Week 10: Reading Response: Telling True Stories

I really enjoyed reading the talk shop by Jan Winburn and Lisa Pollak. I like how they both worked together so well to get the piece done. What I don't like is the fact that every writer has to write what they are told to write by their editor. I know it is something no writer can get away with, but I still don't want to go through that process.

Anne Hull's "Revising-Over and Over Again" reminds me a lot of all the things I do now whenever I am writing a piece. Every time I am writing, I ask myself what is this story about? And that helps me stay focus and targeted, and it saves so much more time than free-writing. Even though free-writing is suppose to be very helpful, it would be something I will do later on with my pieces.

I like how Hull says, "I am going to show you something about this world I've visited. Let's go there together." It really helps get a writer to think in a more narrative way, which makes the piece more fun to write and fun for the readers to read also.

One thing I don't really like is revising. I don't like going back to my work and facing it again. But the process of rewriting makes you stronger as a writer. I have learned that as I was going through it in the journalism classes, and still am.

Week 8: Reading Response To Access By Mark Kramer

I found this story confusing. At first, I did not know exactly what the main focus of the story was going to be. Kramer talks about Russia and everything possible he cam mention about access.

He said something about the access of bread, "Access to bread was universal, but access to Chernichenko's sort of perspective on any state enterprise was still discomfiting heresy."

He also talked about soldiers or anyone that served the state. They would get some type of privilege. They would cut in front of lines by flashing their passbooks. He called them perks and said, "A Soviet perk was always access to something necessary, a nice rib roast, a thousand tons of steel to keep factory running, train seats to where you had to go. But it was often access to something the lowliest American burger flipper or warehouse clerk could obtain back home, as needed."

What I understand from this is, what we Americans get as an everyday basis, the Soviet Union gets it as a privilege.

Another thing I found interesting is the scene where a lady came up to Kramer and Mark asking if they wanted tea. She came back with lumps of sugar, the size of a finger. Kramer was surprised, because sugar is hard to find. He even added a childhood memory of how his grandmother had once said that her family was so poor, they would hang their lump of sugar over the table on a string. Then they would look at it as they sipped, and somehow it made the tea taste sweet, and the sugar lasted all winter.

Week 7: Reading Response: The Road is Very Unfair

I really enjoyed this piece by Ted Conover. I think he did an amazing job in letting the characters speak for themselves. He would observe them and then ask them a simple question, and they would respond the most craziest things I ever heard. All the quotes about their views about AIDS shocks me. They are very aware of it, but they still don't protect themselves. The character that I feel stands out the most is Obadiah. He was a smart man who knew much, but still didn't protect himself.

What I like about this piece is the fact that Conover stuck to only talking about the activities that occurred every time they would take a break of something happened to the truck. The only time he mentioned something about the ride is when talking about the road and how bumpy and damaged it is.

I like how every time he stopped at a hotel he would describe the beds. One can picture the unsafe activities that occurred on those beds that were so dirty and that had mosquitoes flying all around. What I find really interesting is the fact that throughout the piece, Conover kept saying things about the mosquitoes and then almost towards the end, he connected them to AIDS, which I thought was brilliant (First paragraph on page 341). The talk about the lotion being a form of protection from mosquitoes and the fact that even if you do wear it, you will still get one unlucky mosquito bite. It ties to AIDS and wearing condoms for protection.

This piece is full of great context and a lot of imagery and quotes. I read the entire story from beginning to end in one sit, and not a lot of writers can make me do that.

Week 6 Reading Response: "Telling True Stories"

Sorry for writing it late...

Chapter 6 spoke about memoirs and gave examples of writers who have written about their lives or of lives of their family and friends.

I cannot see myself writing a memoir. I think that it would be the hardest thing to do, especially because the most important members of my family would not enjoy it for one bit. They don't like hearing the truth about themselves. My family are every stubborn people and I would not get away with writing something about them. If I decided to let them read it afterward, they would turn it into a fiction story instead of staying a nonfiction story. My sisters would want to sound all perfect and would shape themselves up and create someone they wish they would be.

