Progress on My Summer Reading List

I previously committed to reading five books this summer. Not just any five books, but five specific books, although I would like to read more than five books this summer. As of today, I have read two of those five books already: The Business of Baby and the Road to Lost Innocence. I've already made it clear how I feel about The Business of Baby and the status of maternal health in this country.

Road to Lost Innocence

I enjoyed Road to Lost Innocence, as it provided additional details about the sex trafficking industry in Cambodia and how the industry has changed since Somaly was a prostitute. What struck me the most is the lifelong psychological consequences these girls have, as even women like Somaly don't come out completely unscathed. In the book, she says the smells give her nightmares and haunt her the most. She readily admits that the smells are probably in her head at this point, but that doesn't stop her from using perfumes and air fresheners to do what she can to block them. Even though I already has a strong understanding of Somaly's story and of the sex trafficking industry in Cambodia and other developing countries, I do enjoy reading more books about this topics (and other topics that I am already familiar with) because I think that each book adds additional details and an additional perspective. From this book, I learned more about the men who frequent the brothels, how the foreigners perpetuate the trade (and how they helped Somaly) and some of the attitudes that Somaly is up against in her country.

I Finished "The Defining Decade"

Even though it wasn't on my summer reading list, I borrowed The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter- and How to Make the Most of Them Now yesterday since the main idea behind this blog is building identity capital. The idea came from this book, so I had to read it. I ended up finishing it yesterday as well, as I found it to be an engaging and phenomenal read, something that all twentysomethings should read. Although I do think the first half of my 20s have been well spent building identity capital, as I am heavily involved in activism and have spent much of that time building a business and learning all sorts of skills, I like how the book is much more than maximizing your professional life. It's also about thinking about marriage before you have one, making wise decisions about your relationships and what you want out of a life partner. It's simply about not treating your 20s as simply a time to have fun, to have no responsibilities, and to do what you want until 30. Starting a family, a marriage, and a career all at once is difficult, especially if you didn't spend your 20s thinking about those things and taking steps in the right direction.

What am I Reading Now?

Currently, I'm tackling Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government. I've only gotten through the introduction, so I can't say too much about it. It seems interesting so far, and I do hope that the book offers a few concrete ways to use the Internet and social media to participate in government and to improve civic engagement. It would be helpful for my activism work, since part of that work is finding support for legislation or lobbying politicians to do this or that.

I did find out something interesting when I watched a documentary on Netflix the other night (it might have been We're Not Broke, but I'm not sure). One of the things the documentary said is that the politicians and the staffers actually don't write the bills, even though that's what the Schoolhouse Rock video says. Bill writing is something that's outsourced to the lobbyists, who can then come back with the exact legislation we want. It got me thinking that with activism and with non-profits, it might be a good idea if we take the time to write the bills, and then when we lobby, we just drop off a bill instead of just saying, "We are concerned about X, Y, and Z." We would have done most of the hard work, and it could be much more powerful if a lot of people lobby at the same time and drop off the same bill to numerous politicians.

I Passed My Inbound Marketing Certification Test!

Even though I'm moving away from the inbound marketing/content marketing business, I started my inbound marketing certification from HubSpot way back in April. It's a program where you watch a series of nine webinars, or classes, on the various topics. Once you finish the classes, you can then take the test for the certification. I've finally completed the classes and took the test today. I'm excited to say that I passed, and part of my reward is that cool little badge to the right there. It's one of my several successes of the week.

Other Success Stories of the Week

Opportunity International

Last night, I attended a neat little networking event with Opportunity International and the Young Ambassadors for Opportunity St. Louis chapter. The chapter is new, and the organization is about economic empowerment and providing micro-loans, both of which I am all about. I do like that the organization also works on building savings and providing insurance, instead of just funding loans and getting people to start businesses. Sometimes, getting the loan and having the successful business isn't enough because factors outside of the control of the owner can cause the business to fail.

