer type article. The questions were printed in bold and the last names of the women were bold listed before their response. In my opinion it gave the article a laid back feel.

As part of our classroom assignment we had to create a web package for our profile, not literally but what would we include if we were actually posting our work on the web. So, I took a look at this article on the web and I was very disappointed.

The writer only included the picture that was printed in the paper. These two women are iconic, so why wasn’t there a link to the image that made them that way? Or a link or photo of the community garden they are promoting?

I don’t think I have ever paid attention to what a web article can offer its reader. After our in class discussion about what a writer can do or how photos, links, or maps can present the story, I definitely notice.

I think the writer could have put together a more creative web package. However, she might have been on a tight time restriction but I think it’s definitely something to think about going forward.

I think that while we all need to read about the hard news stories you find on the front page, sometimes we all need to read something with a little fluff or sparkle to lighten our day a little.

You can read the article for yourself at the link below.

http://jacksonville.skirt.com/articles/potent-pair-qa-gloria-steinem-and-dorothy-pitman-hughes 

BLOG CLOSED & RELOCATED: Read the 2nd entry of my old blog

Over the past couple weeks I have been trying to understand how to write a good lede. A strong, appealing lede so that I can make a good grade in my writing class and to be a better writer. In this process I have been scanning the local paper, The Times Union. It was not until today that I came up with this brilliant comparison.

A lede is like window shopping.

The purpose of a storefront window is to draw the customer in. The window designer must select the stores latest trends or newest designs and use them to put together a window that appeals to the potential customers walking by. A lede essentially does the same thing but with words.

For example let dissect the article, "Dark Chocolate Brightens Health Outlook" from today's Times Union Health and Fitness section.

The writer, Jodi Brindisi, does a great job, in my opinion, of capturing her audience. Her lede is made up of 4 simple questions each with their answer.

"Have high blood pressure? Eat chocolate. Have high cholesterol? Eat chocolate. Need an upper? Eat chocolate. Post-workout recovery? Drink chocolate milk."

In these simple 4 questions she draws not only the health nut in but also those who love chocolate. Who wouldn't want a reason to eat more chocolate? Her lede uses common, easy to relate to health concerns most Americans face at their doctors appointment to appeal to a broad set of readers.

Full Article from the Times Union Jacksonville Florida

BLOG CLOSED & RELOCATED: Read the first entry of the OLD blog

The inspiration for starting my own blog came from an extra credit opportunity in my Mass Media Writing class, I am taking this semester. In order to get a few extra credit points the teacher encouraged us to begin writing a blog that we could use for our professional career.

When I began my first blog, it was just an extra credit assignment. Over the past few weeks I have been really thinking about how I can use this and in what direction I want my career to go.

So, below is the first blog I wrote toward my extra credit assignment. I hope that you will see that this blog will become more of a combination of what I am learning in writing and my future goals.

1^st BLOG

A journey starts with a first step and a story starts with a Lede. The two are much alike, both can set the mood for what is ahead, they can be exciting or scary, encouraging or discouraging. But without a first step a journey would never begin and without a Lede a story can not begin.

The first step of my journey was my first class last night, MMC3105 Advanced Writing for the Media, with Professor Amy Parmelee. And in this first step of my journey, she taught my first lesson.

Lesson 1: How to write a Lede. 

In last nights class we began going over how to write a lede for a story. A lede is the first sentence in journalism. When given a set of facts, I learned you start by organizing your information into the 5W's & H. Who, What, When, Where, Why, & How. 

I was thinking, what would the lede be to my story?

Who: Whitney Croxton, PR student, new wife, & new mom

What: Getting my BA in PR

When: NOW

Where: University of North Florida

Why: to work in a job I love

How: by attending school

New wife & mom begins class at the University of North Florida, on a journey to receive her Bachelor's Degree in Public Relations.

That would be how I would write the lede for my story. Is it right or wrong? According to Professor Parmalee, a story can have different ledes depending on who is writing. Next week in class we will learn what can make a great lede, capturing our audience to read our story.

While the class lesson last night was how to write a lede, I learned a little personal lesson myself, Trust yourself and your work. As I sat next to someone who seemed to have every answer before we even made it to that question, I was thinking to myself, "How do I not know this?" I began doubting myself and wondering how I was going to make it through this class. 

While I was thinking I was falling short, it turns out the Mr. Know-It-All beside me, works in PR for the National Guard & had taken a similar class before up North. Side Note, Mr. Know-It-All was a very nice and polite guy. I was happy to find out that I wasn't stupid, he just had previously learned what I was just being exposed to.

After reviewing the first lede we wrote in class, seeing that what I had come up with was almost exactly what the teacher had put up, I learned to trust myself and my abilities.

With my first class completed and now my first Blog post almost finished, I am excited about this journey to be a public relations Major.

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go.” -Dr. Suess