Friday, January 15, 2010
Welcome to Literature of Journalism
Tell me something I ought to know about you that will help me help you as a writer -- your aspirations, your fears and doubts, your literary or journalistic heroes, etc. Don't be afraid to read and bounce off each other's comments. Your own comments should be as clear and complete as you can make them in a blog response. Remember this is my introduction to your writing. Impress me. Or at least don't bore me. (First lesson: That's about the worst thing you can do to a reader. What's the worst? Probably to unintentionally confuse him or her.) Your response is due by 4 p.m., Wed., Jan. 27.
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26 comments:
Hi, I'm Alli Sofer. I'm a sophomore and a Journalism major. I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, I wanted write fiction, but as I got older, I wanted to write for music magazines. I love music, but have absolutely no natural ability. I'm completely tone deaf and clumsy fingered, with horrible hand eye coordination.
But I still loved music and wanted to be a part of it. When I was twelve, I started reading music magazines like AP, Spin, and Rolling Stone, and I figured I could combine my two greatest passions - music and writing.
I had three major journalism icons: Andy Greenwald, Steven Smith, and Sarah Lewitinn. Andy Greenwald is an incredibly knowledgeable, intense, creative writer who manages to catch trends right before they become huge. His book Nothing Feels Good explored the (at the time) tiny, clandestine "emo" scene, and explained its idiosyncrasies to a broader audience. I respect his profound knowledge and research on different musical genres. Steven Smith has the best interview techniques I have ever seen. He can read the musician or band's body language and figure out what kind of interview technique will get him the best story. He's known for being personable and human instead of cold and focused on getting the best story. Sarah Lewitinn is a figure I can relate to. We have much in common in that we're both petite women in a scene dominated by men. She asserted herself as a legitimate writer when many would brush her off as a gimmick , or someone that can be pushed around.
My biggest fear is ending up settling for a job at the local newspaper in Queens. I'm afraid that I won't be able to get a job writing about music, and will end up hating my job and my life and wishing I made different choices.
Allie, any other favorite books on music? "Please Kill Me"? "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"? This course isn't Feature Writing. It's about how to write nonfiction using the techniques of fiction. Any favorite writers or books not associated with the popular music scene?
Other favorite books include "Please Kill Me," and "Kurt Cobain: Journals."
I try to read as much as possible about many different subjects, and am hoping to pursue an English minor. Most of my favorite writers have nothing to do with music at all, including Chuck Palahniuk, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, and William Golding.
Hey, I'm Andrew Carden. I'm a sophomore, seeking a major in journalism and minor in political science.
I suppose the first thing I could say about my writing aspirations is that I've aspired to be a writer from practically the moment I learned to read. I can remember being about 4 or 5 and opening up our TV Guide on the weekends. I'd spend about half an hour reading the capsule movie reviews in the back, and I'd think to myself, "I could totally do this when I'm an adult."
Of course, little did I know how uber-competitive, financially-dwindling, and suffering-like-hell the journalism industry would wind up by the time I grew up. Indeed, I'd be kidding myself if I expressed no doubts about pursuing a career in this sort of industry. I'm sure things will hardly come easy, and yet, the more I mull over other potential careers, the more I end up drawn even further toward a future in journalism. Sure, my Mom's dreams of me being the most hot-shot doctor in the country will probably never come true, but then again, considering my grades in science, that's probably a good thing.
In terms of journalistic "heroes," it's not the easier task for me to narrow that title down to one person. Given my interests are mostly centered on politics and/or arts/entertainment, it's probably no surprise that people like Frank Rich, Roger Ebert, Howard Fineman, Bob Woodward, Pauline Kael, among others, would instantly make my shortlist. If I could somehow, someway wind up achieving the stature of any of these figures, not only would my dreams come true, but you'd have to pinch me about five thousand times to convince me that it actually happened.
Hi, I'm Kellie Noshfar. Sometimes, I abbreviate my last name to "Nosh" because mostly everyone I've ever encountered has had trouble spelling it...(maybe that's why I'm such a stickler for spelling). Anyway, I'm a junior and a Radio/Television Production major; my minor is nonexistent. Maybe it'll be Journalism.