Since the chapter was new, part of the point of the event was to have some sort of a meet-and-greet and to do something to build awareness for the chapter and the organization. When we think of micro-lending organizations, we think of Kiva.org and the Grameen Bank. However, Opportunity International was one of the first organizations to work on this issue, and it's great to encounter an organization that's actually working on some of the issues featured in Half the Sky. Up until now, it seems like these groups existed by were located somewhere other than St. Louis.

Speaking of the which, what's also great is that this chapter and this organization are going to partner with me on showing a screening of the Half of Sky documentary (of course, it would be a screening of the economic empowerment section). It turns out that Opportunity International is a partner organization of the Half the Sky movement, so this upcoming screening should be a huge hit.

Although, part of the success of last night was the peppermint patty cocktail, which was absolutely delicious. It had brownie batter vodka, peppermint schnapps, something else, and the glass was lined with chocolate sauce. The drink was absolutely amazing. Since the event was at Cafe Napoli, I recommend asking for the peppermint patty cocktail the next time you visit.

Amazing Pizza!

A brand new, very tasty pizza place opened up down the street from me the other day. It's called Papa Murphy's, and they make the pizza in front of you and then you take it home and put it in the oven. We tried it today and it's absolutely fantastic pizza! I ate the gourmet vegetarian, which included neat toppings like zucchini and artichoke hearts, and the entire thing was yummy. Fortunately, I have a whole bunch of coupons, so next time I can get their Hawaiian pizza, or their smores pizza for dessert, or their normal vegetarian pizza (the gourmet one has creamy garlic sauce instead of normal tomato sauce, and has a different combination of vegetables on it). I'm excited about it, and especially like the idea that you can buy it and you don't have to eat it right away.

It's Friday

It's always a success if you can make it until the end of the week without dying, or having a total meltdown, or losing everything you have. Cheers to that! I'm going to spend my night playing a little bit of Wii, reading a little bit of book, playing with the kitty, and perhaps getting some work done. There's always fun work to be done.

I'm a Night Owl. I Said It.

Ever since I've changed direction with my business and have needed to salvage what I can from the content-marketing-agency wreckage, I've turned into a night owl. I feel so accomplished if I'm awake by 10 a.m. The stereotype is that night owls are lazy, unprofessional, undisciplined, and don't spend much time doing anything when we are awake. In fact, there are successful night owls who just happened to be productive and accomplished when everyone else is sleeping.

My mother would probably say that when I wake up so late that "half the fricken day is gone." Half of her day maybe gone, sure. I am sleeping when she is working hard, yes. But she's in bed by 9 p.m. At 9 p.m., I'm ready to put in another four to five hours of work, maybe more if I get on a roll and stumble upon something big, like I did last night. Besides, night owls aren't as bad off as some may think. New research from the University of Madrid found that night owls are better at inductive reasoning and problem solving, abilities associated with more prestigious occupations and higher incomes.

Society Isn't Kind to Night Owls

It's really not. Most workplaces that offer a night shift aren't awesome jobs (you know, they're not necessarily professional jobs that require a degree or special training). Most businesses aren't open late at night, although that is changing somewhat (I could walk across the street to the grocery store at 11 p.m. if I wanted to. But, I live in the inner city, so I'm not going to do that). Even the "disease" associated with being a night owl, delayed sleep phase disorder, is defined as, "a circadian rhythm sleep disorder affecting the timing of sleep, peak period of alertness, the core body temperature rhythm, hormonal and other daily rhythms, compared to the general population and relative to societal requirements."  Being a night owl is a disorder because it's different from what everyone else does and what society wants. Yay.

It doesn't help that both of my parents are morning larks and proud of it. They've never been fond of the idea of staying up late and sleeping during the day. They see these activities as all those stereotypes previously mentioned. Although, I admit, there were times where my brothers and I stayed up late to go out and to play video games and such. But, alas, we were teenagers when we did all that stuff. Well, maybe the stay up late to go out kind of stuff. My brother works the night shift in Las Vegas. My parents still complain that he sleeps til noon and that the kids do too. I grant, the whole family will have some trouble when the kids start going to school. But when my brother gets home at 1 a.m. it's not all that realistic to expect him to wake up at 6 or 8 a.m.

