Pocket Scavenger #5

Location Found: the coffee table in my living room

Time: about 1 PM

Date: December 10th

Story: This elephant was drawn by one of my friends that lives in the apartment across the hall from mine. It was a small part of a bigger page of a note that she left for us to find after class. Here is the whole note:

This is a really nice gesture considering finals week has rolled around once again! It's a nice little reminder during a stressful time. This little elephant drawing is one she draws on everything. In our heads, we associate elephants with her because she loves them and has them all over her bedroom. 

"Do something fast without really thinking" -As the alteration, I hung this cute note and drawing on our bulletin board in our apartment for everyone to see. That was the first thing that came to my mind to do!

Pocket Scavenger #4

Location Found: My bedroom

Time: 3:15 PM

Date: December 11th, 2016

Story: This ticket was to see singer, Kate Voegele, perform in a small cafe located in Pittsburgh. I went with my cousin and her friend to this event and we were soo soo, way to excited to see her! We watched her on our favorite TV show, One Tree Hill, over and over again for years before this. We enjoyed her performance very much and after the show we had the opportunity to meet and talk to her. We could not believe it really happened and it is all we talked about for weeks! This ticket was from last year and in a couple days we have tickets to go watch her again in Pittsburgh. This time will be even better because another former One Tree Hill character is touring with her. So we will also have the opportunity to see Tyler Hilton perform!

The pocket scavenger told me to combine my ticket with a photo. So here it is: when we met Kate Voegele! (pictured second from left)

Class Group Activity

Our professor had asked each class member of Digital Storytelling to gather a few digital pictures of body parts for our next class meeting. During this class meeting, we used these pictures to work with group members to construct a figure with. We also had to alter the pictures and create a specific rule for each group member to follow throughout the creation. There were lots of giggles heard from the entire class during this process. This is the crazy figure that my group came up with:

 
Our rule that we followed during the creation was that no body part could be in the spot it was supposed to on a human body. We had three members in our group and each member contributed and altered two images before combining them to make one. My contribution was the arms of the figure, that are actually pictures of feet. I used the platform, Paint, to airbrush colors onto the feet/arms. I also gave it dots using a variety of colors. The other picture that I contributed and edited was the nose picture, which is actually standing in as an eye on this figure. All of my group members used Paint to complete this mini-project.

Device 6?

To help with our upcoming interactive narrative project, we turned to interactive game play. My professor brought in iPads for the class to play on. We were split into groups and each of the three groups got to experience a different game. My group got to play a game entitled Device 6.

The game, Device 6, has a few chapters to it. As a group, we only made it through the first chapter. The game begins with giving the viewer a game player number. This element makes you feel like the controlled of the story, similar to game play. When first launching Device 6, I was thrown off by which way to hold my device (iPad) during play. I quickly learned that I had to hold my device multiple different ways throughout the story. The story was one the player had to figure out how to solve. My group and I found this part to be unexpectedly challenging. Yet the game definitely had us intrigued, we just had to figure it out!

After a pretty lengthy amount of time attempting to solve this puzzle, we admittedly turned to the internet for assistance. Although we were unable to solve it on our own, we realized we had come pretty close. I noticed the importance of sound in this piece, in which I was not expecting either. There was a statement regarding it's importance in the beginning of the story, yet I kind of ignored it at first. Along with the sound effects needed to solve the puzzle, the game had lots of great graphics to experience. I particularly loved how the pictures moved with the frame as you scrolled through, allowing more of the picture to be visible. I wish that was an element I would be capable of adding to my final project.

One of my group members, Lauren, pointed out that Device 6 reminded her of iSpy games that she played as a child. I agreed with her and thought maybe the creators could have somehow based the idea for this story from something like that.

Overall, the game had very interesting graphics and sounds. The puzzle the game player had to solve though, was rather difficult causing us to give up. We did not even make it to the remaining chapters the story had to offer us. The game also gave me a bit of a headache with all the spinning around of the device, despite that the experience was overall enjoyable.

Final Project Brainstorm

We made it to the final project of Digital Storytelling class! This project is creating a multimedia, interactive digital story. We have created many digital stories now for this class but the difference in this one is that it is required to have an interactive element. This interactive feature can be hypertext, game play, or anything that classifies as interactive. This story must include at least three of the elements we covered in class out of video, image, sound, and text.

I had no immediate ideas pop into my head when first learning about this final project. I first thought I need to figure out a digital platform to put together this project with first. So I did some research and found ideas such as Prezi or Google Docs. I eventually came up with some starting points to go off. I thought about putting together something for a college student with an undeclared major to explore. Or I could go a communication major route for it and have different options of ways they can use the major for a future career. I thought those two ideas could possibly be done on Prezi. I also thought about using my image, video, or audio story by adding addition elements to them on a different platform, yet still keeping the same idea. This may be a good idea for my image story in particular. I could apply it to Google Docs, taking the audience to the different locations. With the location idea, i also thought about doing something with a unique creature that I was introduced to while vacationing in Mexico last summer. This unique creature is called a Coati.

