Professional Self-Representation

Thinking about Conferences

In our “Area 3: On Research and Writing” assignment sequence, you are asked to develop a research proposal (due 10/17), a conference proposal (due 10/24), and an annotated bibliography (due 11/14, supporting a conference paper due in the final portfolio). To get us started thinking on this work, you were asked to do the following:

• Browse/explore/read conference proceedings: Making the Connection: Language and Academic Achievement among African American Students. Proceedings of a Conference of the Coalition on Language Diversity in EducationOR Conference Proceedings, Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society OR Rhetorics Change/Rhetoric’s Change(RSA, 2016) OR find one of your own!
• Search the internet and see if you can find examples of people delivering conference talks (preferably in our field).
• Locate a CFP (or two or three) for conference you are interested in. Search their websites for old convention programs (to read the abstracts for sessions).

Let’s discuss your exploration of conference proceedings. (I’ve brought with me some sample conference programs for your perusal. Don’t let me forget to hand them around!)

Writing a Conference Proposal

What conferences did you find that you might be interested in? (Let’s play with creating a proposal for it!) Here’s the basic framework I was taught:

C.V. Workshop

One of the documents you will include in your final portfolio is your c.v. I wanted, then, to spend some time working on these together. Please put together a c.v. (or revise your existing c.v.). In the next week or so, I’ll open a dropbox so you can hand these in to me for feedback. Let’s walk through some samples (and resources) to help you with this process.

CV Samples

• Cheryl  Ball 
• Danielle Nicole Devoss
• Gail  Hawisher 
• Aimee Knight
• Karen Lunsford
• Andrea Lunsford
• (Who else would you like to look up?)
• TWU cv format 

CV Resources

• “Your C.V. Should Inform, Your Cover Letter Should Persuade” (The Chronicle of Higher Ed)
• “Am I My Vita?” (The Chronicle of Higher Ed)
• “The CV Doctor” (Series, The Chronicle of Higher Ed)
• “From CV to 1-­‐Page Résumé” (The Chronicle of Higher Ed. On modifying your cv for non-­‐academic positions.)
• “How to Make Your Application Stand Out” (The Chronicle of Higher Ed)
• “Howto Write CVs” (The Professor is In)

Sample Résumés:

• “!0 Creative  Résumés  that Have  Gone  Viral” (Business Insider)
• “27 Beautiful Résumés  You’ll  Want to Steal”
• “(The) 22 Best Résumés  Any  Company  Has Ever Received” (Don’t be  these  guys.)
• Chronological (Microsoft  Template)
• Functional (Microsoft  Template)
• “How a Student Used Lego to Build the Ultimate Résumé  ” (Mashable)
• “Sample Résumé and Cover Letters” (from Harvard Extension School)

Résumé Resources:

• “12 Myths About Writing your Résumé  ” (Forbes)
• “How to Organize a Gosh-­‐Darn Good Résumé  ” (Codequeeze. A rhetorical  view.)
• “How to Make a Résumé ” (WikHow,  actually.  But it provides good coverage  of the basic  ways of organizing:  chronological,  functional,  and combination.)
• “How to Write the Perfect Résumé  ” (Business Insider. General advice  from career experts.)
• “How to Write a Great Résumé  and Cover Letter” (Harvard Extension School)
• “Résumé Workshop” (Purdue OWL)
• “This is What a Good Résumé Should Look Like” (CareerCup. Visual!)
• “What Résumé Format Is Best for You?” (Quintessential Careers. Includes samples.)

Considering Portfolios

Do you have a digital portfolio? Where? What’s its purpose? What is in it? How might you need to retool (or remake) it going forward?

Looking Ahead: Field-Forum-Audience Analysis

• Part 1: The Read-around (due 10/3, 10%)
  • How’s this going?
  • Here’s the ones I wrote, which I promised to post for you.
    • DL, Readaround 1
    • DL, Readaround 2
    • DL, Readaround 3
• Part 2: Field-Forum-Audience Analysis (due 10/10, 5%) It’s probably time to explore this one (unless you all want to wait until next week, when you hand in the first?)
• Part 3: Methodology Exploration Map + Description (due 10/31, 5%)

For next time:

• Read from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (How far should we read? We have two weeks to cover the whole thing. I’m thinking Parts I and II?)
• As you read, consider: 1) What conversations might people in your field be having about this text? 2) How does it connect to your own interests?

