Announcement 2: I'm still having trouble commenting on your blogs. I'm not mad yet, but I'm starting to get irritated. aCapice?
Assignment for Thursday (I apologize for shouting), taken down from the screen in Dawson 220:
FOR THURSDAY< READ CH 1-2 IN MURRAY
1 CRAFT OF THE WRITER (JOURNALIST)
2 PROCESS OF NEWSWRITING
ASK YOURSELF: HOW CAN I USE MURRAY’S WORDS OF WISDOM IF I’M GOING TO BE A ________ WRITER INSTEAD OF A NEWSPAPER JOURNALIST?
Here's the assignment for Tuesday. It comes in two steps:
1. Read Donald Murray, especially Chapters 3-4, on "reporting for surprise" and finding the flow (Murray calls it "tension" of a story. As you read Murray, try to figure out what he means by "surprise." It's almost impossible to explain, but it's important. It may be the single most important thing that makes your work stand out in the crowd.
2. Post your thoughts (about 1,000 words) to your blog, and email me when you've finished. How does Donald Murray define "surprise?" You'll want to skim through Chapter 3, "EXPLORE: Report for Surprise," before answering this. He doesn't really define it, but he has several brief quotes you might want to include in your blog post.
>As always, if you have questions, comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate to get back to me.
Here's something I posted to another blog a couple of years ago (Sept. 12, 2009, to be exact. It isn't half-bad.
How can you adapt Murray's concept to your own writing? In other words, how can you report for surprise? Hint: I think it has something to do with always being ready to be surprised.
Here's an example of how I might go about blogging it ...
So I'm sitting in a little family restaurant on 9th Street, throwing cholesterol bombs into my stomach (No. 3 on the menu, scrambled, corned beef hash, wheat toast) and wondering how I'm going to explain what Don Murray means when he says, "The constant awareness of the working journalist is not a mystery. It is something that can be learned and practiced" (35). And in the booth in front of me, I'm aware of a couple of guys with one of those tourist-y maps of Route 66 spread on across the table between them. The kind with little pictures of the Cozy Dog Drive-In and all the other tourist spots along old U.S. 66 between Chicago and St. Louis. Back in the day, it ran down 9th Street. They're in their mid- to late 30s, I'd say, and one of them is wearing a tan knit shirt with "RSPCA" embroidered on the sleeve.
With that, I start to get interested.
The only RSPCA I know of is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in England.
So I listen a little more carefully, and darned if one of the guys with the Highway 66 map doesn't have a British accent.
Do I have a story? I don't know yet. But I know how to find out. All I'd have to do is introduce myself, comment on the map and start a conversation. If my hunch is correct and they're Brits who are following old U.S. 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, I could do a five-minute interview on the spot. I already know the old highway attracts occasional pilgrims from Europe, and I can get on the Internet later to fill in the background.
Anyway, that's what I think Murray means by surprise. If my hunches pan out, I've got a story. Just by keeping my eyes open, and being ready to be surprised.
But even that's just an example. It's your blog you're posting to, and I want you to be finding your voice, not an imitation of mine! So take this assignment, turn it around and adapt it to your own style, your own voice. Surprise me!
14 comments:
The best advice I think Murray gives in Chapter 3 about how writers have to pay attention to the world. What is or is not not going on in the world. It makes the writer use there senses like sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, change, effect, conflict, context, and self. Asking who, what, where, when, why, and how by using these senses.
"How do you know a piece of writing is finished?" Donald Murray states, "When I get to the deadline." Writers write and get the writing done because they have deadlines. I am told that the term comes from an actual line drawn outside of a prison's walls. When prisoners crossed the deadline they were shot. Dead. And that's the way I feel about deadlines. They must be met or I will face professional death.
This is what Donald Murray comments on about the deadline. In journalism, you can't avoid the deadline. Like he says, if the deadline isn't met he will reach professional death, and nobody wants that. This is part of the jounalist's process.
I liked reading about the process. He gives a step by step instruction to completing the process. However the process helps the writer, and the process helps the editor. I am still discovering my process because I feel at this point, as a writer, my process is still too creative for published journalism.
How can I use Murray's words of wisdom if I am going to be a_______Writer instad of Newspaper journalist.
