Over the phone interviews not easy

Yesterday I came in to finish the diversity web text and the Upward Bound article.

Since I was mostly in need of quotes, I had to wait for a few people to get back with me. I think that is the most frustrating part of the job. I’m always connected – whether it be carrying my cell phone wherever I go, or checking my e-mail more times a day than I can count.

Since I had done the adviser interview Friday, I worked on that while I waited. That interview had gone very well and I had already written part of the article.

I was also able to finish the spreadsheet project given to me by Mark. I also took the time to organize the paperwork. Once I had them numerically in order, I was able to enter data more quickly because I didn’t have to flip back if I thought I had found a duplicate.

Since I had class Monday, I went home at 3 p.m. I then finally got a hold of the girl for the Upward Bound article. I interviewed her, took notes and then put it into the article. I was slightly annoyed while interviewing because there was a lot of noise in the background and that made it more difficult to understand her.

Lesson of the Day: Over the phone interviews can be a pain. Be patient and ask the person to repeat if you think it was pertinent information.

Blogging in Relaxing.

I think I like blogging on my lunch break…it’s relaxing.

Tuesday I came up with several different concepts for the Centralight ad, spinning off of one of my original concepts. At the end of the day, he came in and said he really liked my classified ad concept (I’ll post more if we use it). Unfortunately, there are no graphic designers available anytime soon to work on it. So more on that to come.

Dan brought me the page dummies for CMU Welcomes You and I started inserting the ads. That is what I spent the rest of the day doing. Some were very easy to do…and others were huge pains because the ads weren’t the right size.

This morning I finished up a CMUWY article with a quote about academic advising. I will be interviewing an adviser on Friday morning to finish up another article and am waiting on approval for my transfer student article. The Volunteer Center article is in between – I sent it for approval and it was returned with a few changes, but the woman said she might want to make more. Its a little frustrating.

Dan brought me two new projects – adding to an article about Upward Bound and writing the text for a landing page for a web page about diversity posters.

I have sent the landing page text to Sydnee to see what she thinks – whether I need more or less – because she has been with the project since the beginning.

I have not started on the Upward Bound article since I am waiting to hear back from a source.

This morning Dan and I talked about me working an extra day. It looks like I’ll probably come in on Fridays, since I have class Monday and Wednesday afternoons. But I won’t be in tomorrow since I had already made plans to go to Dow Gardens with a friend.

Check back later to read about the rest of my day.

Celebrate

This is a recent post on my other blog, A Step Ahead. As it relates to my internship, I will also post it here.

It is my lunch break at work still so I have decided to spend it writing…I often tend to forget that I get a lunch break. I enjoy my internship so much that I usually just munch on a sandwich while I work on a project. Today, I left my computer for lunch to celebrate. I went home and made an amazing chicken quesadilla. 

This morning I received the final edited draft for the web site copy that I wrote myself. It was assigned to me last Thursday. I was given a little detail about what was needed.”Keep it fresh,” I was told by Ryan, the marketing associate. Fresh? 

I spent the remainder of Thursday researching for the project. I generally only come in on Tuesday and Thursday but this was a project with an impending deadline. I came in on Friday, the day in which I spend my mornings watching the previous night’s Grey’s Anatomy and Lost on ABC.com, and worked on the web site copy. 

“Fresh,” I thought. “Keep it fresh, and write tight.” 

After I wrote my first draft, I counted how many times I used certain words. Since I was describing where each link on the web site lead, I had used the word ‘find’ nearly 20 times! ‘Learn’ was he runner-up, being used nine times. 

I went through and edited, thinking ‘how do I make this one sound different’ and ‘what word can I replace here.’ I replaced ‘find’ with different words in ten different instances. I used a thesaurus to help me use different words. 

I reread that copy so many times, editing and tightening up my writing as much as I could. Finally, when I could read through without changing things, I sent it to Dan for editing. At the end of the day, he brought in the edits. Other than some AP style mistakes, I had done good. 

I came into work on Monday (my usual day for sleeping in) and made the edits. I sent it to Ryan and he said it was great. Following my suggestion that we add a certain link, I wrote another short piece of copy and submitted it to Dan. He and Mark, the director of publications, were to edit it one final time.

This morning (Tuesday), Dan told me that he went through and edited it and gave it to Mark. Mark read through the first few and said it was fine and he wasn’t going to read any more of it. Dan basically said he was impressed. So am I…writing for a web site is harder than I thought it would be. 

Dan had Sarah, another writer, take a look at it. Then I sent it to Ryan so he could get it to IT.

I can’t wait to see the website. I’m sure I’ll post it so I can point it out and say, “I wrote that!” Yeah, its just web site copy but it is exciting because it will be used on CMU’s website. 

Lunch is over. Back to work.

Don’t settle for the first concept…

Today I went into work in the morning to finish up editing the website copy so I could talk to Ryan about it. I suggested to him that we add the library to the list of links because the library so I ended up having to write a short summary for Park Library and Clarke Historical Library.

I also completed one concept for the Centralight ad and created a second. I sent both to Dan for him to review. One ad focuses on the how being a Gold member saves you money, and the other focuses on how good it makes you feel to support your alma mater.

I sent Dan the website copy for him and Mark to do final edits before it goes to IT.