So those are the ideas I have at the moment and I have the rest of my Thanksgiving break/weekend to decide which one would help me create the best final digital story project! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! ☺

Investigating Nature

This idea came to me in remembrance of a Netflix piece I watched over the summer about some of the world's cutest animals. Red pandas stuck out in my mind and I have been interested in knowing more bout them. Their scientific name being Ailurus Fulgens, which I would have no clue where to begin in pronouncing that name. Kinda like how when you think of sunflowers, you don't imediately think of their other, less common name: Helianthus.

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The red panda species are endangered. They usually have a life span of 8 years when living in the wild and usually weigh 12-20 pounds. The pandas use their tails as wraparound blankets in the cold mountains they live in.

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Red pandas unlike most carnivores, are not actually carnivores. They are mostly herbivores. They eat bamboo and leaves, like the well-known black and white pandas. Unlike them, they also eat things like fruit, acorns, roots, and eggs. They are also a fan of fake sugar.

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This adorable species can be found in Nepal, northeastern India (West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), Bhutan, and parts of China.

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Red pandas are generally solitary, yet there are a couple of exceptions to that. Young red pandas grow rather slowly and develop extended associations with their mothers. This can last for over a year in time. The red pandas also have short relationships during annual breeding seasons.

**

Video Story Tell-All

My video story was inspired by a real event that took place in my life regarding one of my close friends. I had written a poem about this event for my high school English class. At the time, I did not reveal the actual meaning behind this poem, with respect for my friend, being that my friend went to that high school. I just let people believe that it was just concerned with an overall world view of one's purpose in life. Then in college, I was enrolled in a class called Creative Non-Fiction. For this class, I had an assignment to come up with a segmented piece of writing. This assignment gave me the idea to find that poem I had written in high school and to break it down with the written story of my thoughts during this time, in between each stanza of the poem. So that is what I did. Then for this Digital Storytelling class that I am currently enrolled in, I turned this new piece of writing into a visual, a video story to be exact. The words of the pieces of the poem, broken down by stanza, scroll on the screen in silence scattered throughout the video. In between stanzas I used my voice-over of reading the descriptive parts of my thoughts during this event. Occasionally throughout the narration, I added sound effects under my voice that went with what I was talking about at the moment. For example, I used hallway ambience noise, laughter, thundering rolling, and a brief part of a song. This added an extra element for the audience to relate to my feelings at the time. I also used some slow motion video shots. Overall, I was happy with the result of my video story, though there are a couple parts of it that I feel like I could've improved, had I had more access to certain places or people to film.

Video Story Reviews

Classmate's Reviews:

Lauren F.- "UPJ Campus Tour":

My favorite part of Lauren's video was the view out of the window from high up in a building looking down on our campus. It was a beautiful shot! Lauren also had fun music playing in the background. She had many panning shots and walking video shots that really captured the greatness our campus has to offer.

Jacey- "Story for Noone":

I really enjoyed how Jacey had some of the same clips spread out throughout the video and came back to them to finish capturing the memory. I wish I would have thought of something like that, it was really effective! I also liked the narration scene, how she used her shadow as she walked while introducing her story.

Brandon- "One Last Time":

Brandon used a lot of ground scenes made to be eye level by placing the camera on the ground. He also had a close up smoking scene and an upside down scene. I really like that Brandon expressed some suspense and darkness in his voice as the narrator. I also thought the blank screen was really effectively used in moments of description or thought.

Lauren- "A Place to Call Home":

Lauren had a lot of panning of the gym in her video. I thought that was an effective way to get a glimpse of the gym she saw many times in her coaching career. The close up scan of the gymnastics girls on the wall was also well done in helping the viewer get a sense of what a place she calls home is like. My favorite part was the closing line of narration when she stated the address and explained it is a place she considers home.

Jeff- "O Negative"

Jeff used pictures in black and white and also pictures from older times which showed the time period. I like how he used clips from the film and used narration to get his analysis of the film across to the viewers.

Melanie- "New Romantics"

This was a music video put together using a Taylor Swift song. She used different camera angles as following the girl around in her room. She included clips of texting and scrolling through Instagram. My favorite was the clip that was filmed through the side of the mirror during makeup.

Sean- "Alone and Thankful":

This video began with a clip following a person and dog walking on railroad tracks. I liked the time lapse and sped up parts through the nature trails. I also liked how in the video, the audience could hear the leaves crunching as the people walked over them. My favorite part was the clip at the end with the dark tunnel looking scene. It looked so cool with the light coming in around the person's body.

Video Story Practice

Click here to watch!

To gain some experience for our upcoming video story assignment, we worked in groups to conduct a brief story. We each picked a page out of the pocket scavenger to use as a guide. I picked a page that dealt with ticket stubs. I gathered a bunch of ticket stubs from my bedroom that I have saved from various events. We each practiced by being the director for our sections of the story. I filmed the very last part of our story using my ticket stubs. Once we had all of our videos done and viewed them next to each other, we discovered a themes in that we all had hands appearing among them.

