https://soundcloud.com/byu-english-society/my-story-episode-004-justin-shaw
The BYU English Society presents the fourth episode of its weekly audio podcast, My Story. This week, English Society’s podcast producer Justin Shaw talks about his experiences at the Washington Seminar, working with the Democratic Caucus.
Washington Seminar: https://washingtonseminar.byu.edu/pages/default.aspx
Internship Opportunities: http://englishinternships.byu.edu.
The BYU English Society presents its weekly video digest. This week, host Davis Blount deals with hate mail and he and Chalene Riser give the skinny on events this week.
Poetry Slam Promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSr9JlIIuEY&feature=youtu.be
My Story Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/byu-english-society\
Three-Minute Student Reading Series: Come listen to invited readers read anything from flash fiction to tweets. Open mic to follow. Friday, Sept. 25, 3322 HBLL, 6:30 p.m.
This past week we recorded a podcast with BYU English alumna Rachel Rueckert. Here’s a recent online article she wrote about her experiences in India that got 27,000 shares. On top of freelance travel writing, Rachel is working for Harvard University, creating MOOCs (massive open online courses). In her interview with BYU English Society’s “My Story” host, Davis Blount, Rachel said, straight up, that she would not have had her Harvard job or her travel writing opportunities if she had not learned to blog while at BYU.
Maybe you should be blogging.
My students have gotten internships based off of their blogging. They have been solicited to submit articles to journals. They have demonstrated publicly that they can think things through, work on projects with others, and build their ideas in response to the interactions they’ve sought out socially, online, with experts and interested parties rather than keeping their thoughts between them, their computer, and their teachers. Blogging has given them street cred they have banked on.
If you are an undergraduate, your experience with social media has probably been mostly very casual — connecting with existing friends, and maybe following a sports team or celebrities. That’s okay. But it isn’t enough. Why do I teach blogging? Because I want my students
The English Society has a world of content and good purposes about which students can blog.
Our blog isn’t just a broadcast channel, another way to get the word out! It’s a proving grounds for English majors who are smart enough to realize they need to make their thinking public and practice collaborating within teams, and who realize that this is a chance to practice a skill that isn’t in the official university curriculum. Neither is getting a job, or making a name for yourself, of course.
We didn’t ask Rachel, but if she had to do it over again, I’m sure she would say that the time she spent honing her skills for writing online was as consequential as all the other good things she learned while an undergraduate.
So, blog. Blog together. Blog to make a difference for the club, for yourself, and for the future.
Chances are you’re already doing some online writing, whether it’s a full blog post or a caption for a picture on Facebook.Online writing is becoming incredibly common and for all audiences, so what are the requirements for good online writing?
First, I’ll explain the difference between online writing and print writing. There are honestly quite a lot of similarities between the two styles of writing, but print is allowed to be a little lengthier. The layout of magazines draws the reader with colors and illustrations. Magazines tend to be a little more artsy, meaning that you can add a little more flair to your work to catch the reader’s attention.
Reading articles online is a lot harder than reading them in print, so people don’t read web articles, they scan them. They pick out headings, sentences, and phrases. If that quick scan is an information overload or not interesting enough, they will notcontinue reading. Studies have shown that web articles should be about half the length of print articles.
Here are some rules for web writing:
That doesn’t mean you have to put “Mom gave birth to baby with three heads. What happens next will make you cry…” Don’t be tacky, but make it interesting. A common trend right now is “7 Ways…” or “How to…” type of things. Putting “Faith Gives You Wings,” is pretty, but putting “4 Ways to Strengthen Your Faith” is clear and SEO-friendly (easy to search).
Don’t do this.
Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized attractions that draw large crowds of people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of the most popular places were Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors), Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum (100,000), Carhenge (86,598), Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002), and Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446).
Do this.
In 1996, six of the most-visited places in Nebraska were:
Though, unless you’re writing for a travel company, your audience may not be incredibly interested in Nebraska (see number 9).
Clarity and simplicity are the keys here. When in doubt, make it simpler.
Follow these steps and you’re well on your way to becoming a quality online writer.
The BYU English Society presents the third episode of its weekly audio podcast, My Story. This week, Internship Advocate Sarah Barlow tells the story of her internship with Cedar Fort Publishing. For internship opportunities visit http://englishinternships.byu.edu.
