I mentioned the other day that I was going to post my career memo assignment here since I felt that it's the appropriate place to do so. So, here goes!

My career plans entail a good deal of writing. My ultimate goal is to become an established and respected research scientist in the field of Vertebrate Paleontology. This will require me to be able to communicate clearly, primarily in writing, any facts, data, and information I gather to other professional scientists as well as the general public and non-scientists. Starting out by writing articles for publication in both scientific and non-scientific subjects will establish me as a capable writer and communicator. Once I am published, I intend to alter my focus towards the sciences, at which point I can work on writing books based on my personal research projects. In the meantime, while I am writing, and to make a decent living, I am hoping to get employment in the scientific research and consulting business where writing skills will be very essential.

My long term career plans are likely to take a great deal of time to develop. I already know this and am preparing for this as much as possible. I already have several research projects that I have chosen and even attempted to start over the past couple years. What I must do is focus and produce real, tangible, and useful results. The article writing direction doubles both as a solution to get my writings out there into the publishing world and as an income stream. I recently attended a workshop about freelance writing for publication which gave me a good perspective and the motivation as well as a lot of workable ideas to get started on. One of the most useful pieces of information I got out of the workshop was: if one has a certain topic they want to focus on, they can write articles that get published but also end up as material for a book. In essence, a specific series of articles can be relatively easily converted into chapters or sections of a book. The woman heading the workshop said that my focus as a geoscientist will be very beneficial to me. I have actually started implementing my work on my research projects: first, by choosing one project to start and focus my attention on; next, by starting my own online web log (blog) tracking my progress, and keeping myself accountable and on track with the chosen project; and finally, by continuing to take classes and workshops in writing and the sciences, especially those most useful to me and my plans.

In the mean time, I must make a living while I write my articles and work on my projects. The most beneficial field for my interests and capabilities is the scientific research and consulting business, where writing in various formats will be very essential. This also makes it possible for me to make more progress as an established researcher and scientist. I am hoping to put all this to some use in the very near future. I look forward to putting my plans to the test.

Well, that's it - in a memorandum nutshell! I don't know how well it was recieved by my instructor - but I am definitely thinking positive. She even mentioned helping me with my career intention statement for possible grad school. Since Graduate school is part of the plan - I do think I will take her up on the offer. Talk about wow! Things are really moving fast now - except I don't yet have much of the project itself to show. I feel like I'm constantly in the planning and preparing stages - but maybe it's more because right now I'm doing two classes and with other things going on right now - lots of my time is taken up focussing on everything else. Fortunately, I'm only taking the one course this coming fall semester - hopefully, that will free up more of my time to devote to the research and article writing - and job hunting.

Until next time, signing off!

Ideas and Possibilities: From the New Writing Class and Other Sources

It looks like the professional communication writing class is a perfect idea. It continues what I got out of the freelance writing workshop and adds some much needed job-related writing. It's going to be hectic for me with all the stuff I have to do - but it was a wise decision.

Also, I read some articles from the Creativity Portal newsletter from a couple weeks ago about generating ideas to write about and capturing them. The capturing part I already have a couple ideas about: five minute quickwriting or brainstorming sessions immediately or as soon as possible after the idea comes to me. I can at least get a one to two line bit written down somewhere in a lecture notebook or on a piece of scrap paper until I get a chance to run with it. This I can implement ASAP - hopefully to good effect. Right now the generating of ideas issue will have to take a backseat for a few days due to writing assignments and an upcoming oceanography exam next Tuesday. However, on a more positive note this generating of ideas to write about might be very beneficial for the article writing I want to do as an income stream and eventual career move for my research.

Speaking of research - one of the major assignments for this new class is a six to eight page research paper on an important issue within my career field. Perfect for me - the gears of ideas are already squeekily moving into action on that. Maybe I can kill two or more birds with one stone with this one. Assignment + article for publication + research project of my own choosing... Possibilities, Possibilities!!!

The first writing assignment for this latest class is a memo detailing my career and job intentions. Once I get it rolling along, I'll post it here since it would definitely be appropriate for this venue. I guess it will give a general idea about my career intentions. Psyched and looking foreward to posting again really, really soon - hopefully tomorrow! Until later!

