FINAL PORTFOLIO LINK

:)

http://kaileyjournalisticessay.weebly.com/

Ferguson Response

I wish that I had been keeping up with the Ferguson events that have been happening, more diligently. I understand what is going on and it is a hard thing to talk about because everyone has so many different opinions. I think that rioting is never a good idea. These people are destroying their own town and ruining the lives of so many innocent people who are losing their businesses. Nothing is being accomplished. Riots like this one start out of anger and a drive to change an injustice. But it has quickly turned into mayhem, where no one is being heard. I read a post on twitter (I forget who wrote it) that said if these people want any kind of change from society or the law enforcement, then they should stop looting and take the steps towards becoming lawyers and police officers to change what they don't want. I really liked that mind set because it gives people a sense of empowerment, that they CAN change things. These riots aren't going to do anything execpt ruin a town, hurt people and breed more anger and violence.

Publication Options

Here are two places I found that accept undergraduate writers.

Loras College is a Catholic Liberal Arts college in Dubuque, Iowa. BSU's English department sent out information on Loras' Undergraduate Literary Journal "Catfish Creek" since they are accepting submissions until December 5. As well as fiction and poetry, "Catfish Creek" is looking for literary nonfiction as well. The profiles we have done in class, as well as the magazine article could be potential submissions that this journal could accept. There is no charge to submit a piece. They just require a cover letter and brief bio about yourself. Here is a link with more detailed guidelines. I am actually considering submitting a piece of fiction to this journal within the next few days.
http://loras.edu/About-Loras/Loras-Publications/Catfish-Creek.aspx


Boston College's "Clarion" also accepts many different genres to their literarty journal. They also have a section for students to interview creditable writers or people who have contributed to the writing or academic world. This pertains to our class because every piece we have done has included some kind of interview to get information. For someone who enjoys this part of journalism, this would be a great opportunity to talk to someone interesting and show off your writing skills at the same time.
http://www.bu.edu/clarion/interviews.htm

"Death of a Playmate" Response

I found this article much more interesting than "Pearl Before Breakfast." It is not only because of the content, sex, murder and suicide which usually brings in a crowd, but also because of how it was written. Given that this article is an example of a magazine feature, I can already see the creative liberties this type of genre allows the writer to take, compared to the newspaper. Even though it was written when this was a current event, it does not read like its only purpose is to give facts to the people. We get the personalities of most of the subjects, backed up by lots of quotes. The author interjects how people might have been feeling or thinking, something that can't be done in a newspaper article. It follows the idea of appealing to the human interest but it doesn't have to be a current event to be reported on. This story will forever be interesting, much like a timeless piece for a newspaper.
This gave me more of an understanding for the criteria of a magazine article and I think that this will be the piece that I will be most excited about writing because I can be more creative with it. 

A Very Late Book Club Post

Last week in book club we discussed how we are actually losing interest in the book because of the authors tendency to veer off about facts and historical context. Hillenbrand had our attention in the beginning because she was shaping who Louis was and forming him into a literary character we could understand and sympathize with. Now, because of the World War II setting, she seemed to feel that we, as the readers, need a timeline of events in order to understand the event Louis was a part of. While sometimes this is true, most of the time we don't need it and I find myself getting lost or losing concentration of what Louis is doing. It takes the reader out of the world of Louis and muddles it with historical dialect like a text book. I hope that once the war is over, we can go back to focusing just on Louis as he is an interesting enough character on his own.

Midterm Portfolio Website

Here is the link to my portfolio!

http://kaileyjournalisticessay.weebly.com/

Book Club Meeting #2

During our first book club meeting, we discussed the lenghths of Lauren Hillenbrand must have gone to in order to aquire all the infomration she did for this book. We assumed she interviews close to 20 people. I did a google search and found an article in the New Yorker discussing Hillenbrands writing process. Here is what she said about researching for the novel:
"My research began with a huge number of interviews, not only with Louie, but with his family members and friends going back to childhood, his fellow Olympians, airmen and P.O.W.s, Japanese POW camp officials, and the family members of those close to Louie during the war. Louie mailed me his Olympic, war and P.O.W. diaries, a lifetime of letters, photographs, and scrapbooks going back to 1917; one scrapbook weighed sixty-three pounds! The daughter of Russell Phillips, Louie’s best friend, pilot and fellow raft survivor, sent me stacks of her father’s war letters. I found a giant trove of documents in the National Archives, and in archives all over the world, I found treasures, including a secret P.O.W. diary kept by Commander John Fitzgerald, the ranking POW all three camps with Louie. I pored over published memoirs of Louie’s fellow prisoners and airmen as well as unpublished memoirs sent to me by former airmen and P.O.W.s, or their widows."

Here is the link to the rest of the article.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-exchange-laura-hillenbrand


It is interesting to see how a work like "Unbroken" is created. It seems intimidating to take on the story of another man's life, however, in this interview Hillenbrand seemed confident and excited about where her research lead her. I am sure I would be too after selling millions of copies and having a feature film in production...

