The article 'Virtual Realities: Transitions from University to Workplace Writing' was interesting to me on two levels. First, I feel that some of the information towards the beginning reflects upon what we have been doing in this class over the course of the semester. Second, I can relate to some of the experiences, both internship and workplace-related and have firsthand knowledge of some documents that were discussed in the article. I will begin by discussing the article's relation to English 306.
I noticed in the section on Learning to Write at School that there were multiple similarities to what the authors say is good structure for learning and how our education in this course has been. For example, learning "came about as a result of carefully orchestrated processes of collaborative performance between course instructor and students: the students learned by doing... more and more difficult tasks" (Dias, Freedman, Medway, and Pare, in Peeples 425). Such has been the case for us. We began with fairly simple interviews initially and reports to write that were guided by the syllabus and our instructor's directions. Throughout the months we have submitted increasingly difficult pieces of writing with which we've had more autonomy in design, structure, and even in their content. This final project report and presentation have been left up to us for the most part, with little input in respect to requirements. As future professional writers, we are left with the responsibility of deciding what is relevant and what is less relevant, in addition to composing a much larger and detailed document in which we must incorporate class readings.
Dias and colleagues noted on page 426 that students "were beginning to participate in the type of thinking encouraged by the rhetorical practices of their discipline." This is yet another thing we have done through building upon learned skills and concepts over the past several months. We have gone from a basic definition of rhetoric and some main concepts to direct application and a comfort level that comes with a solid knowledge base. We have, essentially, learned to think instead of just doing something by imitiation.
I noticed another quote that made me think of these blogs: "Initially, they picked up (and transformed in the context of their preexistent conversational patterns) the social language or register that they had heard" (Dias et al. 426). This certainly applies to what we have done here, as well as in our reports and other assignments, as does the following quote: "Through the mediation of an appropriation of the social languages provided by the professor's discourse and the readings, ... ways of knowing became ways of saying" (Dias et al. 427). In other words, we are successfully applying new knowledge to create knowledge on our own.
The second thing that I mentioned that I found interesting while reading this article was the description of the social work interns' experiences. Having been through college once already-- and then having worked full-time for a few years-- I have gone through the internship experience. I have dealt with similar problems in both the internship and in the job; in my internship, I felt rather isolated and not included. In fact, there was often very little for me to do and I felt rather unprepared when I went into my job after graduation. While working in a mental health care facility as a case manager for children and adolescents, I did have to do extensive amounts of writing. Much like the experience listed in the book in which the social worker is given cases on her first day, I was thrown in immediately, paperwork included. Luckily learning to do the paperwork (writing) was one of the easier, less stressful parts of my job. I did have to learn the manner of writing expected by my audience, which included other practitioners, the medical billing office, and Medicaid. I had to learn "how to say a lot but not very much" (qtd. in Dias et al. 436). This meant implementing the correct terminology as well as making sure not to divulge information so as to compromise the confidentiality of client-practitioner privilege. Many times I wrote letters to teachers, to outside organizations, or as recommendations in court cases. It was important that I knew appropriate format as well as what to include in my carefully-worded documents. I anticipate that this will be the case in any future jobs as well (that I will need to learn terminology and learn how an organization "prefers" to do things, requirements, etc.).
Because of the discrepancy between school learning, my internship, and real-life work, I strongly advise all students to get as much hands-on experience as possible prior to entering the workforce. The interview project we recently did was useful to us, I believe, in that we were able to get better ideas of what some professional writers actually do on a daily basis. This is one way of going about getting information. Other ways are the internships (as many as possible) and volunteer work. These things not only look good on a resume but also benefit students in helping us acquire new, useful skills.
-Jenni Schroll
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