Possibilities from the Freelance Writing Workshop

It's been awhile - but I've been busy - and unexpected things tend to happen when I least expect. I really didn't have much to report in about concerning my project - at least nothing of significance anyway. This past Saturday was the writing workshop. It was very informative and I do think it might be a possible income stream not to mention a way to break into the fields I want to work in. Since my interests are pretty far ranging - politics, social issues, education, the arts, etc. - this gives me a starting point. This is one of my three strengths as far as making this a workable route to success for me. The other two being my pretty good writing skills - I usually get A's on essays and term papers - and I have a focus to narrow my work towards. So maybe a wider focus will be best to start out and then once I'm established as a competent writer then start narrowing that focus into my desired field.

A couple other points were brought up: writing articles with the intent to publish a book with the material and wordiness. As far as wordiness is concerned, a professor from my philosophy of science days stressed pulling out any and all unecessary words. My writing style lends itself to wordiness - which in book format might be beneficial but in article writing is really not a good thing since word count and space is at a premium. She also mentioned that when staff editors cut a piece down for space they usually cut from the bottom up instead of going through the entire article and taking out those unecessary words - so, put the most essential information at the top and middle of the article. Good thing I know how to utilize the word count tool on my papers and I can delete unecessary words pretty easily. It's the cautious part of my nature - not to mention the perfectionist in me.

As to the book writing: she gave the example of a woman who intended to write a book and all the articles she published were parts of that book. She just tweaked it before publishing. That sounds really cool. Also, I liked hearing that some to most articles can be sold to and published by more than one publication - but whoever publishes it first gets naming rights. Apparently, most magazines and other publications tend to change the title to their own liking. Once the title is officially changed - it cannot be changed again later - by the author nor another publication. Also, one must mention it is a reprint before submitting it to other publications than the first.

She stressed noticing what we read in the newspaper and other places, to write as much as possible - everyday if possible - and research the writer's market for valuable information as to whom and where each article can be submitted. You can either have the article first and then submit it entirely in a cover letter or submit a proposal for a potential article and write it after the proposal is accepted. I think I like the first scenario best - at least for myself - just so I can write what I want and then taylor fit it - slant it - for the publication I submit it to. Also, I wouldn't be too thrilled with the acceptance coming through with a deadline four days in the future. Stuff seems to happen to me when I least expect or need it - at the most inconvenient times. The other way is more flexible - which I need right now. Maybe I'll look for some article writing tutorials to get my start. Plus, my professional writing class starts tonight - maybe that will help, too. Wish me luck - lots of it!!!

The old notebook with some past info about the Pleistocene mass extinction turned out to be my original attempt from the South American Archaeology class I took in 2002. There's a nice list of articles and books on the subject - and a 22 page handwritten rough draft - not to mention a relatively decent outline. Granted, it was focused primarily on the Americas but also is quite detailed. Also went to the Carnegie's exhibit on Strange Beasts: Past and Present - it was interesting - though I disagree with some of the explanations and assumptions about some of the animals. Most of the animals were from the Eocene, Oligocene, or much older - except for modern animal oddities.

Another interesting idea occurred to me while studying for the upcoming oceanography exam. The text mentions the peopling of the Pacific islands - like Polynesia and how many scientists and scholars have difficulty figuring out how exactly those ancient folks travelled so far between islands - especially Easter Island and Hawaii. The thing that occurred to me was that most of these scholars are in agreement that during the mid to late Pleistocene the sea level worldwide was significantly lower allowing people to cross the Bering Land Bridge. This lower sea level would also make more of the current seamounts and atolls emerge as additional islands - making island hopping much easier than current conditions would make possible. To test this hypothesis - we would merely have to find some evidence of ancient human habitation on some of these seamounts and atolls. Firepits among other things that might be preserved even after having been submerged for millenia. If this evidence is found - it would also force back the dates of earliest settlement of these islands - which still looks like guesswork at this point anyway.

Another bit to mention is that I have developed an interst in antiques over the years and was thinking about what to collect and specialize in first. Well, being a scientifically minded person - I was thinking of collecting old scientific tools, equipment, etc.- even antique models and books. Old spyglasses, sextants, globes, etc. - this sounds like a fun and challenging hobby. I'll have to see what's out there to be collected. Hopefully, I'll come across some intersting finds. And off I go!