responses to class handouts

Zabrina Evans
ENG 303 Multimedia Writing
January 24, 2011
Handout Responses

Answering the question: “How is what I gave you to read going to help you write your Professional Writing Story?”
“Elements of Story”
This reading will benefit my Professional Writing Story in many ways. I feel that it drove my thinking to the creative side of my brain, and re-opened my mental doors of possibility. The author, Francis Flaherty, speaks of using movement and flow as well as metaphors in order to give more depth and meaning to one’s stories, which are all ideas I never thought to use for this assignment. The theme section of his book was helpful, in that, I was reminded of the importance of maintaining my specific theme , even if tangents in the story are necessary, always come back to my original idea behind the writing. My favorite, and personally most helpful, section would be that of “Bang the Drum Strategically.” The story of the two men and their interpretation of the weather man’s predictions and how they utilized the same information differently is a great way of reiterating how the importance of word placement and use can greatly affect the reader’s response to the written piece.
This idea of strategic word placement as well as theme and the others mentioned will greatly benefit my Professional Writing Story, in that, it has brought to my attention the idea that many aspects of writing can jump from creative to business writing and everything in between. Whereas before I felt that metaphors and flow and rhythm were more just used for creative or non-fiction pieces, making business writing a stiff and monotone. Another great point about writing that will help me in this assignment is that of motion. I really enjoyed Flaherty’s metaphor for that, being, “Good stories are a brisk journey, and the reader can always feel the breeze in his hair.” The story of the fruit bat helps me because, I will be writing about music and its influences and importance, because of that, there are facts to be brought to my readers attention, yet at the same time I will still have and need some leeway room to “bring it to life” if you will. The metaphors allow humor to be brought into a subject that is already somewhat light hearted, but still needs to be factual and well presented in order to get a trustworthy message across.
I believe there is a little something from each section that will benefit my story. The last section about “A Stirring in the Garden,” was helpful to me because in went through a few examples of different ways of telling the same story, and how to prepare the readers for what’s to come. It allows a buildup of the main idea yet fills in details to make it real, to really bring the reader into the story no matter what the underlying subject or purpose maybe. A thing that I realized as a reader to this piece, was that the each passage encompassed all of these writing technics, using the flow of a river and the metaphor of that and a boat and people on the ship, continuous and connected each subject matter. In doing this, gave a better example of how to make those ideas work. Just as something I appreciated from this, was Flaherty admitting flaws and speaking that any writer can be a bad writing at times and vice versa, one just has to get their groove going and the mind and pen will take over from there.
“What is Story?”

In answering the same question, “ How is what I gave you to read going to help you write your Professional Writing Story?”, in relation to the second handout I read, it really motivated my writing. I was at first going to write about the passion and importance of music and how it has really helped my develop and grow, but then I realized after the first piece and just getting through the beginning of “What is Story?”, my mind was changed and decided. I need to be able to describe fully and really get people into the story, not just by saying words and telling, but by showing them as well. Really allowing the reader to stand in my shoes and feel it. I felt that I could have a more descriptive and personal narrative with the topic of my past drug use and how it has changed me, in that presenting a somewhat “Anti-Drug Campaign”, one that hopefully I can share with many people one day and truly help others.
After reading just the first section, experience reconstituted, it allowed me to realize that because I have so many of my own deep feelings and experiences for the idea that a story is “a remained experience narrated with enough detail and feeling to cause your listeners’ imaginations to experience it as real,” I felt it more appropriate and beneficial for me to write about an experience for me that is very real and meaningful. The author also talks about how people are prone to recognition in a negative sense, I felt that this correlates to drug users and the disease of addiction in general. The line that really sold me on changing my idea was “know that you need to vent frustrations, and you need to vent them by telling stories.” This is absolutely true, and since I was, at first, going to write about my past drug use then changed subjects because I didn’t want to vent, I realized it would be good for me, as well as the paper. I also realized from this that through my story I can share the importance of music and how it helped me change and grow and move into a new chapter of life.
This piece overall lead me to my paper idea and gave me several great pointers on how to begin the story and share a message without seeming to preachy or being a “I know what you’re thinking” style of story. I would like my story to be informational, influential and be a message that is mine and only mine, yet at the same time can apply to the masses and impact people in a particular way. I feel that this piece was more helpful, in that it talked more of story telling and the rights, wrongs and proper ways to tell different stories versus the basic ideas of writing and story telling.