I’ll show you mine if you show me yours?

Tip #9: Get someone to read over your assignments. Just do it.

Disclaimer: Once you do you may not stop.

Whoever you choose to read over your work though choose wisely. Asking your Mom to read over your work could be good if she doesn’t care about giving you criticism. If she can’t give supportive criticism though don’t give your assignment to her to read. One of the things you have to do when getting criticism on your work is to check you ego at the door.

You need a dose of harsh structured criticism if you are ever going to grow. Even though it is nice being told you are awesome all the time and your work is awesome and everything you do is just awesome, it isn’t helping you any.

When I ask one of my fellow CreCommers to read over my work I am looking for another point of view. When you write assignments you can be lost in tunnel vision and miss a lot of points. Those missing points could be grade changers for you. Having another pair of eyes look through your work will help with this.

Also, the person you choose to read over your stuff can catch any possible autofails for you.

Lets say you interview someone with the last name ‘Stephen’. You are going to be writing their name out countless times, and one slip up of calling them ‘Stephan’ will kiss all your hard work goodbye.

That comes from a personal experience. I finished my Bomber assignment for Journalism and thought to myself ‘You know what I’ll just send this to so-and-so.’ So I did, and luckily I did because my classmate caught the ‘Stephen’ / ‘Stephan’ debacle for me.

I wish I had done that the time I got an autofail on my PR autobiography assignment. I read the assignment over what seemed like 100 times. Every time I did though I missed the lowercase T in Twitter I had… Buh-bye 50%.

Until you learn to read your work over without tunnel vision and blinders on you may want to take this tip and apply it. There is no harm in it. Just ask, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” though you may want to have your assignment in hand while you say that or else you may come off as very creepy.

Do you like me? Check yes or no.

It was the first week of school when I encountered my first Streeter. I was very pessimistic with the entire thing but I knew it was something I had to get past.

I am normally a very outgoing and optimistic person. Then I get asked to go onto the street and interview John or Jane Doe, about a topic I just got 2 minutes ago, and all the sudden I feel a little like a 13 year old being asked to ask out my middle school crush.

The horror!

Approaching the infamous Streeter given in CreComm, and interviewing random people, is in fact just like asking out your middle school crush. You have to get past the nerves of wondering if they are going to say ‘No’ or ‘Yes’ and just ask them. The worst they can say is ‘No’ and if they do you move to the next person and hope they give you a glimpse into their life.

There is a plus side though, at least with the Streeter you are not going to be forced to sit through math or English class with the those who just rejected you.

What I am trying to get at here is getting over the fear of rejection. It is a hard thing to get past but once you do it interviewing random people on the street will become easier.

Being sure of yourself, being able to laugh at yourself, and not fearing rejection are in general good tips in life and in all the disciplines in CreComm.

Tip #7: Kills 99.9% of germs

Luckily I got The CreComm Cold early on, but now we are entering an entire new realm of the year. The weather is now turning for the worse (if it makes up it’s mind), and midterms for some are coming up while the sniffles and coughs are taking over.

Needless to say, stock up on your vitamins people. It’s a smart move.

I don’t know about you but when I get a cold in the winter months fighting it off seems to take twice as long, my bed feels twice as comfy, making it ten times as hard to get up and ready at 6AM. Oh, the motivation also seems to plummet with the temperature.

So, it’s not such a good time to get sick when you are in the middle of the semester.

At the beginning of the year the sniffles and coughs seem to be minimal. Now it’s like a war zone. The sound of sniffle turns into sound of loading ammunition and a cough sounds like a germ loaded gun-blast.

When you’re with the same group of people from 8-4 Monday to Friday you really get to know them, germs and all. So lets try and get through the ‘hump’ of the semester with as little casualties as possible.

Now I know I may sound like a nagging Mother but take your vitamins and drink your fluids. Getting a cold is unavoidable, I realize that, but for your sake and mine lets try to make the impossible possible.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Just over a month flew by of school and you have survived. Yippee! You feel like you have just past the adaptation stage only to be blindsided with the holy-crap-I-have-three-articles-for-Journalism-due-within-a-week-and-a-half-and-my-interviewees-aren’t-calling-me-back stage (kind of excessive, I know).  Ah, the joys of CreComm, always keeping you on your toes.

This is why my next tip is to let loose once and a while.

Yes, I realize that my post before last was about being a keener. But, you know what? All that keening would be put to waste if you didn’t use your spare time wisely. So don’t feel guilty when you set time aside for yourself. Personally, I like to go for a drink or two with a few friends. I also like to occasionally dance around like a wild woman while listening to my iPod to blow off some steam. Sometimes I even join the two to create one night of pure excellence (*cough* The CreComm Marker Social *cough*). Whatever, works right?

I think I would be going crazy right now if it wasn’t for the days I set aside to come back to my social sphere. It’s like The Shining suggests, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

When I feel guilty of taking time out for myself and my sanity’s sake I like to tell myself that it’s a good thing. I think it’s good because it allows you get out of the tunnel vision that you may be in. Whatever you choose to do to get away for a bit, the temporary break from schoolwork will clear your mind and let you think less forcefully on tasks. So when you get back to your school reality you have fresh eyes and possibly new ideas for your projects.

Also, you don’t go insane and want to kill people like Jack Torrance in The Shining. So it’s a win win!