One article I really find very interesting in "Telling True Stories" is Debra Dickerson's article she wrote for The New Republic, titled "Who Shot Johnny?" What I find so interesting is the fact that she was willing to go into depth about how her nephew got shot and then take it a step further to finding out more about the man who shot him. I think it really takes a lot of courage to do that.

Dickerson mentions something about her not writing for the police but for the readers. "With what he told me, I could get years added to his prison sentence." If I was in that moment where she is sitting down with this man and he is telling her all these other bad things he's done, I would stop being a journalist. Knowing that I have a grudge against that man, I would not stay shut, and this is one reason why I would not dare to write about anything about my family or friends; I would stop being a journalist.

Reading Responses: Telling True Stories

In "What Narrative Writers Can Learn from Screenwriters," Nora Ephron spoke about the structure key to narrative, which are three questions a storyteller has to answer: Where does it begin? Where does the beginning start to end and the middle begins? and Where does the middle start to end and the end begin? I think this a great and much easier way to think about when outlining any story I write. I think it is easier than using Jon Franklin's outline method in "Writing for Story."

One thing I do agree with is Franklin's thought of sometimes needing to come up with an ending before the complication, because that way, one can know their point of their story and maintain it throughout the whole story.

In "Endings," Bruce Desilva talks about endings and how they should do four things: signal to the reader that the piece is over, reinforce your central point, resonate in your reader's mind after he or she has turned the page, and arrive on time. Desilva also says that writing an ending is a lot easier to write because then you will know where you are going with your story, which is what Franklin mentions in his outlining chapter.

Response to Profile

Egypt's Tomb Raider, Off and (Mostly) on Camera
By: Michael Slackman

I picked this profile, because I really like Michael Slackman's tone and voice in this peace. You can notice it from the title and then later on in the piece.

Slackman's lede can be a great example of a descriptive lede, because it gives good details, but it can also be a tease lede, because it throws the reader right into the action. When I read the lede, I thought, "Oh my God, this is great. He is witnessing a moment of a discovery of an ancient mummy. How exciting is that!" I felt like I was reading a scene from the movie "The Mummy" or the "The Mummy Returns," (the best mummy movies ever made).

I think that Slackman's reason for writing about Hawass is to show how unreliable this man is, because it seems like all his discoveries, although they are great, seem like he is just doing them to increase his fame. Slackman's voice helps determine that.

Slackman then continues by introducing Zahi Hawass, (this is where his voice comes out), and gives a little bit of sarcasm. He then manages to maintain his voice by ending with the same sarcasm, but with a different discovery.

I hope you guys enjoy this profile.

Profile of Week 5

I hope you guys enjoy this profile. Happy reading!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/world/middleeast/18egypt.html?scp=7&sq=profile%20articles&st=cse

Reading Response: Literary Journalism

"Trina and Trina" by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is an incredible story. I can't believe she was so patient to stick around people like Trina and get a story out of her. While reading the story of Trina's life, I could literally picture every moment. LeBlanc gave really great details. The structure in which she wrote it kept me in suspense as to whether Trina was finally get cleaned up or whether she was going to die at the end.

Even though this story is really engaging, I still want to know more about how Trina is doing right now. I know she was in jail and kept calling LeBlanc, but LeBlanc never answered, and I really want to know if she ever did go back and visit Trina.

The story "And American Man at Age Ten" was a really good, informative story. I liked it, because it was clear what the story is about. It is about the knowledge of boys and girls of a certain age, and how advanced they are. Susan Orlean wondered if they knew anything about sex and HIV. She gave a little bit of statistics ad background, which was really good.

Reading Response- Writing for Story: The Outline

One of the hardest things for me to do when writing any piece is outlining. I actually have to know what I am going to write about before I start the writing process. Franklin is totally right, there's no way one can get away with writing a story or any type of paper without outlining. I didn't really know how to make a good outline that could make the writing process easier, but outlining really helps me to brainstorm and making sure I have everything I need to back up anything I want to say.

In "Writing for Story," Franklin says, "if you can't think your story through you can't write it convincingly." When I am in the process of writing my papers, I always get stuck, because I run out of things to say. Then when I think of something else, it makes no sense with the first half I wrote, so I end up cutting out the entire thing and starting all over again. I find this more frustrating than actually writing an outline, so writing outlines are now pretty important to me.

