Journal Posting Guidelines

One of the best ways to improve your writing is to simply keep a journal. I find it best to set aside the same time each day for writing in a journal. For this course, only one entry per week is required, but you are welcome to make as many entries as you like.

Each student must keep an individual online journal for the entire semester. The journal can be hosted on any web site, but it must be accessible to the entire class. Google Blogger is a free site that would work well for your journal.

Each week, you entry must include:

1) A brief introduction. This can be as simple as a short statement such as “It has been snowing most of the week, and the roads have been hazardous, so I haven’t been out of the house a lot…”

2) A description of what you learned in class that week.

3) Your plans for the remainder of the week, or something interesting that you heard or read. For example, “I heard that Jonathan Franzen is releasing a new novel this week. I liked his last book, and hope that this one…”

You do not need to enter any personal information in this journal. Other than the description of what you learned, the rest of the journal can contain your impressions of items from the news.

My name is Angela Michaels. I am a student at CCV. I am in the middle of a degree in Communications. I am taking this class to increase my writing skills/abilities in the Digital Media.

I think that the cold weather is helping me concentrate with the kick-start of my classes this semester.

I submitted my introduction and posted two submissions for the homework assignment. I replied to several other students about their posts.

Week2     2/1/2013

“Yes, the weather is a fright tonight”, I said. This is what I said to myself two nights ago. Subzero was name of the game at first, then the warmth, the wind and then cold. So, we are back to winter. Starry night so bright.

What I learned this week in class is that punctuations are rather easy to use. You must read the rules first. I was intrigued by the usage of the hyphen and the dash. I figured out that I had the options already in place in my Word options to automatically change the hyphen to the hyphen and dash to be a dash when need be. But, I find that sometimes the command does not automatically change the symbol. I am not sure why, but it is working now.

I am looking forward in having some discussions with the other students in the class. Classmates, arise from the depths of your busy life and respond, please.

A 🙂

Week 3   2/9/13   Saturday

I have just been through the epic storm of the century…. NEMO. I had to drive through it yesterday afternoon. I was not a fun thing.

I completed the 5 Paragraph Essay. I think I do like these types of essays because of the amount of paragraphs that add to the piece. What I mean is this, learning how to hook one paragraph to the next takes practice and technique.

After reading some of the other students essays, I noticed that most were done quite well. We all made some errors, with our wording, and I find it to be a good opportunity to practice. Another point of interest is that many of us have opinion about everything. Some of the arguments each of us embraced seemed to whole true to the ethics and morals we possess.

My topic for the essay was future based. I like future based stories or ideas. There is something about talking about the future I really like and convincing ourselves that everything will be alright.

Time to go now! Have a great evening!!!!

A:)

Friday  2/15/13   Week 4  

The sun is shining…. until tomorrow.  I like warm winter days. You can go snowshoeing and all that stuff.

    This week we learned how to write in the,” Inverted Pyramid Style”. I really like this style. I think it is because of the organizational aspect. From top to bottom, the most important to least important information unfolds. This style plays well with human nature, in respect to, when it comes to most people impatience levels. Magazines want to make it interesting for their readers. So, in this style, all the juicy information comes first. If a person continues to read the story it will drizzle into what is known as the, “nut” graphs. The quotes from sources, additional facts, statistics, or other information are considered the, “nut” graphs.”

I hope all my classmates enjoyed this new-found knowledge of writing. Another point of interest is using the tutorial that, Mr. Murphy supplied us, will help us get acclimated with its navigations and tools. I have used this program, in a few classes. I would like to become acquainted with it again.

 Yours Truly,

A 🙂

Saturday   February 23, 2013  Week 5

To the class and Mr. Murphy,

Good evening. I think it is going to be snowing again… Hum…. I do love snow, in small quantities. I cannot say that it has been an interesting week. Only a few things happened that were joyful.  I lost five pounds. That was one.

As far as the class is concerned, I submitted my Five Paragraph Essay, with glee. I was very interested in the learning process that Mr.Murphy made available for us using the tutorials he put together. My converted document, really, looked like an article that would bein a magazine or on-line article. I am happy. I learned how to align columns in a suitable fashion. I edited the paper following some of Mr. Murphy’s suggestions.

I started writing my Inverted Pyramid article. I am getting the hang it, so far. I will have to edit the paper again and again. This is a great style of writing, which I have become fond of in a very short time. I just reviewed the list of article topics to be written other classmates. There is a wide variety of topics and will prove to be interesting.

