BethanyMerryman

Struggles and Accomplishments!

"Sadly" this is my third and final portfolio for news writing. Throughout this semester I have learned many important things that will help me regardless to my career choice. I also am proud to say that this semester I have done my best in keeping up with all my work. Although I do find myself procrastinating to a point, I believe exercises and assignments such as blogs have prevented me from falling far behind! When I do fall behind it is evident in my work, and I am not proud of this. But I do feel that in my eyes I have shown improvement and to me that is the important thing. Sure A's are always nice, but as long as I know I tried my hardest I am happy with the product.


1. Coverage: contains all the agenda items I have completed since the previous portfolio
Creative Crime Report
No One Said Life Was Fair
the Journalist monsters PREY on the weak!!!
Newspapers...yada yada yada
Classical or Creative
yes! yes!
pretzels what?
Alas! The Antidote of Dull Writing!
Morrie's Man

2. Depth: the blogs I felt were my best and most interesting
Best Practices 1-28
No One Said Life Was Fair: mistakes happen, but if you can eliminate them you have formed ART!
Best Practices Overview
Newspapers...yada yada yada: I will admit, at this point, I am getting sick of the repetition and can't wait to learn NEW stuff!
ABNW Chapter 10
Alas! The Antidote of Dull Writing!: I worked my butt off thinking about this concept-but don't be intimidated!

3. Interaction: blogs that helped other students and discussion
Mitchell Steele
ABNW 87-97
Jackie Johns
Best Practices (the rest)
Vanessa Kolberg
ABNW Chapter 11

4. Discussion: interaction with my peers that helped support and challenge my blogs
Best Practices 1-28
No One Said Life Was Fair: everyone had something to say about life not being fair.
Best Practices rest
the Journalist monsters PREY on the weak!!!: Do journalists prey of the weak? Responses of my peers made me question my own ideas.
ABNW Chapter 10
Alas! The Antidote of Dull Writing!: Again, this is my baby-you can't go wrong with anecdotes!

5. Timeliness: blogs that were posted early and led to discussions
Best Practices 1-28
No One Said Life Was Fair
Best Practices rest
the Journalist monsters PREY on the weak!!!
Best Practices Overview
Newspapers...yada yada yada
ABNW Chapter 10
Alas! The Antidote of Dull Writing!

6. Xenoblogging: things I do to help others with blogging
Comment Primo-
Daniela Choynowski- Best Practices 1-28
Jackie Johns- Best Practices (the rest)
Maria Pezzuti- Classics
Corey Struss- Hull, "Metal to Bone"

7. Wildcard: the one I want YOU to see!
ABNW Chapter 10
Alas! The Antidote of Dull Writing!:

Not only do I think this was my best blog, but I feel that the topic got me thinking the most. I also had a lot of good discussion and interaction on this blog. If I could go as far as saying I was most proud of this blog I would, but it sounds rather silly. I feel that this blog, one of my final for the semester, shows my growth and improvement in this class. I hope you enjoyed it as well!

Just to let this out-I am soooo shocked that Mitch Albom was under investigation for plagarism! I love Albom and actually had a chance to meet him! Soooooo sad to hear this information!

Now on a more important and relevant note, Chapter 11 in ABNW has many important points. I think the one that is overlooked is eliminating important facts. Like Jackie said in her blog, we have been spending a lot of time in class taking MANY facts and picking which ones are important to the story. I thought I was finally getting a handle on using the important information, but really the big picture is you have to look outside of your article and make sure you are not eliminating a factor that could alter what you are reporting. Gosh, news writing is so complicated!!

"Journalists often write informational articles that have story elements and vice versa. Moreover, they have some tricks of the trade that help them do this. The first is the anecdote, a word often confused with 'antidote'-- unless we say that the anecdote is an antidote to the poison of dull writing."

According to Chapter 10 of ABNW, an anecdote is a tiny story within a story, "a short account of some interesting or humorous incident." What I understood from this section was that it was reiterating the fact that there are two different types of journalists. The ones who follow the assignments and those who make the story their own. If you include an anecdote within the assignment you are making the story your own. So for anyone out there that says Journalism is not creative-check it out! Anecdote's within a story luminates style and puts the dull articles to sleep! Anecdotes are the gold coins you are in search of while interviewing...that extra something special that will make your story shine.

An example would probably be any background or history reporters/we found while interviewing the students at the Safe Streets, Safer Students meeting. But I guess there is a catch-you have to be careful what information you are writing and how you publish it, because you may be giving information that will alter the hearings.

