Articles that Drive Me Nuts

So, I know I'm not the best journalist and never will be, but I have taken a course over it, read a lot of newspaper articles, and learned what's good and bad writing. I feel bad for this, but I feel inclined to rip peoples articles apart when I know they're horribly written.

I learned about the blog that the Basic Writing for the Media class is doing this semester a few weeks ago, but just started reading recently. I know not to expect that everyone's going to be a writing genius or master the skill after this one course, but I still expect students to attend class and actually learn. It's almost the end of the semester and students are still writing articles like they would have if it were the first week of the semester.

Students are misinformed and use assumptions as sources for their articles. I still find spelling mistakes throughout the piece and the horrible continual usage of "she said"/"he said".

For example: http://basicwritng2010.blogspot.com/2010/10/wilson-renovation-equals-reopening.html

The title alone annoys me enough. There is not a single paragraph in this entire article that does not use the word "said". When someone has a continuous thought, there's no need to separate it into three different paragraphs. The overall flow of the article is so choppy and I find it hard to follow. I'm annoyed at the sources she chose to use as well. You are told in the course to use at least four source and I only found three in hers. I was especially frustrated with the fact that she used a Resident Assistant as main information about Housing's plans. Employed as a Resident Assistant this previous year, I have learned that as an RA, you don't always know everything about Housing and their plans for campus. The author of this article should have found someone else higher up to use as a source for some of this information, maybe Tammie Willis who is Assistant Director of Residential Life and Education or maybe even Randy Shelton, interim Director of Housing.

I even read another article that stated an event was a yearly event, even though I know this is the first year they've done the event. They were basically copying an extremely similar event that my fraternity has been hosting yearly for at least 5 years now.

So, maybe I'm just rude, but things like this really drive me nuts.
There are still some other articles that have been well written and are highly interesting, so you should still take a look at the blog.

Day full of Stupidity

I'll attempt to break this down and keep it short(even though I'm sure that won't happen...).

To give a brief background of the day: I was offered a job painting logos in the updated sports bar in Red Apple Bowling, so I asked my sister to help me out so things would go a bit faster. My sister is 23, I'm 20.

First thing of today, my father decides that he needs to yell at my sister and I at 11 to wake up for work. We don't have to be in until 1. We're adults... we can wake up on our own. My sister and I were ready almost an hour early and sat around on our computers for a while before work...

While on the computer and Facebook I found this (I'm in yellow):

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4659303020_26beff3f66_b.jpg

Red's comment is completely unrelated! Obama has nothing to do with what's going on in Arizona! And really, why is THIS tradition SOOO important? He was still visiting another cemetery, he was still showing his respect. I'm just tired of ignorant people, especially when it comes to government. Do people really not pay attention in government class? I know I hated those classes, but I feel like I have a more basic understanding of how government works than most people... You can't blame one person for the actions of a group.

Next, my sister and I show up at work ready to go. We wait on our client to set up the projector. He goes to get his laptop. We wait about 15 minutes without him returning and decide to run home and get mine, which is about a 5-10 minute drive. When we get back, he finally comes in with his to set up. We wait almost 45 minutes for our client and a few of his employees to set up the projector, just to realize that it doesn't work. We go to our church and check out the old school projector and come back to trace the logos onto the transparencies. As we're almost finishing the 3rd logo, our client comes in to tell us he bought a package of transparencies to print on. So... after wasting almost 2 hours of our time, we finally actually trace the logos onto the walls.
So, for being at work for 4 hours, we only got in 2 real hours of work.


Today's lesson?

For any of you who plan to hire a free lance artist or any artists who plan to work free lance, communication is key.
As a client, or someone who is hiring an artist, make sure to let the artist know EXACTLY what you want. Give as many details as possible. Don't just give a generalization and expect the artist to know what you're talking about. And don't tell the artist you can get things for them and then decide not to, or even to get it last minute. Things like this usually don't work out well.


Thankfully today ended on a good note of nice food and friends.

Ah... but what a day full of stupidity...

Random Musings?

Not quite sure what I'm doing with this really... Guess I'll just be putting up random stuff that comes to mind.


I love photography and art, but I'm really not fond of the Mass Communication classes that come with my major. If there's anything that I really got out of my Mass Comm classes, it's got to be a new and more in depth understanding and interest in social networking.

I love anything with social networking and new technology; the idea behind sending an update of text, pictures, or videos at any moment from anywhere. It used to be an interest just because it was a way to keep in touch with people and it was what everyone else was doing. Now I've started joining other networks just to see something new and how it works.

Even now, I barely know anyone with a Twitter, but I love it. It's a great way to update and I would probably prefer it over Facebook if more people used it. Twitter is direct enough to keep my interest. Half the time I do anything with Facebook, it's just to play games.

A new network I've been checking out is Tumblr. So far of what I've picked up on, it's kind of like Twitter but you post a picture directly to your page instead of just a link to click on. My biggest issue with Tumblr is trying to update from your phone. There's an iPhone app, but for anyone without an iPhone, it's basically impossible to update from your phone.

If anyone has any other suggestions for networking sites to check out, pleas let me know! I still need to look into LinkedIn and I'm still developing my opinion about Blogspot.


That's all for know, I'll try and keep you all updated frequently enough.