Shift #48 (2 hrs 10 min) - Small Group Meeting, Weekly Check-in & Writing

Shift #48 - Small Group Meeting, Weekly Check-in & Writing

Friday, July 12, 2024 | 3-5:10 pm CST/4-6:10 pm EST (2 hrs 10 min)

Details

Michelle Hurt, student/intern

Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor

This is a screenshot of my small group cohort. There is about 25 of us and not everyone can come to the same meeting due to schedule conflicts so my group was pretty small.

I always enjoy meeting with Judy and our small group cohort. Judy is very warm and welcoming and she has so much good insight to give to all of us. During these quarterly meetings, we share about our progress. At this afternoon's meeting, we did that but we also reflected on our research and writing process and also any thoughts or reactions from this week's accessibility webinar. There were a total of six of us and some of the participants were people I hadn't been in a small group meeting yet. When it was my turn to speak, I shared about how I've written my intro and am working my way into the first pirate profile. I mentioned that I'm working to find a balance of writing neutral, away from academic writing. It really is a pivot, a shifting of gears from academic writing to an AP-style blog writing style! I also talked about some of the main things I got from the accessibility webinar, which is the need for spacing and plain language. With spacing, it's good to break writing into multiple paragraphs and not write super long ones. Doing this, plus writing in plain language, will help readers to better understand my message. 

I heard the other participants share and it was really good to hear their progress and Judy's input into their work. I think it helps all of us to hear what's going on with each other as it can help ease any anxiety with our deadlines. I heard from a few people that while their research was good, it ended up spiraling - like, too much research was going on! They've needed to focus and I can totally understand that. I really liked when Judy said, "You get ideas when you write. You don't just write down ideas." Judy's input to me was to make sure I wrote a statement of purpose in my introduction, to show why I was interested in my topic and what I want to learn from it (because it will also help my reader to learn from it). she also told me not to worry too much about things I need to do on my first draft, like not worrying about conciseness this time around - I can do that during the editorial stage. Judy also encouraged all of us to show our drafts to someone on the "outside" (i.e. not a fellow intern) to gauge their understanding of our writing. She told us to let our drafts sit for a day or two before working on it again, because it can help us have a fresh outlook on our work. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up my research on James Jeffers aka Charles Gibbs (the second profile I will write) and also used some time to do my weekly check-in with Jennifer. This week, Jennifer had us reflecting on the job interview strategy, namely what would we say our greatest strengths and weaknesses are and how we would say those things during an interview. Overall it was a productive afternoon!