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