An Open Note to All of Prof. Nixon’s Students:
Welcome back to our Communication Department at Southeastern University; I hope your summer break was a blessed one. I spent a lot of much-needed time with family, along with moving from Florida to Arkansas.
To get ready for your Fall 2012 classes, please read the following.
Materials for COMM 4363 (online course, Term A)
- Syllabus (available in MyFire)
- Doorley, J., & Garcia, H. F. (2011). Reputation management: The key to successful public relations and corporate communications. New York: Routledge.
- Subscribe to Ragan Communications’ PR Daily; read this daily.
- Subscribe to the For Immediate Release podcast; listen to this weekly.
- Create a Google+ account, if you don’t already have one.
- Syllabus (available in MyFire)
- Rich, C. (2009). Writing & reporting news (6th Ed.). Boston: Wadsworth.
- A recent copy of The Associated Press Stylebook, preferably 2010 edition – or its online equivalent or iPhone app
- Establish an account at Poynter’s News University (if you already have an account from a previous semester, you do not need a new one)
- Create a Google+ account, if you don’t already have one.
Getting Inside My Head
So that we can make the most of this semester, please (Please, PLEASE) take some time to read through the blog posts I’ve included here. I promise you, it will be well worth your time. (How often do professors let you get inside their heads, letting you know their tips for success and their pet peeves?)
- Prof. Nixon’s Teaching & Learning Philosophy
- Shhh. Here are Nine Ways to Annoy Prof. Nixon
- 9 Things I Learned From My Students
- Show Up Unprepared? Then You’re a Loser*
- Keeping Organized by Using Google Calendar
- How to Fail a Class (Without Really Trying)
- Ten Ways NOT to Prepare for College Advising
- My End of Semester Rant, Kinda
Additionally, here are a few more tips:
- When communicating with me via e-mail (or Facebook), always put your course number (such as COMM 4363) in the subject line to help me immediately identify who you are and frame your questions or comments. Do your best to write in full sentences, paying attention to standard English grammar and spelling. Always sign your e-mails with your first and last name, as your e-mail address will not make that readily apparent to me.
- When submitting an assignment in MyFire, always put your last name as part of the file name, and also include your name in the document itself. Papers submitted without your last name as part of the file name cannot earn full credit.
- If an assignment is due in MyFire, the only way to get full credit for the assignment is to submit it in MyFire. (E-mailing an assignment to me can be risky; I receive 250+ e-mails a day, and there’s a chance I will not even see it in my inbox.)
- Follow me on Twitter, if you really want to get inside my head.
Let’s make this a great semester together!
(PS: If you’re one of my Fall 2012 students reading this post, please leave a reply to this post so that I can know you have read it. If your reply doesn’t show up immediately, no worries — I may need to approve it before it appears, if you’ve never commented on my blog before.)
love your blog Barbara, im looking to start my career in PR as soon as i graduate spring 2013. any tips for resume/portfolio building for a newbie?
Every class of Nixon’s needs to read this blog, whether it’s corporate PR or PR applications, to happily and successfully complete the class.
Every class for Nixon needs to read this blog, and it is always good to be reminded of what you need to do to be happily and successfully pass.
I am excited for another semester of PR classes and I am interested to learn about Google+!
Hey Prof. Nixon!
I’m excited to take another class with you! =]
It is good to know you prefer your students to place their last name in the document title and on the document when submitting a document via MyFire. Hear goes my last Fall semester at SEU:)