Ugh! Excel and Blogger don't mix!

I've been playing around with some of the templates I use on a daily basis for my credit proposals. I want to incorporate these into my multi genre piece so I've been experimenting with the best ways to show my transition from banker to teacher. In a perfect world I'd be able to copy/paste directly from Excel, but of course, it doesn't work! So... I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to figure out a way to show what I've done, and this is the best I've got. Sorry for the crappy quality! I'll post some of the text underneath the image so you can see what it says a little more clearly.


Return on Equity: 100% - Based on the subject's love of English and desire to teach
Return on Assets: 0% - Based on the price, time injected, and opportunity costs of investing savings in other vehicles. The subject could increase her return on assets by continuing on her current course of action, moving up the corporate ladder, and securing a lofty executive position at the bank.


COLLATERAL ANALYSIS
Ms Leak has nothing to pledge for collateral for this request other than a small deposit account that was previously earmarked as savings for a down payment on a house. This entire account will be applied to the cost of attendance, however does not even come close to covering the whole amount necessary.


Note: Due to Ms. Leak's inability to secure this venture with anyting tangible, the loan to value of this request is extrordinarily high. The recommendation is that Ms. Leak stick with what she knows and stay with the bank where her career is stable. Although Ms. Leak states that this new venture will bring her joy, fulfullment, and personal happiness, these intangible ideas will not contribute to future cash flow nor will they increase income to a level higher than what Ms. Leak currently receives.

Here are two drafts of the same concept. I wanted to write from my mom's perspective about what she was thinking the night I told her I was going back to school. The first attempt is a poem that is supposed to be in 3 columns (use your imagination). The second is a before-during-after glimpse of what my mom may have been thinking that night.


Me
I have something important to tell you

I’m going back to college

To be an English teacher

I’m not moving to Troy

I’m not taking the promotion


Mom
Oh really? What’s up

Oh you decided to get your MBA?

Well… you love to read!

You’ll be much closer to everyone!

Sounds like you’ve got this all figured out

What Mom is Thinking
Oh God, she better not be pregnant.

I wonder how she’s going to pay for this. I hope she doesn’t expect a lot of help from me, I can’t afford that. I’m already a co-signer on her sister’s loans. She can’t keep her apartment and we don’t have room for her to move back in. What is she going to do?

How long is that going to take? Where did this come from? I thought she loved working at the bank

She’s going to get stuck in Ionia and never have a chance to leave. What about her new job?

I hope she’s got this all figured out.


Ash is coming over tonight to tell me something. She says it’s important and wouldn’t give me any hints, so naturally I’m pretty nervous. I hate the suspense, especially because I’m not convinced this will be good news. She seemed pretty chipper when I talked to her, but she’s good at hiding her real feelings. Hopefully I can read her face better than I can read her voice. Oh, she’s pulling in the driveway right now…

Ash is walking in the door. I can’t read her face yet, but she doesn’t seem especially excited or disappointed. Where did this girl get her composure? Definitely not from me. She’s sitting down on the couch. Should I bring it up? I know that she’s waiting for me to say something first, probably enjoying the suspense building around her grand announcement. I cave. I ask her what her big surprise is and she tells me. Wow! I did not see that coming. I’m in shock…

Ash is pulling out of the driveway. I’m still mulling it over in my head. She’s going back to school? Why? She has a good job and is well on her way to being successful at the bank. She has virtually no student loans and is throwing it all away to go back and be a teacher. A teacher in Michigan. A teacher in a state where there are no teaching jobs. I hope she’s not making a mistake. She’s so confident, though, I can’t help but believe that she will be fine. She always has been fine. Even though she’s always pulled herself through whatever trial she’s faced with, I’m still worried for her. I’m worried about what her boss will say when she tells him she’s not moving to Troy and taking the promotion. I’m worried about where she will live because she can’t afford her apartment anymore if she’s going to pay for half of her classes herself. She’s bound and determined to make this work for her, and knowing Ash, she will. For some reason, I’m still worried.

Epiphany of sorts...

