Do I have any writing tools?

It is Friday - finally.  I am happy that we have made it through this week.  I even managed to have the information ready for the audit next week at work and was able to leave early today.  It's always nice when you can start the weekend an hour early.  A co-worker is getting married tomorrow evening and I know she is happy the rain has moved out.  What a beautiful day it was today. 

This post is about writing tools that we use regularly.  What are they, how do I use them and why are they important to me?  I think I have said it before, but just in case - my primary writing is done at work.  It's letters to clients, spreadsheets that I use templates or previous spreadsheets.  Other than this required blog, I don't write.  I've never been good about keeping a journal or diary, have never wanted to write a story or poem, that's not where my interests are.  So it's hard for me to think about what writing tools I use on a regular basis.  I don't make notes or outline what I need to write for letters, I just start typing.  When I need to create a spreadsheet, I just start adding and then make changes as needed.  The most important tools I use are editing and revising.  I make sure that I read every letter, and edit as necessary before sending it out to a client.  I will also ask a coworker to review if I am not sure about the correct wording or document sections that may need to be referenced.  I think proofreading and revising are important to make sure the message is clear and concise, the information is accurate and essential to the document and it's not cluttered with spelling and grammar errors.  And I definitely thank the spell check function to help with the proofreading. 

I am off to have dinner, find The Graduate to watch and go to a wedding this weekend.  I marked several things off the to do list this week, but never enough, because as always, there is too much to do.

Online job sites

Last week was definitely one to be thankful it's over.  I missed a blog post, missed a discussion board follow up, didn't get near enough work done and spent the weekend with either a nasty stomach bug or food poisoning.  I'm leaning a bit more towards the food poisoning since no one else at work or home is sick - and I am very thankful that nobody at home is sick.  It's a new week, and hopefully I'm back on track.  This week I will be watching The Graduate for drama class.  I've never seen it so I have to solely focus on the movie to be able to participate in the online discussion.  We have an audit starting Monday at work along with a Board meeting to review and approve third quarter financials.  And my co-worker is out for the rest of this week at a seminar - there is a lot to get done in the next few days.  Now on to the topic of this post.

Online job sites.  I've never used one.  When I started working many years ago, it was done the old fashioned way - you looked through the newspaper, called each posting that looked promising, went and dropped off a resume or completed an application.  My next few jobs came from friends and family - personal referrals and recommendations.  Then I went back to the newspaper and happened to fax my resume to a headhunter.  The company she represented was looking for administrative support, didn't need experience in the industry and they were willing to train.  Honestly, I took the job because I had to - I was being laid off with two week severance and had bills to pay.  Through hard work I was able to advance and grow.  After 10 years, they closed the company and through personal referrals and recommendations, I'm at my current job for over 8 years.  How can these sites be helpful to someone starting out in the work force?  I think if you are new to the work force or looking to switch careers, online job sites can be a wealth of information.  You can find what opportunities are available with your skill set, training and experience.  You can see what additional experience or training you may need to acquire.  You can see what employers are looking for, where the jobs are, what benefits are being offered.  You can see new companies, or companies that are growing and expanding - find a chance to get in on the ground floor and make an impact.  I think in this day and age online job sites can be very useful in matching potential employers and employees - but I hope I never need to use one, hoping my current employer is my last employer.

Now it's time to wrap up and get some rest.  I've got a couple of busy days ahead to get ready for next week.  The to do list is growing, because there is always too much to do.

Bad habits

What a week.  It's wet, cold and dreary.  This weather is making everyone crazy, ill tempered, irritable.  Work and home are all over the place, add school into the mix, and there is no time to think.  I haven't made it to the gym in several weeks, my relaxing "therapy" time spent with my sewing machine has been cut short recently and with no outlet, it's all building up.  But onward we go.

Let's see what's on the agenda for school this week.  In Drama I had the Module 2 exam and our first major project which is a movie critique.  I chose Singin' in the Rain and I am watching it for the third time this week.  The problem is, I enjoy the movie and have to keep reminding myself to watch it for the items needed in the critique - camera angles, props, scenery, etc. and not just for the enjoyment of watching Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds dance together.  We are in Module #4 for Economics and I think I finally have the formula to calculate real GDP from nominal GDP.  And then there is Technical Writing.  We are approaching the time for peer reviews and have been looking at constructive criticism and what can be learned and taught with peer reviews.  I'm used to having colleagues review my documents at work and although those don't require an intense review, I am not too concerned with giving or receiving peer reviews for the class.  There is always something to be learned and having another perspective can be helpful in clarifying your original thoughts and writing.

