Aware, but unaware at the same time....

I think everyone at some point in their life time has plagiarized a piece of work they found on the internet or from some other source that wasn't their own original work. 

Back in middle school, one of my history teachers had us do an assignment on haiku poems and at the time I was listening to a duo based out of Seattle (Blue Scholars) whom I really enjoyed listening too. Nevertheless, I copied one my favorite verses from one of their songs called "loyalty" and soon enough I got held back after class by my teacher a week later and he warned me about the consequences of plagiarizing somebody else's work. 

That was only one way of plagiarizing; what most people aren't aware of is that there several ways to plagiarize somebody else's work. This site below shows the different types of plagiarism that can occur and is also numbered by the severity of intent.

http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/types-of-plagiarism

In the world of public relations there is a lot of writing going on, thats nothing new. I think what makes a good public relations practitioner is how well they can avoid the types of plagiarism there are and generate original work. Is it important to know the types of way you can plagiarize? Well, if you want to work in this field you better be familiar with them because the moment your caught using somebody else's work and it's not being cited properly, is the moment your left jobless. Furthermore, being aware of these types of plagiarism is important, very important. 

One type of plagiarism that stood out to me and actually caught me off guard was number 10. If you read the article, number 10 is the "Re-Tweet" which is initially using the proper citations but rely's a lot on the texts original structure. I thought this was interesting because if it means what it actually means by re-tweet, then there is constant plagiarism happening on Twitter. I might be wrong but if it's true then plagiarism happens even when we aren't aware of it.  

So when in doubt, cite it out. 

It's not fair to the people who took time out of their day to create an original piece of work just to have somebody else copy it for their own benefit.

California Lovin'

My parents really like to stay in touch with me while I'm in college. They tend to call me about three times a week and I don't mind it at all. So last week my mom was calling me on a tuesday night, so I answered and we talked like we always did, except this time she was talking with excitement and so i had to ask what was up. All she responded back to me was "What do you think about Cali?" I didn't even hesitate to ask why and she just said, "Its time for something new." So I immediately started looking for future careers down in the bay area because thats the part of California my parents would like to move too. Since my last blog was emphasizing on the great PR agencies in Washington, I looked up some agencies in the San Fran area and came across W2O Group, the 4th largest PR firm in the United States. 

W2O Group has an exceptional background of work done for companies. Companies like Hershey's, Mitsubishi and Yoplait. But what i noticed was that W2O group isn't actually the whole company. They have firms within the group like WCG, TWIST Mktg, Brewlife and W2O Ventures. I looked up WCG's site and noticed clients like HP, Redbull and Warner Brothers. 

Going off my previous post, I am getting more and more anxious to work in this field one way or another. Handling big time clients like those stated above are some of the goals I want to achieve. They have this video on their website that portrays the work environment they have in their facility and they really touch base on bringing ideas to life. I really encourage you to take a look at the video to get a feel of what they are about and the work they bring to the table. And what's more exciting about them, is that they are global as well! They have a branch in London that i would love to go and see/work for. The homepage shows featured videos that show their employees explaining the company and the approach they take on.

There is a lot to still look forward too when I think about careers in this area. But I am curious to see what the feel is like to work for real life clients, in a real life agency setting, working along side real PR practitioners. That's what excites me and that's why I am embracing this move to California with open arms.

A future to consider

I am getting to the point where I am now thinking about future internships and companies that i would like to work for. Currently I am interning for an event coordinator here on campus with this years spring fest. I am pretty pumped for the opportunity to work with people that have years of experience on them and then theres me, with maybe 6 months of experience. This last week I started looking at companies around the Northwest and some were interesting to me because of the clients they had. It wasn't until last week when in class for agency we had a guest speaker who in fact was a PR practitioner and she talked about her career and her experience in the professional sector.

During her splurge of excellence she mentioned her internships and how I can be ahead if I can get an internship at a big company. She then went on to mention " Waggener Edstrom". That night I spent a couple hours researching them and what they do and how they do it. They are ranked 3rd in the nation, and not only do work in the United States, but also for companies around the globe. I started looking at the clients they handled and they were huge!


Microsoft
GE Healthcare
UNICEF
Chevron
T Mobile
Skype


My eyes popped when I saw those companies. I have yet to look into their campaigns and case studies but its something I want to keep looking up on because what she said about working for an agency, the research, marketing, the ideas and how closely we work with advertising sold me. I wanted to share that because it was the first time I think i know what I want to do for a career. The drive. The ambition. Thats what is fueling my fire to know more about this profession.