Today I was sitting at work, listening to the drone of fingers typing and voices on speakerphone, thinking of a central theme for my multi-genre piece, when it all of a sudden dawned on me: I should write a piece about myself! Now, to most authors that probably seems a little obvious to be classified as an epiphany, but I had been so focused on that graphic designer snippet that I wrote and so when the idea came to me I could literally see the brightness from the lightbulb above my head. I'm in the process of switching careers. And let me tell you, this isn't a minor switch, like for example from a banker to a financial planner. Nope. This switch is from a credit analyst with a finance degree and seven years of banking experience on the fast-track to being the company's first female CEO to a high school English teacher. It's a complete 180! In Blending Genre, Altering Style, Romano shows an example of another young woman making the switch out of a science major into a teaching major. Yesterday, when I read that, I thought it was interesting and creative. However, I didn't realize the genius behind it until this afternoon when I started thinking of my own piece. In my previous post, I listed genres and stated that I didn't know how a credit proposal would fit into my multi genre writing, but I've figured it out! My whole piece will be modeled after the credit proposals that I write on a daily basis. I can incorporate different genres into the different sections that focus on specific aspects of the loans I underwrite: Request, Purpose, Sources and Uses, Collateral Analysis, Officer Comments, Credit Comments... I'm really liking the possibilities that are floating around in my lil head! I'm even brainstorming ways to tie in financial statements...

Stay tuned as I share bits and pieces of firsts and final drafts as I begin writing my first multi-genre piece!

Multi-Genre Papers

I'm now reading Tom Romano's Blending Genre, Altering Style and I'm feeling inspired after only 40 pages. The entire second chapter, devoted to an example of a multi-genre piece, captivated my attention and I found myself not wanting it to end. I'm sure part of that feeling was because it dealt with cosmetics and department stores, two things with which I am very familiar, but I also think it appealed to me because of the variety of genres and the underlying tone conveyed throughout the entire piece. Each piece was interesting on its own, but when put together, the result blew my mind. This was the first multi-genre piece that I've read and it definitely won't be the last. I'm hoping to write my own by the end of this class, and I'm toying with the idea of expanding the short characterization I wrote in a previous post into something more complex and well-rounded.

One of the elements I liked best in Jennifer Sorensen's "Cosmetic Clips" was her imaginative use of unexpected genres such as a help wanted ad, excerpts from a training manual, a letter from an employee to a customer, and a script for a P. A. announcement. She took the genre and molded it to show what she wanted to say; altered it so it was a tongue-in-cheek representation of what actually happens behind a cosmetics counter.

She inspired me to brainstorm some unexpected genres I could use in my own piece. My head is swimming with ideas of what I could write about. I like the idea of including my graphic design character and showing the contrast and tension between she and a more "normal" girl in her school. I'm thinking the two characters are paired up for a project and realize they are actually more alike than they thought. Right now that sounds kind of cheesy and over done, but I guess it's a starting point. I'm envisioning going back and forth between the girls' minds and showing their own personal insecurities through descriptions of one another, samples of their work, excerpts from things in their daily lives, and have the piece culminate with a sample of the project on which they were assigned. Some of the genres I've thought about that are a little more interesting to me are:

• Party Invitation
• Excerpt from a daily planner
• Lesson Plan
• Morning Announcements
• Credit Proposal (this probably wouldn't fit within the scenario I've created, but this is the type of writing I do at my banking job and I think it would be interesting to see how I could modify it to fit into a multi-genre piece)
• Photography
• Sales Slip
• Shopping List
• Recipes
• A two person poem like the one by Brienne Cummings on page 6 of a multi-genre piece about Laurie Halse Andersen's Speak
• Yearbook signatures/notes

I'm a little petrified of taking on the task of writing a piece like this. It seems overwhelming with all of the options. But I'm excited at the same time. I think this is a good chance for me to use some of the methods I've previously read about and really challenge myself to think about how all genres of writing can be used to convey meaning.

Peter Elbow and my Blue Post-Its

In my previous post I mentioned my new method of reading and my color coding sytem for my thoughts. As I glanced at the blue Post-it dominated first half of Writing Without Teachers, I decided I should post about some of the memorable quotes I've come across. Some of these jumped out at me because I saw myself in what he was saying, and others are passages that spoke to me in one way or another.

Pg 15: “Writing is, in fact, a transaction with words whereby you free yourself from what you presently think, feel, and perceive. You make available to yourself something better than what you’d be stuck with if you’d actually succeeded in making your meaning clear at the start.” This struck me because of the word free. It is an interesting concept that the words and thoughts are actually holding me captive until I can get them out of my head and down onto paper. Once they’re out, I can see them more clearly and better understand what they mean than if I tried to write fully formed thoughts from the beginning.