"Officer Lisa Bishop's secret to guarding a sleeping city was pretzels." If you weren't interested in reading Metal to Bone after reading this line, you must be CRAZY. Although the pretzels were not the topic of the article, I was sold as soon as I read that line. Hull did a wonderful job with showing, and not tellings. I was interested throughout the article! My Uncle actually lived in St. Petersburg and worked in Tampa, so it hit a certain part of my mind. I felt as though I was experiencing the events as the story progressed and I feel the writing style was wonderful. I loved it and thought it was a great article.

In Ah, What a Day, I loved the semicolon use. When I was in 10th grade, my high school English teacher, Mrs. Brosig would have MURDERED anyone who used this technique, but I find it fun and refreshing! One thing that really stood out for me in this article was the fact that is was so personal to the town. In every town there are special things noone else would know about! In Erie, we have Smith hot dogs and they are the best ever! I have friends who buy them by the boxes and take them back to Boston with them. Little things like that sit with an audience and I feel that this personality is very appealing. Almost essay like, but reporting on something.

In chapter 9 The Classics, I chose to write about the The Death of Captain Henry Waskow. I felt that this was a very creative obituary. Ernie Pyle used "I" and "we" in the article and it made it so much more personal. I have never read an article similar to the story told about how Captain Henry Waskow was lost but loved. I really felt it was amazing writing and for someone to be creative with a topic such as death, it's real talent!

Note: I am not trying to sound harsh or angry, just summarizing what I have learned!!!

Not that the Best Practices is the only readings that have helped me come to this conclusion, but I am realizing more and more, with every assignment, that I do NOT was to write for a newspaper. Phhewww feels good to get that off my chest. In all seriousiness, I don't have what it take to be a news writer. I could never get into a victims face after their child was murdered and interview them. I don't have the nerve or I guess the balls to do something like that. I am not saying that news writing is not interesting, I think it is a challenging art and well I give a huge amount of credit to journalists who do justice!!

I do hope to take what I have learned in this class and through the readings out in life. Yah know, take the news with a grain of salt, no one is perfect and journalist are not an exception, verify or duck, yada-yada-yada! I know this course will also help me in my real dream *magazine writing* aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

"The public sympathizes strongly with victims of tragedy who sometimes seem to be revictimized by their encounters with reporters and photographers at a moment when they are most vulnerable."

In Best Practices, this section captured my attention because of the title at first, but I shortly became enthralled with the reality of the matter. I am sure that reporters don't even realize what they are doing, justice as far as they are concerned, but I agree that there is a line between finding the justice in the matter and preying on the weak victims of the situation.

Sure we can blame the adrenaline the reporters are running on, but honestly how invasive do the questions have to be? Especially on the victims end. In cases of families with lost loved one or children, just how far will reporters go to get information, when really in the eyes of the public they should just report on the actual event. I get that they think they are getting a more news worthy article if they do a more personal story, but seriously don't go there.

Like the book says, I too think the journalists should be trained to know what questions to ask people in vulnerable situations. How far to push the story and how to treat children. There are so many reasons that people hate journalism. Have a heart!

"Although many journalists may think that spelling and grammar errors, wrong names, wrong titles, wrong addresses, wrong dates and other similar mistakes have relatively little to do with the press's credibility, the public sees it otherwise."

Because of these "small" errors, the public has become more skeptical about the news reported in papers. After reading this section of Best Practices, I found it most similar to my experiences in News Writing. As we have all had drilled into our little brains, verify or duck! But it is not that easy. It is very easy to make mistakes, we are only human, but it can effect what news is reported. Even editors may not catch mistakes, and shown in this chapter it is important to have a routine that questions, Who made this error? How did it occur? and so on. Along with making mistakes, I feel it is very important for errors to be admitted. If we make a mistake that effects a story, it is easy to put a follow-up on there to fix the problem! If little steps like these are taken, I feel the public will believe the news and respect the art.

"It was a setup," Nunzio begins.
"What's that?" asks Judge Michael Bolan, looking up from his papers. "Oh, it's a setup, okay."

I think the best thing about this article was the style Myers used. By putting dialogue such as this, I really felt as though I was there. I was involved with the topic and had a better feel for the story. Rather than just reading facts, you are shown not told. It is not a style that I am used to, but then again I have no prior experience with News Writing. I was interested in the topic throughout the reading and I think this is an important aspect. The goal is to reach the audience and Myers has accomplished this in my case. I rather prefer this type of style to other news writing, but then again I am more interested in Magazine writing. And I feel that this is similar to that style!