Linda Sherwood's Curriculum Vitae

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Contact Information

Linda Sherwood
P.O. Box 29
Merritt, MI 49667
E-mail: linda@lindasherwood.com
Web site: http://www.lindasherwood.com

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Education

Master of Art in English Composition and Communication
Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Mich., August 2007
Thesis title: Fat Man's Daughter: a memoir. Chair: John S. Dinan, PhD.
Members: Susan Schiller, PhD and John Palen, PhD.
Research forcus: Online teaching, plagiarism and Discourse in the classroom

Bachelor of Science
Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Mich. May 1995
Major: Journalism (advertising concentration)
Phi Eta Sigma, Golden Key National Honor Society,
Awarded CMU Board of Trustees Honors Scholarship

Grayling High School, Grayling, Mich.
College Prep, National Honor Society, Presidential Academic Fitness Award

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Work History

Kirtland Community College, adjunct 2005 to Present.
Classes taught at Kirtland Community College:
Freshman Composition 1 (ENG 103)
Freshman Composition 2 (ENG 104)
Freshman Composition Online (ENG 103-90)
Journalism (ENG 12000)
Community Education: Freelance Writing, Graphic Design
Committee Work: I am currently working with Jerry Boerema to develop guidelines for a Plagiarism Traffic School. I also work with Kate Jakobson and Heidi Sura on issues regarding the Writing Center. As a member of the English department, I worked with other members to analyze and revise the ENG 103 master syllabus and the requirements for Writing Lab. Adviser KCC?s The Paper: I have worked to develop a student handbook to outline newspaper policies, standards and ethics including developing a template, graphic standards, editorial and advertising policies. The handbook acts as a foundation for the publication and will lend to the publication?s continuity, while providing troubleshooting tips for staff and primers for new students. My adviser responsibilities include overseeing student staff, managing a budget and networking with other advisers, media professionals and high school instructors to help recruit and adapt the newspaper program. I am currently working on developing a Journalism Boot Camp program to provide training to interested KCC students, as well as high school students. Writing Specialist: I tutor students with a variety of writing assignments for various classes, as well as develop handouts and other information to address student needs. I am training to teach Writing Lab.

Smarthinking.com, 2007 to Present.
Online tutor for writing.

Baker College Online, 2007 to Present.
Online writing instructor.
I was hired in 2007, and I began training in January 2008 with my first online class scheduled for March 2008.

Roscommon County Herald-News, 2003 to 2008.
Staff Writer
I began working as a freelance writer and columnist in 2002. I became a full-time reporter in November 2003, a position I continued until September 2006. In December 2005, I resigned my full-time position in order to attend grad school, but I continued working full-time until the newspaper hired my replacement in September 2006. From September 2006 until January 2008, I worked part-time for the newspaper. While full-time, I initiated, developed and designed the newspaper's website, www.roscommonherald-news.com. During my time at the newspaper, I volunteered to fill a vacant position, which required me to design and edit the special sections for four newspapers in the Sunrise Publishing Company in 2005. My regular beats included general news, feature writing, police, court, education and local government. Beginning in September 2006, I covered Houghton Lake Community Schools and the State Police.

County Families Magazine, 2002 to 2003.
Self-employed as publisher and editor of a regional parenting magazine.
I created, designed and edited a parenting publication distributed to a five-county area. I assigned and edited articles by freelance writers, worked with local businesses and designed the 32-page full-color stitched publication each month. The magazine published six issues from July 2002 to August 2003.

Cadillac News, 2000 to 2002.
Staff Writer
I began covering local government, schools and feature writing in Missaukee County. In less than a year, my responsibilities broadened to include local government in Wexford County. I uncovered financial misappropriations, which prompted an investigation by the state attorney general and the recall of two city elected officials.

Freelance Writing: 1999 to Present
Merritt, Michigan

Self-Syndicated Columnist: 1999 to Present
I'm the Mommy, Merritt, Michigan

Missaukee Sentinel: 1996 to 2000
Staff ReporterLake City, Michigan

Houghton Lake Resorter: 1999 to 2000
Staff Reporter, Houghton Lake, Michigan

Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun: 1996
Community Editor, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan

Crawford County Avalanche: 1994 to 1996
Staff Reporter, Grayling, Michigan

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Qualifications

Public relations, promotions: Public relations for Merritt Speedway for more than five years (1999 to 2004) including writing and distributing press releases, promoting events, releasing weekly results and points standings and creating, developing and maintaining the speedway?s website. On a volunteer basis, submitted press releases to four local newspapers for Merritt Elementary School and other nonprofit organizations. Also experienced in promoting the self-syndicated column, I?m the Mommy, which has been published in numerous publications throughout the United States as well as single columns in Canada and Australia.
Writing and editing: A professional writer more than 15 years with experience in newspaper, magazine, business and online writing; the demonstrated ability to analyze sources and submit complete and accurate work on short deadlines. The author of more than 3,000 articles, an online how-to book, and a self-syndicated humor column, which has received three awards from the Michigan Press Association. As an investigative reporter, uncovered financial misappropriations that prompted an investigation by the state attorney general and led to the recall of two elected city officials. See the publications list included for a complete list for more details.
Internet, HTML: Webmaster for numerous sites including www.roscommonherald-news.com, lindasherwood.com; and have previously designed sites for merritt-speedway.com, shelleyhaggert.com; very familiar with HTML, cascading style sheets and a growing knowledge of JAVA; build sites from scratch using Photoshop and hand-coding HTML; moderator of online writing communities and an online instructor and tutor. Prior to teaching journalism, I operated an award-winning web site for community journalists, SmallTownPress.net, which was recognized by Writer?s Digest magazine.
Desktop Publishing: Graphic design and layout of brochures, logos, magazines, flyers and other publications. Most recently designed the logo for the anthology and t-shirt from Crossroads Writing Program Summer Institute 2007.
Public Speaking: Experienced talking to large and small groups about writing and car seat safety for a variety of audiences; interviewed on the radio and quoted in articles in both local and national publications on a wide variety of topics. See attached list.
Photography: Skilled photographer for both film and electronic output. Familiar with developing process for black and white film, scanning, cropping and editing digital images. Photos published in a number of publications.
Teaching: Experienced teacher in a community college setting; both online and computer-assisted face-to-face courses in journalism and English composition; community courses in a variety of topics; professional writing course; experienced writing tutor both face-to-face and online.
Technological skills and proficiencies: I have considerable experience with a number of software programs including: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, Quark Xpress, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Various FTP clients, Various e-mail clients, Various CMSs including Blackboard, Angel and WebCT, Adobe Professional, Microsoft Publisher; I know basic HTML, CSS and Java; I am proficient using various scanners, digital cameras, fax machines, copy machines, jump drives, LCD data projectors, etc.

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Funding, Workshops and Academic Work

Funding
Crossroads Writing Project, Summer Institute, Ferris State University, 2007. $800. Funded. My research focus is developing handouts for students to utilize when working in groups for both online and face-to-face courses.

Workshops
College Media Advisers, 2006. New York, NY. Workshops attended: New Adviser?s Workshop, Recruiting and Maintaining Staff, Design, a workshop in dialogue, journalism boot camp, resurrecting ghosts and more. Michigan Press Association, annual convention, January 2006. Michigan Community College Press Association, fall convention, Saginaw Valley State University, 2006.

Academic Work
Evoking Emotion with Rhetoric: A Rhetorical Analysis of How Authors Write to Evoke Emotions in Readers. 2006.
Literacy Autobiography. This is a creative nonfiction piece detailing how I acquired literacy as a mother and writer when I became a part of the freelance writing world. 2006.
My Evolution. A segmented essay, My Evolution, explores my struggles and triumphs as I transition from a journalist to an academic writer. 2006.
Teaching Online: Navigating the Discourses. An exploration in developing and teaching an online composition course. 2007.
Plagiarism, Pedagogy and Students: An Experiment in Changing Student Perceptions. A teacher-research project proposal. Spring 2006.
Punishing Plagiarism: Developing Standards Instructors will use. 2006.
Recovered Rhetoric of Ida B. Wells. 2006.
Using Workshop Critiques to Find the Writer Within. 2006.