I found the, “Broadcast Guidelines,” discussion to be very informative, in all areas.

Now, that I read my journal, I think I learned quite a bit this week.

Angela   🙂

Saturday  3/2/2013  Week 6

To all my classmates and Mr. Murphy,

Good Evening !

I just finished critiquing my choices and going over what other people wrote about articles they chose to critique. Wow, that was a long sentence. I am learning how to use InDesign to benefit and increase the possibilities that, someday, I may be able to use this professionally. I really have learned to love this program. What I have a better understanding of, this week, is how to place spaces around the images that were inserted into the article.

After reading, my classmates articles, I see how talented we all are. The tweaking has to come into play with grammar and punctuation. I am fortunate to have a tutor who is a fabulous writer and teacher. She was an English teacher, at the high school level, for twenty years. Linda, also, worked at a publishing firm for sometime. I am in the middle of having her edit a book I have written for children. It is named, “My Cat’s Name is Mama.” I am looking forward to future assignments. I wonder what I am going to be graded for this article?

Amanda wrote me and mentioned some very good words that were positive about my article. I appreciated her thoughts.

Tomorrow is Sunday. Church comes first then the rest of the day follows.

Angela 🙂   Good Night

Saturday  3/8/2013  Week 7

Snow Ski Snow Ski Snow Ski…….

This week we learned about the structure of the, Medieval Sermon. Once I learned, about the components of this style of writing, it became clear to me that many of the sermons I have heard in my life seem to fit the ticket. Usually, a sermon at church starts with the protheme and then the dilation.  Then it leads up to the exemplum. Next, the peroration is the moral to the story. Although, some church leaders state the moral and extrapolate on it. Meanwhile, the closing formula ties it up and the minister wishes well to all, as they go on their way. In my research, I also learned that this style of writing has evolved since if was first used.We also learned that this type of structure has also been used in politics. It was suggested that rhetorics used this style of writing to persuade groups or individuals to go with their way of thinking.

I enjoyed the homework this week. I possess new insight to this type of writing. I will pay attention, to the sermon at church, from now on, so that I might pick out the structuring of it. Now, I will be able to say, ” Oh, that was part of the exemplum.”

Angela 🙂

Week 8   3/16/13 Saturday

Good Morning!

This week, I will be using the structure of the Medieval Sermon to do my blog. It will include the Protheme, Exemplum, and the Peroration.

When I first begin to learn something new, I sometimes get discouraged. It could be in school, at home, or at work. I do turn to the Bible for guidance many times. I have quoted a passage from the Old Testament, “Hbr 12:11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way,” to exemplify the meaning of joy one experiences after accomplishing a difficult feat.

This week in our class, we were asked to write, a short Medieval Essay, by using only three parts of the formal structure. I worked on this essay for hours, and I realized that it would be easier once I learned the process. This process is not as easy as it seems. First a person needs to find a source that is reliable. And then the writer, meaning Angela Michaels, will need to hone in on exactly what she wants to write about. For an inexperienced writer, this feat is not going to be a ride in the park. Knowing what your level of expertise is in writing is key if you want to go further than you think you can. Disciplining yourself to continue to strive forward even though your driving force sometimes falters, can be a challenge.

Now, that I completed my essay and submitted it, I feel better about the whole scenario. I feel confident that I wrote well.  I edited for errors to the best of my knowledge. The moral of this week’s blog is to never think you cannot do better unless you try. Disciplining yourself will lead to true joy and knowing you did it.

That is all folks! (Sigh of relief)  P.S. Don’t forget to breathe, when you’re writing, because it helps with your brain cell function.

Angela 🙂

Week 9 3/23/13  Saturday

Good Morning and it is the 3rd day of Spring!

Well, this week was a learning experience, that will go far for me, in the realm of wrapping text in an article that I may write for the Internet. Photoshop is not an easy program to learn completely. This week, one thing I learned is if you place your, “paste graphic, ” under all of the above layer line up it assists with the text wrapping view while you are designing. I thought this was kind of neat.

One must remember, when working in the text wrapping box, to click on Detect Edging, so the text wrap will follow the outline of your image. Otherwise, the bounding box will be the border that will be wrapped and it will look like a box shape instead of shape of your image. I think all of this is fun. I really enjoy all of the carving and customizing an article. I do like drop capping it gives an article some class and distinction.