Pg 25: “’Trying to write well’ for most people means constantly stopping, pondering, and searching for better words. If this is true of you, then stop ‘trying to write well.’ Otherwise you will never write well.” I felt like he said, “Ashley Marie Leak, listen up right now!” because that’s exactly what I do. I am constantly looking for the most articulate way to say something as I write and I often lose the next thought I wanted to write about because I’m too worried about writing the current thought in the most effective way. I’m actually hurting my articulation because I’m forgetting and overshadowing some of the words and thoughts I want to write about in my attempt to make other thoughts more powerful the first time through(and only time through, usually).

Pg. 34: “You can encourage richness and chaos by encouraging digressions.” I think this quote should be on the wall of every writing/English teacher’s classroom. I digress so often, sometimes I lose my original train of thought and continue by making my digression my main point. I thought this meant that I have an unorganized mind (which is true) and that it is a bad thing, but Elbow has made me feel like I’m actually doing something right in my writing process. Now, if I can just train myself to continue writing about the digression and then reshaping my writing with a second draft instead of trying to change the entire first draft I'll be in good shape!

Pg 36: “If you refrain from doing it [writing] badly, you will never learn to do it at all.” It seems somewhat paradoxical, but it’s true. It’s difficult for me to write something when I know it’s crap. I feel like I’m wasting my time! But, what this book and Bird by Bird have make me realize is that even if only 1% of your first draft makes it to your final polished piece, it was necessary to write the crap in order to clear your head, get the thoughts out, and figure out what you want to say.

A Quick Reflection on my First Week

I've developed a new way of reading, which is something I probably should have done a long time ago. I'm not the type of person to take notes as I read because I find it distracting. However, as I began my independent study course in writing, I knew I had to change some of my habits if I wanted to effectively convey the thoughts I had while reading the required texts. So, I dug through my desk drawers and pulled out my 4-pack of neon Post-its (with dispensers) and a category for each color: blue for interesting quotes, orange for questions I had, green for "musings" or passages that I wanted to comment on, and pink for anything else (which has developed into flagging a theory or process that I want to try). Armed with my pen and post-its I set out to read in a completely new way.

So far, I've found that it's not as distracting as I thought. I prefer writing my thoughts on post-its and then typing them into my journal at a later time. I've found that it's not the note taking that distracts me, it's switching back and forth from book to laptop (which usually means a quick check of Facebook and Google Reader) that takes me away from my intended task. I like the color coding system I developed because it's a quick visual way for me to see what parts have made an impression, and in what way. I've found that I'm thinking on a higher level as I read. I've switched from reading for pleasure or information and started reading from a more critical perspective.

In addition to Bird by Bird I’ve also been reading Writing Without Teachers by Peter Elbow. Elbow is a gifted writer as he demonstrates in the introduction. He is funny in a self-deprecating way, but never seems as if he’s trying too hard to get a laugh from the reader. He also has some great ideas for helping uncover the writer within. One of these ideas is by doing three freewrites a week. Freewriting is when a writer (or anyone, actually) writes constantly for about 10 or 15 minutes. Elbow advises to keep writing no matter what, even if all that comes out is the same word repeated over and over. This exercise is to try and get all of the garbage out of the mind with expectations of finding something usable in all of the rambling. Similar to Lamott’s idea of “shitty first drafts,” this is another way for writers to write with no daunting expectations and then go back and see if anything interesting emerged.

I tried my first freewrite today, and I found it unexpectedly liberating. I set the alarm on my cell phone for 10 minutes and ended up writing for about a minute after the beeping interrupted me. The main problem I had was fighting my urge to go back and correct my mistakes. Before I attempt my next freewrite, I’ve decided I need to turn off the option that gives me the red and green squiggle marks under spelling and grammar mistakes. It was almost an obsessive-compulsive drive that made me want me to eliminate all the little reminders of my errors. As I reread through my freewrite, I didn’t really see anything substantial that jumped out at me as something to write more about, but it was very therapeutic to get the thoughts out of my head and down on paper. The freewrite was a lot of rambling about my plans for the weekend and being able to see my friends. At the end, I felt like my head was clearer which I wasn’t really expecting even though Elbow said it would happen. I want to try and do three a week, just for ten minutes before I start writing a blog entry or short assignment or revising something I’ve previously written. I’m looking forward to other tips from Elbow as I read more.