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4 Ways Blogging Helps Build a Better Career

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Levo League

Since competition for entry-level and even mid-level jobs is very high, it’s important for young professionals to stand out to prospective employers in any way they can. One way to do this: start a blog.
As a blogger, you are in control of the content – and ultimately your online reputation and presence.
Here are four more ways blogging can help your career, right now:

Beef Up Your Writing Portfolio

If you are in the field of communications, having excellent writing skills will set you apart from the competition. How exactly do you become a great writer? Practice. Much like any athlete or musician, the only way to excel in your craft is to continue to practice. Having a blog which you post to daily, weekly, or even monthly gives you a variety of writing samples to add to your portfolio. My writing portfolio is filled with articles that I wrote for my personal blog. All writing samples should be recognized, whether it was for a national newspaper or a simple WordPress site. Read more...

The Art of Reviling: 10 Tips for Criticizing People More Effectively | Mental Floss

The Art of Reviling: 10 Tips for Criticizing People More Effectively | Mental Floss

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In the 1930s, William B. Pettus, the president of the College of Chinese Studies in Beijing, came across a strange little Chinese essay. It began by arguing that, "having a desire to revile, should you persistently restrain it you will sooner or later develop some malady or infirmity. Therefore, having this desire, it is right to give it vent, and there is no harm in so doing."

Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/48671/art-reviling-10-tips-criticizing-people-more-effectively#ixzz2KQsKBXi9
--brought to you by mental_floss!

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• The Art of Reviling: 10 Tips for Criticizing People More Effectively
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Librarians & Blogging

Monday evening four local librarians generously shared their experiences as bloggers in a Meetup meeting at the NYPL Mulberry Branch’s community room: Lisa von Drasek, EarlyWord Kids; Alexandra Crosier, Shelved @ NYC; Jenna Freedman, Lower East Side Librarian; and Jennifer Craft, Blogs @ NYPL−Mulberry Street Branch.

The blogs discussed range from professional to semi-personal, from collaborative to solo, from self- to system-initiated. In EarlyWord Kids, von Drasek reviews advance books for young children, providing a heads-up for librarians. Crosier’s unique New York City-based blog, Shelved @ NYC, combines an event calendar with her commentary on library-related issues. Freedman, who has other blogs, mixes personal and professional concerns−among them subject headings and zines−in Lower East Side Librarian. Craft and her staff contribute to the NYPL system-wide blog for their branch, Blogging @ NYPL−Mulberry Branch, featured in a recent NYPL newsletter. (To read Craft’s blogs only, see http://www.nypl.org/blogs/jennifer-craft.)

They did a fantastic job as speakers, touching upon meeting untapped needs, development of their respective blogs, snarky blogging, and finding a middle ground between caution and total frankness. Von Drasek, for instance, turns to colleagues (in the audience!) who serve as sounding boards for posts that might be over the top.

Other issues explored were rude feedback, posts that received lots of hits and why, and waning output. Attentiveness to design, commitment to open-source technology (Lower East Side Librarian utilizes Drupal), and use of tag clouds and Twitter were also discussed.

About twenty people attended this informal discussion, including Marion Lipshutz, a Meetup member. She started a library-related blog last month, Information Vistas. Afterward seven members went to a nearby restaurant on Lafayette Street.

Thanks so much to our fabulous guests and audience for their participation. And a big thank you as always to Jennifer Craft, Mulberry Branch Supervising Librarian, for use of the community room. - LT (rvsd. 11/6/09)