I Enjoy the Privacy of the Night

My fiance is in bed by nine or 10 because he starts work at 6:30 a.m. (he has less than two weeks on this job though, so this schedule is ending soon). I like that after he goes to bed, I feel like I have the apartment to myself and that my time and space is unrestrained. There are fewer distraction at this hour, and I don't feel worn out or dragging. I feel ready to work and able to pursue new ideas and to come up with new ways to think about things. It's a great time for creative pursuits, and in my line of work, it's all about the creativity.

Fortunately, Lab1500 is going to have 24-hour access soon. I'm excited.

How Do You Define Quality Content?

And is more quality necessarily better or desired?

This is a question that I struggle with every time I have to work with Zerys, or that I think about having to work with Zerys. Zerys is a project management tool designed specifically for content projects, with a built-in marketplace of thousands of professional writers. There's some great writers on Zerys, and out there in general, but it seems that for every great writer there's at least one horrible writer competing against them, wanting to do work for me but really just making me incredibly frustrated (I could do a whole post on the stupid things these people write and expect to get paid for).

But, they somehow got into the system, which makes me wonder about this idea of "quality content". When it comes to the content that's needed for content marketing projects, you of course want stuff that's quality. But, I do think that part of the definition of quality is something that's just good enough to engage the reader and to accomplish the marketing goal. I also think that quality content should include formatting, such as subtitles, bullet points, numbered lists etc. There aren't enough writers (and even clients) out there who understand how these small things bring great value to a blog article or a web page.

Quality is Objective, To a Point

Everyone can agree that quality content doesn't have any spelling or grammatical errors. Quality content makes strong arguments and backs those arguments well. Quality content is easy to read and doesn't have awkward phrasing. After that, quality is subjective. Things like tone, length, and perspective, and what's preferred, differ from person to person. Those things change depending on the comment format and the specific marketing goal. The objective parts of quality have no excuses. Those parts can be fixed and improved upon as you practice writing and as you revise. The subjective parts needs to be known before you even start writing, as they can make a huge difference in what needs to be written and how. An article that's meant to inform will need to be written differently from one that's meant to persuade.

I bring this up because one of the most common complaints I get from potential clients about my writing is that "it's not the style we wanted" or "prefer a different style."

I don't know what that means.

If you do, please explain it to me. "Style" can mean a whole range of things while meaning nothing at all. Style includes diction, sentence structure, organizational structure, and writing goal (to inform, persuade, or entertain). It could also be a euphemism for, "I didn't like it." The latter is at least somewhat constructive criticism that I could work with and think about with my current clients and with my next new client. I can't do anything with, "prefer a different style." On the one hand, style is relatively easy to fix. I just need to know the style that's preferred. On the other hand, I also suspect that those clients don't really know what style they want, and because they don't know what they want, they can't take the time and to work with me to improve or to do better.

You Don't Need Hemingway to Do Your Blog

Even if Hemingway was alive and available, I'm really not sure how many people would jump at the opportunity to have him write the blog. He probably doesn't have the right style, or wouldn't end every blog post with a call-to-action to call the company, and certainly wouldn't care enough about keyword density. Somehow, I think that some would argue it's too much quality or not the right kind of quality.

What Do I Do with This Inbound Marketing Stuff?

It stresses me out that I don't have much idea of what to do with all this inbound marketing, business blogging, and content marketing knowledge. The best I have is that I can apply it to online media and publishing, but that's about it. For some reason, I feel like I should do something more with it besides applying it to something else. It's still interesting and important stuff, so I want to keep up with the topic without just passively consuming it or reading up about it. I want to apply it in ways besides improving my business.

Consulting Work?

