My name is Nicolette Brids and I am a senior at Bridgewater State University. I will be graduating in the spring of 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in special education. After graduating from Bridgewater State, I plan to take some time off to travel. After enjoying some "me" time, I hope to attend graduate school. I plan on earning a master's degree in elementary education at Lesley University in Boston. After earning my master’s degree, I want to become the head teacher of an integrated, elementary school classroom.
As an English major, I felt that this course was important in order to learn the style of journalistic writing. Before this course, I felt that my writing style followed a strict, predictable "research paper" format. After this class, I can already see variety and improvement in my work. I learned how important it was to perform research with different subjects to enhance the authenticity of all pieces. Also, I discovered how it is to hold uniqueness and self-identity in all writing. It is extremely necessary for a writer to distinguish his or her own distinct voice to give the work individuality.
This portfolio displays the progress I have made through the entire semester. It contains a magazine feature, a newspaper feature, a “talk of the town” piece, a profile essay, blog posts, in class writings and numerous drafting procedures. Much revision and editing went into the final products of the two final pieces that are found on this website.
The magazine feature titled "Enabling Autism" is one of my stronger pieces from the course because it discusses an idea that is often forgotten. While revising this feature, I changed a few minor things like word choice and sentence structure. I added two pictures because an magazine feature has more room for creativity. The newspaper piece involved more editing and revising than my magazine piece did. I fixed all mechanical errors like spelling, grammar and sentence structure. I also added another paragraph about a women from Marshfield, who also struggled with a heroin addiction. I think her story contributed to the idea that heroin is in smaller towns and not just cities. Her story also demonstrated the affects of drug abuse on family members, like her daughter Ella. In my final draft of this piece, it is evident that I reorganized my structure by adding ideas to illustrate the severity of the heroin epidemic.
For my “talk of the town piece,” one main revision I made was regarding some of factual information in the piece. I made sure each detail was confirmed to be true. The information in journalistic writing must be factual because if not the reader will not trust the writer. There for, the revised information in my piece gives the piece validity. The final product has also improved because I use more “showing examples” to prove main ideas. I feel that the revised piece has improved because the factual and physical evidence gives the piece more power.
The other final piece found on my website is a profile about a mother of three boys with autism. The final product has focuses more on how her children’s disabilities impact her life. I tried to put more emphasis on the mother’s feelings and experiences to make the reader aware that the profile is on the mother. I also added more detail regarding each boy to give the reader an idea of how their disabilities impact their behavior and everyday life.
The in-class writings and blogs featured in my portfolio demonstrate my critical and analytical skills regarding in-class topics, current events and our weekly book club. The most recent two blog posts are important to the second half of the semester. On November 29th, my blog post contained two websites where work produced from this class could be published. It also included my thoughts of the Ferguson trial, which is important because all college students should have opinions regarding current events. My post from November 17th was about my final thoughts on Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia. The post is important because it helped contribute to our book club presentation. We discussed our thoughts and opinions of the final chapters off the book. A lot of my ideas were derived from this post.
The other two blog posts that are featured on my website are from September 29th and October 16th. My blog post regarding the reading from Telling True Stories is important here because it prepared me for creating my profile. In the post I discuss are the most important aspects of a well written profile. Each aspect I discuss, I try to include in my own work. My second blog post from October 16th is included here is from a book club reading as well. In the post I discuss the cruelty and hypocrisy of men in the Middle East. I discuss how the author of the story is not actually the princess and this can impact the readers view. I feel that as reader this is an important idea to keep in mind while reading the book.
I included the in class writings that I did because they demonstrate the beginning of the writing process. One of my in class writings was the first step to my magazine feature. I think including brainstorming ideas is important because it shows how far the piece has come. I also included an in class writing about the authenticity of the author of our book club book. This idea is definitely important to my book club presentation because we examine the effects of having an author of this kind.
