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.