I could turn most of Stirring Media's current services into consulting work. I think there's less competition for things like inbound marketing consulting and content marketing consulting, versus being a marketing agency or providing those services. I also think that I would make a very good consultant. One of the most frustrating things about the work I was doing previously (and now, to an extent. I still need to make an income as I build the online publishing portion) is that consulting isn't in the contract so I usually felt somewhat constrained when providing services. One clients only posts 250-350 word posts. Even if I do give them 600-800 word posts, they cut out half of it and post a 300-word version. I could say something if I were a consultant, but would saying something mean anything if I just provide the service? They're not paying me to listen to me, and even if they did listen to me, would they tell their other contributors to double the size of their posts? I really don't know if they'd change, even though the change would make my service more effective and their blog better. As an agency, you can't really be an agency of change unless a client hires you to be an agent of change and to create strategy as well as content. However, if you're not hired to do that, it's then a hassle to get some money's worth out of the information. You don't want to do too much consulting for free.

There is the Stirring Standard

I started this site a while ago as a publication that sources most of its content from business blogs. The point was the give great business blogs a platform for their content, a way to have the good stuff rise above the rest. It would also be one more way to get found online and to set some standards for what's considered good content. This is something that needs to happen soon as more and more folks jump into content marketing, so we're all starting to just drown each other out and to make it harder for our target audience to find our content. Also, this site would have been a way to give businesses and their stories a little more legitimacy while building back links. I believe businesses have good stories to tell and can offer something valuable and beneficial to people. I think businesses can go beyond selling a product or service, much more than was possible or necessary than years past. People don't want to be sold to anymore. Anyway, still don't know what to do with the site. Not sure if I would pursue the business blog idea.

At least with consulting idea, I have an additional source of income that I could utilize right now. I also wouldn't need to delete so many pages from the website. I could simply rewrite most of them, so I would only take a temporary hit to SEO instead of a permanent one (it would be permanent because the pages would be gone, and it would probably leave broken links strewn across my website, which would also hurt). I better add this to the revenue model, and then send all my homework to my business coach.

3 Things That Annoy Me as a Former Content Marketer

One of the things that's especially difficult about changing the direction of your business is getting out of those old habits. Since I"m moving into online publishing, where inbound marketing and content marketing have their place but not their former prominence, I am having some trouble figuring out what to do with my business blogging and inbound marketing knowledge. I understand that it could prove useful when creating our own stuff and marketing said stuff, but I don't quite need to keep up with the ins and outs the same way I now need to for online publishing and media (which, from initial research, is proving a little harder than I thought).

Through all this, I came across some of the many things that annoy me about content marketing. Primarily, it's when people do it wrong and the right way is seemingly obvious (or should be known by the person/entity committing the transaction). Now that I'm moving away from the business, I can vent without worrying of the perception that I am just harping on competition. Here are three things that bother me about business blogs and content marketing:

1. Marketing agencies with horrible business blogs (especially if they offer blogging services) - There aren't many marketing agencies these days that are strictly direct, traditional, or offline marketing. Nearly all offer primarily or entirely online marketing services. A major part of online marketing is business blogging, and this cannot be ignored or washed over as if blogging is going to go away tomorrow (because it's not). Therefore, it bothers me when a marketing agency doesn't even have a blog, or doesn't even follow blogging best practices (like publishing something once every two months, or not including photos with their posts). It's even worse if the agency offers blog writing or business blogging services of some kind. I think it's very representative of an agency and its services when it can't even do its own blog and its own online marketing right.
2. Great business blogs with no easy or obvious way to subscribe - I came across an excellent online media and publishing blog today through my research. I wanted to subscribe to the blog, but I couldn't find a place to follow it or to put in my email. I couldn't even subscribe via RSS feed. I suppose the only way to follow the blog is to bookmark it. But, isn't part of the point of having a great business blog is building a subscriber base? You can't even tell if someone's bookmarked your site. I have no interest in this company's custom content or SEO services. I just want to read your blog, share your content, perhaps write a response to an article or two. I guess I'm going to have to take that elsewhere.
3. Horrible Formatting - Just an FYI, something like the example below looks horrible:

First of all, what kind of a caption is that? I can't even tell if that's supposed to be a caption, or an introduction, or an interesting side note. It's kind of long for a caption, and doesn't say much about the picture. If you have an educated guess, please tell me in the comments. Second of all, why is this "caption" to the side like that? It gets in the way of the actual lead sentence, and forces the picture to be small. Besides, there's all that blank space. Why isn't is underneath, so it's not confusing to the reader of where you should start reading? Third, giving your next paragraph, or introductory paragraph, or whatever that is, such minimal real estate is awkward and constraining. Fourth, pictures should be aligned on the right, not the left. People read from right to left, so starting with the picture is jarring and ruins the flow of reading the content.

As a side note, I understand that this isn't always necessarily the fault of the writer or the content marketer. One of my clients just updated his blog, and now the formatting is atrocious. You can't get the pictures to format correctly. I have no idea what he did and I have yet to figure out a way, if any, to remedy it on my end. However, don't leave something like that up for everyone to see, especially if you can fix it. It reflects badly on you while hurting the user experience.

Okay, I'm Finished

Time to put myself and my talents to better use.

I Have My Computer Back!

After a day and a half with no laptop, I finally have something operational! The only problem I have is that the laptop keyboard doesn't work, but I am still able to use a wireless keyboard with my computer to get things done! I am so happy! I didn't lose any files or information. I don't have to buy a new laptop. I don't have to spend an exorbitant amount of money to get my computer back. My only costs are the wireless keyboard and the repairs to the laptop keyboard, so at most I'll spend about $150 on the whole thing.

I Even Have a New Setup!

Since I have to use the wireless keyboard, I actually have a new work arrangement on my desk, and I wish I would have thought of this sooner (it would have actually prevented this whole mess in the first place). With my laptop on the top shelf, and the keyboard on the desk area, I actually have room to write and to eat! That has been one of my biggest complaints with my previous setup, as I would have had to write on the laptop or move it entirely. Eating was also a little troublesome, as who knows how many crumbs have gotten in there. It was also a little uncomfortable as the food was on the side of the computer, so I had to sit at an angle in order to eat and it wasn't quite the same as sitting in front of a television to eat. That's not the case anymore! I do wish my screen were larger, but that should get fixed eventually as I do have a new pair of prescription glasses waiting for me. I still need to do some rearranging, like figure out where my drinks should go and where my lamp should point (it's kind of pointing at the corner of my eye right now). But, I don't think there's a way this could have come out any better.

I Can Do Work Again!

I don't need to use my fiance's laptop anymore, which was kind of awful to use because it didn't have any of my bookmarks. It didn't have any of my passwords. He shuts off all the scripts so none of the pages load properly unless you turn them on, and then you do turn them on and each page comes full of ads and pop ups. Google Reader doesn't quite work. Plus, it's all set up for someone who is 6'2", and I am nowhere near 6'2". I am just so glad to be back with my computer, where everything is already a few clicks away and I don't need to waste time finding my links and my passwords just so I can do my client work. I already had to delay some client work because I didn't have a permanent workstation, and I didn't want to take something on while figuring out a new permanent, functional, work environment. But, now that everything is 98% back to normal, I can get work done! I can make progress toward my upcoming online publications! I can get my Business Breakthrough homework together! I can write about something other than a broken laptop and feeling tied down as I wait for the thing to dry and for everything to recover!

That's enough rambling. I need to create more viral blog posts and get articles up for the coffee publication and the maternal health initiative. I also need to work on my other website, do keyword research again and redo the About Us page, and all that other good stuff. You know you love your job when you are actually relieved and excited to get back to work.

I Spilled Water on My Laptop

I write this from my fiance's computer because, as my headline says, I spilled water on my laptop and it's out of commission for at least a day. Maybe forever, but I'm hoping there's still something to salvage through all this. I just tried turning it on and the keyboard is still wonky. I hope that's the only thing that's wonky. I tried to unscrew the keyboard so that it would be easier to dry, but as far as I know, we don't have a screwdriver that's small enough. Besides, the underside of the keyboard could use some cleaning. There are tons of food crumbs and fingernail clippings under there.