Six Blue Things

Location Found: My bedroom

Time: 10AM

Date: 10/28/16

Story: Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with blue. Finding six blue things in my bedroom is definitely not a difficult task. Meaning... pretty much everything is blue. It's all about the shades of blue here!

 

            

Next, I flipped to a page that asks to switch things up or alter the objects in some way. 

I've never been able to explain why but I do not like the color yellow. Just something about it doesn't appeal to me. So here is a yellow highlighter on my bed comforter. A yellow highlighter is about the only thing yellow that I could find in my entire room.

Audio Story Tell-All

I have completed my audio story and received comments from my classmates. I received these comments also in the form of audio, through a voice recording. The comments were overall good ones and my classmates expressed their curiosity for how I put together this piece. Their guess was that the clips were short clips from home videos or recorded Skype calls. I enjoyed getting to listen to the feedback they provided me with!

When creating my audio story, I wanted to create a portrayal of distance between loved ones, yet ending on a positive note. As I stated in my narration, I have family members who live in California. It is not fun missing them all the time or wishing there were more holidays or life milestones you got to experience with them. This is especially hard when it comes to the two young kids growing up. I added one short video clip that my cousins wife sent me of their son in the middle of the story. I wanted it to be clear that the beginning and the end of just a blank/dark picture stood for the times that we do not get to see them. The short video clip representing the short amounts of time here and there that we do get to see them and experience things with them. After that though, it's back to blank & strictly Facetime calls to keep in touch. I used some layering and clock ticking sound effects to represent the passage of time. The layering came in with the beginning and end of sound clips in which the sound effects were added to. I actually used some of my ideas from my audio brainstorm post. I had baby giggles, loved ones voices, firetruck sirens, and my baby cousins voice. I also added the real baby heartbeat and clips of the FaceTime call of the baby announcement to myself, my mom, and my brother as well.

Pocket Scavenger- Something That was Part of a Tree- Practice Audio Story

In Digital Storytelling, we were assigned any page out of the pocket scavenger and to create a sound story out of it. I chose the 48th objective entitled "Something That was Part of a Tree." I took this idea of finding something that was once a part of a tree and made it into something more. I found a trig that was once a part of a tree and laying beneath it. The twig was near a road/parking lot and surrounded by many fallen leaves. It was also near a construction zone outside of Krebs hall on UPJ's campus. With this, we were asked to 1. Find a thing, 2. Record ambient noise from that location, 3. Record a sound of the thing, 4. Choose an alteration and record the alteration sound, and 5. Write up story.

Here is what I came up with!!

My audio story contained:

1. The thing found: Twig

2. Noise from the location:

• hear a car drive by
• leaves crunching under my feet while I walk to pick up the twig
• can hear construction vehicles at work on the Murtha building
• some fidgeting while walking

3. Sound of the thing:

• I repeatedly tapped the twig off a table

4. Alteration sound:

• I broke the twig with my fingers 4 times in different spots

5. Write up:

At beginning^

4 ' 33 ' ' UPJ Edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_IwYN_ugJw

Audio Story Brainstorm

I began the brainstorming process for the next assignment in my "Digital Storytelling" class. This assignment is to create an audio story of our own. Here are a list of sounds that occur often in my daily life and may appear in my upcoming audio story!

Four of my favorite sounds to hear:

1) Bonfire crackling
2) Ocean waves breaking on the shore
3) My loved ones voices
4) Baby giggles






















Three loud environments I experience often:

1) Consol Energy Center
2) First Niagara Pavilion
3) Campus Commons Apartments



















Four sounds I remember hearing on a daily basis:

1) Hockey games on the TV or hockey sounds from a rink
2) Vibration from my phone
3) The oven beep when preheated
4) My apartment door opening and shutting



A sound that makes me angry:

-Loud cars 🚗



A sound that scares me:

-Sirens going off 🚨



Four sounds I wish I heard more often:

1) My baby cousins voice from California
2) FaceTime call ringing 
3) Waves on the beach
4) "Class is cancelled"

Image Story Tell-All

When creating my image story (found under a tab at top), I wanted to portray the ideas of a day and night through the different locations that I have experienced both the day and night of. I used text to name each location and also a short phrase about the significance of the day and night specific to that location that triggered memories for me. I also added a place I would want to experience the day and night of if I had the chance some day. The meaning of this was to express places of importance to me, somewhere in which hold a lot of memories to me (both in the daytime and night time). It shows somewhere that my life has led me at one point in time throughout it and the experience of day and night life there. The last two pictures wrap up what I was attempting to get across in my story, that every dark night has a brighter day.

