Portfolio 1: The Breakdown of a Bad Attitude—Seeing the Positive Aspects of News Writing
I’m not going to deny, I wasn’t particularly looking forward
to this class…I might have even had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about
it. I recognized the importance of
taking the class. As an education major,
I realized that I may one day be called upon to run a school paper and I need
to know something about news writing.
However, when I thought about news writing, I saw it only as dry, boring,
and devoid of creativity. I saw it only
as an attempt at compiling facts (which I knew from EL312 last semester don’t
actually even exist, since facts are really just manifestations of value-judgments)
and being objective (which is also impossible, since there is no such thing as
a word which does not influence a reader’s thoughts in some way).
As the semester began, my bad attitude (I may be exaggerating my feelings slightly here, I don’t think my attitude would actually have qualified as bad) remained. The readings only seemed to confirm my fears, articles used words such words as “noxious” and “fierce” and I felt my frustration growing. How could a “good” article use such subjective words? But as time went on and I read some of my more open-minded peers’ blogs, things began to click into place for me. First, I realized that within news writing, there are different types of writing. What is acceptable in a profile, obituary, and accident report are all very different things. Second, I began to realize that creativity, as in any other form of writing, is essential to news writing. It might be a different type of creativity, but writing in a way which will keep readers interested and incorporating many quotes from different people takes skill and creativity. Lastly, I began making connections between news writing and other fields which I like. With Katie’s help, I realized that story pitches are not so very far from my beloved thesis statements and with Michelle’s help I realized that teaching in a sense is a form of reporting.
Coverage: I completed all of my blogs; bellow are the entries which did not fall under any other category.
Depth: These are the blogs in which I really felt I went above and beyond. I put extra effort and thought into these entries.
- My blog, Seeing is Believing, Or Should It Be?, was written early in the class; however, I think it shows my development as I begin to consider journalism in a more critical fashion. I recognize the skepticism we should regard the news media with, link to Katie’s blog which got me thinking, and note the balance that the news media must find between sensationalism and allowing their audience to sleep soundly at night.
- In Capturing the Soul in an Obituary, I highlight the qualities which Nicholson’s obituary had which I felt made it tower above most other obituaries I have read. I also relate some of my past experiences with creating an obituary index at my local library and some of the changes in obituaries over time.
- One of the blogs which is representative of my changing view of news writing is Revelation: “The craft, the art, of storytelling” within News Writing. In it, my increasingly positive attitude towards journalism is evident as I begin to see that it doesn’t have to be all boring, dull fact without any life or zest.
- In Infusing Voice into News Writing—Remaining Objective without being Withdrawn, my budding understanding of voice in the news appears. After much struggle with whether voice is allowed at all in news writing or not, I realize that readers actually want the author to have a voice, they just don’t want that voice to skew the facts.
- Making connections between both Linguistics and News writing, The Struggle to Structure Short Sentences, includes my struggles to be concise and keep things short, but also my realization of the importance of doing so.
Interaction: These are blogs in which I participated in meaningful discussions on my peers’ blogs.
- On Angela’s Clark and Scanlon conTribute to our learning, we have a bit of a back and forth discussion on the ineffectiveness and misleading nature of a newspaper headline.
- After a full eight other comments on Angela’s Good Quotes Can Win Awards, I step into the action by giving my opinion that Stockton not only interviewed those biased in Silbert’s favor, but other impartial people as well.
- After reading Angela’s Children’s Author Tortured by Own Genius, I politely disagree about the skill of Gorney’s writing since she uses so many subjective words.
- On Aja’s The (Non) News of Michael Jackson, she politely disagrees with part of my comment and agrees with part of it.
- I politely disagree with something Aja says on her blog, Duck Profile?, and we both clarify our views.
- On Derek’s When writing, SHOW don’t just TELL, we have a discussion about the importance of showing, instead of telling in order to avoid opinion slipping into our writing.
Discussion: These are discussions which were inspired by my blog entries.
- In Picture of a Smiling Man=Homicide?, I consider the different orders of sections in different newspapers, Katie and Derek respond with a well-thought out answer.
- My blog, Capturing the Soul in an Obituary, sparks interest because of my personal experience and my comments on Nicholson’s obituary.
- In Revelation: “The craft, the art, of storytelling” within News Writing, my new view of news writing as a form of “storytelling” sparks discussion.
- My agreement with Shafer on A Replenishing “Oasis”—Bus Plunges makes my other students consider the role of having short articles interspersed throughout the paper on its readers.
- On A Necessary Characteristic for Journalists: Self-Confidence, Josie and Angela leave me comments and I answer in a long and thorough comment, Josie responds again after my comment.
Timeliness: All of my blogs were turned in at least 24 hours ahead of time (as soon as the RRR sequence was introduced). Bellow are just a few examples.
Xenoblogging:
The Comment Primo:
- Jessie’s Broadcasting didn’t kill Newspapers
The Comment Grande:
- Aja’s Hello Lead
- April’s Talking the talk
The Link Gracious:
- Aja’s Something New!
Wildcard: For my wildcard, I chose two reflections I wrote. I think that both show my progress towards understanding news writing better. In the first blog, I relate news writing to teaching a classroom and in the second, I begin to have a more open-mind about the stylistic rules involved in journalism.
Reflections: These are blog entries I wrote before class. They are based on my classmates’ blog entries. I expand on what I have learned from their blogs and what I now understand better thanks to them. The two I used as my wildcard are not included in this list.
Previous Portfolios:
- EL150: Do You Believe in Magic?
- EL312: Discovering Preferences
Return to the course website.
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