Final Portfolio: Website Link

Check out my website to see my journalistic writing as it progressed throughout the course of the semester.

http://rebeccaleegagne.weebly.com

Publishing & Thoughts

On publishing:
     One of the only publishing companies I was able to find was Lulu.com. Through this site the user to create a professional published work of art. To publish work on this site simply create an account and then you can begin creating your book. Like the site says- it's free to join and publish!

Since we have been using blogging as a way of writing within this course, I had found a blogging submission on The Hearald News' website. On that link you can submit your blog to be posted.

On the local level the Fall River newspaper, The Herald News has a submission section for submitting news stories.

I was also able to discover The Allegheny Review which is a national undergraduate literary journal. Students can submit their work (in relation to this course they accept nonfiction) by emailing work (preferably in a word document) to review@allegheny.edu.

The National Collegiate Honors Council also came across in my search. This is a publication opportunity for undergraduate students through research and journals.

In my search for finding publication opportunities for the type of writing done within this course throughout the semester I was able to find that colleges and universities offer publishing opportunities to students through undergraduate research and through a literary journal. Bridgewater State University offers both of these opportunities to students.

For BSU's Undergraduate Review, work can be submitted by creating an account. By creating an account I believe it brings you to a page where you can submit your work for eligibility for publication.
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Thoughts to current events:
     As for the events occurring in Ferguson, Missouri I think the riots that are breaking out not only in Ferguson, but around the United States in protest for Michael Brown's death are insane. There has been protesters walking onto the highway in Rhode Island which is pretty close to where I live. I think this is an unsafe way to protest as many people could have gotten hurt walking out onto the highway, but it did make a powerful statement as around the U,S. where protesters marched into the highway. Though some of the protests and riots are a bit extreme, they are having a powerful impact on people all over the U.S. I feel as if with every negative event, race always becomes a leading factor as to the cause for tragedy. If Michael Brown was white, would this have even been as big of a deal as it is?

Book club: writing style of Unbroken

Concluding the reading of Unbroken and reflecting upon the writing style it made a shift from a profile style to writing about place as Louis had traveled to throughout the war. The book began with a strong start as it started out with a backstory of Louis before the war and uses interview to build characters and events. From the beginning Louis' character had developed and it was clear to see that he had a strong future ahead for survival. 

When the book made the shift to talking about places, it seemed that's when the facts became a prominent aspect of the reading. At this point the story had lost the personal element and I often found myself questioning the truth of events like when Louis had to dodge bombers and fight off the Sharks at the same time. It is a possibility that both of these events had occurred simultaneously but to come out from both of them unharmed seemed a bit much. With Louis as the only survivor, questioning the truth of the events is easy to do. How do we know truth from exaggeration? I feel that the background of being an Olympian helped to find the truth in these events. The average person made not be able to overcome those events and maybe that is the reasoning for Louis being the only one to survive.

At the end of the book I was able to connected back to Loius as a character when the author included photos of Louis. Being able to see Louis in life in the photos made a connection of empathy for what he had overcome in the war and make it to the point of survival.

The book is going to be a movie so I would be interested to see how the movie tells the story and what is omitted and included to tell the story in film version. While the book seemed to hit upon details that seemed like facts and could have been omitted I feel that the book would have lost a quality of they had been left out.

Book Club 11/10 Meeting

While reading the main theme that stays persistent with me is the theme or perseverance, and survival. From the beginning of the story the Thor was able to replay the trials and tribulations of Louis' life from his childhood through adulthood and through his survival of the war. Being able to perceive the story of his life through her writing is difficult because she needed to gather facts and write them in a chronological order that would make an interesting story for readers. Stories are what connects a reader to a writer. Strong character development in writing allows for readers to connect to the characters and creates an emotional attachment to them. While learning of the story of how young Louis began his struggles, it was interesting to see how he was able to come through and survive the war.

Understand the importance of ethics in writing

The next section on reading is on ethics. As a writer it is important to write a true story so readers will respect you and believe your writing is a true account of events that has occurred. The reading discusses writing true and how the writer should reveal their story and tell it how it is rather than change details. Ethics of writing deals with truth, exaggeration, elaborating, and collapsing time. When it comes to writing you must be aware of what the law says which is different from the ethics. When writing you always need to be cautious of a potential lawsuit resulting if something they write that defames someone's character if it is untrue.