I've been writing on & off since I was an angsty teenager, but nothing really got anywhere. I would always attempt a story and get so into it and freak out at the ending. I could never string events together on paper like I could in my mind; that's something I want to work on as a writer: completing the tale. Endings either never came for me (like I gave up on the story entirely) or I stumbled into them too abruptly.
That's my aspiration, along with honing all the skills I've learned in Creative Writing classes (and recently Journalism) to just...get better at writing. People used to tell me I was decent at writing, whether it were biased family members or past teachers/friends, so along with facing my fear of ending stories...I want to get better at writing. My fears? Obviously that I'll fail--not the class, but fail at coherently transferring the thoughts from my head to the page. Another fear would be that the economy doesn't stabilize in time for me to greet the real world, but that's another story entirely.
As far as doubts, I don't doubt that I'll learn something new through this course, but I do still doubt myself on the quality of my writing. It's just force of habit.
And finally, to answer about my literary/journalistic heroes, though I haven't been dedicated to writing, I have been dedicated to reading my whole life. I laughed when I saw what Andrew wrote about reading the TV Guide, because I used to do that same thing at a really young age. Of course, I've come a long way from that. I'm having trouble narrowing my favorite authors and such down, but I do like books and authors that challenge me or use vast vocabularies. It makes me happy when I actually have to look up what I word means or read sentences over and over again until I understand. I guess for me it's not the person who's writing, but the quality of the piece? I'll think further on it.
what we're interested in when we read isn't the writer per se or the subject per se, but how the writer confronts and interprets the subject -- the interaction or energy exchange between the writer and the subject. of course, some writers bring more (or more interesting) resources to the confrontation than others, just as some subjects are more productive of interesting confrontations than others. think about that as you consider what kind of writer you are and wish to be and how you wish to become it.
My name is Sarah Calandra Fine, and I am a junior majoring in Journalism. What is my biggest problem within my writing? Organization. No wait, that’s not my biggest problem, it‘s knowing what to put first. But that’s not where I wanted to start either.
In my perfect world, a good writer is one who can effectively interpret, analyze and inform her subject. In reality, even journalists who write two or three articles a day still struggle with words and structure. That is something that drove me to be a writer. I love to challenge myself in all aspects. With writing, unlike math where you get a finite answer, there are few boundaries. I can challenge myself to improve, and as the years go on; my writing can mold itself into any form I want. If I decide to get into the journalism business, I don’t necessarily need to be competing against my peers; I can compete against my own work. I know that I can always write a funkier article, or go that extra step to try and contact a difficult source that can set my story apart.
I’ve come to realize that journalism is one of the most elite forms of writing. There is always a battle between writing consciously and writing elegantly, and sometimes you have to make a compromise between the two. Last summer I got hired as an intern at The Journal News, a newspaper circulated throughout Westchester and the Lower Hudson Valley. My experience at this local newspaper, which is drastically cutting back its staff, has made me question the possibility of a future in journalism. But I have resolved to keep going, and I plan to make myself as marketable as possible by learning audio and video programs that will now be necessary in the new world of online journalism. I am happy that after college is over I will have all of the skills of a journalist, and if need be, I can use them in other forms of work as well. Being able to write is an invaluable skill.
What do I struggle with? I would say having confidence in my writing. Sometimes when I start a new article, I have to convince myself that I have done this a million times before, and that I know how to write. The times I wish I wasn’t a writer? I detest sitting front of a computer for hours with one sentence staring me in the face. I have found that if I just get all of my thoughts down on paper first, I can always re-work and edit it after. I definitely spend 75% of my time editing rather than writing. I don’t really know how to end this. I guess I don’t have to because as the semester begins, I can only imagine what’s in store for me in this class.
T.S. Eliot said every writer who is any good wonders sometimes whether he or she has wasted his or her life. That is, doubt is kind of an occupational hazard for writers. But we should examine why doubt arises and when and what can be done to temper it -- because it can become crippling and it is always unpleasant.
