Notes from our non-class of Wednesday, Sept. 11

Here's the text of an e-mail I sent to all students on Friday, Sept. 13

Hi everyone,

Okay, I'm finally back on the grid after a couple of days of craziness that unexpectedly took me out of the classroom on Wednesday morning.

I'm disappointed that we missed getting together so early in the course but we'll be fine. I appreciate your patience. In the meantime, I have a few things for you to do for our next class so we keep moving forward.

Here goes...

1. If you have not sent in the press release writing assignment or the blog address, please do that as soon as possible. I'd like to have everyone's blogs in the directory by our next class. If you're having trouble, please let me know and we'll figger it out. Thanks!

2. The reading assignment for the Great Missed Class of Sept. 11 was to get through the end of Chapter 7 in the Ben & Jerry's Book. For our class on Wednesday, Sept. 18, please read up until the end of Chapter 9, which is Page 120 in my edition.

Please note that these two chapters (8 and 9) are about stock market issues and might seem a little dry at first. But take time to read them carefully, as you can learn a lot from this part of the book. We'll talk about it in class and answer any questions. Just stick with it.

3. In terms of our next writing assignment (given out in class on Wednesday, Sept. 11), it was going to be writing the script for a radio commercial to promote the move of Ben & Jerry's into the Boston area, as described in Chapter 7.

We'll talk about radio commercials and audio scripts during the next class, and then you'll try your hand at writing one. The most important thing to keep in mind is how you only have 30 seconds. What are you trying to accomplish? How can you do it in 30 seconds? What's the message? What must be included, and what can be left out? How can you make it compelling and memorable? How can you use radio's "theater of the mind" to your advantage?

Notice that all those questions really have to be asked and answered BEFORE you actually write anything. It's the THINKING that comes before the writing. Remember, writing is thinking on paper. And having to do it in just 30 seconds is excellent practice in keeping things short, too!

4. Blogs: You should have two posts by the time of our next class. We'll be looking at them and I'll have a couple of things for everyone to do that will improve your blog. But we need material to work with, so keep at it with the blogs!

I've gone on long enough so I'll stop here. But could be some more notes this weekend and the beginning of next week prior to class. Until then, have a great weekend!

All the best...

Jeff R.