Interview Activity

For this assignment I interviewed Laura Cheatwood. Before I could even look for an object, she handed me her necklace which she wears everyday. In fact, Laura admitted that if she doesn't wear it around her neck she keeps it in her pocket and she will turn around and go back to her apartment if she forgets it.

It is a simple brass pendant that hangs from a black leather chord. On one side is an intricate Celtic Star. On the other is a four branched tree with visible roots.

As she puts it, the star stands for protection, while the tree stands for growth. As such, she generally wears it with the star facing front and the facing herself. This signifies protection from external forces and internal growth. She does, however, sometimes wear it reversed.

The pendant was given to her in high school by an "ex-best friend for penance." Despite the negativity of the gift, she treasures it and would be very upset if she were to lose it.

For her is represents two different things. The first is that it is a link to her heritage and culture, being of Scots-Irish descent. The second is that it acts as a reminder to be careful of who she trusts.

Blog 2

In his essay “The Composing Processes of an Engineer”, Jack Selzer convinces readers of his thorough observations by listing the procedures he used to collect data. Some of the methods he used was having the the Engineer he studied, Kenneth E. Nelson, record his thoughts and answer questions before and after his writing process; Selzer would personally observe Nelson; finally, Selzer would ask questions pertaining to the recordings and observations.

Some of the things he does to prove this are that he gives are his lengthy explanation of Kenneth E. Nelson's background; the specific details he gives about events, such as "For one short proposal I observed, Nelson composed over 1200 words of his own"; or the quotes he gives from Nelson, such as "he does not 'see how anyone could write anything of any length or any importance without an outline.'"

In reality, pretty much the entire document is proof that Selzer thoroughly observed Nelson.

Blog 1

A few of the Job titles that Professional Writers hold are:

Technical: Explaining technology, giving information on how things work, how to use them, how to fix them, what could happen, etc.

Medical: Compiling information for medical journals, medication, medical equipment, etc.

Translation: Translating works from one language to another.

Web: Presenting information via the internet, often for a company or product website.

Inner-Business: Documents that circulate only within a singular company. Including memos, business plans, office manuals, etc.

Proposal: Putting together proposals for an organization.

Speech: Making speeches for politicians, business leaders, etc.

Media: Documents for books television , movies, internet, etc. about said television shows, movies, and so on.

I think I am most interested in Media Writing and Web Writing, largely because of the multi-faceted nature of the two. I also think it would be interesting to learn about the rhetoric needed for Speech Writing. Finally, I find interest in Proposal Writing, because it's needed no matter what type of business you are in.

I can't pin-point any singular aspect I would like to learn more about.