Reflective statement
Any Writing Arts major must take Senior Portfolio Seminar before graduating. This is an independent study in which you will write an Analysis Statement accompanied by key papers you've written throughout your career as a student here at Rowan. You Analysis Statement is a long reflection in which you defend how you have met each of the core goals/values of the Writing Arts Department. For your final assignment, I'm giving you a head start.
- Please write approximately 500 words (about 2 double-spaced pages) explaining your newfound comprehension of Value 9, listed below:
Value 9: Writing Arts students will have knowledge of the post-graduate options available to them in professions and/or graduate studies.
Outcome: Students will demonstrate familiarity with professions and/or post-graduate studies involving writing.
• How have you gained knowledge of the post-graduate options (professions,
graduate studies, internships) available to you?
• How has the WA Program (or this class in particular) prepared you to work in a variety of fields?
• If you are also in education or another major, how can you apply what you have learned in this classes to your teaching profession?
• If you are also in education or another major, how has this class prepared you for professional options outside teaching?
Jackson Baird's Reflective Statement:
If a student were to graduate with a degree in, say, Accounting, the next logical step for this student would be to look for a job as an accountant. For Writing Arts majors, the choices when it comes to careers upon graduation are not nearly as limited as this. Every organization needs someone who can write, and while the writing will be different for some companies than it will be for others, the fact remains that the ability to write at a respectable, professional level is a great skill to have.
To me, the best part about an education in Writing Arts is the flexibility of the major. Obviously the course material teaches students how to write, but as a side effect, students develop better verbal skills. Speech is just writing you do in your mind, so by extension of success in the major, students develop better conversational skills. With this being the case, employment as a lecturer, public relations ambassador, human resources advisor, and many other jobs involving public speaking or verbal communication becomes possible. Particularly through the Evaluating Writing course (but still present throughout the major) students also develop the skills to analyze texts at a deeper level than most people. Discerning the meaning, motivation, and value of any written work comes easy to any Writing Arts major who has reached the Portfolio Seminar stage of their educational career, so the development of cognitive skills is yet another side effect of the major that does not directly have to do with creating text. A career as a professor or any sort of evaluator of writing or media is attainable for students in the major as a result of this skill.
My area of study not only includes a major in Writing Arts, but a minor in Journalism as well. With this certification, the employment opportunities available to me expand by a considerable margin. After becoming accredited with a minor in Journalism and writing for Rowan’s school newspaper The Whit, I have accumulated experience in the field, and can use that experience to look for employment in journalism. My specialization is sports journalism, so potential employment with a newspaper as a beat reporter, or even freelance work as a sports reporter, is a distinct possibility.
Aside from my minor in Journalism, I have also become immersed in the school radio station, WGLS-FM. While performing on the radio does not explicitly involve writing, the two concepts are the same: use words to communicate with an audience in a way that makes them admire and respect you. I have taken what I have learned from my time in the Writing Arts major and applied it to my time as an on-air DJ. The expansive vocabulary I have accumulated, the feel for when proper grammar and improper yet coherent grammar should be used, and the establishing of tone are all integral parts of successful writing, and the same holds true for on-air performance. The jobs available to me in this field include employment as an on-air disc jockey, talk show host, and sports broadcaster. Radio and writing are more connected than one may think, and my application of what I’ve learned in the major to my radio craft has helped me gain the experience and confidence I need to find employment in the radio industry upon graduation.
To solidify my understanding of the careers available to me after graduation from Rowan University, I have enrolled myself in “Professions in Writing Arts: Post-Graduate Options” for the Spring 2015 semester. What better way to learn about my career options than to take a course that is dedicated solely to helping Writing Arts majors familiarize themselves with the job market available to them? I am certainly looking forward to this course in the spring, and I’m hopeful it can steer me in the right direction in terms of employment after my time here at Rowan has come to a close. I am very thankful for my time as a Writing Arts major. It has been a ton of work, and while it has been the source of much stress during my time as a college student, it has all been worth it in the effort to prepare myself for what lies ahead.
If a student were to graduate with a degree in, say, Accounting, the next logical step for this student would be to look for a job as an accountant. For Writing Arts majors, the choices when it comes to careers upon graduation are not nearly as limited as this. Every organization needs someone who can write, and while the writing will be different for some companies than it will be for others, the fact remains that the ability to write at a respectable, professional level is a great skill to have.
To me, the best part about an education in Writing Arts is the flexibility of the major. Obviously the course material teaches students how to write, but as a side effect, students develop better verbal skills. Speech is just writing you do in your mind, so by extension of success in the major, students develop better conversational skills. With this being the case, employment as a lecturer, public relations ambassador, human resources advisor, and many other jobs involving public speaking or verbal communication becomes possible. Particularly through the Evaluating Writing course (but still present throughout the major) students also develop the skills to analyze texts at a deeper level than most people. Discerning the meaning, motivation, and value of any written work comes easy to any Writing Arts major who has reached the Portfolio Seminar stage of their educational career, so the development of cognitive skills is yet another side effect of the major that does not directly have to do with creating text. A career as a professor or any sort of evaluator of writing or media is attainable for students in the major as a result of this skill.
My area of study not only includes a major in Writing Arts, but a minor in Journalism as well. With this certification, the employment opportunities available to me expand by a considerable margin. After becoming accredited with a minor in Journalism and writing for Rowan’s school newspaper The Whit, I have accumulated experience in the field, and can use that experience to look for employment in journalism. My specialization is sports journalism, so potential employment with a newspaper as a beat reporter, or even freelance work as a sports reporter, is a distinct possibility.