In class, my professor had each student pull up the image story they created on their computer. We each went around and viewed our classmates work, leaving them written responses concerning the punctum and story. I enjoyed reading the punctum responses I got about my image story. A comment reads "I love the flow here! everything gently floats up or down based on time of day, it's really clever!" Some of my classmates shared a personal tie they felt they had to some of my pictures. All my classmates seemed to understand the story I was aiming to get across. Although I was surprised to see that one classmate had a hard time understanding that the pictures sequenced from a day photo and then a night photo at the same place. They had stated that the pictures seemed random and that they did not get it. I cannot please everyone but I believe I did a decent job getting my point across considering the majority of my classmates understood it. If I were to do this project over differently, maybe one thing I could have changed was to have made some kind of gap between the set of day to night pictures. This could maybe have made the sequence a little more pronounced to take away any confusion. 

I personally took all images used in my image story, except the two Consol Energy Center pictures, the two eiffel tower pictures, and the night Hollywood picture. Those five images were found on Google Images.

Image Story Blog Post

An old memory can flash back as far as a time when the cameras took photographs that printed within seconds of being taken and in a variety of black and white shades. Whether it's a recent memory of a 22nd birthday and beach trip with a special someone...

Or an old childhood memory of playing your favorite sport, with your favorite number, and receiving a gift from your mother who means so much to you.

These are the same memories that were captured in different ways in a time before cell phones. In the past, these memories were saved as photographs that printed from the camera in black and white ink with only one single copy to exist in the world. Today, we capture these memories on cellphones and with a click of a button can share them with an unlimited number of people. We can store many copies in different places. We can even store copies somewhere in an iCloud that exists, yet not many people can explain how. Needless to say, I use my phone for storing many important memories and other things... my life would be flipped upside down without it.

Objects can just be objects or they can be objects with meaning and a whole stack of memories loaded into them.      

Photography pics for class

Photographer Ansel Adams:

Photographer Man Ray:

Astray From The Path

When my group and I originally got the idea for this remix of Little Red Riding Hood story, our first thought was to film it as a video. As we brainstormed ideas for it, we thought it would be interesting to try it out in the form of pictures and videos stringed together to form a story. We contributed images, video, sound bites, and voice recordings. Working on this project taught me a new way of creating a digital story that I have not discovered prior to this. Click the link! Enjoy (:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfi75fG2S5g&feature=youtu.be

"Politics of Fiction" Ted Talk

This woman's name is Elif Shafak. She spoke in a Ted Talk entitled "Politics of Fiction." My favorite part of her speech was the part where she said imagination was the only suitcase she felt she could take with her. For some reason that just caught my attention so quickly. I feel like it is very relatable for many people. For example, someone feeling alone or like an outcast, an imagination is something that no one can take away from them no matter where their life takes them. Kinda similar to how when someone very important to you passes on. That person will still exist in your mind and travel with you wherever you go in that way but is just not physically there. Another part that caught my attention was when she mentioned about being expected to write true stories about herself because she was of a different nationality. She said she was told that she had a good story but they wanted to hear it from her perspective instead of a fictional male perspective of her nationality. She began writing fiction from when she was young. She didn’t think her life was interesting so she started writing about others from a young age instead of having a journal or diary of her own life alike a lot of kids her age at the time. She thinks of her fiction as local and universal. She ties this all back into her beginning topic of circles. She sees fictional stories as related through circles. Shafak related these circles into a personal tie of a story involving her childhood that she remembers about her grandmother.

Introductory Scavenger Hunt Post

On Monday, I began a class entitled Digital Storytelling. The first day of class we partnered up to complete a page out of "The Pocket Scavenger" book. We went outside on a scavenger hunt for any 10 items we found interesting, took pictures of them, and collected them to bring back to class with us:

The 9th item is the one that excited me! It is an item that appears to have fallen off of a student's backpack. 

Perhaps it has fallen off while a freshman student ran to their first class, frantic about having to walk in late and hold the glance of his many peers.

Perhaps this same freshman student had recently researched dandelions and came to the realization that they surprisingly had many health benefits. One of these benefits including Vitamin C.

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/herbs-and-spices/health-benefits-of-dandelion.html

Say this new dandelion thought intrigued him. From there he decided to be healthier, he would grab a bottle of Sunny D before heading to class. This being the reason for his tardiness. The tardiness then leading to him dropping the cap to his Sunny D on his rushed, run to class. Therefore leaving it alongside the path trailing behind his former footsteps.

Digital Portfolio Writing Pieces

In my last post, I discussed a digital portfolio that I would be putting together soon. I have currently selected two of the three pieces I will be putting into the portfolio. I have selected a memo that I wrote for another class and the press release I wrote for this professional writing class. I have not yet decided on a third piece.

The memo I selected was for a class entitled Integrated Marketing Communication. The guidelines for this memo were to select a brand and write a convincing argument about a celebrity (actor/actress, athlete, model, politician, etc.) who we felt should be chosen to represent that brand. We were asked to tell why we think this celebrity should be chosen and what significant connections that link the celebrity to the brand. I picked the brand Gillette and said that NHL player, Patrick Kane, should be chosen to represent it. During the playoffs Patrick Kane, along with most other professional hockey players, began to grow out the playoff beard. He eventually became known for his impressive beard and mullet. Hockey fans from all over spread around pictures of his playoff appearance across social media websites. Patrick Kane would be able to successfully endorse this product by vouching that this product can shave his playoff beard, at the end of the season, without issue or extra blades. This piece of writing demonstrates my skills for memo writing, my use of creative ideas, and my ability to respond accordingly to a task given to me.

