Blogs, Twitter, YouTube, – Oh, My!

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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The internet has given us many avenues to express our thoughts and make them available for public consumption.  From the various blog sites available (livejournal, blogspot, wordpress) to  140 character updates on twitter, popular amongst celebrities and politicians, to posting videos on youtube – information can now be passed on to the masses more quickly than ever.  However, I fear that many people, unfortunately many who belong to my own generation, do not realize that with the freedom to publish any thoughts we may have at the very moment they occur to us means we also must deal with those consequences.  One such example of publishing without any forethought is of a young UCLA student who posted a video on YouTube performing racist impressions of her fellow Asian students.  Stating: “I swear they’re going through their whole phone book, checking on everybody with this tsunami thing.” The student in question is now under review and may face punishment for her actions if she is found to be in violation of the UCLA University Code of Conduct, all because she posted a three minute video online.

Please note that this post is not intended to pardon the UCLA student of her actions, merely point out that publishing, especially online content, may have unforeseen consequences.

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Of THE I sing

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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It’s National Poetry Month, so I want to highlight some found verbal art. Southern Oregon University has a new logo and vision. We’ve got the big concentric U. The u-in-a-U replaces the old moving mountains—or tombstone—logo. The new logo says University more loudly. And, of course, it says “so you,” in text-message format: so u.

The best part is our new tag line: THE public liberal arts university of the West. I like that. Especially the THE part, pronounced with the long vowel. Many of us say “thuh” before a consonant and “thee” before a vowel: thuh professor, thuh student, but thee answer, thee Oregonian. Check it out. You especially hear it when actors act, or better yet, when singers sing.

We put this long-short vowel distinction to use in another way also: when we use the “thee” pronunciation before a consonant, or hold it for an extra beat before a vowel, it creates emphasis—a sense of unsurpassability: THE play to see, THE book to read. What we say with the long vowel is the one and only, the ne plus ultra.

THE is not the only interesting word in our new tag line. The phrase “public liberal arts university” is intriguing. I find myself wondering if “public” and “liberal arts” are equal modifiers of “university” or whether we might be talking about “public liberal arts.” That would be a different, and in some ways, more interesting thing: a liberal arts engaged with public issues as opposed to one merely accessible to the public. Either is good, but they are different. (And remember, “liberal” here means “freeing” not “leftist“ and “arts” is broader than just fine arts.)

“Of the West” is interesting too. In saying “of the West,” do we mean location, culture or relevance? Are we in the West (West Coast, west of the Rockies, west of the Mississippi)? Are we about the West? Are we for the West?

The public liberal arts university of the West is verbless. That invites readers to supply their own verb: an “is” or a “will be.” It’s smart for an aspirational tag line to be verbless. We can be even as we are becoming. And once we are it will seem that we have always been.

What’s your tag line?

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Travel Writing Workshop with Midge Raymond

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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Midge Raymond began her workshop on Travel Writing by stating that you do not have to go far to travel write. This may be a misconception preventing many people from documenting an adventure even 20 minutes away from home. “Places are always exotic to someone,” she said. This reminded me of the Japanese exchange student my family had living with us when I was young who was absolutely amazed to see deer wandering the streets of Ashland, something all too familiar to native Ashlanders.

She gave us many tips for character development, most of them along the same lines as Jennifer Margulis’s advice on character development.  Midge said to try placing a character in a place he or she would never go, which I think is a great exercise. She also said to pay close attention to how characters look, how they act, and what they say. As always, character development and dialogue are crucial for non-fiction, as well as fiction.

Midge had us do three writing exercises. The first prompt was to describe a person we had seen while traveling, and then describe how that person viewed us. This was one of my favorite exercises. I never thought to describe myself through a stranger’s perception.

The second prompt asked us to describe the sound, smell, texture, and mood of a place. Each sense had to be described on its own. Midge suggested noticing what is different about a place from home, as we often subconsciously seek out similarities to feel comfortable.

Lastly, we had to choose between describing an awful event in a lovely place or a beautiful event happening in a dark place. I chose to write about a positive event taking place somewhere dangerous. This opposition was interesting to work with.

Midge gave us several handouts including travel book and magazine recommendations and a thorough list of travel writing tips. Overall, the workshop was helpful and informative. I am looking forward to writing my research paper on travel writing.

 

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“How-To” Fight Illiteracy

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Ed Battistella
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For my research topic, I’ve decided to do a “How-to” guide that assesses the basic elements of initiating a small press for those who want to become publishers. My research will focus on these basic area:

1. Intention and developing business concepts, such as knowing what types of books you intend to publish and who the audience will be

2. Start-up action such as setting up business accounts, websites, licensing, and reserving tax codes

3. Sources of expense, including agreements and contracts, royalties for writers and designers, printing, shipping, warehousing, marketing, etc

4. Finding and commissioning writers: this will include accepting and reviewing manuscripts as well as the editing and completion process

5. A basic illustration of the journey a manuscript makes once it reaches a publisher until it is on a consumers bookshelf

Essentially, my paper will be a summary of my interview with Tod Davies, other available interviews with publishers, available literature on starting small businesses and presses (although there are few guides on becoming a publisher and more on how to self-publish), and online guides and classes. Think of it as a literature view targeted at people with incredibly short attention spans.

Although my paper topic seems dry compared to others is our class, it’s the beginning research before I write my own business plan and dive into the entrepreneurial market as a small publisher. The goal of my press will be to publish didactic texts in these two fields: children’s books and picture books on alternative subjects, and picture books and texts for improving adult literacy. My goals are numerous but rooted in my passion for bridging the literacy gap in this country. Two broad goals are: To improve literacy and make books give struggling adult readings books that meet their low reading level but high critical thinking level, but also to approach children’s unique postmodern understanding of the world through new ideas and concepts.

You can visit these links to get a picture of what I intend to publish:

http://kidcrave.com/uncategorized/unconventional-childrens-books/

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/category/Adult-Literacy.aspx

http://www.literacyconnections.com/PictureBooksforAdultReaders.php (the recommendations for adults, as you can see, are bleak.)

Graphic novels, and the darker humor of writers like Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez have also had a great impact as tool for barely literate readers from the ages 15-35.

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