One Thing (4/15)

One thing that I learned this week in Comm160 is how News Stories are basically an actually telling of a story. It sounds logical, but it doesn't seem like story telling until you write a news story about an actually fairytale story. I feel like I just confused myself, and I definitely confused my readers. But, what I'm trying to say is that news stories are hard to write. They seem simple because they are just articles full of information. In reality, it takes a lot of thought and experience to write one that sounds decent. Writing a news story based off a fairy tail made this whole concept come to life for me. I was able to tell a story while leaking important information about a crime. 

I Learned To Keep It Simple

This week in class we went over our (really) rough draft of our first news story. I thought mine was terrible, but turns out it wasn't completely wrong! My biggest mistake was making myself sound smart... Which is weird because when you're writing I feel like it's a good thing to try to sound smart. But, not in news writing. I like that because you get to write how you talk. No extra words or any of that garbage. If you're thinking something in your head (that isn't an opinion) just write exactly what it is that you're thinking! It's great. News writing is supposed to be basic so all levels of education can read and understand what you're saying. You could think of it as 'dumbing your writing down' so everyone can understand where you're coming from and why you're saying what it is that you're saying.

What I Learned This Week (3/25)

This past week I learned how to semi-write a news story. The first step in writing one is applying a "inverted triangle format" to decide what to write and where to write it. For example, the lead is the most important sentence in a story... As stated before. So, the first sentence and a few sentences after provide the most important information in the story. All the newsworthy information should be written first (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How). The next thing that you are supposed to write about is, the important details that may have been left out in the first section of the story. Lastly, you should include any extra general information that readers may want to know, but it not considered "important" for them to know. After knowing all of that, you are on your way to writing an exceptional news story!!

What I Learned In My Wonderful Writing College Class

Yesterday, in my Comm 160 course, I learned how a lot of words in a piece of writing is not always the answer to everything. Sometimes it's hard for me to be bland and to the point when writing a paper, or anything for that matter. It seems like extra words and descriptors are always necessary to jazz a piece up. It almost seems like it makes my papers more interesting. However, that is not true! While extra words may seem more extravagant or 'fancy' it just makes a piece of work more confusing and unclear. For example, the title of this blog post is completely unnecessary!! Why add all the extra garbage when the title can be straight and to the point? Instead, my title should read: "What I Learned". You would get the rest of the information inside my blog post like you did. This is a good lesson for me to work on because I feel like I do this a lot in my pieces of writing. Now that I know that it's wrong, I'm going to be more mindful of what I put in my papers... Starting NOW!

How to write a lead...

This week in my Comm160 class we learned how to correctly write a lead in a news story. You would assume that it was cake, well at least I did. But, it's not. At all. It's actually really difficult to decide what information deserves to be in the leading sentence of a story. Like always, you must include the WWWWH... You know, Who What Where When and How. Sometimes you aren't provided all of that information, and sometimes you have way too much information! Basically, all you have to remember is to keep it short, sweet and informative! Let everyone know what's going on, but don't bore them in the process! Apparently, a lead should only consist of 35 words, at the most! The shorter and more hard hitting, the better! It sounds awesome when you have a short lead that has you begging for more! As short as a lead could be, it takes a lot of thought and consideration to write an effective piece! Let me tell ya, it's not all that simple.

What I Learned (406)

While making my first news package, I learned so much that I did not know about pet adoptions and the shelters that house the homeless animals. The most interesting part of 'the making' was interviewing the director of the Humane Society of North Western Pennsylvania. The director's name is, Joe. He enlightened the group on how hard it is to select families to adopt their pets. Joe as well as the staff of the Human Society located in Millcreek, pursue families that they know can take care of an maintain an animal. He explains his concern for animals, although, he runs a 'kill shelter' that humanely euthanizes animals who can not fit in the shelter. People may find this unmoral, but he has his reasons for running such a joint. Joe explains that animals are not always in a fixable condition when arriving at the shelter, and some are at old enough ages where it would not be a significant loss for the animal to be put down. It is sad, trust me, I'm an animal lover myself, but how can you shelter animals if you do not have shelter space. Also, I'm not the one doing or watching these 'humane euthanizings' (that's not a word). Hearing the way Joe explain the way the shelter works, sounds so right, even though it is sad in some ways. Ultimately, I loved the experience and I learned so much about the shelter and the animals that inhabit it.

What I Learned This Week In Comm160

Well, basically, this week I learned that everything I write or say is completely incorrect in the grammatical world. I did an assignment on a couple of incorrect uses of grammar that have molded their way into a mainstream way of communication... Even though it isn't completely and utterly wrong. This means that people are incorrectly using a phrase or sentence structure that is gradually becoming accepted in the public. Consequently generating an epidemic of improper grammar! 

Anyways, some things that I discovered is: 

-it is not proper to end a sentence in a preposition.. such as to.

The grammar gods will frowned on you if you ask someone, "Who are you throwing the football to?"

NO! NO! NO!!!

Instead, you need to rephrase what you're saying so that 'to' is not at the end of the sentence. For example, I would say, "Are you throwing that football to someone?" ... or something like that.

Also, you're not technically allowed to use the word 'like'...

AWKWARD because that's like my favorite word. 

So... instead of using like, try to say 'as' or 'as in'.

It's an easy problem to fix. It is never too late to learn and use proper grammar!!!