Post 6

It’s a chaotic day in Missouri Department of Corrections there is a riot going on.
Derrick Smith is a newly transferred inmate having killed a person during an altercation over drugs. He came from Kansas City county jail. He came from a broken home with no mom and an alcoholic father growing up in a dangerous neighborhood he never really stood a chance in making something of him. Derrick and another prisoner have a Guard surrounded. Today Prison Guard Peter Vedder is on watch at Missouri Department of Corrections and is in full riot gear due to an ongoing prison riot. Peter is cornered  by two prisoners and needs to know if he can use lethal force. Peter is a ex-police man who got fired for unlawful conduct. He has a Wife and kid who he loves dearly, every day he prays that he will come home from work alive, right now he isn’t sure if that will happen. On the other line to Peters call for help is Warden Micheal. Warden Micheal is a church going religious man and believes in redemption for anybody. He also believes in using non-violence in almost any giving situation. Today Warden Micheal has to make a rash decision dealing with life or death; he has to approve of lethal force in a riot. Micheal finally approves of lethal force. Peter shots both Derrick Smith and his accomplice. Luckily for everyone, no-one dies today.

Story Time

In class the other day we shared stories to share a little bit of ourselves. There were many stories shared, most of them were humorous that the entire class could mostly relate to and could have happened to any of us. For example we all have family members who share stories about ourselves that we wish they wouldn’t one example of that was the story of a baby pooping on their aunt’s floor, this is pretty embarrassing but to make things worse the Aunt to this day reminds the student about it every time they talk. I guess the message there is to not take life to seriously, since the student did tell the class about it. Another story would be about the student who was hanging with friends walking when they got jumped by another group of thugs. The student’s reaction was to flee the scene and leave his friends to fend for themselves although he did return once the fight was over. Although I probably would stay and fought I can see why someone would run away and telling it as a story it sounded pretty funny. We shared these stories because they were comical, not so bad/ incriminating and most of all authentic. I feel a little bit closer to the class group now.

Second Week of Class

Hi everyone it’s that time again for a new post. Yesterday was the beginning of the second week of class and there were some mistakes made in my previous posts. First off hooray for America there was a mistake made, the average reading level in America isn't the reading level of a fifth grader but it’s the reading level of a seventh grader. I guess that means Americans can put down the Goosebumps books and pick up books like "The Pearl", although 20 % of the population of adults would be left behind because they can only read at a fifth grade level. Reading "The Pearl" would be like reading a bed time story for 15% of the adult population in the United States of America because that 15% are fully literate meaning they read at a college level. Let’s get deeper into understanding what makes a good story. As learned in class the first thing to know is to know your audience as stated in an earlier post most people are lazy and don’t want to use energy to read. So the author has to be concise, sell the story and have one idea per story. Now we have to figure out why people read stories in the first place well here are some reasons we came about in class, first they are easy to remember and easy to understand. Some more reasons are they engage attention, are easy to believe and easy to share. That’s what we learned about class yesterday.

Blog 3 The tales of Matt and Rocky

On an average day one might find baby Matt at the park in a stroller posted next to Rocky his best friend and a Doberman. You might think how can a baby have a best friend but be wary this is no ordinary baby Matt can communicate with all animals. This gift is unknown by other people because he is a baby and couldn’t talk.

Life hasn’t been all peaches and cream with Rocky and Matt. First it was Matts family and their pet cat Vicky and goldfish Sunny. Matt and Vicky would play all day and talk. Then the family decided to get a dog and so came Rocky. Rocky was a puppy and enjoyed playing all day, so Matt found a new best friend. Vicky started feeling neglected by Matt and so Vicky became jealous of Rocky. One day Vicky came up with the plan to kill Rocky.

Rocky had a special spot under the dinner table where he would sleep at, and Vicky knew this. The evening before Vicky told her plan to Sunny the goldfish. Matt overheard this but couldn’t reach Rocky because he was outside. That night the family had steak for dinner so Vicky stole a steak knife to use to kill Rocky.Then Rocky came strolling along and as usual went to sleep a little under the table. Vicky was about to drop the knife on Rocky when Matt came and pushed Rocky away. Ashamed at herself Victoria left and never came back.

 It was the second day of my Writing for the Media class yesterday, and I learned some interesting stuff about writing for the masses or anyone in general. The first lesson was that when writing you should "always think of the audience first! This is a crucial lesson because the information that I learned in class today was sad to say the least. Im gonna give the scary statistics that I learned in class. First 58% of high school graduates never read another book after graduating. Then one would think that those who graduated from a school of higher learning would certainly invest some time in some casual reading but you would be wrong, 48% of college graduates never read another book after graduating from college. The last statistic that im going to throw your way is that the average reading level in America is reading at the 5th grade level. With all of these statistics it makes your wonder if there is even a point to writing at all, but dont lose hope just yet because there are ways to write and have people read what you write. That is we need to simplify writings for the audience and apply the knowledge of the reader. Mainly as the professor said we need to "keep it short and simple." So with that in mind im going to finish my blog for the day. 

First Day of Class

Well today was an interesting first day of class. The teacher Professor Jenkins explained to us how the class will be run, but not before making several Star Wars jokes and this only encouraged other students to make some of their own Star Wars jokes. The saddest part of this comedy act was that I actually knew what they were talking about, being that I was a huge Star Wars fan as a child. Then there was the student introduction of themselfs which consisted of the generic normal ,tell us your name ,what year student you are and what your major is. Then came the not so generic and a little bit luny tell us your favorite snack food. Im still not sure why that last question was asked but it did liven up the room a bit. When it was my turn I said I wanted to work in advertising and marketing he started talking about how advertising was bad and im pretty sure he also said it was evil , but I took no offense to it.  Anyways back to the main topic which is the class setup. I was scared at first when I entered the room because I didnt really know what to expect out of the writing intensive college course , but this was before the professor told us that the papers would not be longer then around 250 words. Still we will have many papers to write yet it should not be that difficult. With a funny professor who seems laid back and the work involved this class won't be as bad as I thought it would be.