I haven't always known I wanted to be a journalist, but I have always been passionate and curious about the world around me. In ninth grade my teacher; Dr. Williams gave an assignment to our class that sparked my interest in journalism. He asked each student to write a letter to the editor of our local newspaper (The Journal News) about a “relevant” issue. At the time, our local elections had just finished and cardboard campaign signs blew through the woods near my house for days, even weeks after. I wrote a passionate rant of a letter about how Scott Van Derhoeff, an alleged environmentalist who had run for county executive should practice what he preaches and pick up after his campaigning. My letter was published in the newspaper; shortly after the county created a law, requiring each politician to completely clean up all campaign signs and such. That was the first time I realized that I had the power to change the world around me for the better.
Since my journalistic epiphany in high school I’ve pursued many other paths; art… teaching… they all seem to lead back to writing. My aspirations for my future in writing are countless, and possibly a little improbable but to sum them up; I want to make an impact on the world, hopefully for the better. I want to inform and show people about things they might never have otherwise known about. I want to insight change, and expose social injustice.
Since I’ve started typing and backspaced over five times now, when trying to write my “fears” paragraph- I suppose I could say I don’t have any to speak of. Worries, I’ve decided is a more appropriate term. Often I worry I’ll get caught up with whatever distraction life may offer and I won’t succeed at all of the things I want to do, but something tells me I won’t let that happen.
Undoubtedly my number one journalistic hero would be Hunter S. Thompson. His writing, as well as his photography, his audacity, as well as general disregard for authority have continued to inspire me for years. Upton Sinclair and Daniel Quinn are also some of my favorite writers.
I'm Maria Jayne, I am currently a sophomore and majoring in journalism.
I have a lot of trouble with expressing myself in a direct manner and I tend to second guess everything.
I really enjoy writing and I aspire to work for a newspaper or something along those lines. I would also like to dabble in photojournalism because I have an affinity for photography but I'm not completely sure where my education will lead me.
Any who, I'd have to say that my literary/Journalistic heroes would have to be Kurt Vonnegut and Allen Ginsberg. I'm also a fan of Hunter S Thompson and everyone on This American Life so I'm glad we're going to be reading Sarah Vowell.
Hey. Maria Sullivan here. I am a senior majoring in journalism who likes long walks on the beach and Mexican food. Ideally I would love to find a position as a music journalist.
In terms of my writing fears: I want to develop a more distinctive voice and a better grasp on how to describe my subject in a way that is both more interesting and expansive. I would like to be able to take the reader above and beyond the context of the subject and enable them to think about the writing further than the initial images or thoughts when reading. I want to better capture the scene so I guess I want to improve my writing description wise as well. Sometimes I feel like I can never truly capture what I saw, felt or heard even through several revisions. I suppose these are traits that come out of having a lack of confidence in your own writing. Its funny because you said that doubt is an occupational hazard for a writer, and I feel that way too. At the same time I feel like a lot of the angsty types are good writers and maybe its their fear that enables them to become descriptive and create a voice.
My journalist and literary heroes/aspirations right now are: Hunter Thompson, Fydor Dostoyevsky, Will Hermes, Ben Fong Torres, and D.m. Thomas.
All of these writers in my opinion have a prominent authoritative voice and a knack for really getting their reader to dive into their writing. Thomas and Thompson are incredible descriptive writers and storytellers. Thompson could get away with writing anything he wanted to and the story always seemed to make its rounds back to the point of the assignment, in his own way. Dostoyevsky is a great wordsmith and Hermes and Fong-Torres are able to capture in words what I hear and can't seem to describe to my liking.
My name is Julie Mansmann, and I feel like I’ve been a declared journalism major since the sixth grade. It was about eight years ago, when the global stage was home, that my eyes were opened to the importance of news gathering.