The second piece I chose was my press release which I've explained in previous posts. Alike the memo, this piece also happens to pertain to hockey. I wrote about the Kraft Hockeyville competition and the events that were going to take place in Johnstown as a result of the win.

I plan to edit these pieces very thoroughly and to make sure they appear professional to not only my professor, but also future employers. I feel confident that my writing skills will really be able to show throughout these pieces.

Digital Portfolio Thoughts

As the semester is coming to an end, we have discussed our final project for my Intro to Professional Writing class. We are going to be designing our own digital portfolio. This assignment will have a variety of uses in my future besides just a grade on a piece of paper.

The digital portfolio I create will be a way for me to show off my writing skills and the experience I have as a writer to future employers. I will include pieces of writing in this portfolio that will be similar to things I could be writing in my future career. We were asked to keep our dream career in mind when choosing the pieces of writing we put into it. The dream job that came to my mind first when asked was working for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I could work in PR for them. With this in mind, I searched through the Pittsburgh Penguins website, even though I know plenty about them, I thought why not try to gain a better understanding of the audience that would be viewing my work. I'd like to try to figure out what skills I think they'd like to see demonstrated throughout my writing pieces.

I came to the conclusion that they'd like to see pieces of writing that appear to be very professional with little to no errors. I also thought they'd like to see this digital portfolio appear to be well organized and with a structure easy to understand, yet done in a creative, unique way. I need to put together a group of pieces that would reflect their values that they instill as a whole. Though their mission statement mostly reflects the well being of the hockey players, I believe it can also relate to how I'd be expected to conduct myself as an employee of their organization. I'd be expected to promote team work and a strong sense of community to others through the pieces I'd put together for the organization. With my audience in mind, I will be putting together a strong group of my writing pieces that could potentially help me reach a dream career.

Presentation Success

My proposal group presentation is complete and we believe it was very successful for us! We began with an opening to the (pretend) social science curriculum committee and thanking them for their time. My group member, Des, then gave her personal story in connection as to why we chose to propose this new major to them. After her introduction story, she handed the floor over to me. I discussed the purpose that this new major would serve to our campus. I had points discussing why it will be beneficial to anyone affiliated with any University of Pittsburgh campus or in the local area. I then handed it over to Alex, who discussed the personnel and time frame. Des talked again about the budget. Lastly, Rebecca told them about how we would evaluate our progress then she wrapped up our presentation.

We received great feedback from both our peers and our professor. Our professor really seemed to like our opening which made us feel great about our hard work. She also seemed to really like our evaluation. Some tips she had for us were minor, yet I feel they will be helpful as we work on strengthening our proposal before the due date. She suggested that we lower the number of new faculty we would need to hire. Hiring part time professors saves money and also the professors we already have may be qualified to teach some of the classes we need taught. Once we rethink this suggestion, we will be able to come up with a more logical number of faculty. The other suggestion we got was to look into this major at Pitt Oakland's campus. This will help us get a better idea of how it will function at Pitt Johnstown and we will be able to develop a more accurate, successful plan.

Proposal Update

The deadline for my group proposal is approaching. We divided the proposal into sections and each group member has a section to be working on about the content we already discussed in class. We decided we are adding the whole new major relating to speech therapy instead of just a few classes on it. We think this is a better way to attract the audience we are hoping for.

My job was to complete the audience and purpose section of the proposal. I have finished my section and in it I discuss how this major will provide students with the opportunity to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Communication Science and the choice to stay at Pitt Johnstown. For a student attending the Johnstown campus, fulfillment of this major requires transferring to Pitt Oakland after the first two years. Considering tuition prices at Oakland, this will potentially alienate Johnstown’s students from achieving this major. Many students would have spent two years making friends and memories before being forcibly uprooted from Johnstown. Understandably, it would be very upsetting as many students start their collegiate experience friendless. We hope this will help the university gain the recognition it deserves and differentiate itself from neighboring competitors. This will then bring in more money to the university.

An increase in student attendance means more employment opportunities available at the university. Advertising this new, unique major to the area would attract a diverse interest among students and faculty, creating a more diverse, academic community. Students with undeclared majors already attending Johnstown may gain an appealing option, one they may not have considered. An undeclared student benefits from a variety of different options where as speech therapy is one unlike any others that Johnstown has to offer.

A major in Communication Science will appeal to numerous people affiliated with the any University of Pittsburgh campus. This list would include students, professors, administrators, and donors from all University of Pittsburgh locations. This addition would even involve the community members near Pitt Johnstown’s campus due to the lack of speech therapy classes offered near by. Prospective students will be involved with the advantage of the new major that other schools that they are considering may not offer to their students. This major will overall enhance the opportunities for those affiliated with the university.

