COMM 353: ** UPDATED ** Searching for a theme for our (magazine, anthology, what's the best word for it)? BULLDOG BYTES

Editor's Instructor's note - Since I've asked you to email me with your list of possible articles and/or thoughts about possible articles, I have updated this blog entry and plan to keep updating it as your messages/lists/thoughts keep coming in. Until we get something more formal (and foolproof) to track copy flow, etc., this post as updated can serve as one of several informal logs of what we're got for the Bulldog Bytes project. - pe

This week in class ...

Let's see what we've got for our publishing project, and start thinking about how it can all fit together. I like what I'm hearing from you about wanting a theme for the thing. (Let's find a good word for what to call it, too. "Publications project," to quote the catalog description, or "demonstration magazine" are the best I've come up with so far. But we can do better than that!) So far I've only heard from a couple of you ... although I may have inadvertently deleted some others from my inbox ... but I think we're off to a good start.

A couple of things are clear already. We've got a wide range of talents and interests represented in the class, so we'll want to reflect that diversity in the project. I hope we can get a mix of literary stuff, both poetry and prose, as well as creative nonfiction, personal essays, sports, public affairs, whatever. When I worked with SCI's campus magazine, a lot of what we called "creative nonfiction" looked a lot like student papers! I don't want to rule anything out yet. Pictures, graphics, art. Let's just see what we've got, get all our ideas up on the table and take it from there.

I'll copy below the messages I've gotten so far.

And below them I'll include a mission statement from the old Sleepy Weasel that might be helpful.

After I asked you Thursday to let me know what you can conribute, I got two email messages. The first came in at 3:30 p.m. the same day. Stacie wrote:

When I was searching for ideas to "borrow" for our magazine I came across several sentences -or ideas- that I felt fit what we might be trying to do. I think we are going to see a lot of variety with our submissions but within this variety I think we will find many themes. One student magazine said that they primarily focus on campus news, sports, events, people and issues, but coverage also branches out to community, state, national and international stories. Now I think every submission will fit into one of these categories and I think that means we have ourselves a magazine! Seeing as how we have several creative writers in the class I think it would be great to include like a "featured lit" section of the magazine. I am very excited about this project Doc!

These are several of my "copies":

• "Bump, Set, and Serving Springfield"- This is in a way a biography of a Benedictine student. I feel like this would fit into a "featured students" or "student interests" section of the magazine. It is less than 400 words.
  
• "Slamming in Springfield"- This is a feature article on slam poetry. It features the accounts of John McCarthy, a BenU student. This would also fit into a "featured students" or "student interests" section of the magazine. It is about 900 words.
  
• "Plastic Island on the Move"- This is an article on the "Eastern Garbage Patch." It is about 600 words. This would fit well into the news section of the magazine.

And the second came in at 8:49 that night ... John wrote:

In regards to the content of this magazine. I have a chronic case of not saving things and throwing writings over the place. I suppose it is the Keats in me. I have a few odd poems from some creative writing classes that I don't plan on doing anything else with, but I was thinking about the eclectic approach this magazine is headed. I was wondering if we could assign positions. From there a managing editor could assign assignments from there. (Run this like the bulldog used to be run, sort of.) I am fond of the New Yorker/ New York Times approach with designated sections on individual topics: entertainment/books/politics/economics/etc. Each person could write a different article, and we could take turns editing different articles so we all get the same experience but a more direct and coherent publication. Just my thoughts. See you Tuesday.

Here's the mission statement from the old Weasel, copied from a blog post about COMM 353 that I put up in December when it was clear the course would be offered this semester ...

The Sleepy Weasel is a campus magazine of the arts and public affairs published by students and faculty of Springfield College and Benedictine University, on the World Wide Web at and in hard-copy format at the College's campus in Springfield. The Weasel seeks to highlight written and artistic work by our students, both in and out of class, and to help promote a sense of community on campus by providing a voice for the creative work of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others in the Springfield-Benedictine community.

Our project will be quite a bit different from The Weasel, but it may be helpful for you to know what's been in the back of my mind as I started planning COMM 353 project. It also has a picture I like of a ... well, not exactly a sleepy weasel but a clip-art ferret perched on a stack of books. I do like the stuff in the mission statement about promoting a sense of community on campus, but I want this to be your project, and I don't want to dictate too much.

UPDATE ** Tuesday night ** MORE COPY

Van wroate, today at 3:05 p.m.: " I don't know if we can use any of these things as articles in Bulldog Bytes, However, untill I revive my computer, this (and the few scraps in my email, or my blog) is all that have at the moment." Attached were:

• "A Death Dealer’s Day." Analysis of a story by Sarah McCoy.
  
• "A Tangled Web: The Mind of Hamlet." Analysis of a play by some English author.
  
• "Cardio Kickboxing was a trend in the 90’s, but in the 21st century, the fists are flying as fast as ever." Profile.