Thursday, October 13, 2011
Comments
Did it grab your attention?
Did we miss anything?
What could we have improved on?
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Stephen Ambrose's Writing:
http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/a/stephenambrose.htm
This website gives a brief bibliography of Stephan Ambrose and names some of his major works. He was an historian and wrote over thirty books on historical topics. His first book was Wisconsin Boy in Dixie, but it was his second book Halleck, Lincoln’s Chief of Staff that got the attention of the president Dwight Eisenhower. This is how he became Eisenhower’s official biographer and really got his career rolling. Ambrose became popular because he made history interesting by his writing style. He covered topics such as the Civil War (started out covering this topic first), Richard Nixon, George A. Custer, Lewis and Clark, and the transcontinental railroad, and World War 2 (best known for this topic). He wrote books from a soldier’s point of view with no actual war experience, but the way he wrote them made some of his books best sellers.
The History News Network lists seven works of Ambrose's such as The Wild Blue, Undaunted Courage, Nothing Like It In the World, Nixon: Ruin and Recovery, Citizen Soldiers, The Supreme Commander, and Crazy Horse and Custer that copied twelve authors.
Ambrose's response to the accusation of him plagiarising was "I always footnoted, I always gave other writers credit, I made only a few tiny mistakes in thousands of superb pages"
In later years, it was found that he did not plagiarise. He simply omitted quotation marks in a few passages of his books when he had already footnoted the author he was quoting.
Stephen Ambrose
Plagiarism
This websites about who Stephen Ambrose is and what he does. This website is credible because it is from the Acedemy of Achievement. It is his biography and it does not mention anything about the plagiarism he was accused for.
Stephen Ambrose plagarism case study
it says that in one of his books, he was accused of taking information from another sorce with out proper notation to that author. He was then found to have done the same thing in six more of his books.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Dawns Project Thoughts
effect on audience
There are several things that we want our audience to get from our project. One of these is we want our audience to think it is funny. Although most superhero stories are meant to be serious, we added a twist to ours so that the audience will have an easier time reading it because it is humorous. We did this by adding in everyday life items such as the iphone as a source of their powers. We wanted to make it funny by doing something no one would think of. Not many people would think that a phone could give you powers. Another thing we want the audience to see is that our comic strip is exciting. It is like most of the other superhero stories; the hero gets to save something. We added this component because we wanted the audience to still feel like they are reading a regular comic strip. We want our audience to be able to read it and know that is it a comic strip and we want them to feel like it could actually be a real comic. We tried to achieve this by not only keeping some parts of a hero story line, but setting up our images in a way that is familiar to most readers. Another aspect we added to our strip that we think the audience will notice is that it is very adventurous. This keeps our comic interesting throughout the whole thing. When our comic isn’t funny, it is adventurous so that we could keep our audience involved. We did this by having our superhero be a normal person which then gets super powers. When he saves someone it becomes more adventurous because he never had those powers before. All of these things are parts that we think we incorporated well into our comic so that the audience can see the effect we want on them. I think that this project will overall help me grow as a writer. I think this because I have never had to do something like this before, where you have to combine not only words, but a visual. I am use to working in groups, but I have never had to try and put everyone’s ideas together to make a picture. I think that by doing this project I am learning how to use my ideas to the fullest. What I mean by this is that when I am writing a paper I do not usually think about what the audience is envisioning in their mind. When doing this project the ideas that I would have put in a paper are in a visual, something that the audience can see. That helps me realize that the audience could see something different then I do. It also helps me grow as a writer because it helps me be more inventive with my ideas. When you are in a group with people who all have different ideas, you need to make your ideas something that can help enhance the project. I now realize that when I think of ideas they need to be something that other people can relate with, but also something that will interest them as well.
Nicole's thoughts on project 2! :)
For project two we are focusing on visual genres. Visual genres include videos, comic strips, power points, pictures, etc. Our project is going to be in the form of a comic strip. Our story is a about a guy named Jarvis who buys an iPhone 5. After purchasing the iPhone he downloads a superhero app. Although to his surprise the app actually turned him into a real superhero with super powers. He can now stretch to great lengths and shoot lasers out of his eyes. He was also very disappointed when he found out he couldn’t be invisible. During the story he is going to save someone/something using his new super powers. We may also incorporate a villain. I hope the effect our project gives the audience is humor. I think the concept of an average guy being turned into a super hero by purchasing an app for his new iPhone will defiantly cause the audience to laugh. Our story is very original and creative which should leave a humorous and happy effect on the audience. It should keep the audience wanting to know more. I think this project will help me improve as a writer because it shows that there is more ways to present something then in writing. We could easily sit down and type out a story about a super hero but with visuals we get a chance to be more creative. Doing a comic strip rather then a regular paper attracts more audience and is more enjoyable as readers. Thus, giving me more ideas to be creative with my writing to make sure the audience is always entertained and that it leaves a lasting effect on my readers. Using visuals instead of just writing a story also opens up many doors such as creating a movie, power point presentation, or image. Words are not the only thing that creates a story. For example, by just looking at a picture of someone kayaking down a river can tell you an amazing story. Maybe you create the story of this person racing down the river and going around rocks and weaving in and out of bumpy waters. Although someone else could interpret it completely different, the person could be kayaking down the river and suddenly tips over and struggles to get back in their kayak. As you can see you a visual add can provide just as much story as a paper without the words. As they have always said “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Experimenting with different genres of writing opens my eyes to many new ideas and much more room for creativity. Using these different genres improves my writing with causing me to think more and be creative with my ideas. So far I think the visual genre is my favorite because I rather tell my stories through a video or picture rather then words. It seems to be easier for me and I enjoy the process more then sitting at my computer and typing.