Book Club

My group is reading "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand. So far, within the first 100 pages, I am invested in this character and want to see where he will go next. After Louis Zamperini's explosive career into an Olympic runner, he is now en route to war, a war I'm sure he doesn't realize will change the world forever. When he is at the Olympics in Germany, he actually meets Hitler and shakes his hand. Hitler is impressed with his running skills and tells Louis this. Knowing what I know now about WWII and knowing Hitler's crucial role, it was interesting to see how he was viewed before his true efforts and intentions for Germany and the Jewish community are revealed. To Louis, he was just a leader of a country, one that he saw everyone obeying diligently.
I can see how this story will end up being a story of survival because Louis has already survived so much even before he was drafted into the military. Racial differences kept him an outcast, as well as his behavior. His vigorous training to make it to the Olympics was full of failures and disheartening events. But through it all he become an over comer.
So far I am enjoying this book and am very interested to see what happens next.

Setting Scenes in Nonfiction

One of the section that we were assigned to read that particularly helped me when writing my profile essay, was Adam Hochchild's "Reconstructing Scenes." He spoke about atmosphere and how reader need to experience the scene through sounds, smells and even textures of important objects. As a creative writer, I am well aware of how a scene needs to be accurately depicted in order for your reader to understand where they are, who is there, what are they seeing, hearing, tasting and what moment in time is being shown. With non fiction, especially this profile assignment, scenes can be forgotten because we are focusing on the facts about the person you interviewed. Hochchild's chapter reminded me that emotion, dialogue, atmosphere and accuracy all need to be included in a non fiction piece to keep it original, authentic and entertaining for the reader.

Pre Book Club Thoughts

My group will be reading "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption," by Laura Hillenbrand. I thought I hadn't heard of this story until I looked it up. I have this strange obsession with watching movie trailers and I check IMBD.com ever so often to see what new movies are coming out. I had completely forgotten about "Unbroken," the trailer I had watched a few weeks ago that seemed like something I wanted to watch. I love action and war movies, especially when they focus on character development. The plot drew me to this film and I looked forward to its up coming release. Now, I will be reading the book before watching the movie, which as an English major, is an unspoken rule that must be followed. You can not see the movie first!
This novel sounds very interesting and I am looking forward to reading a work of non fiction. I have yet to read a non fiction war story, since most of the war or historical novels I pick up are fiction.  However, it is always good to read genres you are not use to, so I am glad we will be doing having a book club for this class.
Here is the trailer, in case anyone is interested!

Zepp’s Last Stand

Ed Zepp in Madeleine Blais' Pulitzer Prize winning article, "Zepp's Last Stand" is a create person to write an article about. He is quirky, distinct and determined to fix the problem he boarded a train for. Blais wrote with a profluence that gave the article a feel of fiction instead of an informative piece. I liked the lines of dialogue she chose to include because it really gave me a sense for what kind of person Zepp was. And since this is a profile or a portrait, well that is the whole point.
The subject matter did not interest me, but I can see why we read this for class. It gave me more of a perception on how to write a profile, using dialogue, character traits and information to fill in the blanks and create a lasting article. I think it would be very interesting to follow someone on a journey, taking notes on their comments, thoughts and actions and then combining it all together like this.

Mrs. Kelly's Monster

"Terrifying Journey through Tunnels of the Brain" by Jon Franklin was an intense read. The details Franklin researched and discovered through interview (I'm assuming) were extremely vivid, descriptive and informative. I am not really one for operating stories and I found myself cringing at some of the jargon used in this piece. But at the same time, I was completely engaged and genuinely interesting in Mrs. Kelly's fate. I love how the article ends, leaving you on the edge of your seat, craving more. But I really wish we knew what happened to poor Mrs. Kelly! But, I appreciate the writer's choice to end the article when he believed it would be the most powerful.
I would have liked some more information about Mrs. Kelly, however, that Franklin did not provide. I suppose it was more about Dr. Ducker after all. I am not about to critique and pick apart a Pulitzer Prize winning article, because clearly I have no right to do that. However, this is a blog and opinions must be established. I am still trying to figure out what kind of extensive interview Franklin held with Dr. Ducker to get all that information. He must have got a serious education in brain science to write all that he did. But I suppose that is one of the perks of being a journalist. You find out thinks that you never even knew you were interested in.

Possible Profiling Ideas

This is going to be very vague because I am having difficulty thinking of who I would like to profile. I am considering a few professors but I want to think of a subject matter to write about before figuring out who I would like to interview, just to make sure they will work for this project. I am also considering one or two authors that I am very fond of, and that might potentially email me back. I'll have to start working this immediately, so that they have plenty of time to reply or reject me. My third option, is a friend. I know we are suppose to stay away from friends and family, but he has a few interesting stories, as he is in the army and was deployed last year. If I can think of something really specific to talk to him about, it might end up being a very informative or entertaining profile.