My great aunt perished at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I wasn’t particularly close with her; in fact, I can only remember meeting her three times. But seeing the name of someone that I knew scrolling on a banner across the bottom of my television screen with the other victims was surreal. My parents began to buy more newspapers and tune in to CNN more often, probably because for the first time, the headlines seemed not only relevant but real. At first, this upset me tremendously (ironically enough now). I begged that my mother not watch the news at night so I wouldn’t have to go to sleep listening to it. I started to only read the sports section of what was then my favorite newspaper, The New York Daily News. But as the lying, corruption and secrets surrounding the death of not only my family member, but the relatives of too many friends and neighbors began to unfold. I found myself reading the top stories for the first time.
My desire to be a reporter was and is rooted with these problems I have had (and still have) with how information is disseminated to the public and the importance of the journalist in our society. However, not all journalists are good writers, people who are able to tell simpler story like that of a local handicapped woman and make the reader feel like this event, these people matter. I aspire to be a journalist that is able to make people feel anything when they read my writing.
This goal seems pretty lofty to me, and I worry everyday that I will always be the boring writer and person that I think I am. Sometimes I even question my ability to keep my formulaic news articles organized. Confidence is something I haven’t had when it comes to writing since I was ten and hid my book of poems under my bed, but I guess there’s nothing else I can do to remedy that except to keep writing.
I am extremely excited for the challenges this class will surely set before me. I have always loved the work of Aldous Huxley, Jack Kerouac, the Bronte sisters and Kurt Vonnegut, but when read books like "The Road to Wigan Pier" and "Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson, I was introduced to what literary journalism can be. I can’t wait to start experimenting with this kind of writing myself.
I’m still trying to really hammer out what this means, but between the end of last semester and now, I’ve come up with this notion that I’d love to be a documentary journalist. I love absorbing myself in someone else’s life and story and finding that the news lies right there in that. For me, it breaks down the façade of news that commercial media creates, getting past the numbers, the stats and just getting that person and their story, their struggle.
I’ve become completely obsessed with This American Life the past few months, I’ve Netflix’d both seasons of the TV show when weekly podcasts didn’t suppress my appetite and I just started reading “The New Kings of Non Fiction,” surprisingly edited by Ira Glass.
I love what the show does. They take these overarching, broad themes to connect two to four “acts” and tell these amazing stories that tell much more than the theme suggests. It makes you feel a way you never thought you could about certain things and think about concepts and struggles you never even knew existed, or rather they don’t exist in your own life and the commercial news media is way too impersonal for you to care or feel about it.
Okay, so now that I feel I just sold my soul to This American Life and Ira Glass… I just think there’s something really honest about it. With TV News, it just skims the surface and when it attempts to get more personal, our own judgments get in the way. We might not like the way someone looks, or they have a weird twitch you can’t get over. I know it sounds awful, but everyone does it. With radio, we hear these voices. You hear what transgender children sound like and the issues they deal with, from their perspective as a child… not just some vague, meaningless statistic about them. They sound like the little girl they say they are. You hear their struggle in an intimate way, and suddenly people who can’t understand or accept this concept can relate a little bit more.
I guess what I’m trying to say here, is that this is the journalist I’d like to be, whether it be on paper, through the microphone or the lens of the camera. I’ve always had journals and I’ve always had a camera. Now I’m trying to find out how they fit together, or rather how I can make them fit together.
My names Sarah Boalt and I'm a sophomore and a journalism major with a minor in music. I can remember having an interest in journalism ever since i was a little kid pretending to type up newspapers on my computer. Writing has always been something that I loved to do and is one of the things that I've always been better at.
I have been extremely passionate about music ever since I can remember. I always played clarinet in the school band and took as many music courses as I could in high school. My favorite thing is going to different concerts and seeing live music. I love when I can hear a new band I know I'll listen to after seeing them open up for another band or at a music festival.
Eventually I realized what I really wanted to do was to be able to write about going to these shows, and write about them as well as different bands and different music. I wanted to experience it and help others to experience it as well. Music journalism is definitely something I want to pursue in my future.
One journalist I got very into was Hunter S. Thompson. Though I haven't finished reading Generation of Swine yet, it gives me good insight into his writing style, which is very intriguing. It is interesting to read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and get into his head a little.