Reading Response: Writing for Story

The story of "The Ballad of Old Man Peters" is so engaging. It was hard to stop and put the book down. Franklin definetly knows what he's talking about when he mentions the structure of how to tell a good short story. The techniques he uses are very clear, but still kind of hard to follow, since there is so much to it. Because it is a five verse story, it is a little hard to try to go along with the structure, but he pulled it off.

I really liked reading the first story, "Mrs. Kelly's Monster." I liked all the suspense that built up as I kept reading the story. I find it very interesting that Franklin decided to write the story as a matter of "life goes on" instead of "the death of Mrs. Kelly." I Liked how he used foreshadowing in the story and then explained exactly when to use it and how later on in the book.

When writing our first assignment of a personal experience, I used the foreshadowing method. It worked really well, because I was able to cut down an entire paragraph that made the story confusing. So Franklin's thought of foreshadowing really helped my essay.

My First Pair of Tight Jeans

There I was in my new homeroom classroom on the first day of school. I passed to the 7th grade with not one grade lower than an A-. I looked around the classroom recognizing faces I’ve seen for the past eight years at I.S.306, the school I attended that was three blocks away from my home in Bronx, NY.

As I was looking around I strangely saw one unfamiliar face of a light-skinned boy with hazel eyes and straight, light brown hair in a shape of a mushroom. He must have been the cutest boy in the class. As I observed him talking to his friends, he seemed friendly, he kept making a lot of jokes so he seemed funny, and I knew he was smart, because our class was the second smartest class out of the whole 7th grade.

Of course, I being the shiest girl in the class who never spoke or raised my hand in class did not have the courage to exchange words with the boy. Then again I doubted he would want to talk to me considering I was a tomboy.

My outfit always consisted of very baggy blue jeans that were so big on me, I would have to use a thick belt and tighten it really tight, so high above my waist, it covered my belly button. I switched between wearing a green, yellow, or orange button down, long sleeve collar shirt, which I buttoned all the way to the top, and wore the oldest, torn up pair of New Balance sneakers that seemed too big for my feet. Every inch of my body was covered only exposing my tiny little head full of dark brown, “want to be straight,” shoulder length hair that was too big to even try and comb in the morning. I was obviously not the most attractive girl in the class, so I knew right away Arnando would never lay eyes on me.

I figured he liked the other girls in my class who were always in style. They wore tight, top designer jeans, tight matching shirts, wore the latest footwear that matched perfectly with their outfit, and wore nice hair that probably took them at least half an hour every morning to get done.

I would come to school every day looking the same as I did since kindergarten. My daily routine being walking to school by myself, coming in to class and sitting in my assigned seat, right across from Arnando who looked cuter every day I saw him. Still not saying one word whatsoever, I prayed for the day to be over so I could go back home, by myself, and count the days left for the weekend to come so I could go to my Aunt Oneida’s house as I do every weekend, and hang out with my cousin Gladys. Gladys was the complete opposite of me. She was the most popular girl in her school. She had the looks, the smarts, and the personality, which is embarrassing for me, because she is a year younger. Despite that we were so different, she was still the person I felt most comfortable talking to. I would tell her about Arnando and the struggle I was going through in trying to get him to notice me.

Finally the weekend came and I went to Aunt Oneida’s house as usual. Gladys really wanted to go shopping, her favorite hobby, so Aunt Oneida took us to the shopping center in Parkchester. As I was looking around the junior section where all the designer clothing such as PePe jeans, Marc Ecko, Enyce, and so on, I spotted a pair of dark blue jeans that had little rhinestones on the back pockets in a butterfly shape. Aunt Oneida saw me looking at the pair of jeans which she thought were really nice and told me to try them on. I said, “I don’t want to try them on. Besides they don’t have my size.” Aunt Oneida looked at the jeans, “These are size 7, they will fit you perfectly.” I knew the pants were going to fit me tighter than the regular pairs of jeans I owned, but I tried them on so Aunt Oneida would stop insisting. I came out the fitting room to see both Aunt Oneida’s and Gladys’s jaw drop at the sight of me. “Mi hija, those jeans really bring out your curves. Now you look like a true Dominican girl.” Aunt Oneida said. Gladys was so excited, she ran out and came back with a shirt she thought would go along with the jeans. I tried on the pink v-neck, short sleeve shirt, which had matching rhinestones spelling out “Angel” on the front. I looked in the mirror and I couldn’t believe how different I looked. I thought I looked pretty good. Aunt Oneida was so excited that she bought the outfit. She even volunteered to do my hair, which she washed and straightened. It took her at least three hours, but I was happy to see my hair look so straight and long.

