Write out three "pitches" for three different Ampersand articles that you might write for this year's publication.
1. Write an article about the questions I still have and compare them to the questions I had before internship. Compare my views towards certain affairs, and certain people I knew before the internship. Describe the conversations I had with people there and what I learned from them.
2. Describe the similarities and differences of my mentality before and after my internship. Talk about my plans for my future and how and exactly when everything began to change. Describe the feelings I had at the beginning of my internship and how they changed throughout the course of my internship. Talk about what I learned about myself.
3. Write an article about all of the awkward people I encountered during my internship.Talk about the awkward silences in the copy room and the awkward hellos in the mornings. Describe the conversations I had with people I had just met that were trying really hard to make small talk.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Semester Two, Blog Four
http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/namaste.htm
Other than the fact that this article was short and to the point, I thought it was an interesting choice to read for an article, because I thought that I could use this same theme. In my mentor's office there was a rock that read Namaste, and after asking my mentor what that meant, I felt it said a lot about who she was as a person, and who I want to grow up to be. This is why I thought it was a good idea to talk about this word in my article.
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/abortion/tp/Pro-Life-vs-Pro-Choice.htm
Honestly, what got my attention about this article was the topic. If this gave me the idea to start off talking about a contradicting of widely known conflict that many people will read and relate to. Another thing I could do is come up with a title that can mean many different things that many people can see and want to know what the article is going to be about. Many people say "don't judge a book by its cover," but I know that people do that anyways, so in order to get the readers attention I need to come up with a good hook and/or title that will get the reader to judge positively.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/life-choices-facing-difficult-decisions.html
I was not too convinced by the introduction of this article, though it was something that some might connect with. This person starts off with the whole "we have all been through...." trick where she expects the reader to feel an immediate connection. Though this did not immediately get my attention, it got me thinking that maybe I should start off with something like a question like this person did in their last sentence in their introduction. People are not going to get too far when reading so if they at least read through my introduction they would see the question and might think twice about reading the rest of this article.
Other than the fact that this article was short and to the point, I thought it was an interesting choice to read for an article, because I thought that I could use this same theme. In my mentor's office there was a rock that read Namaste, and after asking my mentor what that meant, I felt it said a lot about who she was as a person, and who I want to grow up to be. This is why I thought it was a good idea to talk about this word in my article.
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/abortion/tp/Pro-Life-vs-Pro-Choice.htm
Honestly, what got my attention about this article was the topic. If this gave me the idea to start off talking about a contradicting of widely known conflict that many people will read and relate to. Another thing I could do is come up with a title that can mean many different things that many people can see and want to know what the article is going to be about. Many people say "don't judge a book by its cover," but I know that people do that anyways, so in order to get the readers attention I need to come up with a good hook and/or title that will get the reader to judge positively.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/life-choices-facing-difficult-decisions.html
I was not too convinced by the introduction of this article, though it was something that some might connect with. This person starts off with the whole "we have all been through...." trick where she expects the reader to feel an immediate connection. Though this did not immediately get my attention, it got me thinking that maybe I should start off with something like a question like this person did in their last sentence in their introduction. People are not going to get too far when reading so if they at least read through my introduction they would see the question and might think twice about reading the rest of this article.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Semester Two, Blog Three.
http://dancemusic.about.com/od/artistshomepages/a/LadyGagaInt.htm
In this article, the writer sums up a little background information about the artist Lady Gaga. He gives his opinion about what he believes her style is like and then finishes with a concluding sentence that persuades the reader to listen to some of her music and observe her music videos. He starts off his interview by simply stating people that he feels are similar to her in some sort of way or she has worked with, and asking her to state how she feels they have inspired her. He then moves his interview towards more detailed questions. Though his questions aren't too detailed, her answers make up for it. There is simply a short introduction and then goes straight onto the interview. Though I am comfortable with this way of writing, I prefer doing something else with mine. The interviewer asked short questions and Lady Gaga didn't take a long time to answer them. In my case, my questions were a little more detailed, and my mentor went on, sometimes for over entire pages, answering one simple question. This interview is simple and it might even be refreshing, but I am pretty sure that the crazy Lady Gaga fans that have read this were wishing that both of them had gone more in depth with the Q&A. This is why I think it would be better to go about this interview a different way.