Ethics will be an important factor to keep in mind when working on the feature pieces. Though my topic will be on celiac disease, I do not want to misinform readers about the disease or mess up any information in interviews. This will take away from my credit as a writer, and could hard readers and people involved in my written work.

Website Link

Here is the link to my website. My midterm portfolio including Essays 1 (profile), essay 2 (talk of the  town/campus) and audio recording, my introduction piece, and two blog entries. The folder containing drafts and in class writing was handed in in class on Wednesday October 29, 2014.

www.rebeccaleegagne.weebly.com

Book Club Meeting 10/29

At this point in the story I am losing interest. The story started out strong but now as facts are starting to develop it is less interesting to read. I think with writing facts it is really difficult to make them interesting because they are concrete. History and wars are not books that interest me. I am still questioning the validity of some of the events that are occurring. It is hard to tell what is true and what could have been exaggerated, especial because the only survivor is Louis. I am hoping the story will pick back up and bring my attention back in towards the end of the book.

Book club discorveries

After reading about the interviews the author has written about to tell the story, it was interesting to see how she had conducted the interviews. She had conducted her interviews by phone. It was interesting to learn that she had dropped out of college due to an illness and had written the book after that. Since the only survivor of the story is The main character, it makes you wonder how much of the story is based upon truth and what is a lie. The authors writing is believable, but when you think about the situations, it is almost impossible to think that they were battling a battle with a shark at the same time as trying to avoid the bombs. While continuing to read, I will be thinking about the situations and thinking about how true could they be.

Book club- beginning

For the first meeting we have began to read the book. So far I am enjoying the writing style. I believe the book is written in an easy to follow way and it is interesting thus far. I am not interested in World War II, but so far I am interested in this book! The book has interviews from characters within the story and what is surprising is she had interviewed 20-30 people for the book. For our next meeting the group is going to look into how the interviews were conducted. We have assigned and determined more reading sections as well.

Helpful readings for drafting

From today's readings I would say the most helpful to me in constructing my draft would be the sections on character and voice. In writing this profile essay I think the greatest challenge will be presenting the character of someone in the style of my voice. These sections were great because they discussed the element of character, and how to put the reader in their mind. Doing this in my own voice will be a challenge in itself because I want the reader to be able to connect with the person (character) I am writing about but writing about them in my voice, my words, and from my point of view while trying to stay true to who they are. I believe these two sections are the most helpful for me and I think that after this reading I have a better idea of how I want to draft my essay.

Book club reading expectations

For book club I will be reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Normally this would not be a book that I would select, but I am keeping an open mind about this. I have not began reading the book yet, but based on description, I am expecting that this book will be interesting as it talks about the soldiers life as a child and a teenager and how his life led him to be in the army. I am assuming that he will overcome the obstacle of drifting on the raft and will find himself to safety based on the tittle of the book. Overall I think the book will be about his survival to safety floating on the raft while he thinks about the past and his life until that point.

Zepp's Last Stand

Zepp's Last Stand is a profile piece discussing Edward Zepp, an 83 year old man. This article written by Madeleine Blais uses vivid language to describe Zepp in a way that the reader can make a description of the man; she describes Zepp with his physical appearance using a chronological structure to tell his story. "Zepp is bald. He wears fragile glasses. The shoulders are rounded. His pace is stooped and slow." Blais writes about an experience Zepp has had. She uses a letter he had written to his mother and his personal experience to write the story. She uses direct quotes from Zepp to make the story more personal and believable.When she writes "can you picture the man" you can actually make a guess as to what this man has looked like because her language is descriptive and figurative. I believe the language makes a story because it adds a personal element that brings the story to life and make it real to imagine to events, even if they had occurred in the past.

