Blog 10

· Describe the three most valuable things you learned about feature writing.

I learned in depth about the different story styles, which I know will be very beneficial in my journalism career.

I learned how to interview people the correct way, and to always respect and protect your sources.

Last but not least, I got better at my writing, which is very important in the field.

· In what ways has your writing improved during the course?

I got better sentence structure wise, and learned how to get straight to the point, as before I was rambling.

· What feature style of writing did you like the best? Why? What about the least? Why?

I like the profile style of writing. telling a story about a person, is an enjoyable experience for me, I love getting through the shield people have up! I did not like editorial writing, bickering about something doesn't seem appealing to me.

· What’s next for you?

Graduate next year from SJSU, and see me on a sports station somewhere.

Takeaways From Week 3/13-3/15

We learned how to write reviews this week. I learned how a critic mind works when he/she writes reviews on people. My professor told us to follow this structure when writing our own.

— Lead

— Product description

— Special features

— Performance pros and cons

— Recommendations

As you can see by writing this way gives you a balance as a critic. I am hopeful that I will not offend anybody when following this format

Blog 8

I liked Steve Johnson profile story, because it incorporated in-depth questions on who the interviewee is. I felt like i was getting a special behind the scenes pass to the questions he asked. He presented in a fun matter, which made the flow of the story very delightful to read. Steve made sure to give background first, to give the reader some context on where CEO Kathryn Kranen was coming from and then dove into the success of her business. I will take away the story structure, he did for the Mercury news and apply it my stories when i do one.

Blog 9

Are Rappers Scared of Revolution?

http://allhiphop.com/2012/02/20/missing-malcolm-x-are-rappers-scared-of-revolution/

Rappers are not scared of the revolution, our mainstream generation just prefers party music over pure substantial lyricism.

My generation have a couple of rap artist like Kanye West, Immortal Technique, Kendrick Lamar,who been talking about coming together as a nation and overruling the government. But like most of my friends and people i kow, they don’t like listing to that stuff because its not entertaining.

I believe if people listen to this kind of music, it would open up peoples ears and thoughts to what we can do for the equality of our own people. We need to teach the people to be leaders instead of followers. To turn off the T.V and pick up a book. We need to give them inspiration and motivation that they have bright futures. But instead we stay in the confines of our own confront and don’t speak up for the injustice we see and our everyday journey call life.

If you can rewrite your editorial to show that their is a other side too this, it would be greatly appreciated to me and the fans of these artist that are trying to change peoples lifestyles for the better.

Takeaways From Week 3/5-3/8

This week in Class we talked about Editorials which are usually featured in newspapers and magazines. Editorials usually provide personality and passion to a paper, and usually short in length, averaging 300-500 words. I learned to Keep it tight when it comes to writing. Also for the story to be releveant so the reader can relate. Don't talk about something that happened in the 1960s when we are in 2012. The last important thing was to not bully, to stay in the middle of the crossroads.

2/28-3/1-Takeaways From Week

We had only one class this week, and the professor just gave us more input on our stories. I hope everything turns out well, as its a busy month for me. I will be interviewing my cousin and she is very busy, running for San Jose State University. Hopefully she will have the time to sit down, so i can finish the story.

Blog 7

For the profile story, I chose my cousin Camel Anderson. I chose her because she is living on her own for the first time, and is a student athlete at San Jose State University. I know her life story and she has experienced a lot at a young age. I hope to learn about her struggles and how she overcomes them in the interview. I believe it's are job as journalist to dig deep for good stories. I plan to video record her so I wont miss any quotes worth putting in my story. I am looking forward to to writing the story, but I am really busy with my internship and school. Hopefully It will be good, I will try my best!

2/21-2/23-Takeaways From Week

This week I took away how to write alternative stories of a main story. You can do this by having a fact box, checklist or timeline. There are plenty other methods, but i believe the ones i listed are the most effective. we also had time to ask our teacher personal questions in order to get prepared for our profile feature story. It was great to see what kind of questions is important to ask and which were not. I can wait to start writing to apply these techniques.

Blog #6

I found Lille Ammnn blog to be very helpful. Lille dropped knowledge on her viewers by giving tips on how to better editing your own work. She mentions good writing is a must if you want to get a point across, for example to sell something to a company. I took away three main tips that I will try to work on daily. The first one is to "remember that writing comes before editing." This mean that she doesn't want to you to worry about making every sentence perfect. Write down and go back to correct is the best method she points out. The next tip is "to read the work aloud." You will be shocked how reading a sentence out loud can help correct a sentence. She mentions to find someone to read your work so you can here another voices perspective. The last tip is to "get another qualified opinion." If you can get an editor or teacher to go over the piece with you, it can be very beneficial. This is a wonderful blog, I am going to start recommending it to people on facebook and twitter. I hope to be an almost error proof journalist in a couple of years.

2/14-2/18-Takeaways From Week

This week, the class gained a lot of knowledge on how to do investigative stories. Professor taught us how to become effective writers and we talked about our h.w on the "Cost of Dying" article. It was great to talk about this story in class because i think it really motivated my classmates to do their upcoming investigative story. I feel like i'm developing more into a complete journalist day by day, by learning and doing the different writing styles.

