Newsletter Reflection: An autobiography

The process should have been simple, the execution clear, the concept refined.
There were a lot of things that should have been. I should begin by telling you that I’m not what one would call “creative” by nature. In fact, I prefer to think of myself as a rule-abiding perfectionist, a Hermione Granger, if you will. I enjoy outlines that dictate how an assignment should be completed, not “guidelines” that suggest which way you should go about. Unfortunately, I’m also a writer, and for some reason, every English class assumes that if you like to write (or in my case fix others’ writing) than you obviously possess a creative gene that is simply lurking underneath the surface. I would like to say that this assumption is entirely WRONG.

Now that I have gotten the formalities out of the way, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Sarah Kate and I am an Editing, Writing, and Media major. I know, I know, at this point, you are probably wondering why I chose a major that clearly involves aspect of a creative nature, but might I point out the very first word – editing. Yes, I am that girl that takes a RED pen to your work and destroys it to within a glimpse of life before handing it back to you. My best friend hates and loves me for this reason, but might I ask you: What would the world do without editors? They would suffer innumerably for their transgressions against the English language, that’s what they would do. And yet, as of this current moment, we have not even started learning about editing.

An atrocity against my very soul, I assure you, and please do not assume that I am being melodramatic, but for the past few weeks our class has received project after project that requires ARTISTIC skills as well as a loose guideline as to what we can do. Can I insert a most deserved groan of aggravation right about now? Creative. Wonderful.

Thankfully, the first project was a book cover that I was able to conjure from mine and my roommate’s imaginative book idea which translated into a strategized photograph taken by a dear friend whose gift with the camera far surpasses my own. So, I suppose I can call the first creative endeavor a success; however, our most recent project (while resembling a well-thought out and enchanting newsletter) served as the bane of my existence for the past few weeks. It will continue to plague me further, but I will get to that later.

As a college student, it is common knowledge that we spend time in the library; however, after these past two weeks, I can literally say that I lived there.

Let me back track just a little though.

Not too long ago (really, only a week or two) my teacher, while I dearly enjoy her during class, once again made me believe she hated us when she assigned another “Main Project” for class. The first one was turned in. I thought I was free. Nope.

This time, we had to take a rhetorical term (I received RHETORICAL KNOWLEDGE. How, I repeat HOW does one define rhetorical knowledge in 800-1000 words? I digress) and turn it into a Newsletter for Freshman Exploratory majors. Simply put, I had to make rhetorical knowledge an easy and fun concept for Freshman non-English majors. HA! Well, even if I hate being creative, I know there was no way around it this time. So, my journey began.

Like every good and diligent college student, I did the most important thing before starting a project – consulting my roommate. My goal was to make the Newsletter accessible, something FSU students would want to pick up. And that’s when it hit me – FOOTBALL. That all-American Seminole praised sport which even I looked at the newspaper to read and stood in the sun to watch. The topic was chosen.

Goal 1: accomplished.

Next was the concept. Again, you should probably insert an audible groan right around here because it happened. I found my topic, but how was I supposed to relate football to rhetorical knowledge when I didn’t know much about either? That’s when the research took over. While sitting in Strozier Library, a Vanilla Latte from Starbucks in my hand, and my friend and confidant Michael Dobrin at my side, I began looking through different articles on rhetorical knowledge and broke down what I thought were the main aspects of the subject matter (including audience awareness, Tone of Voice, Rhetorical Situation, and genre knowledge). After I made an outline for which aspects of Rhetorical knowledge I wanted to discuss, I fit each subject into a sports theme. I know you might be thinking that this is impossible, but I’d like to say that after everything was finished, it practically wrote itself, and ended up looking quite good. *On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it an 8…an 8.5…or a 9. Not, not over a 9.8 because there is always room for perfection.

The process took hours in the library, going over scholars’ journals on rhetorical knowledge and each individual genre; however, I found the most frustrating portion of the project (and you’ll understand why from my previously stated preferences) to be the creative aspect of the newsletter. Learning how to manipulate the document to be the correct colors and inserting pictures that didn’t want to fit into the appropriate space boxes had me literally growling at the computer screen. Also, I would like to inform any English majors out there, especially the ones that find themselves forced to be creative, that Netbooks are not the ideal laptop when it comes to these sorts of things. Actually, I’d like a computer with at least twice the amount visual space as the current one in my possession. Being able to see what I am working on would be a blessed relief after all these blasted constructions on the laptop which I have endearingly named Alex.

Again, I digress. After finally manipulating the newsletter to look the way I wanted it to, with the perfect shade of garnet and gold to correlate with my FSU sports theme, I proceeded to print out the final draft…only to have my printer (hereafter referred to as Jacob Nathaniel), curse him to the Seventh portal of hell, decided that he no longer wanted to work. Thank goodness for little miracles, because without the gloriously wonderful Michael Dobrin I very nearly would have proceeded to melt into a puddle on the ground in a state of frustration and distress. Luckily, the dear boy lived down the hall, and swiftly printed out a copy for me while I stood behind him and listened to him orate his newsletter (might I also put in that we are in the same class and had been working on the newsletters together).

I must ask myself if there was a message to be learned from all of this, as I know every well thought out story concludes with a moral lesson (much like every chapter from Little Women). So where did my moral lesson fit into this whole thing? I suppose, and again I must go back to my introduction, that I have more creative talents then I lend myself to believe in, and that it is possible for English majors to dig it out of themselves if they must, but we do not like to. Secondly, rhetorical knowledge is a downright difficult subject to wrap your mind around, no matter how well you know the subject, and explaining it on a simple level is even more difficult. Finally, and this is the one that I truly do encourage, is that friends are the key to successfully managing any project. You might be thinking that you can do something on your own, but let me clarify right now, that without the help of others, you might as well give up now, because eventually you’re going to need their help.

Well, that’s all. I know you were probably expecting some phenomenal story filled with laughter, tears, and dramatic situations, but as I’ve said before, and will continue to say, I am NOT a Creative Writing major. I’m an editor.