Another one of my favorite journalists is Chuck Klosterman. He also has that unique, entertain writing style I'm attracted to. Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs and Chuck Klosterman IV are some of my favorite books as well.
Literary Journalism seems to be a form of journalism that thinks in a different way, much like Thompson and Klosterman, which is why I took the course. I like seeing the different sides to journalism so I can expand on my writing and write about more things that I would be interested in. Though people have doubts about the profession, there is not much else I could see myself doing other than writing. While it's a competitive field that can cause doubt and fear of being able to have a job and do well, it makes it all the more worth the effort.
Hi, my name is Jenn (or Jen) Von Willer. I’m a junior and Journalism major. I have been writing for leisure since I was 11. Still, I am pretty humble and sometimes shy about my writing, even when I get compliments. There is so, so much I need and want to
learn about journalism.
I have always wanted to be a writer, but I knew I didn’t want to major in English. I watched the news religiously and read whatever I could get my hands on from an early age. I discovered that I wanted nothing more but to tell my stories and give a voice to those who may not have a huge, public outlet or courage. Unfortunately, the grim reality of journalism today makes me a little doubtful and sometimes cynical about what my future may really hold after I graduate from New Paltz.
Honestly, I want to try and do it all--narratives, features, arts and entertainment writing, travel journalism, broadcast and online/print editorial jobs. Maybe become a host but not a talking head, yet somehow make enough people listen and open their eyes at the truth. At this point, I would like to write news stories for major broadcasting companies, but I don't want to sell myself short just because I'm a little cynical about finding anything in the journalism field. I probably wouldn't be satisfied writing 'To tell us what you think, go to our Twitter/Facebook page at...' or 'In recent Hollywood news, Paris Hilton gets paid $328,381,391 for being herself'.
I'm stuck, really.
I admire writers that break or change the ‘rules’ of how a story should be. I don’t know who my journalist heroes are at the moment, but I prefer people like Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac and Truman Capote simply because they didn’t care what people thought of them in terms of sugar-coating life stories or “playing it safe” like oh, I don’t know, Meredith Vieira? I have nothing against her but she doesn’t impress me. Most of these unsavory sugar-coaters are mostly the lesser known talking heads on FOX and CW. My favorite author hands down is Stephen King, who isn’t a journalist, but can tell it like it is behind an influential voice whether it’s through his horror, fiction, nonfiction or science-fiction. He almost gave up on his first novel, Carrie, ‘til his wife gave him encouragement. Beyond that, he’s just someone who makes his dreams happen. When I’m not reading poetry, satire, memoirs or other books, I read more magazines than newspapers. Some off the top of my head include: Time, New York Magazine(even though most of its advertisements are geared to the NYC-Metro area), Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, etc. I don’t have a favorite newspaper because growing up on Long Island all of your life meant either Newsday or the NY Times if you paid more, and I gave up on Newsday’s incoherent articles early on. The NY Times has too many sections for me. Give me the Sunday funnies instead.
As a writer, I hate proofreading my own work a million times even if it helps. I'm a little stubborn about drafts and have an unorthodox but manageable organization style when it comes to writing any prose. Sometimes I write it in different parts before interviewing someone or getting the complete facts. For instance, sometimes I may brainstorm nut graph or lead ideas while several Word document windows are opened for that single article. I would like to at least see if I could learn to be more normal or formal with organization since deadlines are incredibly sacred. Luckily though, I am always creatively brainstorming, a little nerdy about facts, and I'm comfortable with spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Hey, I’m Dan O’Regan. I’m a sophomore and I declared my major in journalism last semester. I’ve been writing ever since I was in high school where I wrote and edited for my school paper. I found I had a love for reporting and story gathering, so I decided to pursue journalism as my major and someday my career.
I hope to someday become a music journalist, music is one of my greatest passions and I would love to be able to write for a music magazine or publication. I’m fond of Rolling Stone and a lesser-known publication called Relix magazine.