The blog prompt this week is about bad writing habits.  Do I have a bad writing habit?  Should I change it?  Why or why not?  I'm sure we all have bad writing habits.  And what one person might consider a bad writing habit may be another's best writing habit.  Since most of my writing is brief, professional communication, I don't outline and plan what I am going to write.  I basically skip the first step of the writing process of gathering information, making notes, research and organization and just start writing.  I read and edit quickly and am able to complete the document and move on to the next.  Even with these blog posts, I don't think too much about what I'm going to write - I just start typing, read and edit as I go along.  Should I change this habit?  Maybe.  If I were doing an essay or more in depth project, skipping that first step would likely lead to a jumbled mess with the writing that would be difficult to edit and revise.  Do I need to outline a memo to the file about an asset that we purchased?  No, it's sufficient to start writing immediately, editing and revising as I go along and doing a final sweep of the entire document before publishing.  Is this a bad writing habit?  Possibly.  Is it going to change?  Probably not.  Does it work for me?  Yes and right now that's enough.  Because as always, there is too much to do.

That looked different...

I was reviewing my blog to provide a progress report to my professor as an assignment this week and noticed the posts did not appear uniform with font color, size and style.  Since Technical Writing is about design, layout, editing and revising, I decided to practice these skills and have updated all the posts to have the same font style and size.  Of course it's getting late and my eyes are dry so hopefully I was successful in my attempt to make all the posts uniform.  I'm sure the difference came from starting some of the posts on the blog and transferring to Word to finish and starting some in Word and transferring to the blog when completed.  Hopefully I can get everything the same going forward.  

It was Columbus Day yesterday and it was floating holiday at work.  I enjoy the extra day off, but sometimes those Monday holidays make the rest of the week seem to last forever with everyday feeling like a Monday. Here's to hoping this week will keep on moving and I can check something off the list.  As always, there is too much to do.

Page design

We made it through another week.  I can’t believe we are entering the second week of October. Thanksgiving (family vacation in a tropical place) and Christmas will be here before we know it.  This week I will be watching Singin In the Rain for drama class.  I’m happy to have a musical this week – I haven’t seen a good, classic musical in a while.  I struggled this week with economics – never could find the formula or figure out how to calculate the growth rate of per capita real GDP.  Even though we are moving to the next module, I will be asking the investment guys I work with if they can provide some guidance. 

Last week in Technical Writing, we focused on design and layout of writing.  We had to take a document that was not well designed and redesign it.  I found it easy to make changes and make the document my own design.  One of the major changes I made was to adjust spacing and alignment of text, and to me it was surprising how much a change it made to tab something over and delete extra space.  With my career, most of my writing is a professional letter to my clients or excel spreadsheets.  Although I will not be using all the aspects of design and layout in these types of documents, like font styles, colors, images, etc., I still want to make sure that the information is laid out well, formulas are accurate and understandable.  I can say the design is important for documents like brochures, fliers, pamphlets, etc. that are displayed in a public area for people to choose.  You want to grab the attention of the audience, make them pick your brochure over all the others and that is done with design – colors, pictures, different font styles and sizes.  Just like the other steps of the writing process, you should take a few minutes to design, and if necessary redesign, your documents.

I am off to start working on the first major project for Drama class which is a movie critique essay due next week.  For Technical Writing we will be working on Peer Reviews and starting the next module of economics.  Throw in normal work and family stuff and as always, there is too much to do.

How do I feel about writing?

How do I feel about writing?  I don't mind writing emails to coworkers, or letters to clients.  They are quick, short and have a clear purpose which is to provide information in an easy format.  Beyond that, I will never claim to be a writer.  I don't care for writing stories, poems, essays or book reports.  I'm not going to be designing brochures, or pamphlets.  Let's be honest - I'm only doing this blog right now because it is a requirement of my Technical Writing course this semester.  Will I continue afterwards, who knows?  If so, it won't be consistently once or twice a week, it won’t have a specific topic or prompt that I need to wax on about.  How do these feelings about writing compare to feelings about technical writing?  Probably about the same - writing is writing.  My view of writing hasn't changed with this class.  Sure, I'm learning about different types of documents, when to use them, how to format, revise and edit.  And can see the impact of having a well-designed document with graphics, fonts, pictures, etc., but overall this is not something that I will be using on a regular basis in my life.  My writing will continue to primarily be to our clients and presented in a professional manner which is not with colors and fonts, pictures, etc.  Is there value in writing, in Technical Writing?  The answer is absolutely.  Am I going to write more than I need to?  Probably not.

This week in economics the main topics are inflation and employment/unemployment rates.  I’m trying to calculate work force, unemployment rates, frictional/structural/cyclical unemployment, inflation rates, CPI, GDP, Real GDP, Nominal GDP, PPI, PCE, GDI, NDP and several other letters of the alphabet.  Of course, I’m using my standard 10 key calculator at work but keep getting the answers wrong on the rounding because I forget to change the settings on the calculator to go out a dozen decimal places.  For drama, we are watching Casablanca this week.  I also need to pick one of the movies from the first part of the course and do a critique that is due next weekend.  That to do list just keeps on going, because as always, there is too much to do, not enough ti