Mrs. Kelly's Monster

Jon Franklin's article was interesting to read. The language he used to write the story kept my interest all the way through. The "terrifying journey through the tunnels of the brain" cam alive with his words. Mrs. Kelly's monster turned out to be a malformation of vessels in her brain that she has lived with for 57 years. The article talks about her surgery procedure of having the 'monster' removed. The way Franklin described it, you can feel Mrs. Kelly's pain as she lived with this monster while raising her children and living her everyday life, and you could feel her fear throughout the surgery. She had to make a difficult decision either to live with the monster or have it removed... Within the article there are bolded quotes that really help them stick out to you as a reader that allows you to related and sympathizes with Mrs. Kelly to feel her emotions. One is "I'm scared to death... but there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not in pain, and I'm tired of it. I can't bear the pain. I wouldn't want to live this like much longer." This quote allows the reader to fear with her, and if you have ever known someone who has gone through a surgery or have gone through one yourself, you will have an easier time reflecting her emotions with yours. By having this quotes stand out, it makes it easier for the reader to fully grasp the full emotion of the story with a quick glance of the page.

Journalistic Essay: Profiling

I had a hard time trying to figure out who I wanted to interview for this assignment. 

Today in class after we shared I think I have finally found someone. Although I am very much in the air about who to select.

My three options are someone I knew from high school who is now a corrections officer, a BSU professor of the English department, Professor Anderson, I like her teaching style, and I believe that she is an interesting person. My sisters roommate Lauren who is a choreographer and dancer. My last option is a friend of my sisters, Alison. She went to school in New York and holds a degree in Journalism. I believe it would be interesting to sit down with her and talk to her in an interview as she is familiar with the interviewing process. She has also been involved with the Miss America pageant.

Update!

As a group we have created a PowerPoint in its entirely with all of the information we are going to present about letters. We have divided slides for each member to present and discuss. Each member is going to take their 3 slides and edit them as necessary and prepare their discussion/presentation for their slides. Today in class we will work on timing of the presentation and work on making final details to our presentation. We will continue to work on this over spring break and stay updated with group members via email.

Creating Instructions

For our next class essay, I am drawing a blank on what to create a set of instructions about. I work two jobs as a CNA and bed making was a huge deal when taking the class to obtain certification. As simply as this task is, it is often not seen important to people outside of the military or in healthcare facilities. Our parents may have told us to make our beds when we were younger and we would just throw the covers over to make it look like we did real work when it was really a mess under that comforter or bedspread. I will be providing the instructions for making a bed that includes the hospital or "military" corners. I believe the hospital/”military” corners make the bed look neat.

Create for a Purpose!

When I was in high school, I was in the graphic communications shop. While we did a lot of printing on printing presses, a majority of our learning was based on sitting behind a computer screen creating documents. We would create the spread for the school newspaper; create flyers, brochures, posters, business cards, and other things for both our school and some outside vendors. While we were doing all this creating, we never learned the basics: why we are placing things in a particular space. I was always just focused on pleasing my teachers.

This reading is titled "Designing Documents and Web Sites." While I completed design projects in high school, reading this material was very interesting and useful. It put what I knew about designing and gave it a purpose; I feel my designs would be more than just pictures and texts. I think it is a key element to think about structure and how it relays all the important information about how to design and how to design effectively.

One of the most interesting topics from the reading is the goals. I believe I have all the designing techniques such as font, justifications, alignments, colors, line spacing techniques down, the main purpose to creating a document is to have a purpose and goals. In shop our goal was design this and get a grade. Reading about goals in the chapter allowed me to see the behind the scenes work we never did. I agree with the goals of document and web design. A first impression is always a must! If something you have created isn't eye catching, it won't get any attention!

One of the most important aspects of this reading, I believe is to plan your document before you start working. If you know the target audience, consider multicultural readers and the purpose have think about the resources ahead of time, I believe these will incorporate an effective design strategy for creating effective documents in a way that will be successful in reaching an audience.

Project 1: Document Analysis

I wanted to choose a document that is different from the norm, so when I was at work this evening, I was browsing through the filling cabinet at my work. I pulled a document that is a CNA flow sheet which CNAs use to document resident behavior and their daily activities which include washing, dressing, transferring, etc. I also pulled another document which is a care plan sheet that nurses use to document a resident's plan of care. I am unsure if these documents will be useful to this assignment, but as a backup I have the user manual from my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. Before today I have never looked at it. To see what it is about, I flipped through the booklet. It is simply basic information on how to operate and use this mobile device. It also includes pictures and diagrams to make operating this phone easy.