Aside from my minor in Journalism, I have also become immersed in the school radio station, WGLS-FM. While performing on the radio does not explicitly involve writing, the two concepts are the same: use words to communicate with an audience in a way that makes them admire and respect you. I have taken what I have learned from my time in the Writing Arts major and applied it to my time as an on-air DJ. The expansive vocabulary I have accumulated, the feel for when proper grammar and improper yet coherent grammar should be used, and the establishing of tone are all integral parts of successful writing, and the same holds true for on-air performance. The jobs available to me in this field include employment as an on-air disc jockey, talk show host, and sports broadcaster. Radio and writing are more connected than one may think, and my application of what I’ve learned in the major to my radio craft has helped me gain the experience and confidence I need to find employment in the radio industry upon graduation.
To solidify my understanding of the careers available to me after graduation from Rowan University, I have enrolled myself in “Professions in Writing Arts: Post-Graduate Options” for the Spring 2015 semester. What better way to learn about my career options than to take a course that is dedicated solely to helping Writing Arts majors familiarize themselves with the job market available to them? I am certainly looking forward to this course in the spring, and I’m hopeful it can steer me in the right direction in terms of employment after my time here at Rowan has come to a close. I am very thankful for my time as a Writing Arts major. It has been a ton of work, and while it has been the source of much stress during my time as a college student, it has all been worth it in the effort to prepare myself for what lies ahead.
Rob Josey's Reflection...
I came into the Writing Arts program with the intention of studying to become a technical writer for practical purposes. In the Dream World, I will become a successful author, writing best-selling book after best-selling book, with an affinity for dabbling in screenwriting from time to time and collecting a few Oscars along the way. But, I am a realist, and a career is my priority.
I love writing for any reason, so technical writing was not so much a hard career objective as it was an appealing option, but that was because I really didn’t know how much was available to me with a degree in Writing Arts. To that end, I must say the Professions in Writing Arts class was extremely beneficial. Never before had I heard of, let alone considered, so many applications for my talents. I came in simply thinking editing, technical writing, and journalism were all that there really was for job outlook, but I quickly realized I was very wrong. And happily so.
A creativity coach, for instance? I fancy myself a very creative individual, but a lot of times I struggle with bringing that out myself (staring at a blinking cursor on a blank screen is a recurring nightmare), but helping somebody else bring out the best in his or herself creatively? Now that sounds pretty cool. Or in a kind of similar vein, I can blur career lines and be a publicist. I think I have a decent sense of marketability and management, so why not?
Or how about a ghostwriter? I never really even knew that was a real thing—I was convinced it was just a way to insult a rap artist’s ability—but getting paid to write for somebody else, and having the knowledge that somebody trusts ME with their career? Sign me up, and gas my head up. Or I could just be a speech writer, and make others look good in that way.
A video game writer? Come on, that’s like every Generation Y male’s dream, man. A travel writer? Getting paid, going around the world, and writing about my experiences. Year after year. What a beautiful life. Or along those travel lines, an ESL Instructor? I could live overseas and teach, no problem. There are so many options that I had never previously considered that don’t have to involve editing or journalism, and I’ve become so much more optimistic and excited about my future chances. There are a limitless number of avenues out there.
The Writing Arts program has expanded my writing skillset exponentially, from refining my creative writing skills to establishing in me a business writing acumen to building new techniques to overall improvement, I am ten times the writer now than I was before I came to Rowan. The Professions in Writing Arts was the icing on the cake, opening up a world of possibilities to me. I have confidence that no matter what field of writing I pursue after graduation, I will not only succeed, but excel.
I came into the Writing Arts program with the intention of studying to become a technical writer for practical purposes. In the Dream World, I will become a successful author, writing best-selling book after best-selling book, with an affinity for dabbling in screenwriting from time to time and collecting a few Oscars along the way. But, I am a realist, and a career is my priority.
I love writing for any reason, so technical writing was not so much a hard career objective as it was an appealing option, but that was because I really didn’t know how much was available to me with a degree in Writing Arts. To that end, I must say the Professions in Writing Arts class was extremely beneficial. Never before had I heard of, let alone considered, so many applications for my talents. I came in simply thinking editing, technical writing, and journalism were all that there really was for job outlook, but I quickly realized I was very wrong. And happily so.
A creativity coach, for instance? I fancy myself a very creative individual, but a lot of times I struggle with bringing that out myself (staring at a blinking cursor on a blank screen is a recurring nightmare), but helping somebody else bring out the best in his or herself creatively? Now that sounds pretty cool. Or in a kind of similar vein, I can blur career lines and be a publicist. I think I have a decent sense of marketability and management, so why not?
Or how about a ghostwriter? I never really even knew that was a real thing—I was convinced it was just a way to insult a rap artist’s ability—but getting paid to write for somebody else, and having the knowledge that somebody trusts ME with their career? Sign me up, and gas my head up. Or I could just be a speech writer, and make others look good in that way.
A video game writer? Come on, that’s like every Generation Y male’s dream, man. A travel writer? Getting paid, going around the world, and writing about my experiences. Year after year. What a beautiful life. Or along those travel lines, an ESL Instructor? I could live overseas and teach, no problem. There are so many options that I had never previously considered that don’t have to involve editing or journalism, and I’ve become so much more optimistic and excited about my future chances. There are a limitless number of avenues out there.
The Writing Arts program has expanded my writing skillset exponentially, from refining my creative writing skills to establishing in me a business writing acumen to building new techniques to overall improvement, I am ten times the writer now than I was before I came to Rowan. The Professions in Writing Arts was the icing on the cake, opening up a world of possibilities to me. I have confidence that no matter what field of writing I pursue after graduation, I will not only succeed, but excel.