The following is a proclamation that I wrote for Tim Brown. He served as the Manager and Chief Officer at the Kent County Water Authority (KWCA) for almost 31 years and was announcing his retirement. The Mayor wanted me to write a proclamation for him that both celebrated his achievements and declared April 12, 2019 as “Timothy J. Brown Day.”

In order to compose this document, I thoroughly looked over all the material that my supervisor sent to me. The KCWA contacted her asking for a proclamation or citation for Tim and attached Tim’s letter to the company announcing his retirement, a letter of praise from the KCWA Board, and a piece of paper including his wife and daughters’ names. I circled all the information that I thought to be pertinent to the proclamation. I also obtained an example of a retirement proclamation that my supervisor had recently written (by this point in my internship, I had only written a death proclamation, which was a bit different in format). I followed the format as best as I could, but realized I did not have all the essential information I needed, such as his background and education. I looked up KWCA’s phone number and got in touch with one of his coworkers who was able to give me the rest of the information I needed. I was then able to finish the draft and gave copies of it to both my supervisor and the Mayor to look over. Once I corrected the small changes they had made I printed the document on an official piece of paper, put the City of Warwick seal on it and had the Mayor sign it.

In this process, I learned how to conduct a proper phone interview. When I was comparing the information my supervisor had in her previous retirement proclamation, I knew that I was missing essential information to create a complete piece. I wrote down my questions on a piece of paper to make sure that I would not forget to ask anything. Once I got on the phone, I made sure to ask all of my questions and then repeat back the information to the person over the phone to make sure that I had gotten everything right. I was not nervous on the phone call and was confident in my ability to conduct myself in a professional manner.

The following is a briefing sheet that I wrote when I was about halfway through my internship. The purpose of a briefing sheet is to list all the pertinent information about the event the Mayor is going to attend. In this case, it was for one of his business “One-on-One” meetings with new Warwick restaurant, Cork and Rye Gastropub.

By the time I wrote this particular briefing sheet, I had already written six previous ones, so I was well-versed in the configuration. This shows the culmination of my knowledge of what to include in a briefing sheet. I learned that the following pieces of information are worth including:

• Names of owners (and other important personnel)
• Date of when business/company opened
• Definitions of unclear/ unfamiliar terms
• What business/company is “known for”
• Mission statements
• Reviews from customers

The following is the very first press release I wrote during my time at my internship. The purpose of it was to advise the local media (i.e. The Warwick Beacon) of the Mayor’s whereabouts. In this case, he was going to visit The Slocum Agency, Inc. (a locally owned and operated real estate and insurance agency) as part of his ongoing business “One-on-One” series.

 

In order to compose this document, I reviews some of my supervisor’s previous press releases. I had written in a journalistic manner before during my mini-internship at The Warwick Beacon for my high school senior project, but that was close to five years ago. I essentially had to “relearn” how to write in this style. First, I visited the Agency’s website to find out the location, about the background history of the company, as well as the people behind it. Once I had all the information I needed, I wrote the press release in a format similar to the template. During this process, I learned to be as objective as possible. I had included in my first draft how much customers loved working with The Slocum Agency. Sue explained to me that I should be as factual as possible, reminding me that the purpose of this press release was to let the local media know what the Mayor was going to be doing, not to persuade them to use the company for their own real estate/ insurance needs.

The following is a media advisory/ press release I wrote during my internship. Its purpose was to inform the local press about the Mayor’s whereabouts on one of his Business One-on-One visits. (The Mayor visits different businesses all throughout Warwick once a week to both shine a spotlight on them and ask if they need any assistance from the City.) Here, the Mayor was going to be visiting a local company called Fine Time, which is a full service watch repair shop and seller. It gives a background of Fine Time as well as reiterates the Mayor’s purpose of visiting local business.

The following is a  “bundle” that I created in my WRT 302 (Culture Writing) class last semester. A bundle is a collection of works created to advertise an imagined product or service. This bundle was my third one for the class. It surrounds the imagined service (more like the imagined event) of an exhibit about rhetoric at RISD called “Closer Than You Think: The Rhetorics of Everyday Life.” It includes an illustrated checklist of the pieces in the exhibit, a wall label, an audio tour script, a guestbook, a poster, and a flyer. It also includes a cover page and a table of contents.

