"True Confessions"

In ch. 6 "Diction," Trimble exhorts writers to pay attention to several qualities of word choice.  Which advice felt familiar (or perhaps necessary) for you to apply to your own writing?

 The advice that I felt was familiar for me to apply to my writing is to use vigorous verbs.  As a writer I am aware that I need to make more of a conscious effort to include more vigorous verbs.  The use of more powerful verbs will give my writing an edge that it needs in order to keep the writer captivated.  I want to be able to use more vigorous verbs but I hope that I still appear to know what I am talking about and that I use the words correctly.  I do not want my readers to think that I am using these verbs simply to give my writing more fluff.  I want the verbs to get my point across succesfully.

Bing Commercial-Steven H

     This commercial for the search engine Bing starts off with a man deciding whether to by salsa or guacamole.  His friend that he is shopping with then begins to spit out information about the origin of guacamole as if he were a computer.  As the commercial progresses other shoppers in the supermarket begin hearing random words and mechanically shouting irrelevant information to the original salsa versus guacamole debate. With each new term shouted more and more people begin shouting and the supermarket grows more and more hectic. The shouting then turns into a food fight where people are throwing food at each other throughout the entire grocery store.
      The commercial uses the people shouting random terms and information to show how other search engines are in finding the information we are actually looking for.  Although the commercial may take this to an extreme (searching for salsa online would not lead to common farm animals on most search engines, if any), it is very effective in making Bing seem like a superior search engine. 

Writing Process FFW response 9/16

      After watching this video I feel like I have a better understanding of how difficult the writing process actually is for any writer.  I know from my experiences that I have gone through writer's block, or just not been able to find the words to express my ideas.  This video allowed me to see how many writers go through certain routines in order to find the words that they want to use to express what is on their mind or to find an idea of something to write about. 
      The style of the video and the tone and speed of the narrator's voice created a tense mood while watching the video.  It was almost increasing my stress level as I watched the video.  It helped me to understand the stress that writers experience when they struggle to come up with an idea or to find the right words. The images used on the screen to depict what the narrator was saying also helped me understand the stress involved in the writing process because they were choppy and changed quickly as the narrator continued to speak. 

snickers commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18ya0-OZ58s

AT&T Commercial

       In the AT&T commercial two young children who portray Hansel and Gretel from the popular children's story get lost in a big city.  When they realize they are lost and need to get to the cottage they use their GPS- able AT&T cell phone.  With the help of their GPS they are able to find the cottage.
       Throughout the commercial there is music playing that matches the speed that the two children are walking.  The music is also used to set the mood of the commercial.  Throughout the day, while they are dropping their useless breadcrumbs, they are walking at an average pace.  Then they realize they are lost, and its dark out.  The music slows down, and saddens and eventually stops completely. Once they realize they have their cell phone with a GPS, and are able to get to the cottage, they begin skipping in the direction they are sent and the music starts up again and at a faster pace than it was earlier in the commercial.  The music is very effective in setting the mood and going along with the plot.

Heineken Commercial

       In the Heineken commercial there is a group of women being lead around a living space by one of their friends.  The owner of the living space shows them some rooms and finally a huge walk in closet with nice clothes, purses and shoes.  The women are all extremely excited by the clothes and start screaming.  As they are screaming, they hear the men that are also being shown around the living space have a similar reaction.  Instead of reacting this way to a walk in closet, they are screaming over a walk in fridge filled with cold Heineken beers.  The reaction of the men mimics the reaction of them women, and is even greater than the reaction of the women. 
       This commercial is a big stereotype of men and women.  It stereotypes men by implying that all men would get excited by a walk in fridge filled with beer, and it stereotypes women by implying that all women would get excited by a walk in closet filled with nice clothes, purses and shoes.  Although not all men get excited by beer and not all women get excited by clothes, the audience that this commercial reaches would be able to relate to the commercial.  This commercial was played on ESPN, and many men who watch ESPN for big sports games, usually have a beer while their watching.  Therefore this commercial, although stereotypical, applies to many people who will view it.

Pantene Commercial

     In the Pantene commercial the story's main character is a young musician who happens to be deaf yet she is inspired to her master the violin.  Unfortunately at school she is bullied by one of her rival classmates who is also a musician.  Her rival is a pianist, who is also inspired to master her instrument.

     The rival musician, like most bullies has her own insecurities that she is unsure how to deal with.  Instead of trying to improve herself she tries to bring the deaf girl down.  She knocks her lunch tray out of her hands and even attempts to prevent the deaf girl from participating in a classical music contest by destroying her violin.  Despite all of the efforts to bring her down, the pianist is unable to stop the deaf girl from performing in the contest.

FFW 9/12

John Trimble makes the case that all writers are like warriors, defending claims and fortifying arguments.  How do you respond to the trope, this figurative turn?

I agree that writers are like warriors because in most writing they are picking an opinion and then supporting ("defending") their opinion with facts and research that they have done pertaining to their topic.  Most writers are using their writing to express their own personal ideas and beliefs to their audience.
I do not agree that ALL writers are like warriors though.  Some writers do not need to support or defend anything because they are retelling a story or making one up as they write.  They are not using facts or known research to back up their stories because what they are writing is coming from their mind.  I believe that not all writing makes an argument therefore not all writing is defending claims either.

So Here I Am At Hofstra...

So here I am at Hofstra and I am blogging.  Writing online makes me feel nervous, and excited at the same time.  I'm nervous because I don't want people to think what I am writing is dumb or pointless.  Or just think that my writing in general is not verry interesting.  I want anyone who reads what I have to say to at least be intrigued and maybe even respond with their own opinions.  I hope that my future posts are able to inspire people to think about whatever I am writing about.  I hope that my posts challenge people to express their ideas, especially if they differ from my own.  Writing online also makes me excited because anyone who wants to has the ability to look at what I write because it is a public site.  It is cool to think that some person across the the world, country or even another town can what I have to write about.  Another reason that I am nervous about writing online is because I do not have a lot of experience writing, especially freewriting and I am noticing that I feel like I am just rambling.  I also am not very confident in my writing skills.  I hope that this writing class will help me become more creative and expressive in my writing.  I am used to just writing bland essays for classes but this class seems like it will challenge me creatively but also help me to improve my diction, and other writing skills in general.  I still have to free write for five more minutes but I do not know what else to say.  Free writing is hard because there are so many thoughts just coming to my head its hard to make sure I write them all.  Also its hard because I want to keep going back to fix m mistakes and sometimes i do because I forget that we aren't supposewd too.  This is really challenging.  In the beginning of writing this i definitely did too much baackspacing because it is just a habit.  This writing online is stressing me out a little, at least for this assifgntment.  All of the red lines i see on my screen are just SCREAMING at me to go back and fix them but i am trting my best not too.  These last few sentences have been the worst ones.  How else does writing online make me feel?! Well I'm eager to post my next blog that hopefully will be able to make people think about what I am saying and hopefully i do not feel like i am rambling as much as I do now.  Well my twelve minutes are up.