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/madonna/
There were a couple of things that I didn't like about this article. For starters, it had no introduction, so I didn't have much of an example for that there, but I liked the way the article introduced the interview. It started off with pictures of her. I guess a picture really does say a thousand words, if they were able to just put that in instead of an introduction. I still think it was a very clever idea because she is very herself in those pictures and I feel that the reader can get a taste of who she really is in those pictures. I also liked how they started off with what they were really saying instead of censoring it. I thought that for our interview we were only going to mention the most important parts of the interview, and though I do think that the person who edited this interview did the same thing, I thought it was very nice how they took out the things that they didn't think they needed, but they still left in the quotes from when they were greeting. They seem to be long time friends and it makes the reader seem like they are there because they are listening to exactly how the interview started off. Another thing I didn't really like about this interview is that they used too much jargon language. They mention a lot of people and assume that they both know who they are talking about, and they use acronyms that probably only they and a few other Madonna-Lovers knew. Other than this, I liked the style and the overall interview was very well edited and sounded like a conversation. Although, I'm gonna be honest and say that some of it sounded a bit scripted, though that could have also just been Madonna's classiness when she speaks.
In this article, the writer sums up a little background information about the artist Lady Gaga. He gives his opinion about what he believes her style is like and then finishes with a concluding sentence that persuades the reader to listen to some of her music and observe her music videos. He starts off his interview by simply stating people that he feels are similar to her in some sort of way or she has worked with, and asking her to state how she feels they have inspired her. He then moves his interview towards more detailed questions. Though his questions aren't too detailed, her answers make up for it. There is simply a short introduction and then goes straight onto the interview. Though I am comfortable with this way of writing, I prefer doing something else with mine. The interviewer asked short questions and Lady Gaga didn't take a long time to answer them. In my case, my questions were a little more detailed, and my mentor went on, sometimes for over entire pages, answering one simple question. This interview is simple and it might even be refreshing, but I am pretty sure that the crazy Lady Gaga fans that have read this were wishing that both of them had gone more in depth with the Q&A. This is why I think it would be better to go about this interview a different way.
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/madonna/
There were a couple of things that I didn't like about this article. For starters, it had no introduction, so I didn't have much of an example for that there, but I liked the way the article introduced the interview. It started off with pictures of her. I guess a picture really does say a thousand words, if they were able to just put that in instead of an introduction. I still think it was a very clever idea because she is very herself in those pictures and I feel that the reader can get a taste of who she really is in those pictures. I also liked how they started off with what they were really saying instead of censoring it. I thought that for our interview we were only going to mention the most important parts of the interview, and though I do think that the person who edited this interview did the same thing, I thought it was very nice how they took out the things that they didn't think they needed, but they still left in the quotes from when they were greeting. They seem to be long time friends and it makes the reader seem like they are there because they are listening to exactly how the interview started off. Another thing I didn't really like about this interview is that they used too much jargon language. They mention a lot of people and assume that they both know who they are talking about, and they use acronyms that probably only they and a few other Madonna-Lovers knew. Other than this, I liked the style and the overall interview was very well edited and sounded like a conversation. Although, I'm gonna be honest and say that some of it sounded a bit scripted, though that could have also just been Madonna's classiness when she speaks.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Semester Two, Blog Two.
What have you read lately (say, since last semester), that you found interesting?
Well, since it is not specified what we should be writing about and the things I read are not exactly something I want to talk about in this blog, I am going to use this freedom to talk about an article I just found on The New Yorker Website. I found this article called Social Animal. In the search box I had typed in the key word "happiness" and I was surprised to see that most of this article was focused on relationships. It made sense to me because I believe that humans are social creatures and rely on the company of others to be happy, but I wasn't expecting almost the whole article to be about relationships.