I Don't Like My Fiance's Computer

He's 6'2", so his computer setup is designed for someone who is 6'2". I am not that tall, so it's a little awkward and uncomfortable. He's also disabled all the scripts and cookies, so getting some websites to load properly is a hassle. I can't even use Wordpress unless I turn off the scripts because without them much of Wordpress doesn't come up. Never mind that I don't even have any of my bookmarks or passwords, and that I still have work to do. It's just as productive to sit around and do nothing as it is to use this computer to do work. I still have to spend a ton of time finding my links and the right password. I hope I don't have to buy a new laptop. I don't have the money for it right now.

I'm in a Pickle Right Now

I still need to get work done, and after trying (and failing) to get the keyboard removed from my laptop today, I'm crossing my fingers it will be 100% tomorrow. The keyboard still wasn't working properly when I turned it on this afternoon, but I did notice that the corner of the screen that changed colors had improved. Perhaps it just needed more drying. I left it somewhat disabled, as maybe that will improve airflow. I have no idea what I"m talking about here. If it's not working tomorrow morning, I'm going to have to take it in or look into a new one. I won't lose everything, since most of my work is backed up with a program called Trend Micro Safesync, but I would have to reinstall everything and I think the only work-related thing I'll lose is my Quickbooks.

Well, this all puts me in a pickle because on the one hand, I could stay up and get some work done and go to bed late, like every other night for the past month. On the other hand, I could go to bed in an hour or so, get up early and cross my fingers that my computer works. I really want to be moving away from the night owl sleep schedule, but I've gotten nothing done today and I'd like to get something done before tomorrow. However, it's been a hard day and I should probably sleep. If I get up early (if being the key word there), then I could maximize my computer time tomorrow and catch up on some work. I don't know. I'm not sure if I could sleep knowing that I have so much to do. I'd rather lighten my load first. I've never been good at the "go to bed now to wake up early and do work" sort of thing. I tried doing it in college many times and it never worked.

Well, I Think We All Know What's Going On

I'm going to get some work done. I have two blog posts to do that need to go up tomorrow, so I'll work on those first. That might be all I do, but that might be enough.

What Do You Do When Your Blog Post Goes Viral?

That is the question I have been asking all day, ever since my article trashing the reviews that were trashing The Business of Baby (which I finished and still find fantastic. Those people complaining about the potty training and vaccine chapters were making a mountain out of a molehill. I mean, you have to admit, the disposable diaper industry did a darn good job of creating a demand and a market for their product. It's no conspiracy. The bottled water industry did it, and their competitor is free. I can believe that another industry was able to accomplish the same thing.)

Anyway...

My post went viral. I've already tripled my traffic for yesterday, and yesterday's traffic was 10 times the previous day's traffic. I have no idea how to handle this situation. I've enjoyed watching the numbers go up all day and replying to people who tweet my article and comment on it, but I feel I need to be a little more proactive than that. I've tried looking up online what my best course of action is here, what others have done when their blogs and blog posts went viral. All I pretty much got was tips and tricks on how to create content and how to make content go viral. I think I've already cracked the code on that one.

So, what does one do in this situation? Do you write more posts on this topic? Do you continue doing what you are doing, since you did something that worked and resonated with people? Do you create a whole new site or blog on this topic, and tell everyone to go there? Obviously, the one thing you aren't supposed to do is nothing, because after a while all those people are going to go away. You don't want the people to go away. You want to make this an all-the-time thing, not a one-time or sometimes thing. I don't know what the right course of action is here. My business coach had challenged me on Friday to create a maternal health site, to get it going for one month, and then to come back with the feedback and with the results. I feel like I've gotten results and feedback, and I haven't even built the site yet (my plan was to do that tomorrow, and get at least one post up this week).

On a minor note here, blogging is fun.