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Publications

Sherwood, Linda and Shelley Divnich Haggert. “Writing Lessons Learned: We learned the hard way so you don’t have to.” BookLocker. 2003. The book provides answers to a new freelance writer’s most-frequently asked questions about the freelance writing business; contributed to a column by the same name answering reader questions.
Sherwood, Linda. “I’m the Mommy.” A self-syndicated humor parenting column published in a multitude of publications including Windsor Parent, Big Apple Parent, Missaukee Sentinel, Roscommon County Herald-News, Ogemaw County Herald, Family First, Myria, At the Fence, ParentingHumor.com and more.
  • Battling the Birthday Buy-Mes. South Florida Parenting. February 2002.
  • Common Cents. A column aimed at parents of teenagers. Oxygen Media.
  • From Truck to Track. Road King. November/December 2003.
  • Have an Ice Day. Road King. January/February 2004.
  • Never Ever Change a Quote. Canadian Writer?s Journal. Winter 2000.
  • On the Brink. Tenemos. Winter 2006.
  • Reuniting to Remember. The Pointer. May 2004.
  • On Ice Retaliation Goes Too Far. Cadillac News. January 31, 2002.
  • Police: Missaukee Man was Murdered. Cadillac News. November 11, 2001.
  • How to be a (shiver) Reporter, WritingCorner.com.
  • A Controversial Business Model: Book Reviews for Sale, Content-Exchange.com.
  • To Show or not to Show, AbsoluteWrite.com.
Other Publishing Credits
A professional writer for over 12 years with experience in newspaper, magazine, business and online writing, I analyze sources and submit complete and accurate work on short deadlines. I am the author of more than 3,000 articles. My articles and essays appeared in the following print and online publications:
Newspapers: Cadillac News, Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun, Houghton Lake Resorter, Crawford County Avalanche, Huron Daily Tribune, Marc Times, Michigan Auto Racing, Gaylord Herald Times, Bay City Times, Muskegon Chronicle.
Magazines: Queens Parent (New York), Metro Parent Magazine (Detroit), Sydney?s Parent (Australia), Connecticut County Kids, Windsor Parent (Canada), Big Apple Parent, Petoskey Area Parent, Mahoning Valley Parent (Ohio), Brisbane?s Child (Australia), Melbourne?s Child (Australia), Washington Families, Families First Monthly (Traverse City).
Writing/Journalism articles: Content-Exchange.com, AbsoluteWrite.com, Inklings, Inscriptions Magazine, The Writing Parent, Writer?s Exchange, Writing Corner, Rainy Day Corner, Word Weaving, Writer to Writer, Young Writer?s Nook, Write Business, A Writer?s Life, Writing-World.com, and more.
Interview Credits
I have been interviewed for a variety of topics published in the following publications: The Detroit News, Midwest Living, Pregnancy, Women?s Health and Fitness, Baby Years, Poynter.org, Wired.com, CareerJournal.com, Writing-World.com and various other publications.

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Technological Skills and Proficiencies

Photography I am an accomplished photographer utilizing film and digital cameras as well as photo software to develop and edit digital images. My photography has appeared in a number of publications. I am a student at the New York Institute of Photography. My camera, a Canon Rebel XT, is a digital SLR.

Web design Fluent in HTML code, I have designed a number of websites including lindasherwood.com, roscommonherald-news.com, and shelleyhaggert.com. I prefer to build sites using a combination of hand-written HTML code, Photoshop and cascading style sheets. Prior to teaching journalism, I operated an award-winning web site for community journalists, SmallTownPress.net.

I have considerable experience with a number of software programs including: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, Quark Xpress, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Various FTP clients, Various e-mail clients, Various CMSs including Blackboard, Angel and WebCT, Adobe Professional, Microsoft Publisher; I know basic HTML, CSS and Java; I am proficient using various scanners, digital cameras, fax machines, copy machines, jump drives, LCD data projectors, etc.

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Awards

  • Michigan Press Association, Better Newspaper Contest
  • Local column, I'm the Mommy, 2004, 2003, 2000; Local news series, third place, 2000; Spot news, first place, 2004
  • Writer's Digest 101 Best Web Sites, smalltownpress.net, 2001
  • List-A-Day.com, smalltownpress.net, 2001
  • Golden Pen, Momwriters, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

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Memberships

  • National Council Teachers of English
  • Teaching English in the Two-Year College
  • College Media Advisers
  • Michigan Press Association
  • Michigan Community College Press Association

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Civic Participation

  • Member Houghton Lake Parent Group 2005-Present
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration certified carseat technician: I attended a four-day training session and participate in carseat safety checkpoints to ensure children are being buckled up safely.
  • Momwriters.com, an online writing community of over 1,000 people where I volunteer in a variety of positions including as a co-moderator.
  • TheWritingMother.com, an online writing community.
  • Classroom and school volunteer, Merritt Elementary School, 1999-2006
  • Past member Merritt Elementary Parent Support Group
  • Past member Missaukee County Habitat for Humanity
  • Past member Parent Awareness Month committee, Wexford and Missaukee counties.
  • Freshman Cheerleading Coach, Lake City High School, 1997-1998

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