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...