COMM11007 Week 2 - Blog Activities

BREAKING Explosive email in pay dispute warns Ashes series under threat https://t.co/vxrpJ3NL4Z pic.twitter.com/EvoVNDB4HX

— The Age (@theage) July 22, 2017

For Week 2 Blog Activities, we have the following to do:-

1.   Practical: Register a Twitter account.

Registered a twitter account.

My twitter address is: Karen Page@Chourtle. I chose this handle, because my first choice was 'Chortle' as in birds chortling, but it was taken. So, I added a 'u' and this was accepted.

I am now an official twit! I still can't work out the point of twitter, 'I don't get it', in modern day parlance.

I am now reviewing this week’s blog at the end of term, and have become use to Twitter, and can see how it would be useful for professional writers, especially in media writing. It is a quick way of communicating a moment or idea, that needs immediate communication, for example, a flash flood.

The screen is very cluttered: phrases and pictures are all over the place, I find it hard to navigate. Although, it is not as bad as Facebook, which I find really confusing and distracting.

Where do all your tweets go?

Following the following:

Animals Australia

Kate Ames

Taylor Battersby

Michael Rowland

Michelle Grattan

Annabel Crabb

Sydney Morning Herald

RN Breakfast

BBC

PBS

Art Gallery NSW

Plus Others

2. Inquiry: Review the top Twitter trends on a particular day (see www.trends24.in). Investigate some of the stories and tweets, and reflect on this on your blog. 

Sunday, 23^rd July 2017

The above tweet from:  https://trends24.in/australia/    is about the pay dispute between Australian cricket players and Cricket Australia. It refers to an email from Australian Cricketers Association Chief Alistair Nicholoson, to the players on Saturday; warning them the upcoming Ashes Test series against England, due to start in Brisbane on November 23, could be at risk, due to the pay dispute.

On the back page of Sunday’s The Sun-Herald – an article by Jon Pierik, covers the same story from this tweet.

I could not find any evidence of this story in the local media. Although, the local paper The Monaro Post only comes out once a week, on Wednesday.

References:

Pierik, J 2017, ‘Deal may not save Ashes: union’, The Sun Herald, 24 July 2017, p 56 and 45.

Trends 24 Australia https://trends24.in/australia/ 

Week 2   Quiz 2 – Grammar Rules

Read Chapter 2 of Hicks, English for Journalists (Grammar Rules) to prepare for this quiz.

After reading this chapter and doing the quiz, I am reasonably confident with my understanding of grammar. Although, when it comes to the finer points, like, simple, continuing or completed tense of finite verbs, I am very glad to have this textbook to refer to.

There is a lot in this chapter, and it was good to be reminded of the 'parts of speech', sentences, and sentence structure. It is educational to re-read things like: active and passive verbs, clauses, conjunctions etc.

The 1960's went through a phase where it was thought to be regressive (particularly to the working class and ethic minorities) to keep strict adherence to English grammar rules, and in many politically correct classrooms, the teaching of grammar rules were virtually ignored. But, this was proved to be regressive in itself, and learning correct grammar is part of the national curriculum.

Writers and editors must know the grammar of their own language, it is a huge disadvantage to be be ignorant of it. Doing the Media Writing Unit with the different approach to writing - and your writing being in the public sphere - makes you more aware of grammar and spelling.

Reference:

Hicks, W 2013, English for journalists, Chapter 2, Grammar: the rules, pp.16-30, 4th edn, Routledge London and New York.