As we put the final touches on our proposal, we are preparing to give a presentation to our class on Monday. In our presentation, we will touch on each section of our proposal and present it to our class as if they are the curriculum committee of our university.

Class Lecture

For class on Wednesday, we discussed a piece of writing we read entitled "Notes from No Man's Land." In class we discussed this piece relating to how it would help us achieve unity within our groups to succeed while putting together our proposal.

The class talked together about how the different parts of this essay connected, and also where the author signaled these parts and why. We came up with race, conflict, fear, and place to be the similar ideas that were kept throughout the writing.

The author also used techniques to keep the ideas connected in the different sections. We discovered the main key to this was to a provide a variety of specific examples that all led back to the overall main idea. This ensured that the essay all appeared to be connected and not just a bunch of random ideas thrown into the same piece of writing. We also found that consistent thematic language was used, for example the idea of being afraid of something or afraid for their safety. These ideas were all introduced in each section but involving a different situation. The final technique we came up with was the author's use of ideas and themes. Since these ideas and themes sounded familiar throughout the piece, the reader's are able to gain a better understanding of the point the author was trying to get across.

After discussing this piece of writing, our professor had us get into our groups, that I previously wrote about, for our proposal assignment. In class, we used these newly learned techniques to relate it to our proposal assignment. We thought using key ideas and consistent language throughout our writing would be beneficial for us considering that we would be writing the different sections of our proposal separate from our other group members. Our sections include an abstract, problem/need, plan, personnel, budget, time-frame, and the evaluation/progress. We decided it would benefit this proposal to include consistent language about gaining opportunities for both students, staff, the university, and bringing in money. We also discussed incorporating points about diversity for the students and staff. We determined bringing people together with a common interest would be a common key idea throughout our proposal.We believe that our proposal will have better successful after our discussion of implementing these techniques and language consistently.

Upcoming Proposal

My professional writing class has another assignment that we have began the planning stage for. This assignment is a little different from the ones we have previously done. This assignment differs because it requires group work. In groups we will be designing a proposal in response to a need.

The proposal I chose with my partners will be a (pretend) proposal aimed towards our university. We plan to write to the university in hopes to add a speech therapy course to the curriculum. We decided that it would be beneficial for UPJ to provide a course for students who plan to major in speech therapy but do not wish to continue their education at Pitt main. This class would also discuss the brain and how speech disabilities come about from the very beginning.

This proposal is an unsolicited, internal type of proposal. I say unsolicited meaning the organization (UPJ) did not specifically put a request out for proposals to be written. We will provide reasons why there is a need for the course we want to have added. We will also provide a detailed plan as to how we will go about making this additional need successful. It will be internal meaning the authors are a part of a target organization. We are writing this proposal on behalf of the university because we consider ourselves to be a part of a team that helps make it a better place for everyone.

One of my group members is a speech therapy major who plans to continue her education at Pitt main campus. She shared a personal story with us as to why she decided to pursue this major. It is a personal story that we could share with our class during the presentation part of this assignment. This story helped our group members gain a better understanding of the major. It also made us want to pursue this proposal and we hope it would also to be able to convince others of its importance in the university if it would become real.

Brain Break Opinion

I believe everyone can relate to feeling as if they need a brain break every once in a while! With that being said, I am going to discuss a brain break strategy that occurred in my professional writing class. For our brain break we got a day in class to bring laptops and work on assignments for that particular class. While we worked we got a choice to listen to music or a video that related to the class. I was relieved to hear about this brain break because college can get overwhelming. I was just starting to feel that way with the 18 credits semester I have beginning the get the best of me.

We had a memo and a press release assignment we could have been working on during this hour. We could also sit near students with the same majors to discuss ideas and advice. I think this method is effective because we got to use class time to work on assignments that we would have normally had to take time outside of class to complete. This left me more time outside of class later that night for other school work. For example, it left me with more studying time later for the two exams I had to prepare for, for the following morning. I also liked that we had the option to converse with classmates that we normally would not have had the opportunity to do outside of class. It is always helpful to me to get peer advice regarding certain assignments.

Overall, I really like this idea every once in a while. These brain breaks are not necessary to be held every week or anything too time consuming like that. However when this tactic is used sparingly or during stressful times, for example midterms/finals, they can be very beneficial to a student and also act as stress relievers.

Press Release Assignment

For this blog post, I wanted to discuss my plans for the press release assignment, as the due date is approaching. For the press release, our professor asked us to imagine our dream career. Once we have our dream career in mind, we are supposed to use that organization in the creation of a press release aimed towards journalists. We have to come up with something that is news worthy, such as an organization about to do something, receiving an award, or changing a product line/service.  