One quote I liked from this article was "The brain exists within the skull, but the mind extends outward and arises from the interactions between people or between a person and the environment." The article spoke a little about how the brain worked in a psychological way that makes people need to be included in social activities, and I found this quote interesting because it is true that a humans mind extends from out of our brains and into other who are around us. We depend on others and according to this article, the moment we meet the one we marry or plan on spending the rest of our lives with, is the most important day of our life. I understand that it is a human necessity to have company and need love and human interaction, but I don't know if I wanted to agree with this article. It made it seem like the only and only purpose of life is to find that one person who you will spend the rest of your life with. A quote directly from this article stated "there is no decision more important to lifelong happiness than the decision about whom to marry."
What I found even more surprising was that this article was written by a man. I was expecting this to have been written by a woman who had believed throughout her whole life that her soul purpose in life was to find her "soul-mate" and life happily ever after. I was expecting her to be a woman who walks down the street after she's just met a man thinking about him and wondering what their children will look like and what she will name them. At first, I was very interested in the article and wanted to keep reading because of all the interesting facts, but towards the end, I began getting a little frustrated because some of the articles "facts" seemed faker than a teen-age-boy in heat's "I love you." One thing that I found absolutely ridiculous was that, according to this article, "there’s evidence that men fall in love faster and are more likely to believe that true love lasts forever." I find it extremely hard to believe this, and until I become a scientist myself and conduct this research on my own, I will not allow myself to believe this.
Why did it catch your attention?
Well, since it is not specified what we should be writing about and the things I read are not exactly something I want to talk about in this blog, I am going to use this freedom to talk about an article I just found on The New Yorker Website. I found this article called Social Animal. In the search box I had typed in the key word "happiness" and I was surprised to see that most of this article was focused on relationships. It made sense to me because I believe that humans are social creatures and rely on the company of others to be happy, but I wasn't expecting almost the whole article to be about relationships.
One quote I liked from this article was "The brain exists within the skull, but the mind extends outward and arises from the interactions between people or between a person and the environment." The article spoke a little about how the brain worked in a psychological way that makes people need to be included in social activities, and I found this quote interesting because it is true that a humans mind extends from out of our brains and into other who are around us. We depend on others and according to this article, the moment we meet the one we marry or plan on spending the rest of our lives with, is the most important day of our life. I understand that it is a human necessity to have company and need love and human interaction, but I don't know if I wanted to agree with this article. It made it seem like the only and only purpose of life is to find that one person who you will spend the rest of your life with. A quote directly from this article stated "there is no decision more important to lifelong happiness than the decision about whom to marry."
What I found even more surprising was that this article was written by a man. I was expecting this to have been written by a woman who had believed throughout her whole life that her soul purpose in life was to find her "soul-mate" and life happily ever after. I was expecting her to be a woman who walks down the street after she's just met a man thinking about him and wondering what their children will look like and what she will name them. At first, I was very interested in the article and wanted to keep reading because of all the interesting facts, but towards the end, I began getting a little frustrated because some of the articles "facts" seemed faker than a teen-age-boy in heat's "I love you." One thing that I found absolutely ridiculous was that, according to this article, "there’s evidence that men fall in love faster and are more likely to believe that true love lasts forever." I find it extremely hard to believe this, and until I become a scientist myself and conduct this research on my own, I will not allow myself to believe this.
Why did it catch your attention?
Lately, I have been observing people more and trying to see if they are happy or not. I consider myself a happy person and even though my views are not always positive, I keep a smile on my face and laugh at life and honestly, I am happier than I have ever been. Since I will legally be adult next year and will have to start getting ready to be completely on my own, it seems that the thing that concerns me that most is whether or not I will be happy. I searched the word happiness because I am concerned that I might wake up one day and realize that I have made many mistakes in my life and wish I could go back in time and change my decisions. I only get once life and I want to try my best to make it count.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Semester Two, Blog Number One!
What are the big ideas that you are taking from internship into the next steps in your life?