The BYU English Society presents its weekly news show, featuring updates on the English Society’s opening social, the internship fair, Involvapalooza, this week’s Reading Series, and opportunities with campus journal, Criterion.
The BYU English Society presents the first two episodes of its weekly video news show, Major English News.
Episode 001: Introducing Major English News and BYU’s English Society. Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Episode: 002: Mourning Learning Suite, discussing the opening social, future poetry slam, new English major advisement (http://english.byu.edu/academics/undergraduate-advisors?ticket=ST-1231958-xbGOIiCiy3ViaGMkKoDi-smaug3) and info about this week’s audio podcast, featuring Jenny Poffenbarger talking about her internship at the church (https://soundcloud.com/byu-english-society).
The BYU English Society presents the first two episodes of its weekly audio podcast, My Story.
https://soundcloud.com/byu-english-society/my-story-episode-001
Episode 001: English Society members tell “their story.”
https://soundcloud.com/byu-english-society/my-story-episode-002-jenny-poffenbarger
Episode 002: Davis Blount sits down with English Society President Jenny Poffenbarger to discuss her web content internship with the Church, her experience as an English major and an embarrassing moment she had with Elder David A. Bednar.
Last week at the English Reading Series we had the privilege of hearing from Robert Pinsky. Not only did Pinsky serve as poet laureate, he also turns out to be a marvelous reader. I’ll be the first to admit that my eyes tend to glaze over a bit when I hear poetry read aloud (sorry, no tar and feathers, please), but Pinsky had an entertaining and almost magical way of reading. He read a bit out of his translation of Dante’s Inferno (which I didn’t know about but seriously, it was so much better than the other translations I’ve read–no offense to other translators), and then he took requests for individual poems. He also answered several audience questions, such as “What advice would you give an aspiring writer?” His answer–take note, you aspiring writers out there–was to “Make your own anthology of works you love.”
This week’s reading (Friday at noon in the library auditorium) will be from Wade Bentley, one of Utah’s own poets. Don’t miss it!
Did you attend Robert Pinsky’s reading? What did you think?
The following is a sort of “advice column” from the Writing Center that gives some writing tips for academic papers.
In high school you might have learned to write essays with five paragraphs: one to introduce your thesis, three to argue it, and one to conclude it. Writing at the collegiate level, however, rarely allows for such a rigid formula. Depending on the complexity and depth of your assignment, you might have to provide more than just evidence for your thesis. You may have to contextualize it, challenge its counterarguments, offer solutions—things that could employ any number of paragraphs, not just five.
A strong thesis can help you avoid formulaic writing and effectively communicate with your audience. The more you learn about the purpose, definition, and technique of thesis statements, the stronger your theses will become, and the more your subsequent skills of organization, technique, and style will improve.
A thesis defines the scope of a piece of writing, the limits of what material your work will cover. It helps readers understand what to look for as they read, and it can help keep you from digressing as you write. Additionally, a thesis gives the writing energy, a sense of forward motion, which captivates your readers and leads them through each paragraph to the conclusion.
Your job in researching a topic is to compile observations, which are deductive statements about the facts that you discover. You may conclude something like:
“Julius Caesar was a tyrant.”
While this opinion is useful in beginning your writing, it’s difficult to sustain strong academic writing on such a one-dimensional idea. A strong thesis combines observations with perspective. As you collect your observations, ask yourself what factors might have caused the conditions of your observation or what implications your observation might lead to. You might posit something like
“Julius Caesar’s experience in the military cultured his tyrannical behavior.”
A perspective like this adds dimension to your writing, which will ultimately make it more reasonable and engaging.
Strong theses also employ concrete words, which reference particular, explicit ideas. Words like “Julius Caesar,” “aggressive,” “establishment,” and “dictator” are specific enough to form a coherent concept and keep your reader from getting confused. With more concrete words, a thesis might look something like this:
“Julius Caesar’s aggressive leadership at the Battle of Alesia led to his establishment as a dictator.”
Try to think of your thesis from an unbiased perspective. Have you considered all the implications of your argument? What would someone who disagrees with you have to say? The strongest theses do not ignore their counterarguments, but confront them openly. They inspire opposing points of discussion, rather than put them down.
Developing these advanced strategies might seem overwhelming, but practicing them as much as you can will improve your writing in the long run. If you ever need help, come talk to a Writing Center tutor.