All and all our teacher, Mr.Murphy, did a great job creating a new video so  we can understand the different methods that are available in Photoshop to wrap text properly in an article. I will be saving these video for future usage. I am sure they will come in handy. I am very happy to have them on hand.

A 🙂  Have a Great Day !

Friday  Week 10  3/29/13

Happy Easter !

I submitted my essay yesterday, just in time.  I have nieces and nephews that live out of the country.  I do not get to see them often. I got carried away with fun.

Anyways, I found that expanding  my Medieval Sermon Essay was not very difficult. I will say, that the expansion of the topic did take some real thinking. I added a Dilation to my new essay. I went over the definition of what Dilation means, and I think I explained my quotes of the Protheme in a relatively clear fashion. The expansion of my Peroration, took some doing, presenting the connection, in such a way, that brought forth the lesson of political treachery that takes place in our country also preserving the right to vote for all citizens of the United States.

I really enjoyed wrapping photographs into the text of the essay. I found a really good photo of women marching and protesting in the late 1800’s which depicted how determined they were. I found this essay to be a wonderful way to become acclimated with writing, especially, in the Medieval Sermon format.

Angela Good Night…..

Saturday  4/6/13  Week 11

Spring has sprung… and no special person in my life. It is a shame, I tell you, when you do not have a sweetheart in the Spring. It is downright Un-American… but Summer is coming !

This week, in our studies, we learned about the guidelines that The Associated Press uses as a standard practice. I think guidelines are very cool. I did not realize that the values and principles are so righteous, according to the AP style book. I will quote from the first part of the Values and Principles section, “They have gone to great lengths, overcome great obstacles  – and, too often, made great and horrific sacrifices  – to ensure that the news was reported quickly, accurately and honestly” (AP). This statement kind of say’s it all, referring to the values of the The Associated Press.

In our discussions, on the blackboard, some of the other students presented some very good points about the values and principles of The Associated Press. One student chose to talk about, quotations, and how they are used. One point of interest was errors in the original quote, and if one decides to use it, the writer must keep it that way in their paper or what ever media they are using. Also, the writer can paraphrase the quote, and then the quote will be properly written grammerically and otherwise for the readers.

The week’s teachings inspired me to be a journalist. Even though at this time, finding a workplace might be difficult to acquire due to the economy.

Angela 🙂

Saturday   4/13/13  Week 12

Well, I won on the lottery…. Fifteen Dollars. That is better than zero. But, you cannot give up. You cannot win if you do not play.

This week we learned about the laws of Briefing on Media Law. There are so many in’s and out’s concerning this subject. The standards of the Associated Press still hold true.

Josh, one of my classmate’s, wrote:

“The book then goes  on to state that these factors can be put aside when confidentiality of people such as sex assault victims, undercover agents, and sometimes juveniles (Associated Press 324).

These factors allow for maximum amount of information to be made public in order for the people to be able to have information on what their governement is going.  However, it also allows those that need their privacy to be able to have it” (Josh).

The privacy of sex victims, undercover agents, and sometime juveniles, I think have good reasons to limit information about the story. The undercover agents names, really, should not be disclosed. As for victims of sexual crimes and juveniles, the law protects them by harboring information. Thus, the safety and well-being of these people is covered.

The Media Law includes, so many areas of what is allowed and not allowed. I just wonder when it is abused. For instance, the government can override certain information, if need be, by allowing the information to be known or when it does not allow it.  There is nothing that is craved in stone.

There was a You tube that submitted, my Amanda, that I think is worth viewing.

New York Times v. Sullivan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtqQWt7aoZ0&feature=player_embedded

Angela 🙂

WEEK 13   4/20/2013  Saturday

This week has been a wake-up call, for all. The actions of others, certainly,

pertains to so many. I see, now, that we all need to take heed where ever

you travel in this country.

This week we spoke about the libel laws in order to sue someone.

“The second item “the defamatory statement is a matter of fact, not opinion” sometimes confuses people. This does not mean that the statement must be factually true; it means that the statement must be something that can be proven to be false. It is a statement based on facts. This differs from opinion, since opinion cannot be proven true or false “(Murphy ).

The statement above stipulations there are many particular aspects  at hand in libel law suits.  The do have certain guidelines to follow to be applicable. It seems one would be careful what they say about a person if the really do not have just cause to say a derogatory statement. Opinions, are ok so to speak, since opinions cannot be proven true nor false.

It seems that political gain would be a reason a person would cause a stir in another persons life. If a libel was placed upon them the opponent would suffer from the negative allegations.

Keep on going… Run

A:)