A Little Peace of Mind

I haven't kept up with this blog thing because I wasn't really sure if I was going to continue with the class. Yes, I'm graduating but I felt so uncertain about my research question, I almost opted to postpone the big day for another semester. Of course, I'm ready to graduate but I want this project, this research to be about something of interest (and value), maybe a point of reference and not a snoozer. I knew from day one my research would have something to do with black women. And since writing is the basis of public relations, I wanted to combine the two----I think I've done that.

Thankfully, I changed my mind about withdrawing from 621. I think I managed to clearly articulate the subject of my research in my final draft. Even better, I recovered a bunch of research articles from my ENGL 525: Advanced Public Relations Writing class. My PR advisor was also helpful in passing along additional resources:

Public Relations Practices (Sixth Edition) Allen H. Center & Patrick Jackson, 2003 Prentice Hall, Inc.

Other Suggested Readings¨

Public Relations Cases by Hendrix¨
The Practice of Public Relations by Seitel¨
Public Relations, Strategies and Tactics by Wilcox, Ault and Agee¨
Public Relations: The Profession and the Practice by Aronoff and Scott

Also, these journals, periodicals and newsletters:

Communications World
Communication Briefings
Public Relations Tactics
The Public Relations Strategist
The Public Relations Review
The Public Relations Quarterly
The Public Relations Journal
PR Newspr reporter
The Journalism Quarterly

I think somewhere in the midst of the above research, I should be able to find what I need and keep the "poodle" small at the same time.

I've also been given a couple of contacts to use as interview subjects. We'll see. This is obviously a work in progress.

Chapter 3

I finally have an idea of what I want to write about. I think reading the beginning of chapter 3 helped put things into better perspective. I'm trying to remember about the "poodle", keeping it small but it will be a challenge. I want to turn the words, "It's just 3 credits", into a song, so I don't overdue it. Look how long it took me to even come up with some vague idea of what I want to do.
I am excited about my research question but I already know it's going to need some fine tuning. The section on the literature review made a lot of sense. I don't want to be consumed with a lot dry reading and a list of sources. I'm all about integrating the lit review (when I get one) to related items and having it make sense. The first draft will set the tone for my next steps.