Exploring the Field (2:2)

Special Guests!

Tonight, we are honored by several special guests: Drs. Barker, Lanigan, Busl, Bender, Brown, and Souris.

Let’s spend the first hour or so of class in conversation with them!

Discussion of readings

McComiskey, Ch. 4-6

• What did you learn about the field?
• What questions do you have?
• What ideas do you have?
• What resources can we find for each disciplinary area read about for tonight?
  • organizations
  • conferences
  • ?
  • Let’s add them to the resources page.

Booth, The Craft of Research, “From Topics to Questions” + “From Questions to a Problem” (Ch. 3 and 4)

Writing Assignment Workshop

Let’s talk a bit about the read-around. Have you made choices? Have you started? How may I help? What can we workshop tonight to help you with the read-around?

Do you want to explore the next one yet?

Prompts, Area 2: Getting to know the field

• Part 1: The Read-around (due 10/3, 10%)
• Part 2: Field-Forum-Audience Analysis(due 10/10, 5%)
• Part 3: Methodology Exploration Map + Description (due 10/31, 5%)

Planning for next time

Let’s go find some conference proceedings, online, for next week’s reading. (I have a few, but haven’t posted them yet. I’ll do so tonight!)

For next time

• Browse/explore/read conference proceedings: Making the Connection: Language and Academic Achievement among African American Students. Proceedings of a Conference of the Coalition on Language Diversity in Education OR Conference Proceedings, Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society OR Rhetorics Change/Rhetoric’s Change (RSA, 2016) OR find one of your own!
• Search the internet and see if you can find examples of people delivering conference talks (preferably in our field).
• Locate a CFP (or two or three) for conference you are interested in. Search their websites for old convention programs (to read the abstracts for sessions).

Exploring the field (1 of 2)

Special Guests!

Tonight, we are honored by several special guests: Drs. Vivian Casper, Brian Fehler, and Gray Scott.

Let’s spend the first hour or so of class in conversation with them!

Course Website

I kept forgetting to send out invites, but I did, today. Check your TWU email. (It may be in the spam folder. It will be from WordPress. not me.)

• Let’s take a minute to set up accounts (if necessary), accept the invite, and explore the possibilities.
• I set you up as authors (which allows to create and publish your own blog posts). I *can* make you editors, giving you access to all pages and posts, if you like?
• Can I lock the site now?
• How might you use a site like this in your work?

Discussion of readings

McComiskey, Ch. 1-3

• What did you learn about the field?
• What questions do you have?
• What ideas do you have?
• What resources can we find for each disciplinary area read about for tonight?
  • organizations
  • conferences
  • ?
  • Let’s add them to the resources page.

Hayot, 1-3

Take a moment to review your reading and your notes. Then, go up to the board  (or we could use the comments feature below? preferences?_) and write us a little note for discussion. This could be a question, a statement, a quote from the text…..you decide.

Our goal tonight is to consider: What will be expected of me? What do I have to unlearn? What do I have to learn? How will I manage to get it all done?

Writing Assignment Workshop

Let’s talk a bit about the read-around. Have you made choices? Have you started? How may I help? What can we workshop tonight to help you with the read-around?

Do you want to explore the next one yet?

Prompts, Area 2: Getting to know the field

• Part 1: The Read-around (due 10/3, 10%)
• Part 2: Field-Forum-Audience Analysis(due 10/10, 5%)
• Part 3: Methodology Exploration Map + Description (due 10/31, 5%)

For next time

• Read McComiskey, Ch. 4-6 and Booth, The Craft of Research, “From Topics to Questions” + “From Questions to a Problem” (35-65)

Setting goals (and taking names)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Syllabus Change

Tonight, we start Area 2. Note that I’ve reversed parts 1 and 2, and shifted due dates slightly from what was in the syllabus. Below, you’ll see the due dates for all major writing projects this term. (We will also do some smaller assignments, like creating or revising a c.v., mostly in class workshops.) You can see that Areas 2 and 3 will overlap slightly.