One of the "big ideas" that I came to realizing through this internship is that my life is not going to go as planned. I also know now that I will change my mind about many things. Just in the past two years, I feel like I have grown into a completely different person. Some of the things I believe today are complete opposites of what I used to believe. I never would have thought that this is who I would be in eleventh grade. I also do not see this as a bad thing at all. Actually, I am happier than ever and knowing that I have a voice and have the freedom to make my own choices makes me happier than I have ever been. I chose this internship because I feel that this whole transformation mostly took place in my humanities class in tenth grade. I also knew that for my internship I wanted to do something with special education, so I thought working with Sarah Barnes would be the perfect opportunity for me to grow more as a person. It surprises me how much Sarah told me she has changed since she was my age. She used to have a lot of the same beliefs that I have today and I am not exactly sure they are beliefs that I want to let go of. She mentioned to me that she considers herself to have been some sort of hippie, and that is sort of what I feel like sometimes. I don't feel like money is at all important anymore and I really just want to have fun in life. Telling her this made her remember of her own beliefs when she was my age and assured me that she felt like she was more mature now and more responsible than she was just a few years back. She sees this a positive thing, and I just hope that when I am her age I don't look back and wish I had done something different with my life.
One of the "big ideas" that I came to realizing through this internship is that my life is not going to go as planned. I also know now that I will change my mind about many things. Just in the past two years, I feel like I have grown into a completely different person. Some of the things I believe today are complete opposites of what I used to believe. I never would have thought that this is who I would be in eleventh grade. I also do not see this as a bad thing at all. Actually, I am happier than ever and knowing that I have a voice and have the freedom to make my own choices makes me happier than I have ever been. I chose this internship because I feel that this whole transformation mostly took place in my humanities class in tenth grade. I also knew that for my internship I wanted to do something with special education, so I thought working with Sarah Barnes would be the perfect opportunity for me to grow more as a person. It surprises me how much Sarah told me she has changed since she was my age. She used to have a lot of the same beliefs that I have today and I am not exactly sure they are beliefs that I want to let go of. She mentioned to me that she considers herself to have been some sort of hippie, and that is sort of what I feel like sometimes. I don't feel like money is at all important anymore and I really just want to have fun in life. Telling her this made her remember of her own beliefs when she was my age and assured me that she felt like she was more mature now and more responsible than she was just a few years back. She sees this a positive thing, and I just hope that when I am her age I don't look back and wish I had done something different with my life.
What are your plans for the coming semester?
For this coming semester in humanities, I plan on taking honors again. I will try my hardest to stay as organized and focused throughout the whole semester to get a better grade. I know Randy believes that it is not the grade that really matters but what I take out of his humanities class, but I college is very important to me and I won't be able to get into to colleges that I want if I don't have excellent grades. I want to get an A this semester and I feel quite obligated to do so since I pinkie promised Randy I would. I am also one of the slowest readers on the planet so I am extremely terrified by the idea of reading 7 books in one semester. I honestly do not know if that is something that I can do. It takes me about one hour to read a whole chapter. It is very embarrassing, but I just have troubles concentrating on what I am reading. It is definitely going to be a challenge for me and I just hope I can do it. I am willing to take that challenge and hope that my organization and my dedication to this class and to my education will pay off and prove that I am capable of accomplishing tasks that I consider to be very difficult.
For this coming semester in humanities, I plan on taking honors again. I will try my hardest to stay as organized and focused throughout the whole semester to get a better grade. I know Randy believes that it is not the grade that really matters but what I take out of his humanities class, but I college is very important to me and I won't be able to get into to colleges that I want if I don't have excellent grades. I want to get an A this semester and I feel quite obligated to do so since I pinkie promised Randy I would. I am also one of the slowest readers on the planet so I am extremely terrified by the idea of reading 7 books in one semester. I honestly do not know if that is something that I can do. It takes me about one hour to read a whole chapter. It is very embarrassing, but I just have troubles concentrating on what I am reading. It is definitely going to be a challenge for me and I just hope I can do it. I am willing to take that challenge and hope that my organization and my dedication to this class and to my education will pay off and prove that I am capable of accomplishing tasks that I consider to be very difficult.
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