Wearing Multiple Hats

The past two weeks have been a little chaotic at work.  Working in a position where multiple tasks have to be performed and due at various times, if not at the same time, requires you to wear many hats as a writer.  I have found that being in a small office requires you, as a writer, to be adaptable and be able to perform a variety of types of writing.

Looking back on the last two weeks, here are some of the tasks I have had to complete or work on.  I have had to work on writing a proposal for a grant solicitation, while this is not a new thing for me, it is challenging.  I have also been writing two new units of instructional material for my online Forensic Drug Chemistry course.  Along with writing, I also had to edit instructional content from two new writers that are beginning to write and create their new courses.  Another project I have been working on was writing a speech and creating a PowerPoint presentation to go with it.  And if this wasn’t enough, I also had to create multiple pages and edit some pages of our company website for an upcoming program.  

With the multiple types of writing, the one thing I have learned is that you always have to be aware of your audience.  For instance, with the grant proposal, my audience is the solicitation review board which is different that the audience of the instructional material that I am writing.  That audience is made up of forensic professionals, college students, and the general public.  The audience for my presentation is my peers in the forensic science field.  While with some of the types of writing the audience types may overlap, but you still have to be aware of who will be receiving the information.

After reflecting on the work that I have do and what I have accomplished in just two weeks, I was a little surprised at the multiple types of writing projects that I do.  Until now, I have never stepped back and looked at what I actually did.  I’m proud of myself for being able to manage and put out the best product that I can in multiple areas of writing.