The dream career I chose would be working in PR or communication for the NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. I plan to write this press release about an event that already happened as a result of winning an award. Though I will pretend this event has not yet occurred. In 2015, Kraft Hockeyville held a competition for ice rinks to compete, and share their stories in hopes of being named Hockeyville USA. The winner of this award was granted $150,000 for arena upgrades and the chance to host an NHL preseason game at their rink. The winner was determined through fan votes sent in by phone or internet. The Cambria County War Memorial of Johnstown was named the first ever Kraft Hockeyville USA and scheduled to host a Pittsburgh Penguin preseason game.

The press release I plan to write, is going to pretend the hosting of the preseason game did not occur yet. I will convince a journalist that this story is worthy to write, in order to announce the game to not only the local community but also to hockey/sports around the world. The purpose of the writing would be to make the War Memorial arena look good and also Kraft Hockeyville for the donations to make this game possible. It is going to draw in a crowd to the event, spread the word about the upcoming game, and also raise awareness of Kraft's new competition to be held annually. This piece will interest hockey/sport fans, other teams that play in the War Memorial that will benefit from the rink upgrades, Pittsburgh Penguin fans, and the local residents of Johnstown.

This particular press release will have many new values that will appeal to the journalists is they were to read my press release. The news values it would contain would be impact, proximity, timeliness, novelty, and possibly celebrity. It contains impact because the event may result in some road closings which will relate to the audience. It has proximity because it is a local event for the people that live in Johnstown. It relates to timeliness because it is a current event that is about to happen. Novelty is involved because it is an event that is different considering it has never occurred before. The final news value it contains could be celebrity, being that the Pittsburgh Penguins are an NHL team which generate a variety of die-hard fans. I would hope these news values could encourage a journalist to publish a piece of writing about the upcoming event. 

Evaluation Assignment

The due date for my next assignment in professional writing has been quickly approaching. Unlike the last one where I knew exactly what I wanted to do for it, I have been struggling to come up with a topic regarding the new one.

The assignment is to write a review/evaluation that I could potentially have to write in my future communication career. The first thing that came to my mind was a literature review. I have written multiple literature reviews since I have been in college. I have written some for communication classes regarding communication theories and also one for a literature class I took. Since I have already written a few of these, I wanted to expand my knowledge by writing a different type of review. This is where I got stuck. I searched for some ideas using internet sources and also a professor and classmates opinion. I weaved through a series of potential options and came to the conclusion to write an evaluation memo to my professional writing professor regarding a specific form of social media's success.

I went through a process that we discussed in class regarding the success of the mobile app, Snapchat. I have designed my memo into sections with headings including, an overview, measuring success, quality, and lastly a final argument. Judging the success of social network is primarily done by measuring the growth over a large period of time. I answered a question in regards to social networking, as to what makes Snapchat a unique form, compared to Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook. I found that there were many positive attributes that weighed into the success behind Snapchat. I found that there are shockingly rising numbers regarding the amount of active users Snapchat has. According to AdWeek, as estimated in 2015, Snapchat has 200 million monthly active users and 100 million daily active users.

I believe the multiple, unique features is what draws consumers into the mobile app. One could argue against my accusations, in saying that compared to its competitors, Snapchat is very different and used for different functions thus should not be compared. One could say Snapchat is used for more of a private form of communication whereas, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook is public for the purpose of expressing oneself. This is true, but that privacy feature is exactly the one that makes Snapchat so appealing and interesting to a variety of age groups. The uniqueness of the app cannot be found on other social networking forms of communication.

"January 13"

One may be asking themselves why I would've entitled this post "January 13," when it is in fact February 5th. The answer relates back to my professional writing class, when I was assigned to read a piece of writing entitled "January 13." The author of the piece is Rick Bass.

The piece was very short in length, which I found very strange at first. My initial thought was that it couldn't possibly be as detailed as my professor made it out to be, when she announced we would be close reading for detailed descriptions. I was wrong.

"I've seen flakes as big as my fist, and monstrous, wet, stuck-together flakes as big as wadded-up sheets of newspaper, falling among the myriad other, smaller flakes plummeting madly down, tumbling like planes crashing, but landing silently, or nearly so."

Bass's very detailed description, allows for his readers to experience this blizzard as if they were along side him, seeing/hearing everything exactly as he did in that moment. The way he can describe the snow flakes is fascinating to me. I am sure everyone has experienced what wet, stuck-together newspaper pages are like, or even wet paper for that matter. I love how he relates the snowflakes to something that most people would have experienced at one point in their lives. That description is something I admire of his writing style that admittedly, I probably would not have thought of myself. The plane crash description makes me think back to last week, when we watched the pilot episode of the TV show, Lost. The plane definitely tumbled, yet there was nothing silent about the blades crashing into the island. Unlike, snowflakes, that have that ability to seem to come crashing down, yet at the same time, do it ever-so gently and silently.

Last semester, I took a creative nonfiction class. I enjoyed getting to go back to reading a creative nonfiction piece of writing, even though it was for my professional writing class. The very close details draw me in as a reader. I believe it was a nice change and also nice to get back to a well-known topic.