As for fears, I am slightly intimidated by the shift away from printed publications and the struggles that are taking place within the journalistic world. Sometimes I worry about just how hard it will be to enter the world as a journalist. I am confident, though, that there will always be a demand for good writing and a good story, which gives me some hope for the future.
I have to admit to not having too many journalistic heroes, however in high school I took a liking to Edward R. Murrow and the sort of old school journalism that simply isn’t seen today.
I'm Jaime Prisco and I haven't always wanted to be a Journalist. I've always enjoyed writing but I guess I never realized that there was a career in which you could write and make money..sorta. I never had an epiphany where I realized this was the perfect career for me. I eased in and it just fit. I'll always remember running into an old friend from grammar school. He asked me what I was majoring in and I said journalism and he replied, "Well, obviously. You have always loved to write." I remember walking and way and thinking, really? Did I ALWAYS love to write? I thought about that for a while (probably longer than I should have) and realized, in some way or another, writing was always a part of me, not to sound cheesy, and I just didn't quite get it yet. It's the one thing I felt comfortable doing and for the most part, it just felt right.
I would say that comfort is also in direct correlation with my journalism fears. I used to be over-confident and not very accepting of criticism. In high school, people knew that I had a knack for writing and praised me often for it. In college, I was presented with a group of people who had the same dreams, ambitions and goals as me and, in my eyes, they also had more talent. They had known their life goals since they could hold a pen, and I was still struggling with mine. I felt so unsure and confused and most of all, I felt like everyone around me was stable. Like most of the previous post, I'm nervous that who I want to be and what I actually am are too different and that combining the two is impossible. I'm also constantly scared of doing the same thing everyday. I want to be constantly challenged and I want to use my curiosity to discover and create. I guess I'm just afraid of remaining stagnant.
As for my heroes, much like the other people in this class, I'm a big fan of Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, J.D Salinger. Lately a lot of Cormac McCarthy, Chuck Palahniuk, Sartre and Roald Dahl. I think my favorite books would be Dante's Inferno and Paradise Lost just because I felt transported reading them. They helped me discover my love for literature and I'm convinced that the passion I felt for reading helped me discover my passion for writing.
I know I have a lot to work on but I just hope to continue learning and experiencing new things.
I hope I didn't bore you.
Hi, my name is Suzann Caputo. I am a journalism major as well. As far as aspirations go, I’d like to be a successful journalist one day. I know success is a relative term, but I would like to write for a magazine, newspaper, or another media outlet. It would be nice to dabble in a few different positions in the journalism world and work my way up as well. To earn money doing what I enjoy doing is an ideal career for me.
I’ve wanted to be a writer for quite some time. I started off with creative writing, poetry, short stories, and things of that nature. Journalism became appealing to me toward the end of high school. I remember reading a quote by journalist Ben Bagdikian about how journalism was just like any other industry, except instead of manufacturing things like nuts and bolts the media manufactures a whole social and political world. I wanted and still want to be part of that.
Of course I’ve strayed from the journalism path every now and then because of doubt. Am I good enough? Do I have what it takes to make it in the industry? My confidence wavers every now and again. But I know there will always be a place in my life for writing, whether I become a successful journalist or not. Regardless of where life takes me I’ll always make writing a part of my life.
Hi, I'm Meghan Zanetich. I'm a senior majoring in journalism. Unlike most of the people in this class, I have to say, I never in a million years thought I would be a journalism major. I guess up until the past two years I have been slightly lost. I transferred from another college because I seriously had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. When it came time to pick a major, I went with journalism because writing is something I could always depend on. Not because it comes easy for me, but because it challenges me in a way that intrigues me. It feels good knowing I chose a path that will make me happy in life.
The type of writing I would ultimately love to do would be for a magazine. To be an editor at a fashion magazine would fulfill all my dreams. This would be ideal because it would combine two passions of mine. Who wouldn’t want to achieve that? It does make me nervous that our economy sucks and magazines are cutting back, but I know I'm a really hard worker. I know that if it came down to it I would have no problem pouring coffee to get my start.