Well Murray has many good points in his first two chapeters and how he writes is as if it is straight to us to show us what He has learned from and what he is still learning as he continues on with his writings. Some of the main things I got was Accuracy is key, you have to be able to write accurate information and know what you will be writing and want to write to be able to go anywhere withyour writing. Always remember the lede and know that is what is going to get your readers in tune with what they expect out of you. Do not over inform your readers too much information will bombard them and they need less. as he says less is best. Always know the order of your writings and know what to expect and what you would want to read. Make sure all is clarifies in your reading and that you are aware of just what all is expected out of your writing. Make sure you are learning as you write and discovering more of what you are looking for in the writing. Have a voice in your writing no matter what it may be make sur eyou are voicing it as you would expect to want to read it. and Of course always remember the 5 W's, Who, What, When, Where, Why, How..These will get you the main information but to get the other you need to dig further.
I learned from Murray that I need to respect the verb of the sentence. "The engine that made the sentence go and carry its own load of information." I also learned that you must always ask why, and keep asking why. "Curiosity is a hunger that can never be satisfied. It is a way of lfe and, I think, a fine way of life because an unceasing wonder keeps the asker forever young, forever aware, forever seeking, gloriously unsatisfied.
Less is more. This concept seems so foreign. As Donald Murray puts it, "I was taught length equals intelligence [in high-school]." I was lead down this very path. It is the bigger, the bolder, the stronger, and the longer words that best displays intelligence! The deeper I sink into my college career, I understand that I was sorely mistaken. Polonius, not Mr. Sneyd (my eighth grade English teacher) understood it best, "brevity is [indeed] the soul of wit." This is my new mantra. High-school built me up, college broke me down, and now (hopefully) I am better because of it.
In chapter 1 I find it interesting to learn that journalism is art. When Murray names off some of the later authors such as Didion I see exactly what he means. I remember in a creative writing class I took at LLCC she was what one calls a work of art. She was out there and did the most outrageous stories. Her stories were art because when reading or the instructor telling the story it was very easy to make an image in my head. Images are art. Makes sense.
i think the most useful thing i can take from Murray is that accuracy is key. even if its simple, its better to have it right. 5ws are also very helpful and not throwing too much information at your reader
What i believe was the best advice and stuck out the most was in chapter 2. Murray gives his on views of how to do certain things to help you be your own best critic. for example when he gives the advice "Allow time to stand back and be your own first editor, answering the reader`s questions, clarifying, cutting,correcting, and polishing the writting." I agree with this so much. I can not even remember how many errors i catch myself before letting someone else edit my papers for me. It is great advice.
I find it interesting that Murray describes writing as a surprise rather than a structured thing. He says that this is important to know that one is never going to know exactly what one is going to say until it is said. Murray finds it important to stress that teaching writing is messy, not orderly.
Murray's words of wisdom in chapter three about "self" stuck out to me. He states "to be objective as a reporter and writer, i was not allowed to make up truths." Today there are so many false stories and journalists that meke things up to get ahead. Its nice that he brings up this idea of truth. He also states, "To admit our feelings and thoughts, then to temper them with an appropriate professional attitude. I like this as well. To write a story, based on truth and using your personallity as well as being professional is nice.
The best advice I took from Murray was when he said "Work on one sense at a time, beginnging with our strongest one, not your weakest." I appreciate this because I find that most ideas that can be written about, are much easier to process when they are broken into steps, and pieces. Once you have used your strongest sense, you can begin to take the idea, one specific part at a time. It will lead to much more concise writing and a clarified idea.
I can relate to this due to the fact I tend to miss a few of these myself. Meet your deadlines! That’s when you know you’re done writing when the deadline hits. If you don’t meet you deadline you will have professional death and none of us want that. In journalism, you can't avoid the deadline. If you didn’t have these deadlines you would never get anything done.
More wisdom - but take it with a grain of salt ...
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." - Douglas Adams (author of "Hitchhinkers' Guide to the
Galaxy").
"To write without writing, you have to rid yourself of the popular idea that writing word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph is painful," said Murray. I agree with Murray's idea that giving writing tasks to the subconscious will often "pass the assignment" on to your unconscious. Murray is constantly reminding his subconscious of the task at hand. It could be while in the car or during exercise, whatever the activity may be; a writer must constantly be thinking about their story, writing even when they are not physically writing.
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