Portfolio 2: Learning—Not Just from Reading, but from Real-Life Experience

By GretaCarroll on October 9, 2009 2:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We didn’t have quite as many blogs this time around. I think this is because a lot of our work for this part of the class was more hands-on focused. While I did learn from my blogging, I think I got even more from the actual experience of our mock press conferences, article writing, and interviewing. I learned for one thing, that many times things do not go as planned (thus my change of topic for my spot news article). Reporters have to be on the ball, flexible, and assertive. I’m not a big fan of striking up conversations with people I don’t know, but in the course of writing my spot news article I discovered this wasn’t quite as terrible as I thought it would be. I also found out how stressful news writing is for me. Everything is so up in the air, that it makes me worry up until the time my article is completed. Will the event turn out how I want it to? Will my angle work? Will my interview work out? Will I have enough information/quotes? News writing presents a whole new realm of challenges as opposed to other writing I have done in the past.

Coverage and Timeliness: I completed all assigned blogs and posted them all on or before the time that they were due. I list here only the blogs which did not fall under another category.

Counteracting Rumors

The Power of Absence

Depth: Here are a few blog entries that went more in depth than the others.

I Spy with my Little Eye…A Story Telling Structure In this blog, I break down the two spot articles we read as examples into the structure that each follows and relate them to creative writing.

Looking at Layouts Here, I analyze the front pages of two newspapers focusing on their use of pictures, fonts, color, and placement of these things.

When is Vulgarity Acceptable? In response to Wendy’s blog, I consider the differences in what is acceptable in creative mediums versus the news and why there are differences between the two.

The News Cycle—Starting with the Birth (Breaking News) In blog one of the news cycle, I take three stories and analyze them.

The News Cycle—Growing Up (2^nd and 3^rd Day Articles) In my second blog on the news cycle, I consider the differences between the first day articles and these ones.

The Ethics of Crime Reporting In response to Richelle’s blog, I consider the reporter’s role in crime reporting and what their responsibility is to both the victim and the accused.

Interaction: Some of my contributions to my peers’ blogs.

In Richelle’s Crime-repetition, my classmates (and even Dr. Jerz) discuss the errors in a crime report and why they are made.

In Richelle’s A Learning Experience for the Reader, the Possible Victim, I agree with Richelle about the importance of trying to quote the victim when possible, but disagree that the accused should have less of a voice.

In Matt’s Better because we’re Irish, I leave him a longer comment about his really good observation about how the use of color in newspapers can be as much an detractor as an attractor.

In Angela’s Great Tips for Writing an Article, Angela and I discuss what grammatical issues you can fix in quotes and what is going too far.

In Josie’s One of These Things is Not Like the Other: Why West Hawaii Today Should’ve Played This Game , we consider the front page of newspapers, specifically the issue of happy pictures being by serious headlines.

In Josie’s When the Old is Made New, we discuss how although spot news articles do not deal with breaking news (usually), they still manage to make themselves seem important to both locals and non-locals.

In Wendy’s Euphemism and Quotes ,my classmates (and Dr. Jerz) discuss the reasons why profanity is more acceptable in creative works than News writing.

Discussion: Here are some discussions which took place on my blogs.

Giving Addresses, Protecting Names Katie, Josie, and I consider the reasons behind listing the full addresses of accused people.

I Spy with my Little Eye…A Story Telling Structure! Wendy, Angela, and Josie consider my claim that the structure of our example spot news articles can be broken down into three parts which are similar to those of a story.

News Writing, Literature, and Linguistics—All in One! Josie (who is in my Linguistics class) considers my relation of news writing to Linguistics.

Xenoblogging:

The Comment Primo:

Richelle’s Crime=repetition

Josie’s One of These Things is Not Like the Other: Why West Hawaii Today Should’ve Played This Game

Josie’s When the Old is Made New

The Comment Grande:

Derek’s Run quickly, but you can’t hide

The Link Gracias:

Any reflection entry

Wildcard: I selected the blog below because in it I combine news writing, literature, and linguistics to each other. Anytime I can make connections between news writing and other English-related subjects it always makes me happy, helps me understand it better, and like it better.

News Writing, Literature, and Linguistics—All in One!

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. If I use a reflection in another category, I do not include it here at well.