TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
4. THINK DRAFT. Consider everything you write as just a draft of your initial thinking and words. I even draft e-mail responses. When I save my e-mails in Inbox Drafts and then return later, I always catch errors and reword something to polish those drafts.
A draft can usually be improved with careful rewrites that might also incorporate the comments of colleagues, a mentor, and/or reviewers. Multiple drafts can be expected. In the journal review process, it’s not unusual to submit 1 or even up to 3 revisions before a manuscript is finally accepted for publication. The process is brutal, but the final product is far better than the initial submission.
Theta Brain Waves. Stay focused on your writing. Think about how it can be worded more concisely and clearly and/or funnier. Sit back, close your eyes, relax, and try to visualize the writing on the wall…Oops! I mean your writing on your screen. When you’re relaxed in almost shallow sleep mode, your Theta brain waves activate free-flowing creativity and different words. Hurry and write down those words while you’re flowing.
Bedtime Thoughts. Have you ever gone to bed and, as your mind relaxes, all of a sudden a burglar you saw on a Law & Order rerun breaks in and steals your PC? “No?” Oh, sorry. What about: ideas that start popping into your mind about your writing that you must right down before you forget them, but you can’t find your glasses to find the Post-its and a pen and your alarm is still blaring from the break-in. (Grammatical Note: English professors call the structure of the previous elongated sentence a "subcutaneous conjunctive carbuncle.") Jot down your carbuncles quickly. If you don’t, you probably won’t remember them in the morning and you’ll have to go back to sleep to recall them. Hummm. Not a bad idea.
My next blog will tackle Tip 3: proofreading your writing. Although, as the author, you are the worst proofreader you could hire, you have to do it.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHY NETIQUETTE?
The term netiquette is the abbreviation of “network etiquette.” It’s not new, dating back to 1983, but it certainly deserves the attention of both veteran and newbie Internet users. Rules for corresponding on the Internet have been published in a variety of forms for nearly 30 years (see http://www.networketiquette.net). Some rules are for general use, but others are directed at businesses, social networking, and even online courses.
TOP 10 RULES: After sifting through several buckets of lists, I extracted 10 rules that seem to be appropriate for most professionals, but especially those who hang in the hallowed halls of higher heducation reading my lame alliteration in blogs. My sifting was prompted by a few abuses I have observed over the past couple of months on e-mails, listservs, blogs, and social network comments. These professionals should be smacked with a whisk broom.
Unfortunately, I admittedly can count myself as one of these abusers. That means I’m both a sifter and an abuser, which require two different articles in one sentence. Smack! Smack! Although the offenders other than Moi will probably not read this blog, maybe you can tell them about the netiquette rules when you run into them or see them being booked on Law & Order reruns or Castle.
BE A "MENSCH": You probably know and practice all of the rules in my list. They’re based on common courtesies and appropriate professional behaviors in the workplace. The general message is: Be a “mensch” (a Yiddish word, meaning literally, “Nobel Prize winning personality”). Actually, it’s a person with integrity, honor, and a sense of what is right.
INCIVILITY & BULLYING: The problem is that there are professionals who are not as sensitive to these rules as you may be. Incivility and bullying are spreading in the academic workplace. Those behaviors also manifest themselves in communications on the Internet. Cyber-bullying is on the rise. If this list raises the consciousness level of just 1 bully, then this blog series was a waste of my alliteration—a total failure. I’m hoping for at least 2.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
What better way to start off the week on Easter Monday then blog on profanity and vulgarity with a sarcastic rhetorical question? Talk about blogger’s license! Instead of an Easter Egg Hunt, we’re going on an Expletive Hunt. However, before we start bleeping out bad words, there is one additional bad news thought I want to add on the previous sexually explicit topic.
SEXUAL CONTENT AND INNUENDO (Addendum)
One addition to my previous blog is sexting, a combination of “sex” and “texting,” I think. Downloading and texting sexually explicit material from the Internet at large, YouTube, and personal videos in class or in the workplace presents another new set of problems. If it’s out there to abuse, the technology enables evil minds to find it and disseminate it. Stop it before it starts if it’s within your power to do so.
PROFANITY
You hear expletives just about everywhere. What the “&!%#” is going on? It’s pervasive in our culture and workplace. There are no boundaries or profanity ceiling. In water-cooler jokes and conversations with students and colleagues, usually their first or second sentence or fragment will set the profanity tone for the dialogue, hopefully not the barrage of filthy, Tarantino-type language. (NOTE: Quinton Tarantino’s Motto—“No Profanity Left Behind.”)
EXAMPLES: This "blue material" appears in all forms of media. What used to be considered the language of police officers, soldiers, athletes, and stand-up comedians is now used regularly by most comedians, foulmouthed TV cops and perpetrators (Law & Order: SVU, CSI: NY, NCIS, The Closer, Reno 911!), lawyers (The Good Wife), doctors (House, Grey’s Anatomy), and school kids (South Park). Movies rated PG-13 and worse are larded with gratuitous profanity. YouTube videos run the gamut.
LEVEL OF DISCOURSE: This coarsening of media in our culture suggests that nothing is sacrosanct. However, despite the increasing frequency of profane language around us, its use in the classroom is unnecessary and inappropriate. It cannot be bleeped out of your lecture or conversation with students. Whenever it occurs, its crudity debases the level of discourse and the “discourser.”
Please consider what you say and how you say it. Your students are always listening. Be creative in your use of our language and stretch your vocabulary, and, maybe even, encourage your students to do the same. Consider the plethora of unusual words you can use to express your elation or discontent. Don’t stoop to the lowest common denominator.
Next up is vulgarity. We’re coming to the end of this series on offensive humor and media. WHEW!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
For you CSI-NCIS-Law & Order fans out there, if you autopsy a conference presentation, you will discover 2 organs: (1) the content or WHAT is presented, and (2) the method/style or HOW it is presented. Both of these organs must be fully functional for a presentation to be successful. If you find any bodily fluids, you might want to consult your nearest physician for an anti-hallucinogen.
How does this lame metaphor translate into YOUR presentation?
1. WHAT: Prepare content that is understandable, meaningful, and useful to the target audience, and
2. HOW: Adopt an empathetic mindset on how the material will be delivered—imagine yourself sitting in your audience; what would you like to see and hear?
Think of these 2 components as stages in the preparation of your presentation. Let’s start with the 1st stage.
Stage 1
A few hints on preparation of the content:
1. Prepare the content that you want to present on your slides
2. Organize the content into sections or major heads
3. Type the head slides—they provide a structure for everything else
4. Type the content on each slide (You know the PowerPoint rules)
a. Limit the amount of content per slide
b. Emphasize main points, not lots of detail
c. Use lists of up to 6 lines with numbers, letters, or bullets
d. Use the largest font possible to fill the slide
5. Insert the content slides in their respective sections in order
6. Examine each slide for content to answer:
a. What’s the point of this slide?
b. Visually, do the important words pop off the slide at a glance?
c. How quickly can you summarize the info on the slide without reading it?
d. Make believe someone keeps screaming: Get to the point! Get to the Point!
e. Will you get bogged down in details or distracted from content?
Those steps prepare you for a super-deadly presentation, but you have a draft of the substance. Now, how do you transform that boring content into something special that your audience will never forget or, at least, remember until they get in their cars?
That’s Stage 2, the fun stage that will set you apart from the rest of the pack. You don’t want to miss the next blogorino.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