Thank You Very Much, By the Way

Before I forget, I want to thank everyone who's contributed to this really cool event. I thank the hundreds of people who read my post and visited my blog. I thank the people who've taken the time to share the post and to get more people to read it. I thank my friends and family who've read my blog before this whole thing, and have been just as excited and amazed by the buzz. None of this wouldn't have happened without all of you. Thank you so much! Hopefully, I can continue delivering great content that keeps you engaged and entertained.

As you can probably tell, much of my time today has been consumed by this. It's been incredible to watch the numbers, hoping I'll figure out the best next step for me and this blog and this topic. I do still have work to do and a business to build. Perhaps this is a huge sign telling me where I need to go next and what needs to be done here. Maternal health in this country strikes a nerve with people and gets them going.

How Speech and Debate Has Been Crucial to My Career

I just finished a trial article for a potential client, a Boston non-profit that works with public and private partners to improve the parks and green spaces in the city. The client wanted an article about Portland, Ore. park system, and how they handle public and private partnerships. I've never been to Boston, and have never worked with any system park system. I have minimal experience writing and covering government projects and funding. Usually, in this line of work, such expertise might be preferred but it's definitely not required. What's required is that you can write well, understand the format you're writing, deliver results with your work, and not need any hand holding throughout this whole thing. It's harder to come by then you'd think. It's also tough to come by if you don't communicate what you need all that well, but that's another story for another day.

What does this have to do with speech and debate, an extracurricular activity from high school?

Well, I finished the trial article in just over an hour. It was 700+ words, and that hour included research time. I'm worried I might be too efficient, hurting only myself because I'll only get paid for an hour of work, instead of the five the client originally budgeted for. I suspect I am able to be so efficient because of my speech and debate experience.

My Speech and Debate Experience

I did speech and debate for three years in high school, primarily competing in international extemporaneous speaking. If you don't know, in international extemporaneous speaking, you have 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech about international current affairs. You don't know you're topic until the start of your 30 minutes. With a time constraint like that, you have to do the research and analyze what you are reading the research at the same time. Is this information even useful? How does it answer my question? How does it fit in with what I've already researched and learned? How credible is it? You can't waste time.

On top of that, you have to work with the articles and information you brought to the tournament. You can't use the Internet or go on the computer. You can't ask your teammates for help. You have your head and those hard copies, and you have to make it work. You can't learn everything, even if you wanted to. It's also best that you leave yourself some practice time, so although you have 30 minutes, you really have 15-20 minutes to do the research and to compose the speech. You don't want the first time you're delivering the speech to be the one that counts toward your points, if you can help it.

Research Skills are Necessary, Especially in this Google Era

I remember that I took a public health class the second semester of my senior year. Thought it would be interesting. We had to do a 10-15 page paper as our final. Could've been worse. I remember some of the students complaining that they had too much information for their papers, that 15 pages wasn't enough and that they had no idea how to reduce the overload. I don't understand how this was such a problem. I mean, you're not going to do 20 pages. You're a college student during the last few weeks of school. You should be happy that 15 pages are going to come so easily.

Another lesson I learned from speech and debate and all that research: you gotta know when the stop. I'm not writing a 20-page paper here, so although I want more than enough research to write 10 (I don't want to be stuck with less than I need), I also want to give myself room to leave something out. I want enough to form a cohesive 10-15 page paper from start to finish. I have to narrow my topic from the beginning. I have to construct the narrative in my head as I read each piece of research and organize all the journal articles and sources I've collected. It's college. There's not necessarily a right conclusion, just a solid one based on sound logic and argumentation.

I'd say the cohesion came from speech and debate too. There are only consequences to preparing an eight minute or a 10-minute speech, so you learn the amount of research necessary to deliver a seven-minute speech (by the way, it's introduction, three main points with two to three sources per point, and a conclusion). As someone who's been writing to 600-800 word posts for at least a year now as part of a professional standard, I know what that looks like and I know what that takes. The hard part is accomplishing what a 800-word post can in 400 or 500.