COMM11007 Week 6 Blog Activities

Week 6  -  Blog Activities

1. Practical A: In Week 4, you were required to tweet and write a short story for your blog. This week, you should convert the quotes you gathered for that activity to tweets (you don’t need photos). You will then write up a short Storify article that incorporates those tweet/s based on your original interview. The story should be very similar to that which you wrote on your blog in Week 4, but you will need to watch for redundancy and may need to add more narrative. Include the link to the Storify article on your blog, and a short paragraph on your reflections of how easy/hard this was. You do not need to re-interview anyone. You just need to take what you already have and reshape it for Storify.

to Storify Story:

Week 6 Short Story

I enjoyed putting this story together, particularly after seeing the demonstration in the zoom session, with our Media Writing Lecturer, Kate Ames, on Monday night, 21 Aug 2017.

I put the story together with a common theme from the two interviews from week 4. The common theme being pet dogs.

I enjoyed the process of re-writing the tweets without photos to fit this theme; and finding an image of a dog for the heading image.

I was nervous about pressing the 'publish' button, it feels a bit like exposing yourself. Having done one simple Storify story, I feel more confident about doing one for the up-coming event I will be attending - a Truffle Hunt, at Macenmist, located in the NSW southern tablelands, just outside the village of Bredbo, between Cooma and Canberra.

2. Practical B: You planned for your event in Week 3 and you hopefully have settled on one specific event.  Now consider your impending Storify article and ask yourself the following questions:

Who will be the audience? 

People who would like to know more about truffles, and how they are grown and used in Australia.

What might they learn about the event? 

How the dogs sniff out the whereabouts of the truffles in the ground. How the truffle is dug up, washed and prepared for cooking.

What needs to be included that willmake the story interesting or have more impact? 

Explain and demonstrate what truffles look, smell and taste like.

How will I structure the story? 

When I put the story together, it will start with the arrival at the Macenmist farm. Then the hunt with the dogs, the digging up of the truffle, cleaning it, truffle tasting and then luncheon.  Truffles smell different to everyone.

I have already tweeted a couple of tweets prior to the event. Something introductory and anticipatory. On Thursday evening, 24 Aug 2017, Macenmist (where the event will be held) was featured on SBS television, River Cottage Australia S3 Ep 7. I was surprised and excited to see it - what a coincidence. So I thought this would make a good tweet in advance of the event.

#profcomm Truffle Hunt this Sunday at Macenmist. What will these black beauties Smell like? Taste like? Watch this space 👁‍🗨 pic.twitter.com/3K3K148gbk

— Karen Page (@Chourtle) August 24, 2017

#profcomm Truffle Hunt this Sunday at Macenmist. What will these black beauties Smell like? Taste like? Watch this space 👁‍🗨 pic.twitter.com/3K3K148gbk

— Karen Page (@Chourtle) August 24, 2017

Link

Coincidence🙂 I am going Macenmist for Truffle Hunt Sun 27 Aug, featured in River Cottage Australia SBS S3 Ep7, Fri 24 Aug. #profcomm pic.twitter.com/3cTCXBH8ql

— Karen Page (@Chourtle) August 24, 2017

Coincidence🙂 I am going Macenmist for Truffle Hunt Sun 27 Aug, featured in River Cottage Australia SBS S3 Ep7, Fri 24 Aug. #profcomm pic.twitter.com/3cTCXBH8ql

— Karen Page (@Chourtle) August 24, 2017

I will be taking notes, photos and tweeting during this time. I will have to write down the willing participants names, and comments. Mobile coverage is a bit dicey there, so I don't know if the tweets will go out straight away - will have to wait and see.

References:

Ames, K 2017 COMM11007 Media Writing, Week 6 Online Session Mon 21^st Aug (Recording) CQUniversity, Rockhampton, https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/echolink/view.php?id=560657

Storify n.d., Browse, viewed 23 Aug 2017, https://storify.com/browse. 

Week 6 Quiz Reflection

This week's quiz is chapter 5, Spelling, from: English for Journalists  (Wynford Hicks).

It stated in the beginning of the chapter, Hicks (2013), that punctuation evolves, but spelling does not. A word is spelt either the right way, or the wrong way. 

I found a couple of contradictions to this hard and fast rule mentioned in the chapter. A very few spellings have evolved over the last decades - I am probably showing my age here, but they stood out starkly to me.

I remember learning the plural of : roof, hoof, dwarf, and handkerchief , being: rooves, hooves, dwarves and handkerchieves. Today it is acceptable to spell them with an 's' after the 'f'.

Also, the plural of cactus, fungus and octopus used to be: cacti, fungi and octopi. Now they are spelt with an 'es' after the 's'. 

It is still acceptable to use these old-fashioned spellings in some circumstances - it depends on the 'house style', as described in Hicks (2013).

I was surprised to see acknowledg(e)ment and judg(e)ment can now be spelt without the (e).

These may seem like minor trifles, but studying at university level, these things matter. I find it very interesting how language changes over time, and particularly within a lifetime.

My first attempt at the quiz was 80%. I didn't see the s and c properly in practise and practice, and thought I put practise, when I answered practice. I always have trouble with principal and principle. So,it was good to brush up on the correct way of spelling our very eccentric English language; I really enjoyed this chapter, and the quiz.

Reference:

Hicks, W 2013, English for journalists, Chapter 5 pp. 60-73, 4th edn, Routledge London and New York.