I also read up a little bit more on the man that I will be writing a story about for the Friends of Libraries luncheon.

Since I had finished up my end of the project, I headed home at 11:30 a.m. I don’t usually work Mondays and I have an BIO 101 exam today, so there was no sense sitting around with nothing to do.

Lesson of the Day: Don’t settle for the first concept. Always generate as many as ideas as possible before developing the good ones. If I hadn’t brainstormed so much, I would have settled on my first concept. It seemed OK at the time but it was much better when I had many ideas and sorted the strong from the weak.

Friday there were scattered showers and severe brainstorms…

Friday I went into work to write the copy for the website. Dan edited it for me. I had some AP Style mistakes. He also explained to me that with the web site, they do straight AP, but with the publications, there are some differences.

I also worked on concepts for the ad I am doing for Centralight. I was having major trouble coming up with ideas so I searched for alumni associations on Google and read about other school’s associations. I then filled a page of brainstorming to get my mind working. I came up with three concepts.

Lesson of the Day: If you are stuck in a rut, do some research to get your mind going and then brainstorm until you have at least one full page of ideas.

Plan ahead

Yesterday I spent the half the of the day at the second half of the project management workshop. I think I picked up a lot that I can use, especially when I begin planning the Parents Brunch this fall for PRSSA.

Although there were parts of the workshop that didn’t apply to me, I still learned quite a bit. I’ll post more soon, but one of the main ideas is that you need to take time at the beginning of a project to plan out everything ahead of time (or else there will be the “hassle curve”); figure out how long it will take, who needs to be involved, who is accountable for what, etc.

I got a press release in my mailbox relating to the one new article I have to write for CMUWY, so I pulled what I could out of that. I also did a little bit of research pertaining the event I will be attending June 14. I will be writing an article for Reference Point on the event.

I also proofread the PBS ad that I worked on. When I returned the file to Dan, he and Mark (the director of publications) explained a new project to me. For a new web page I had to write some copy. I will be working with Ryan in Marketing on this project. The page is especially for new students of the second summer session. 

Not only am I excited that I will be working on another project, but I also am going to get more hours (much needed since purchasing my car!!). 

Yesterday I researched it and figured out more about the links that I had to write a short explanation for. There were about seven main pages, with several other links to go with it. 

Lesson of the Day: Before starting a big project, do three things: Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead

Never save your best quote for last…

Yesterday I worked on CMUWY articles. I’m still getting in approvals and making changes. For some reason, my spreadsheet tracking everything related to the publication was deleted. I save every approval and email related to CMUWY in a file, so it wasn’t too big of a deal to go back through and make another speadsheet to track the approvals and anything else I am still waiting on.

Since there is a tabloid-style paper for orientation, Dan told me to go out and track one down. I went around campus and couldn’t find any. I called student publications and they said I could go pick one up from their office. My feet were killing me, so I returned to my office. While I was out, I picked up an orientation guide. It gave me a few more ideas on what I could do with CMUWY.

By Thursday, I should have the page dummies in and be able to start working on the actual publication. They put a new computer in my office with InDesign CS3. Since I had to drop that one class, I plan on stopping by the library today to get a book on InDesign.

I was asked to cover a story for Reference Point on a Saturday in June. I had to check my schedule, but it looks like I can do it. I don’t know much other than what the invitation says right now. Basically, it is a library luncheon with a speaker.

Lessons of the Day: Dan gave me two writing tips today: (1) Never save your best quote for last, and (2) Write tight – so tight that it will be hard for your editor to cut anything.

InDesign, Writing, & Editing

Yesterday was a great day. In the morning, Dan gave me a short tutorial on how to use Adobe InDesign. I had been using Microsoft Publisher for most things before. In high school, I did the layout for the newspaper with Publisher for two years. I caught on very quickly to InDesign. I practiced setting up pages with text and photos whenever I had free time during the day. Now that I have a basic understanding of the program, JRN 302 should be a breeze (in JRN 302 you learn to use InDesign).

I completed my article about Pridgeon and submitted it to Dan. He read it over and said it was good and pointed out a few changes that I could make. He told me that he wasn’t going to tell me exactly what to put because he “didn’t want to take away my voice.” He said the article would be perfect if we were going to be printing it that day, but since it is for a publication he said we can perfect it even more. I thought this was great because I am able to learn to correct my own mistakes and perfect my own words. I know that I am a fairly good writer, but I want to become even better. I can already see that this internship is going to help me do that.

So I went back through the Pridgeon feature. I re-worked the lead and discussed it with Dan. The lead seemed to be the hardest part for me. Dan told me to imagine I was telling the story to my brother…how would I start it? I wouldn’t start by just bluntly telling the important details. I would first intrigue my audience to get them into the story. I re-worked the rest of the article and sent it back to Dan.

Dan sent two stories about a coach and asked me to edit them into one for the Viewpoint. It wasn’t a difficult task, although the fact that I know nothing about sports was a little intimidating. Luckily, the “complicated sports stuff” didn’t need editing. I sent it back to him and he said it was fine and he just moved a few little things around.

At the end of the day, Dan said that I would get more stories to write soon and other things to work on. I also will be starting work on CMU Welcomes You soon.

Lesson of the Day: Write like you’re telling a story to someone to their face. Intrigue them and draw them in.