Welcome to 2010. A change in blogging protocol: you cannot comment on past weeks' posts. That means you have ONE week to comment on my post and then the comments are closed.
1. What About George? This is a fantastic profile piece that includes multiple sources. Often times we struggle to write well-rounded profile pieces that include multiple sources. What do the different sources add to the story?
2. Ballot Issues in California Is there such a thing as a California State of Mind? Clearly that state of mind is starting to rear its ugly head again as we approach another voting day. How could we localize this piece? How does this issue manifest itself in our community?
Share, enlighten, dazzle.
5 comments:
The article "What About George?" opened beautifully. I thought the author, Saki Knafo, did a good job of instilling a specific setting in the reader's mind before starting in on the meat of the article. Knafo described George with well placed adjectives to give him a strong presence.
I thought this was a pretty long article, but its language use and content made it enjoyable to read. I thought it was and interesting topic of choice: an autistic man in New York. Throughout the course of the article, I came to love George Kramer through his memories of nitpicky dates and his seemingly lovable character. I was surprised at how Knafo was able to capture George's mannerisms so well. I was happy to read something about a regular person, not some celebrity. It was also good to learn about a new disability I didn't know too much about.
Overall, I think that Knafo did a wonderful job writing this piece. It was unexpected and continually kept the reader interested.
Alec
I find it interesting how there is alot of discontent among California voters for the next election. There are many interesting measures including some which opens primaries (allowing Democrats to vote in Republican primaries and vice versa) and another that opens public financing for candidates. There is even a satrical one which would have California ban divorce. The people for it say that since Californians voting against equal marriage rights for gays to preserve marriage, they would want to ban divorce to preserve marriage too.
Also, I find it interesting how ideas that were once popular at one time become extremely unpopular. In 1978, Proposition 13 banned the property tax and (this may be another one, I am not sure) put the 2/3 majority for state legislators with tax increases. Our state is in a gridlock and I hope Jerry Brown is elected Governor to help put us out of it. Maria Shriver cannot convince Schwarzenegger to become a true Liberal, unfortunately.
On "What About George"
This article was straight up enjoyable to read. It was already a touching and memorable story but I felt that the writing made it even better. Sometimes it seems that any writing about a mental disability becomes cliched quickly. But to me, this article seemed purely factual and was extremely realistic.
On the matter of George, I believe that often times we (the so called sane and smart people) are too quick to commit people to institutions just because they are different. But I think George's success could be had by other autistic or challenged people if they were given a chance. In this way I look up to George's Parents and the Owners of the hardware store for realizing that though George was not the same, if you could get to know and understand him, he was extremely useful.
AMANDA:
I remember reading the California ballot article in the paper a week from tomorrow and was pretty shocked. Not yet being 18, I was/am ignorant to this issue and until reading the article was unaware of its many ramifications. Turning 18 in April, this is the kind of issue I want to know about. I want to be aware of such controversies and prepared when it is my turn to cast my own vote for the first time. The only bias I want to cary is my own, and if I had not read this article, it is likely that I may have succumb to the issues discussed. I think it would be easy to localize this piece as it applies to seniors turning 18 as well as faculty. I think if we wrote a sort of "heads up" or a brief summary of the issue, students and faculty would take it to heart and take time out of their day to do some research for themselves.
AMANDA:
The "What about George" article is a wonderful example of a profile. Not only do the multiple perspectives make it more dynamic but the intense amount of details which the writer used made the article sound like a story book. Instead of reading boring facts, finding out where they went to college, and if they have pets, I felt as though I was sitting in a chair across from George, looking at his knit cap and sweater in the cluttered hardware shop. I think the class should be required to read this article whenever we start writing profiles again.
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