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.
___________________________________________________________

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.