This week we got an assignment to write a post about how we work digitally. And to be honest, I have never though to much about the tools I use when I work. Working on school assignments or just keeping up with all the material you have to go through can be tedious, and I know I don’t pay a lot of attention to how I’m working.
How I write my blog posts.
When it come to me writing on my blog, I have a small system that I follow to prepare myself for what I am going to write and how I am going to write it. I want to share my proses on how I write my blog post step by step.
1. The first thing I do is that I
2. Then I’ll write down a to-do list of everything I need to do that is related to the post I’m working on. Here is an example of what i would include in that list:
Read chap 3-4, Search for relevant articles and web pages, Take notes, Start a draft, Look over text and correct spelling errors, Put in sources and links, Put in relevant pictures (if there are any), Let someone else look over my text, Final draft, Publish the post on my blog and Share on social media.
3. After I write up my
4. I set up a section on my page for notes and a part for any questions I would want to ask my teacher about.
5. At this point, we have planned our work process. Now it’s time for some reading and research. I start by reading all the material recommended buy our teacher and taking notes on things I want to include. Using post-its page markers is useful so you can find the information while you are writing. I also like to find my own material by searching online. By typing in relevant words, I can usually find what I’m looking for. For tips on how you can get better at searching online, you can read my last blog post on “Google PowerSearch” (http://www.carmensaksen.com/2019/01/24/google-powersearch-my-experiance/ ). Here its also good to take notes and save links by bookmarking them in your browser or copy paste the link on a notepad on your pc. It’s also smart to note where in the blog post you want the information you find, so at my notes section on my notepad I would write “article from Harvard business review on digitalisation. Put in under how I use digital services.”. if I write my writing plan on my pc, I will also past the link to the article in as well, so I easily can access it.
6. Now its time to start writing my first draft. Many people write differently, some just start writing and takes things as the come. I like to write in my structure as headers leaving space in-between to write and fill in under the headers what I want to include. This allows me to jump back and forwards in my text if I’m stuck on a subject.
7. After I feel satisfied with my draft, I will look over my text to make sure everything makes sense and that there aren’t any spelling errors. I usually use the built- in correction system in Office Word to correct as I go, but the Office Word system is flawed, so after I’m done writing I will put my text in to a program called Grammarly ( https://app.grammarly.com/ ), I and many other I’ve talked to thinks Grammarly is a super useful tool. Office Word correction usually just look at the word itself, while Grammarly looks at the word and the sentence it’s in to make a correction suggestion.
8. Then I will put in any missing sources and links. If I want to include pictures in my text, this is often when I’ll do it.
9. Letting someone else look at your work is a great way to find out if your text makes sense to the people that will read your to-do, this also allows you to make any other corrections if necessary. The person you choose can also com with suggestions on facts or information that is missing or not necessary in your work. With this information, you can make your final draft.
10. After the work is done, I will post my text on my platform of choice, in this case, I’ll post on my blog. Then I will copy the link to the post and share it on my social platforms like Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter.
How I use digital services to work with others.
Personally, I prefer to work alone. I find that working in groups there will almost always be some people who don’t do anything (freeloaders) and there will sometimes be someone who takes it way to seriously. When you are a student you will have to work in groups at some point, this applies to everyone who is working a job as well. When I find myself in the situation where I need to work with others I usually end up as “the group leader”, and my way of working together may be untraditional. I like that the group meet and work together, at least in the beginning and end of a project. We usually sit together and work through a google shared docx to make the structure and plan for are project. Then we split the work between us. Although we split the work, we still work on all the parts of the project by talking and brainstorming together, helping each other with our parts of the project. If we work from home, we usually set up a way for us to connect. Skype and Discord are both good ways to chat online, both through text- and voice chat. And at the end of a project we will all sit together to go over the text in the google docx.
How I find new information and how I share it with others.
Everyone has their way of getting new and interesting information. I personally don’t follow politics and I don’t typically watch the news. That might be because I am part of the “digital” generation. I get most of my “news” through youtube and relevant Facebook groups. I honestly don’t actively search for information, I subscribe to Youtube channels that I think will give me the information I would want to see. The same goes for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. When it comes to sharing information with my friends and others, I usually just use the platform that I’m on, so if I am on Facebook and want to share a post from “Dagens Næringsliv” (a Norwegian business and innovation news source), I would just hit the shar button that Facebook provides. If I want to shar it somewhere else, I just copy the link and post it on Twitter or send it thro chat to the people I want to share it with. I am the worst person to give advice on this subject, I don’t pay attention and I usually don’t share anything if I find something, but this is how I do it if I’m paying attention.
How platforms can help to build your digital profile, and later help you to get your dream job.
When it comes to building a digital profile online that can help you to get a job or your dream job in the future, I think that Linked-in and maybe Twitter and Instagram are your best options depending on the job you want. For more academic jobs like lawyer, doctor or teacher I would bet on linked-in to be the go-to platform because you can share relevant information and build a digital resume that your friends can comment on. For more creative work, I would go for platforms that can help you show off your work. For example, if you are a photographer or illustrator, Instagram would diffidently be the place to build a profile. If you make any form of
-Carmen