As I arrived home on Sunday night, I felt excited to wear my new outfit the next day and at the same time, nervous to know if Arnando might talk to me now that I had a new look. I was really hoping he would notice me and would talk to me and eventually become friends.

I awoke Monday morning to start my daily routine. I walked to school, this time wearing my hair down and my new outfit. As I walked inside homeroom, I felt all eyes were on me. I was hearing everyone in the class whispering to the person next to them, and I knew they were talking about me, because their eyes were on me, but they leaned forward with one hand covering their mouth so one can't read their lips. I was so nervous I couldn’t stop fidgeting. I quietly sat down in my seat across from Arnando, who usually always turned his back to me to talk to his friends. This time he faced forward smiling at me.

"What‘s up?" I stumbled to say while hearing my heart pounding so loud, I couldn’t hear myself think. "Nothing, what’s up with you?" Arnando said. “Nothing…how are you?” I managed to say after a few seconds. "I'm good, just wanting this day to be over so I can play baseball after school," he said. I was happy he mentioned baseball, because it's always been my favorite sport. That day I found out we both liked the same baseball team and player; Derek Jeter from the New York Yankees. The conversation went from what we do after school to our favorite television show to our favorite food, which was green plantains with fried eggs, salami, and white Dominican cheese. We found out we had a lot of things in common. The day went by so fast, before I knew it, he was walking me back home. I didn't even notice until we were outside my building door.

I remember him telling me he didn't know I was so cool and that he should have spoken to me earlier in the school year. I told him I always wanted to talk to him, but I was too shy and nervous he wouldn't want to talk back to me. He said he will see me tomorrow and I waved and repeated the same back to him.

The next day I went back to school wearing my regular everyday outfit to school, but I still looked decent, because my hair still looked nice. I sat in my seat, I said hello to Arnando and he said hello back, and we continued talking regularly as we did the previous day. As the days went by, he continued walking me home. He even took me to play baseball with him and his friends, which I really enjoyed, even though I was not as great as the other players.

Eventually I changed my image and wore nicer clothes. By the time I was in eighth grade, I became one of the most popular girls in my grade and continued to be one all throughout high school. I acted like all popular girls do; I was snobby, really stuck up, only stayed with one group of friends, and I cared a lot about my look and reputation. I mostly did this to get guys to like me and to fit in, but at some point I remembered my tomboy years, and I realized that the way I looked had nothing to do with a boy liking me or not. My day of looking pretty was just something that boosted my confidence for me to act like myself. So instead of caring so much about my image, I started acting like myself and I was accepted for that.

Reading Responses: Telling True Stories

Pg 3: Stories Matter by Jaqui Banaszynski

Banaszynski began with a story about her journey to Africa in 1985 to report the Ethiopia famine for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She lived the feeling and struggle of these people in search of food and water and transfered that feeling to her readers using specific, very vivid vocabulary words that made it seem like the reader can see what she sees right through her eyes. Banaszynski, the narrator uses this technique of putting herself in the story and makes the reader understand the guilt she felt as she saw these people in agony, asking for help and all she could do is offer a notebook and questions.

I like how she walks her readers right into the action. She uses so much detail that highly compliment the story.

Banaszynski's point about this short story is the importance of storytelling. One night while she listened to the "coughing and vomiting and whimpering and keening," Banaszynski heard beautiful singing. She wondered how could these people sing under their condition. A few days later, she was told by a couple of translaters that they were storytelling. It was a form of a ritual they do at night, which she found really interesting how they "carried their history and culture and law with them." It proves her point of how stories are so powerful, and how they should be told as prayers, as history, as music, and told with one's soul.

I completely agree with Banaszynski, because stories are really meaningful and in order to get the story through the readers', the story have to be cleary written, have accuracy, understanding and context, and be exciting.