Portfolio 1

This is a portfolio of the work I've done so far in our Newswriting course at Seton Hill.   To see more portfolios from my classmates, click here. 

Coverage: (These are all of the blogs I have posted this semester)

Fire Pretty, News Bad -a look at what's in the news and why

Stop Talking and Tell Us Something -a critique of the chatter among anchors during a news broadcast.

Clones, Pies, and Other Things that Make the News -what makes a story newsworthy?

I Would Read it On a Plane, I Would Read it in the Rain -a discussion of a Dr. Seuss profile, and what makes the profile different from other types of newswriting

I Think This is What I Think -the difference between the English essay and a news story

Words They Never Say - the struggle to obtain worthwhile quotes

The Only Titles I Can Think of Are Tasteless, so Obituaries it is - a closer look at obituaries and why they are the way they are

A Play, Because My Relationship with the News Inspires that Kind of Passion - my version of "The News and I"

Reading for the Comics - a reflection on my peers' relationship with the news

Doubt- The Enemy of Succinctness - what drives us to verbosity?

Trust Me, I was There - backing descriptions up with evidence

Better Know What You're Not Doing - knowing the rules before you break them

Some Rules Really Aren't Meant to be Broken - a look at some AP rules and why they exist

The Wheels on the Bus Go 'Round and...AH! - are reporters insensitive about their "bus plunge" stories?

Why Long Plunges Make for Short Stories - why the bus plunge story can be so short without being disrespectful

Digging is for Reporters and Shovels, Not Readers - articles should be an "easy read," not buried in prose and pointless facts. 

All Together Now...Remember Your Audience - an old piece of advice, but how to follow through on it?

Depth:

Fire Pretty, News Bad

-Here I talked about our tendency as viewers to flock towards disasters, making this "what the people want."  I brought up a somewhat recent even to tie into my blog (Michael Jackson's memorial service and coverage)

Better Know What You're Not Doing

-In this blog, I wrote about the importance of knowing the rules before straying from them.  I used an example from our reading, and an example from another type of writing to show how important mastering the rules was when writing.

Some Rules Really Aren't Meant to Be Broken

-This was a blog about the AP rules.  Instead of just listing rules and corrections to mistakes, I picked a particular rule and gave reasons for its existence

Words They Never Say

-This blog laments the difficulty of getting "good" quotes, but explains why it is important to do so, especially in a profile piece.  The comments that this entry received also offered some advice on gathering helpful quotations.

The Only Titles I Can Think of are Tasteless...So Obituaries it is

-Here I discussed why obituaries were usually so formalized, as this was a common point from many of my peers during class discussion. 

Interaction:

When Writing SHOW Don't Tell - Dereck Tickle

-I was the first of four to comment this blog, and a discussion of what was helpful and unhelpful when writing and revising news articles took place.

Duck Profile? -Aja Hannah

-In this blog, Aja talked about the possibility that the journalist took too long to get to the point in his profile piece.  I was the second to comment on this blog (Dr. Jerz beat me to the punch), but followed up my comment after several more people added their opinion to the piece.  This blog had a total of nine comments.

Good Quotes Can Win Awards- Angela Palumbo

-Angela discusses the difficulty of finding good quotes (we were on the same page with this subject), and myself and several classmates sent her our advice.  I was the first person to include my advice and experience in gathering quotes.

Children's Author Tortured by Own Genius- Angela Palumbo

-Angela called for opinions at the end of her blog on the Dr. Seuss Profile we read in class.  I was the first to comment here, stating that I enjoyed the writer's simplicity.  While one of the comments seemed to coincide with mine, the other disagreed, saying the writer's word choice was questionable.  Here my comment sparked a discussion that may have lacked the quantity of posts, but definitely had the quality.

Discussion:

The Only Titles I Can Think of are Tasteless...So Obituaries it is

Doubt-The Enemy of Succinctness

-While this entry didn't have an amazing amount of comments, Matt did challenge some of my ideas and gave me a chance to defend them and clarify my points.

 Clones, Pies, and Other Things that Make the News

Better Know What You're Not Doing

Timeliness: (These are the entries that were posted in a timely manner)

Fire Pretty, News Bad

Stop Talking and Tell Us Something

Clones, Pies, and Other Things that Make the News

I Would Read it On a Plane, I Would Read it in the Rain

I Think This is What I Think

Words They Never Say

The Only Titles I Can Think of Are Tasteless, so Obituaries it is

A Play, Because My Relationship with the News Inspires that Kind of Passion

Reading for the Comics

Doubt- The Enemy of Succinctness

Trust Me, I was There

Better Know What You're Not Doing

Some Rules Really Aren't Meant to be Broken

The Wheels on the Bus Go 'Round and...AH!

Why Long Plunges Make for Short Stories

Digging is for Reporters and Shovels, Not Readers

All Together Now...Remember Your Audience

Xenoblogging: (Some examples of how I contributed to our class's blogging community)

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and...Ah!

-Here I linked to Greta's blog.  She had mentioned that she'd never actually seen an article about a bus plunge before, and, as I had been thinking the same thing, I included that in my blog.

The Tragedy of a Bus Plunge Story-Comparing these Fillers- Jeanine O'Neal

-I was the first to comment here, and respectfully disagreed with some of Jeanine's statements.  Several comments followed, including a response from Jeanine.

Duck Profile?  Aja Hannah

When Writing SHOW Don't Tell- Dereck Tickle

Crazy Confusing Names- Aja Hannah

-Here I directed Aja to Jeanine's blog, because they were wondering about the same type of AP issues.

Wildcard:

Better Know What You're Not Doing

-This is one of my favorite entries so far, mainly because it inspired this reflection by Angela.  That kind of feedback really encouraged me to put a lot of effort into my blogs.