Like every other course I take I need this to graduate (two majors and two minors = no electives), but of course there were other Topics courses I could have taken. I chose this course because it offers a chance to develop a skill set in social media that I feel will prove valuable to virtually any career path, as well as perhaps personally enriching. That the professor came highly recommended was not an inconsiderable factor.
I hope to learn more about crafting written work for online consumption and how to utilize social media for less frivolous purposes than surreptitiously catching up on my friends or keeping close tabs on Doctor Who spoilers.
What kind of writing I'd like to do: The kind I'll get paid for? Hmm. Although I've worked in a few other nonfiction genres I haven't had many opportunities to explore magazine writing, which I think seems to require a sort of blending of skills from journalism and from creative nonfiction.
Two Favorite Nonfiction Writers:
- Joan Didion "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." Didions prose is powerful through it's sparseness and precision, a good example for someone prone to flowery and circuitous phrasing (...see?)
- Tom Wolfe New Journalism is the writing equivalent of coloring outside the lines. If five semicolons and some gratuitous s p a c i n g or tangential exploration will enhance your story, go for it.
Daily Online Reading Habits:
- British Beauty Blogger. First and foremost. I used to work for Murad UK.
- Domestic Sluttery. Provocative name for a fashion/cooking/interior design blog. Staves off homesickness for the UK. See here.
- More often than not my entire Tumblr dashboard
- Texts from Last Night. I can't not.
- Cracked.com
- Glance at my FaceBook feed
- Glance at AOL homepage before checking emails (No, I'm not sure either why I still use AOL).
Where I Am Online:
- I Tweet @SarahSimkin
- I Tumble at saneliving
- I FaceBook at, well, Sarah Simkin.
- I blog here (well, yes) and at shalompittsburgh.wordpress.com
Nice.
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