• Area 2, Part 1: The Read-around (due 10/3)
• Area 2, Part 2: Field-Forum-Audience Analysis (due 10/10)
• (Area 3, Part 1: Research Proposal, due 10/17)
• (Area 3, Part 2: Conference Proposal, due 10/24)
• Area 2, Part 3: Methodology Exploration Map + Description (due 10/31)
• Mock interview seminar (11/5)
• (Area 3: Annotated Bibliography, due 11/14)
• Final portfolio (due during final exam period, 12/12)

CLASS PLAN

Discussion of readings

“An Open Letter to New Graduate Students”+ “What predicts grad school success?”+ “How to Be a Successful Grad Student: Insider Advice” + “You’ll Need Different Study Skills for Graduate School vs. College”+“Creating a Research Agenda”+“!2 Tips for Surviving and Thriving in Grad School”+ “10 Unwritten Rules for Success in Grad School”+ “We are not Imposters”

Did any of you take a strengths quiz of any sort? Which one? What did it say? What do you think of that? What strengths do you bring with you as you begin the work ahead of you?

Dr. L’s HighFive results

Our Course Website + Locating Resources

• I said we’d return to the questions of whether or not to lock or WordPress spaces, and whether you all want to be authors on the site. What do you think?
• What resources do you think you need? What resources might we have on campus, or locally? Should we spend some time looking for them, and linking them to our resources page? What needs remain?

Professional documents portfolio workshop:
discussion & revision of goals statement

At the end of the term, you’ll set up a digital portfolio, to include a number of items. In support of that portfolio, we will be building on the goals statement you handed in tonight. This document might turn into several others: a cover letter for your final portfolio, a statement of professional interests for that, or…? it might also help you articulate your interests in ways that lead to a research question, or even trajectory. “Just” articulating and planning towards achieving goals  is a pretty necessary academic genre, required in some promotion and tenure processes.

When I assigned this, we left it pretty open. I’d like to invite you now to add details (maybe?) and to continue thinking through and building on these ideas. Check out the addendum to the prompt, here, which I hope will assist you. You don’t have to have a revision of this done anytime soon. We are just going to see what this document turns into between now and the final portfolio. I’ll be returning your writing (with comments) next week.

Exploring “Area 2: Getting to Know the Field”

• Area 2, Part 1: The Read-around (due 10/3)
• Area 2, Part 2: Field-Forum-Audience Analysis (due 10/10)
• Area 2, Part 3: Methodology Exploration Map + Description (due 10/31)

Let’s take a few minutes to look over the prompts for your next writing assignments (or perhaps the next two?) and then talk through your questions and ideas. I’ve done this assignment sequence myself: they come to you through one of my mentors, Dr. Malea Powell (and I even dug out my responses to them for your amusement). Then I thought we might spend some time workshopping these in whatever ways seem helpful to you all. (We might start by doing some brainstorming and exploring together, then gathering into groups according to your programs and interests?)

Planning for our guests

I thought it might be a good idea to come up with a list of questions and topics we’d like to be sure to ask each of our guests? We don’t have to keep to just the list, but then, if you’re not sure what to ask, you’ve got this to pull from. What do you think?

I’ll bring the Keurig and some tea bags, too. Should we bake? (I love to bake. Any excuse to bake. LOL)

I just realized, last night late, that the email we drafted together never made it to me, so I wrote another and sent it out today. I’ve heard from the following, so far:

• 9/12: Brian Fehler, Gray Scott,
• 9/19: Ashley Bender, Liam Lanigan

For next time:

• Read McComiskey, Ch. 1-3 and Hayot, 1-3

Introductions (You, Me, Us/This)

I’d like us to begin as we mean to continue: in conversation about your goals and the work it will take to achieve them.

Here’s our agenda, and some resources to get us started.

While we talk, I’m going to pass around the inescapable first day paperwork.