I fell in love with the idea of cultural rhetorics/ the rhetorics of everyday life last semester, so I really wanted to make that the focal point of one of my bundles. Plus, I think these piece would kill two birds with one stone because it shows potential employers my dedication to being a facilitator of rhetoric, which is important for all writers. I showcase my creative abilities in this piece for the sheer fact that there are seven separate documents that are all unique from one another. Some of them have design elements and if they do, they show off the fact that I am able to stay on-brand by keeping the same fonts, colors, etc. in check. Overall, it shows my ability to talk about the same topic from multiple perspectives.

This piece is a post from my personal blog called “English Escapades.” I wrote it because I fell in love with a song called “Tears In The Rain” by The Weeknd. I was listening to one of his older albums (Kiss Land) last semester while driving to school one day and did not skip the tenth track (like I usually always did). Instead, I discovered one of my favorite songs to date. Even though the message The Weeknd is trying to make in the song is pretty clear, I just felt extremely compelled to do my own lyrical analysis of it because I had developed deep emotional attachment (empathy) to it. I wrote the entire blog post in about an hour, listening to said song the whole entire time.

This lyrical analysis shows my personal, everyday voice in the paragraphs before the actual lyrical analysis. It shows how I actually talk in everyday life and my ability to translate it into text. It also shows my ability to analyze texts, especially when it comes to the detection of tone. Besides this, it shows how my creative and writing abilities soar when I am excited/ passionate about a specific topic.

My first piece is a Think Piece that I wrote last semester in my ENG 482 class. Although the class focused on literature from American authors up until 1820, it had a very interesting subtopic. The theme of the class was called “Love Story: Marriage Plots & Their Alternatives.” For this assignment, we were asked to focus on a topic that would somehow interact with one of the critical readings we had discussed so far in class. I wrote about my findings in Adam-Campbells’ “Mapping Marriage,” defending her argument about the absurdity of strict marriage rules. It offers my ideas for how the institution of marriage should be treated today all while using statements from the critical reading to back them up.

This particular piece showcases a few of the many facets I have as a skilled writer. It shows my ability to interact with critical texts, to properly include quotes from outside sources into my own writing, to properly cite works in MLA format, and finally to produce a cohesive and descriptive piece of writing. I also like the authenticity of this piece because it contains my true opinion about marriage — my voice and values shine through.

Haley Kiernan

Warwick, RI 02889 ~ (401) 556-2738 ~ haleykiernan@gmail.com ~ linkedin.com/in/haleyerkier/

EDUCATION

University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI

B.A. English & Writing and Rhetoric …………………………………………………. May 2019

GPA: 3.72 (Major GPAs: 4.00), Dean’s List

Community College of Rhode Island, Warwick, RI

Associate of Arts, General Studies …………………………………………………….. May 2017

GPA: 3.92, Dean’s List

Highest Honors, member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society

RELEVANT COURSEWORK

• Digital Writing and Rhetoric
• Professional Writing
• Rhetoric for Writing Majors
• Technical Writing
• Culture Writing
• Feminist Culture Writing

WRITING EXPERIENCE

Public Relations Writing Intern, Warwick City Hall – Mayor’s Office, Warwick, RI 

Feb. 2019 – Present

• Publish media advisories/ press releases having to do with the Mayor for the local press
• Create briefings for Mayor about events he will be attending
• Produce “Mayor’s Message” for the Pilgrim Senior Center monthly newsletter
• Complete condolence and proclamation letters for Warwick residents

Newsletter Editor, East Greenwich Free Library, East Greenwich, RI

Oct. 2018 – Present

• Write seasonal newsletters to inform patrons about events going on at library
• Interview those completing projects or holding events at library
• Publish press releases about events to take place at the library for local press

Journalist Intern, The Warwick Beacon, Warwick, RI

July 2014

• Wrote three detailed and accurate articles based on the compiled information from live interviews

WORK EXPERIENCE

East Greenwich Free Library, East Greenwich, RI

Circulation Clerk ………………………………………………………………… May 2016 – Present

• Circulate library material by checking items in and out
• Facilitate library procedures by pulling holds, processing fines, and counting money
• Build relationships with patrons by providing excellent customer service
• Promoted to write newsletter to establish stronger relationship between library staff and patrons

CCRI Writing Center, Warwick, RI

Peer Tutor ………………………………………………………………………… Oct. 2015 – Dec. 2016

• Proofread for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors
• Assisted students in getting the writing process started (drafting outlines, research help, etc.)
• Helped students reword sentences and reorder paragraphs for better flow
• Showed students how to cite their papers (MLA format)

WRITING SKILLS

Content Editing: WordPress, Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook), Google Suite

Communication: Active listening, presenting, writing for different audiences, interpersonal

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Pinterest, YouTube, Zoom, EtherPad, Flipgrid