This course has introduced me to different styles and research techniques to use while writing. The different methods and forms we’ve learned and practiced has helped to improve my writing style. I feel that upon completion of this course, my writing is more individualized and interesting to a wider audience. One thing I need to work on in my writing is expanding my vocabulary so I can make my work richer.
As an English major, I felt that this course was important in order to learn the style of journalistic writing. Before this course, I felt that my writing style followed a strict, predictable "research paper" format. After this class, I can already see variety and improvement in my work. I learned how important it was to perform research with different subjects to enhance the authenticity of all pieces. Also, I discovered how it is to hold uniqueness and self-identity in all writing. It is extremely necessary for a writer to distinguish his or her own distinct voice to give the work individuality.
This portfolio displays the progress I have made through the entire semester. It contains a magazine feature, a newspaper feature, a “talk of the town” piece, a profile essay, blog posts, in class writings and numerous drafting procedures. Much revision and editing went into the final products of the two final pieces that are found on this website.
The magazine feature titled "Enabling Autism" is one of my stronger pieces from the course because it discusses an idea that is often forgotten. While revising this feature, I changed a few minor things like word choice and sentence structure. I added two pictures because an magazine feature has more room for creativity. The newspaper piece involved more editing and revising than my magazine piece did. I fixed all mechanical errors like spelling, grammar and sentence structure. I also added another paragraph about a women from Marshfield, who also struggled with a heroin addiction. I think her story contributed to the idea that heroin is in smaller towns and not just cities. Her story also demonstrated the affects of drug abuse on family members, like her daughter Ella. In my final draft of this piece, it is evident that I reorganized my structure by adding ideas to illustrate the severity of the heroin epidemic.
For my “talk of the town piece,” one main revision I made was regarding some of factual information in the piece. I made sure each detail was confirmed to be true. The information in journalistic writing must be factual because if not the reader will not trust the writer. There for, the revised information in my piece gives the piece validity. The final product has also improved because I use more “showing examples” to prove main ideas. I feel that the revised piece has improved because the factual and physical evidence gives the piece more power.
The other final piece found on my website is a profile about a mother of three boys with autism. The final product has focuses more on how her children’s disabilities impact her life. I tried to put more emphasis on the mother’s feelings and experiences to make the reader aware that the profile is on the mother. I also added more detail regarding each boy to give the reader an idea of how their disabilities impact their behavior and everyday life.
The in-class writings and blogs featured in my portfolio demonstrate my critical and analytical skills regarding in-class topics, current events and our weekly book club. The most recent two blog posts are important to the second half of the semester. On November 29th, my blog post contained two websites where work produced from this class could be published. It also included my thoughts of the Ferguson trial, which is important because all college students should have opinions regarding current events. My post from November 17th was about my final thoughts on Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia. The post is important because it helped contribute to our book club presentation. We discussed our thoughts and opinions of the final chapters off the book. A lot of my ideas were derived from this post.
The other two blog posts that are featured on my website are from September 29th and October 16th. My blog post regarding the reading from Telling True Stories is important here because it prepared me for creating my profile. In the post I discuss are the most important aspects of a well written profile. Each aspect I discuss, I try to include in my own work. My second blog post from October 16th is included here is from a book club reading as well. In the post I discuss the cruelty and hypocrisy of men in the Middle East. I discuss how the author of the story is not actually the princess and this can impact the readers view. I feel that as reader this is an important idea to keep in mind while reading the book.
I included the in class writings that I did because they demonstrate the beginning of the writing process. One of my in class writings was the first step to my magazine feature. I think including brainstorming ideas is important because it shows how far the piece has come. I also included an in class writing about the authenticity of the author of our book club book. This idea is definitely important to my book club presentation because we examine the effects of having an author of this kind.
This course has introduced me to different styles and research techniques to use while writing. The different methods and forms we’ve learned and practiced has helped to improve my writing style. I feel that upon completion of this course, my writing is more individualized and interesting to a wider audience. One thing I need to work on in my writing is expanding my vocabulary so I can make my work richer.