professionalization presentations ENGL489 Advanced Portfolio Workshop
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Need to be in touch with me?
LEE TORDA Acting Dean, Undergraduate Studies & Associate Professor of English 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com [email protected] [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
Open Hours for students (office hours):
By Appointment. Email me at [email protected] with times/days you'd like to meet, and I will respond within 24 hours. HOW TO ATTEND ZOOM CLASS: Click here to attend. Zoom room opens at 4:30. “Let’s save pessimism for better times” --Eduardo Galeano (Who is Eduardo Galeano? ) |
OVERVIEW
I used to ask students to work in groups and present on writing in and publishing in different genres. I realized, though, that most students needed a different sort of information. They needed help envisioning a career or tackling specific and mysterious parts of what it could mean to write for a living. One thing I learned in my career is that there are jobs out there that in a million years I didn’t know existed and didn’t know I could do—and didn’t know involved writing. I learned how to write in college reasonably well, but the real leap was when I entered the professional world. The same will be true for all of you, whether you think that’s possible or not. And so I have put together a list of specific presentation topics that are meant to help, as is everything in the class, move you from a student writer to a professional writer. There are six people in our class. I've picked six discreet topics. One topic per person. First come first serve. These topics are:
NOTE: This is a tentative list. On the day of the presentation sign up, if there is a subject that you’d really like to see covered in a presentation and it’s not included, I’m willing to swap some of my ideas out for you. But you’ve got to be specific and have a plan to lead a small group.
I will touch base with each of you, probably via email, to talk about things I either want you to definitely include in your presentation (and therefore want you to learn about) and/or resources I think can help you (including faculty and staff on campus I think it would be useful for you to talk to). When possible, I will also put you in touch with a working writer who can give you first hand information about your subject.
Your presentations will take place during the exam period for our class (17 December 2025). You will sign up for your presentation around midterm, giving you plenty of time to put a pretty short presentation together. Hopefully, folks will gravitate towards a particular presentation topic over another, but, if it turns out otherwise, some students may end up having to present on a second or third choice. Every presentation topic needs to have coverage .
DETAILS:
Follow this link to sign up for your presentation topic. Type your name next to the topic to claim it. We are a small class and a seemingly friendly one so if you have a topic you’d really like to do that someone else claimed, please reach out and see if you can reach a compromise. If you really don’t care, wait until others sign up before you sign up.
How You Will Be Evaluated
This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade. Similar to your author interview, there are only two grades to be earned for this assignment: an A or a C.
To earn an “A” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
To earn a “C” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
I used to ask students to work in groups and present on writing in and publishing in different genres. I realized, though, that most students needed a different sort of information. They needed help envisioning a career or tackling specific and mysterious parts of what it could mean to write for a living. One thing I learned in my career is that there are jobs out there that in a million years I didn’t know existed and didn’t know I could do—and didn’t know involved writing. I learned how to write in college reasonably well, but the real leap was when I entered the professional world. The same will be true for all of you, whether you think that’s possible or not. And so I have put together a list of specific presentation topics that are meant to help, as is everything in the class, move you from a student writer to a professional writer. There are six people in our class. I've picked six discreet topics. One topic per person. First come first serve. These topics are:
- Publishing in Small Presses & getting an agent (so, what is a small press to begin with—how do I find them even, etc). I’ve talked a little bit why knowing how and why to do this is important long term.
- Writing in the Professions (marketing, public relations, social media for industry and not-for-profit, technical writing, journalism, etc—careers that are not novelists and poets),
- Self-publication & ebooks
- Graduate School (MA, MFA, PhD)
- Freelancing
- Publishing and Editorial Careers
NOTE: This is a tentative list. On the day of the presentation sign up, if there is a subject that you’d really like to see covered in a presentation and it’s not included, I’m willing to swap some of my ideas out for you. But you’ve got to be specific and have a plan to lead a small group.
I will touch base with each of you, probably via email, to talk about things I either want you to definitely include in your presentation (and therefore want you to learn about) and/or resources I think can help you (including faculty and staff on campus I think it would be useful for you to talk to). When possible, I will also put you in touch with a working writer who can give you first hand information about your subject.
Your presentations will take place during the exam period for our class (17 December 2025). You will sign up for your presentation around midterm, giving you plenty of time to put a pretty short presentation together. Hopefully, folks will gravitate towards a particular presentation topic over another, but, if it turns out otherwise, some students may end up having to present on a second or third choice. Every presentation topic needs to have coverage .
DETAILS:
- Presentations should be ten minutes long.
- You should give your classmates a handout of relevant and useful information (like websites, the names of journals, of people, resources, schools, etc).
- If it’s possible to talk about how much a person can earn doing a particular kind of work, include it.
- It it’s possible to name specific titles of jobs include it.
- If there is a kind of education or degree or certificate or kind of experience that you need to be successful in a particular field, include it.
- If there are entry-level jobs or internships or places to publish that could help you prepare for a job in a field, talk about that.
Follow this link to sign up for your presentation topic. Type your name next to the topic to claim it. We are a small class and a seemingly friendly one so if you have a topic you’d really like to do that someone else claimed, please reach out and see if you can reach a compromise. If you really don’t care, wait until others sign up before you sign up.
How You Will Be Evaluated
This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade. Similar to your author interview, there are only two grades to be earned for this assignment: an A or a C.
To earn an “A” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
- Come prepared on the day of your presentation
- Have a thoughtful, good-looking, useful handout for your classmates
- Cover as much of the bulleted list of things to include as is possible to do
- Keep your presentation to 10 minutes.
- Not be boring.
To earn a “C” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
- Come prepared on the day of your presentation
- Have a handout
- Allow your presentation to run two or three minutes under or two or three (or 8) minutes over ten minutes
- Be boring.