An inquiring student in WRTC 210 is curious about the upcoming Madison Quotient proposal project, the MQ being a brand that Professor Toni Mehling has spawned to market business students to the work force. The student uses a mouse and keystrokes to glide into her office. Sitting there is Professor Mehling, but this seems like a video game; the student may be inclined to attempt an uppercut haymaker, yet unfortunately for an angry student this is not possible. A digital version of the entrepreneurial professor sits there, awaiting questions through text or microphone and ready to respond to any of the student’s needs.
Professor Toni Mehling, also Director of Communications for the College of Business, uses “Second Life,” a 3-D virtual world that allows endless possibilities for interpersonal communication. Her main research interest, she claims, is “how alternate forms of communication can be used in business,” although it is very useful in education as well.
“A writer gets to be really nosey and I’m a really nosey person… you get to figure out what everyone else is doing and kind of… live vicariously”
Toni Mehling had a flair for writing starting in her childhood.
“I wrote my first book at six years old,” she stated, though I’m sure it was no Charles Dickens. She has freelanced for multiple regional newspapers and magazines in the Philadelphia area.
“That is when I realized that I really loved writing and was actually really good at it. A writer gets to be really nosey and I’m a really nosey person… you get to figure out what everyone else is doing and kind of…” she pauses to think and then smiles, “… live vicariously.”
She received her BA from the University of Louisiana in Communications then finished her Master’s degree (MS) at James Madison University in Technical and Scientific Communication.
When asked where she hopes to be in a few years, her fashionable black glasses raised a little with her smirk, “In France,” she said confidently yet facetiously.
“I would like to be an entrepreneur,” she said despite the actuality that she is already a small business owner with her own magazine, Shenandoah Living, in which she oversees all business aspects of the LLC, including bookkeeping, hiring, and design elements.
“I think that the future of communication for business and education is going to be virtual worlds”
“WRTC students should focus their projects on real companies. That is how I got started with Rosetta Stone in 2006.”
Toni Mehling still writes for Rosetta Stone to this day, doing user-interface products for the company while juggling her small business, marketing and doing PR projects for the MBA program as the Director of Communications for the CoB, and working on her research with “Second Life.”
“I think that the future of communication for business and education is going to be virtual worlds. I want to work with businesses on how they can use alternate forms of communication to improve communication in businesses and organizations.”
Professor Mehling is a physical specimen of dedication, hard work, and radiates the entrepreneurial spirit. She speaks her mind with ease and confidence while illuminating candor with her humble spirit.
“One of my favorite quotes is, ‘I hate writing. I love having written.’”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Mark,
ReplyDeleteWell done, you created a good profile of Professor Mehling. You demonstrate a good understanding of your subject as well as making sure to have the profile leading with the subject’s thoughts. You effectively place numerous quotes that work well with your passages.
However, while some of your sentences are strong and help organize the profile, sometimes they get a little messy and overstuffed. Also, a few grammatical errors and sentence structure errors need to be addressed. Overall though, a well done profile that strongly communicates the subject as well as your theme for the profile. Good job.
Sorry guys...there are two quotes in here that I use twice each. They are supposed to be "pull quotes" yet when I pasted to the blog the font size changed and the bold/italics changed
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification, I was a bit confused. I liked how you used the quotes in the profile. They really added to what you said. I thought your opening was really creative. I would like to see that kind of "story" repeated throughout.
I think you should keep organization in mind in your writing. I think there were a lot of points that could have been rearranged.
With some fine tuning this will be a great piece!
-Maggee
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI think this has the makings of a really good profile, but it’s thwarted by a couple blips. Perhaps some of this is due to the incognito pull-quotes you mentioned, but I have trouble getting a feel for the organization of the piece; the information is copious and excellent, but seemingly thrown in at random. Your wit keeps the piece refreshing, and helps hold my interest, but you might want to clarify the bit about the haymaker…it’s widely considered unseemly to strike one’s interviewee. I thought you used quotes well, though, and despite all I’ve mentioned, I did indeed feel like I got a sense of your target professor. Good work.
-Jackson
Mark,
ReplyDeleteWhat I love about this is how personal it gets. It’s clear that you were really paying attention during your interview with her and I enjoy the little ways you capture her as a person by describing the delivery of her quotes. However, a lot of your sentences don’t seem to logically follow from the sentences before them. Pull out quotes aside, there were some topics introduced in the profile I would have liked a transition into, such as the quote about Dickens which leads into the sentence concerning her career. That aside, I liked the personal touch, because that gave me a solid idea of who she is as a person.
Emma
I like the way you present the profile. It's clever and innovative, and when tech stuff gets cleared up i think itl be neat to see. In fact, if its not too big a deal i think it might be a good style to steal for other profiles. Well done i say.