My writing fears stem from my insecurities. I never got A's in high school and I was never the “smart girl”. I was an athlete who mostly excelled in sports. Being in college has given me a new identity. Although I do get good grades and people seem to like my writing, I don’t always think it is good enough. This is something I know I just have to get over.
My literary heroes are similar to most of the class. I've always enjoyed Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When I read The Great Gatsby for the first time in 10th grade, I finally realized what it was like to truly fall in love with a book.
Hi, my name is Brian Coleman and I am a sophomore and journalism major. Throughout my time in middle school and high school, I knew I had two true loves. One was sports, and the other was writing. Although early on I wasn't sure if I truly liked, or even loved, writing. However, I knew that it was something that I was pretty good at, and enjoyed doing. Even at an early age, the first thing I would do when I woke up was open up the sports section of the newspaper, and read an article or two, but mainly went right to the box scores. As I got older, I started to turn to the sports columns and really take an interest in the writers, their style, and most important, what they had to say. A few of my favorite columnists include Mike Lupica and Bill Simmons.
My goal is to be a sports writer, and eventually to have my own column for a newspaper, or online. But that's long term. I have only taken a few journalism classes here at New Paltz, so I do have a lot more work to do with my writing, as well as journalistic skills. One weakness (that I'm aware of) in my writing is that I tend to get overly wordy at points, and get away from the main topic at hand. It is something that I am getting better at, and hope that with the more writing I do, the more improvement I have.
Hi, my name is Pamela Vivanco and I’m a journalism major with a minor in creative writing and sociology.
In first grade, I remember writing stories about flying frogs and jumping turtles. I’ve always loved to write, but as a first grader I was unaware that I could make a living out of writing. Throughout the years, the characters in my fiction stories have evolved into lovers and seventeen year old Brooklyn party animals, and my love for writing has also expanded.
I can’t remember when exactly I decided to pursue a career in journalism, but I do remember my very first encounter with a reporter. I thought it was "so cool." In fifth grade, I was one out of seven kids chosen to go on a trip to see “Annie Get Your Gun,” on Broadway. It was a trip sponsored by an organization who wanted to give students from low income Brooklyn neighborhood schools the opportunity to see a Broadway show. After the show, a reporter from what I believe was The Daily News, interviewed us about our experience. I remember thinking how incredible it was that she got to see Broadway shows all the time, and write about them. I wanted to do that too.
Slowly, going into journalism became less about the free Broadway shows and more about fulfilling my love of creating a scene through words and delivering a perfect picture for the reader. I was really surprised when I walked into journalism 1 last semester and there were so many regulations to writing a news story. At first, I absolutely hated it, but it really did help me organize my thoughts and my stories in a way that was attractive to the reader.
Even though I enjoy writing hard news stories, I really want to develop my own style. I want to learn how to incorporate creativity into my news stories effectively. I want to write interesting stories that my readers will feel attached to. If there is a flying frog somewhere, I want to write about it. I want to write about an earthquake, and make the scene so real to the person on the other side of the world, that they genuinely feel like they could do something to help.
Although I’ve received compliments on both my creative work and journalistic work, I sometimes have a hard time believing that people actually like what I write. Because I am so bad at recognizing whether or not something I write is enjoyable or not, I want honest constructive criticism. I want to know what’s good and what’s bad, but please don’t be too harsh/mean. I can be a little sensitive. I guess that's my biggest fear- somebody trashing my work and not helping me make it better.
I don’t really have any journalistic/literary heroes. I don’t think I’ve read enough of anybody to say that I consider them a hero, but that’s only because I’ve been lazy. I’m working on it though. I’m reading more than I have in a long time.
My fear is being ordinary. No, more than that. My fear is that I will let all those little fears we have on a daily basis control me and corner me into a life full of monotony. -What most people call safety, I call monotony. People give up on their dreams because of fear. They feel a need to make ends meet and believe that "better safe than sorry" is a credo worth living by. I've spent too much of my life on my knees and my only real fear that concerns me on a day-to-day basis is that I will live more of my days sunk in the filthy echoes of other peoples' dead and long abandoned dreams, insecurities lashed at my heels.