Lost

In class on Wednesday, I was excited to hear that we would be watching the Pilot episode of Lost on Netflix. One may ask: what does Lost, the TV show, have anything to do with a writing class? But it does in fact have a lot to do with writing.

We took notes during the viewing of the show. We were guided to pay attention to potential categories for the TV show and what kind of show we thought it was. This has everything to do with the writing that went into the script before the show was directed. I would think that the script was written in a suspenseful way that makes the show very serious and intense. The show began with a plane crash in which resulted in the passengers being stranded on an island. In my opinion, it also as aspects of mystery to it pertaining to a creature they created that is killing people off. The creature is a mystery to the viewers within the first episode.

I have been taking trips on airplanes since I was very young and have continued to do so at least once a year for family vacations. With that in consideration, my next sentence may make absolutely no sense. I still have such a great fear every time it comes time for me to step onto that airplane. There is just something about how something could go wrong in a matter of seconds and it could cause the plane to go down. This may sound ridiculous to people who do not even bat an eye while stepping onto an airplane. I realize this, but this show seemed to heighten that fear for me. The plane crash is very similar to what I could imagine happening. The viewing of this show came at a not so convenient time for me and my fear considering my mom is getting on a plane today. She is doing this the day after watching this show. She is heading to California. There, she will have a great time visiting my cousins who just had baby #2 which is super exciting yet; I cannot help but to have this show in the back of my mind. Yes, I know it is a made up story for the sake of a suspenseful TV show, but I suppose that is just how my brain works.

I have not watched this show before the class viewing although, I do see it having a great story line with the potential to form into a great show. I can tell the writers did a wonderful job of making sure this is a show that viewers will want to binge watch for the desire of wanting to find out what happens next.

Entry 1 Style Guide

In class on Wednesday, our professor had us break into groups to discuss an article within our field.

Our goal was to discuss the following:

1) who the intended audience is
2) identify purpose/goal
3) style and tone of the writing

The article I looked at with my partner was about new moms and the use of face negotiation theory. Face negotiation theory is a communication theory that I learned about in my Special Topics class last semester. The theory goes into how people chose to save "face" pertaining to certain situations. I found it very interesting because it talked about women's attitudes towards motherhood and seeking acceptance.

We decided that the intended audience would be new moms and/or those who are studying something involving face negotiation theory or parenthood. The purpose/goal was to inform readers about results of a study as to how new moms use face negotiation theory to save "face" and why. I found it particularly interesting that these new moms claimed they do not seek to maintain "good mother face" around friends or strangers yet, when they admitted to seeking acceptance and approval from others regarding their parenting style. The last thing we were asked to discuss was the tone and style of the article itself. The article also talked about how the new moms will say they're doing good or fine when in reality they could be struggling and not be "good." Some new moms will not admit to this or to any kind of emotional turbulence. This article does a great job of showing women's identities involving motherhood and what it means to be a mother. As far as style is concerned, the article is set up with subheadings to keep all the information organized since it is a pretty lengthy article. The article also is set up with a decent size font to make it easily accessible to most people. It is set up in a particularly complex and active style. I believe the attitude in which the piece is written by the author is not meant to be insulting in any way and in my opinion did not come off this way.

From this article, I learned some new little tricks when working with a lengthy article that has a lot of valuable information to be put into it. I also gained knowledge about rhetorical awareness using purpose, audience, stakeholders, and context of a piece of writing. This article also dealt with my field of communication and also something that interests me regarding face negotiation theory.

If this article sparked an interest, it can be found at the following link:
http://www-tandfonline-com.pitt.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1080/01463370802448246

Interview Assignment Plans

So I've received my first assignment for my Introduction to Professional Writing course. This is one that I'm surprisingly not dreading because it could potentially help me decide what I wanted to use my major for in terms of career choice. I have not yet decided what exactly I want to do with my communication major and writing minor that I am going to graduate with.

In my class today, we discussed our assignment and decided who we wanted to interview for the assignment. The person we choose to interview should be someone in our future career field. The first person that came to my mind was my cousin because he graduated from IUP with a major in communication media. He informed me that he isn't using his major for his current job. My next thought was to ask one of my communication professors that I've looked up to over my years here at UPJ. This is what I am planning to do. In class today, we put ourselves in groups similar to our major to discuss possible questions that we could ask during our interviews. We came up with some pretty good questions in my opinion, for example:

What was your deciding factor that made you want to get involved in the communication field?
Who is your career role model and why?
What are your connections with other people in the communication field, besides other professors?
What types of writing is involved within your career?
Would you say your writing skills sharpened since you've been involved in your career? If so, how?

I really think this interview should help me in giving me some ideas that maybe I have not yet considered as career options for my future.

Beginner Post

This blog thing is new to me but I will admit it has been an idea that always interested me. I follow some people that I went to high school with on Instagram and some of them have been posting links to their new blogs. They post the links with the purpose of getting their page out there and gaining followers. I have not thought about following them until I have set up a blog for myself. When I first saw these posts, I never actually went to check out their pages but I think I might now. It seems to be something I am noticing a lot more of now.