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteI like how you add some flair to your piece when you talk about attempting an uppercut haymaker...I have not a clue what this is exactly but I get the point of video games are much more fitting for computer material than a cyber interview. I think that the profile is written well, but the opening could be changed around a bit. I just think that introducing a setting first would be best, and maybe not using the third person? I think that the opening would be great if you started it with, "When I went to interview Toni Mehling I found myself using a computer.....," or something like that. I feel like the uniqueness of the interview setting will capture more attention than the Madison Quotient, but don't cut out the MQ part completely. I think that besides needing to alter the opening a little your profile is super solidly written! Great writing.
Brittany
Mark, although by opening with the segment on “second life” and the virtual world of communication you highlight a very interesting aspect of Professor Mehling’s life I think you may benefit from re-arranging the format of the piece. Instead I suggest opening with her childhood flair for writing and using the line, “…live vicariously,” as a transitioning point into her use of “second life” and how alternate forms of communication can be used in business. From there we can see the natural progression of her work as we discover what businesses she is involved in, i.e., Rosetta Stone and her magazine, Shenandoah Living.
ReplyDeleteIt was fairly clear what Mehling does for Rosetta Stone, and it being an international company I have a general idea what it is about, however what kind of magazine is Shenandoah Living? A line or two more of clarification would go a long way.
I think your ending—beside the duplication of pull quotes—wraps things up nicely. You especially have a good sampling of direct quotations, which help provide the reader with anecdotes that show us who she is.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI like your introduction, using the "Second Life" story; it is an unusual way of teaching but you get a lot about her from that story.
The quotes help to match and size her up (and it helps to know that some of them are block quotes.) Otherwise, the format would not have made much sense.
The background information is informative, but the structure or flow could be laid out differently. Specifically, the info about her school background could be presented earlier.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very entertaining and informative profile, but it is definitely a work in progress. It seems as though you had a lot of good ideas while writing this profile, but organizationally, you haven't quite figured out how to piece it together.
The first thing I noticed was your duplication of a quote. Though a good quote, there is never a need to repeat a quote. You should drop it out of the beginning and keep it in context (and a well written paragraph I may add).
Also, the few quotes in the middle of the profile, don't do much for the article standing alone. The same goes for the last quote. I believe there is more you can do to incorporate these quotes into the text of your description.
I loved all of your physical descriptions of the subject, her program, and her quirks. This is a very good base for a profile, but definitely needs some reworking.
Kevin Gillingham
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI really like the structure of your piece - opening with the second life description and then transitioning to her background was an interesting attention grabber. I like the idea behind the intro, but I was a little bit confused about it so you could make it clearer since the Second Life thing is unfamiliar to a lot of people.
The physical descriptions and quotes you used were great, but I would have liked to see a little more about what classes she teaches because I don't think that was mentioned.
Also was a little confused by the second to last sentence. This is definitely an excellent first draft!
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI liked how involved you were with this profile, but don't be afraid to use the first person. This was an interview that you were involved with, so don't be afraid to show that. Going with that, you used some good quotes. It felt as if I was actually watching you two have a conversation.
You have a lot of good, and relevant, information here. But, it can stand to be reorganized. It had some entertainment value, but it would be more successful if it read a little more smoothly. Keep working, but I think you have good stuff here.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI thought your profile was really entertaining, and I really liked the use of quotes. I think that it gave the piece a much more personal feel. Overall, I thought that your content was really great, but I do think that it could benefit from some tweaking of the organization. I liked that you started with setting the scene of the interview, but I think that after that it got a little jumpy. You should try to smooth out your transitions from talking about past to present to future. I think with a little bit of editing this will be really great!
I think you have a really good pool of quotes to pull from here. I think this stage seems more of a draft, so I’ll try to focus on the bigger ideas.
ReplyDeleteI thought your introduction sentence was a little confusing. Try to avoid sentence structures like “the MQ being…” I think this type of wording is often confusing for the reader. Also, the introduction of the MQ before Toni Mehling seems to make the reader believe the piece will be about the MQ, and when it continues on about Mehling, left me confused about the topic of the piece.
I don’t quite feel that you’ve chosen an angle here, and I think that is something that will help create a greater sense of cohesion, and will also help make decisions about what information to cut.
Mark, i thought this was a great profile. It's really descriptive and you give a lot of details on the professor herself. There is also a lot of information on her goals as well as past achievements. I really liked how you incorporated a lot of her quotes into the piece. While you did that, you also managed to keep your own voice throughout. However, i felt that maybe it was more of a profile that could be found in a magazine rather than on the WRTC website. Overall though, i enjoyed reading this i think you did a good job.
ReplyDeleteMark:
ReplyDeleteI like the story at the beginning - it really gives the reader insight as to who Professor Mehling is. Instead of reading various points off his resume' the reader is given a concrete example of who this professor is when in the privacy of his office.
The piece got a little bit wordy at times, so my only criticism would be to tighten up some of your sentences.