I don't want to be a writer. -Maybe. I have all these ideas in my head. Usually, I find that other people can pen those thoughts better than I, most of them musicians. I guess that's why I'm taking the class. To get better at things. I say I don't want to be a writer in the sense that I can't see myself publishing a novel but I do enjoy the cathartic burst I get from writing -before my thoughts get even more fucked up and disorganized than before I thought about whatever it is I wrote about. Have you ever noticed the more you think about things, the more fucked up you get? All the really smart people are crazy. You never hear about night managers at Burger King turning recluse.
Salinger probably is too smart to even own a TV.
I am a musician and that's what I want to do with the rest of my life. Musicians and writers lead very similar lives (including the biggest similarity; most of the good ones do it on drugs). I want to drive around in a van with my best friends and play songs nightly to a crowd of fashionistas who won't truly get it. A select few will though and that makes it worth the struggle. -My small self-serving gift to the world.
Hi, I'm Michelle Feliciano. I'm a junior and a Journalism major and I've always loved telling stories.
I may be quiet in class, but when I'm with my family and friends I tend to talk A LOT. When I was younger I used to walk around my house with a tape recorder and microphone and record my own "shows" or interview anyone who came to visit. Once I got older and the recordings stopped I kind of forgot about that and tried to pursue other career goals. I usually had friends who read my essays and said "I love how you word things." Now I look back and wonder how did I not know my passion is to write.
I'm aspiring to work in the magazine field. My doubts deal with my writing sometimes because I have certain grammar issues with some of my sentence structures. Usually a teacher points them out but it doesn't seem to stick in my head. Since I do like to talk a lot I wonder if the sentences tend to come out in a jumble sometimes because I have so many thoughts in my head. That is definitely something I need to fix before leaving New Paltz.
I like to read a lot so I generally enjoy the work of different authors. The ones I can think of right now off the top of my head are Charlotte Bronte "Jane Eyre", Oscar Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray", Stephanie Meyers "Twilight", and Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Scarlet Letter."
I hope this class helps me to see not only journalism in a new light but also reading.
One thing that should be known about me as a writer is that it was not my first choice.
Upon graduating high school, I toyed with a number of majors and ideas before arriving at journalism. It turned out that I didn’t have the patience for foreign languages. It turned out that business was too boring. And it turned out that although I love singing, I wasn’t interested in pursuing a career in music either.
I had been told I was a good writer many times before, but I resisted the idea of making a career out of it for quite a while. Although I knew I was talented in other ways, it took me some time to realize that it was one of my greatest skills. And it took me even longer to realize I actually liked it.
I have many literary heroes. I absolutely LOVE Chuck Palahniuk. I know he’s very mainstream, but I think he is such an awesome writer with an infinite imagination. Sometimes, I’m just in the mood for reading something sick and disgusting. And Chuck fulfills my need for it. But the thing I really like about Chuck is that I learn random, interesting but true things every time I read his fictional stories. I also really like Josh Kilmer-Purcell, a writer who, in addition to his books, has a monthly column in the Advocate that I enjoy reading. As far as heroes in journalism, I enjoy reading Frank Brunni’s restaurant critique’s even though I’m not a big fan of reading about food. It’s so funny that these top-notch restaurants put so much effort into spotting him and kicking him out immediately in order to avoid a potentially bad review (I read somewhere that they even bribe their employees with cash and vacations if they successfully catch him). Although I often ignore the bylines of the articles, I’m always impressed with any given article I read in the New York Times and have come to truly respect the journalists who write them. One particular journalist who caught my interest over the summer was C. J. Chivers, who intrigued me in a particular news article where he admittedly “stepped out of character as a reporter” only a few paragraphs in when covering the death of a Russian activist. I found it bizarre for him to do that in his article, but I also found it bold. It taught me that sometimes the rules of journalism can be broken without sacrificing the legitimacy of the article.
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