Blog #5

Inkygirl is a blog done by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a writer from Toronto Canada. Debbie made the blog to offer content for writers who are interested in cartoons, interviews and writing tips. There were three things that I liked on this blog. The first was the website design. On the left side of the website, It was organized with Debbie blog post consisting of writing, colorful pictures and videos. This design doesn't confuse the viewer and makes the flow and theme of the page a pleasant experience to enjoy. The second thing I liked was the comic pictures. Almost all of the pictures are done by Debbie and her staff. The pictures are so well done and creative, that they convey the message perfectly. The last thing I liked was her openness on the website. She is willing to take comments on how to improve her blog and gives people multiple ways to contact her primarily using email or twitter. What I picked up from this blog is to make my writing and images more visual. Painting the best picture possible for story is very important for journalist to do for the reader.

http://inkygirl.com/

2/7-2/9-Takeaways From Week

We went over our enterprise/investigative stories this week. It was interesting learning about this type of writing structure. Also listening to the stories my classmates where going to develop gave me insight on how to frame my story. I learned about the ethics and what questions to ask the source, to get great quotes. This is a crucial part in journalism, so you have to do this effectively to capture the audience. I can't wait to start the story and show my classmates.

Blog Entry for Week 5: you’re writing somewhere else.

I picture myself writing at the edge of a ledge near the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. I find it really peaceful when you get lost in the sights and sounds of the Bay Area. Since it's the weekend families and tourists are out sight seeing the bridge, both parties have their eyes open with amazement. If i was a painter i would paint how the fog is creeping passed the bridge into the San Francisco. It about 61 degrees right now and I contemplated on grabbing my jacket due to the mist of the fog.

1/31-2/2-Takeaways From Week

This week my class did peer reviews of our first feature story. It was very interesting to see how my classmates wrote their story. As a class we talked about the good and the bad when writing the paper. Listening to the professor and my peer's critical feedback, helped me to construct my flaws in my story. What I got out of class this week was to improve on my sentence structure and grammar. I know I have great story ideas, but sometimes my sentence gets messed up because i will be writing in first and third person. I am hopeful with hard work I will eventually fix this problem.

Blog Topic #3

When it comes down to writing feature stories, I particularly like to emulate stories after the “Page 2” section at ESPN.com and the “Music Review” section at soulculture.uk. The stories “Page 2” release on their website makes the reader become engaged in a professional humor way. They start their lead with engaging background information giving the reader interesting facts which drives the story forward. For example, columnist Sarah Phillips wrote a story on who will win the Super Bowl. By giving analysis in the lead, made me want to read her opinionated myth predictions. I will borrow her writing format and incorporate her structure as my own when I write stories especially in sports. For the “Music Review” section at soulculture.uk, I want to develop their smooth story transition skills. The bloggers have a way of saying something that conveys you in visuals and emotion. Alya Mooro who wrote the Childish Gambino artist review mentions herself as a fan first then critic. She said she enjoys the music first allowing herself to be in the moment. By being in the moment gives her the right words to write a detailed story review. I hope to adapt Phillips and Mooro traits overtime, so I make a impact in peoples lives when I go out and report in the field.

Espn:http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7532421/super-bowl-xlvi-patriots-rightfully-favored-giants

SoulCulture:http://www.soulculture.co.uk/blogs/childish-gambino-at-camp-london-live-review/

1/24-1/27-Takeaways From Week

What a great week it was in class. We discussed the in and out of feature story writing. Professor told the class to use our own creative voices and add descriptive language to the sentence structure. By following theses steps can provide the reader with vivid details that can make the reading an enjoyable experience. On Thursday we focused on the components of sentence structure. Professor mentioned a popular sentence structure used by journalist called the inverted pyramid. I like this structure because it provides a clear understanding on what you have to accomplish to have a story come full circle. I love learning in this class, the professor is so knowable and helps you become a better person and journalist.

12-steps to good writing

Out of the 12 good steps of writing, I believe reporting, listening, collaborating and trust are the most equipped skills I have. I believe being a good listener is an important character trait to have in society, and to be a good news reporter. For collaborating, in all industries its about who you know and building relationships. In the newsroom, a reporter must be able to have a personality that everybody likes. Lastly, you must have trust as a journalist. It is your duty to have trust between you and the source. If you break the trust code, good luck finding a job in a different field. The step i need to work on is to simplify new stories. I get so tied up into my story, that I don't know what parts to cut. I am hopeful I can pull something out of the class to help me with this step.

1/17-1/19-Takeaways From Week

Besides the first day of instruction, next week class session was great. Professor taught us the importance of brainstorming story ideas. She told the class to be observant in our everyday life. She then gave us some adaptive tools and tips that can help us in are future journalist years. There was three main points that stood out to me..they were to:

· Look at things through a reporter’s eyes.

· Write down ideas (keep journal).

· Look through a publication’s archives.

We also learned about drawing an "idea web" for brainstorming. It was very interesting and entertaining to see other peoples ideas in the class. The homework reading was also a pleasant experience to read.

Jour 21b-Blog topic #1

The topic that caught my attention was Entertainment

Im thinking of writing a feature story about music (hip-hop) or movies(the artist).

Pro (Hip-Hop)

A lot of information on the subject

Different view points

Variety of music

New Music comes out every week

Album Release Parties

Pro(Movies)

New Movies EveryWeek

Write about the Movies and Actors I like

Fun

Cons(Hip-Hop)

Being to Biased

Deadline Dates

Cons(Movies)

Being to Biased

Deadline Dates