The Last Blog

Based off of these NPR videos I feel like I have a fairly good start with my script and I think that it follows the NPR way pretty well.  The whole idea behind the NPR transcripts is that for the most part they sound like a type of essay format.  Being that they are mostly in essay format with quotes used to support what the narrator parts are saying.  For the introductions NPR usually starts by talking about some background information on the topic and gives a general idea about what the rest of the report will be about.  In the “body” of the report which seems essentially just like the body paragraphs of an informative essay, they start to talk about all of the ideas that have been put forth in the introduction.  Clips of interviews that pertain to what the narrator is talking about at that point in time are cut and edited in, in order to reinforce what the narrator is saying.  The narrator never says anything such as in this interview or has any of the questions that they asked the interviewee in the actual script.  They also just use some things from the audio interviews and not the entire interview.  If they used the entire interview it would start to become boring.  For the conclusion of the NPR stories, most of them end mostly like a regular typed informative essay.  NPR uses the conclusions to reiterate some of the ideas put forth in the rest of the essay and give a general recollection of what was spoken about.  There are a few things that I definitely need to elaborated on in my script which professor L helped me figure out today during workshop and I think that overall I am on the right track to finishing and producing a good audio essay.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/11/27/165677915/do-orchestras-really-need-conductors

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/28/166087459/propeller-planes-come-back-amid-high-fuel-prices

Transcript for WP#3

Sound effect of leaves rustling and birds chirping

Tyler Hilt: Every other Tuesday in the fall and in the spring a large crowd of people and a large number of tents gather just west of the memorial union for the morning’s farmer’s market.  Farmer’s markets have been around for ages, as an easy place for farmers to sell their fresh produce and crops which coincidently provides a great place for anyone looking for some fresh food to buy things easily and cheaply.  The markets help many people out providing inexpensive places for the farmers to sell things as well as for buyers to get good prices.  The main push behind the farmers market here on the ASU campus is to try and give rise to the notion of better sustainability in the environment, give the students of ASU an easy place where they can get healthy and fresh food.  A good majority of the food items sold at the market are from local farms around the phoenix valley area.

Interview attendee:  I think that it’s really cool that somebody would take the time to hold one of these Farmer’s markets so that all of us students can enjoy it!  The fact that I’m helping the environment at the same time is pretty cool too.

Tyler Hilt: There is a very wide variety of foods available for you to purchase at the market, such as anything from fresh baked bread, all kinds of muffins, and any other kind of baked goods that you can think of from companies such as “The Bread Basket” to fresh made cheese by the “Arizona Cheese Company” to fresh locally grown produce from companies such as “TJ Farms” and also “Tiger Mountain Foundation”.  To go along with all the fresh foods that can be purchased at the farmers market there are also a bunch of food vendors serving ready to eat food like pies and sausage, pork and biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and even tamales for all the authentic Mexican food lovers on campus. If you are not sure what you should by and you just want to try some things to begin with, you are in luck!  Most of the vendors selling the items like bread and jams and other things will very gladly let you try a small sample to let you see just how good all of their fresh made foods are.

Interview of a girl attendee:  I absolutely love coming here and trying all of the stuff there is to eat.  I really want to try the tamales but the line is super long!  I love getting the jam as well as it is always super good.

Tyler Hilt: Now you may be wondering with all this talk of fresh produce and good food why would anyone even think to bring something like this to the ASU campus?  Well the answer to that question begins all the way back in the fall semester of 2007 by a group of nine students for a class project.  Initially it was just a project for their class and there were no more events for the next two years.  In September of the 2009 school year the ASU Wellness committee along with the Health and Counseling Student Action Committee decided that they would bring back the farmers market for a onetime event to promote wellness around campus.  The lone farmers market event had so much success that every year since the farmers market has been in its usual place right next to the fountain just west of the Memorial Union building. 

Sound effect of fountains

Interview attendee:  You know this is the first time that I have been to a farmers market.  One of my friends told me about it after they went a couple of weeks ago and they told me to check it out and I think it was pretty cool just wish they had more stuff but I think I will come back the next time that one is held, it definitely speaks for the push of the school to become more healthy.

Tyler Hilt: The farmers market allows many people to add a certain amount of sustainability to their lives while they live here at the bustling Tempe campus.  The event helps by cutting pollution because transportation distances and costs are cut because the food doesn’t have to travel to huge warehouses and other such things before even making it to the store for you to buy.  The food such as produce essentially comes directly from the farms and is transported directly to the market.  If you wish to take part in one of the farmers markets and buy something there are many dates that it is open per year and a wide range of times open as well.  Begging on the last Tuesday of September in the fall the farmers market is open every other Tuesday until the Tuesday before thanksgiving in November.  If you missed all of these dates and still want to go and experience it the market reopens the third Tuesday in January and is every other Tuesday until the second to last Tuesday in April.  On the day of the event the market opens at nine o’clock in the morning and goes all the way to two o’clock in the afternoon giving a wide range of times for people that have classes during this time to go.  Be sure to make it down to one of the events in the spring all of the fall dates of now passed.

Writing Project #3 Ideas

For writing project number three I will be doing an event and that event is the Farmers market that takes place every other Tuesday during the fall and during the spring as well.  For sources I will be going down to the event this next Tuesday, November 20, 2012.  I know this doesn’t leave me much time before the first draft is due next Thursday but it will have to do.  I will be interviewing some of the people there to get their opinions about the market, such as what they like about it and why they went to it.  Along with this I plan to find some information on the background information on a little bit of the history of farmer’s markets.  Also I will be talking about when these take place as well.  I will start out by talking about what a farmers market is and where they came from.  Then I will have a couple of interviews played that talk about their views on it. After this I will talk about the interview a little bit and then proceed to add a couple more interviews and talking about them as well.  I will then go and talk a little bit about when you can go there and what you can expect to find.

Reflection on Writing Project #2

            In all honesty I for the most part liked writing project #2.  I actually thought that it was fun because I got to go the places and take pictures of them and write what I thought was good and bad about them.  Being that it was not a continuous single writing piece and it was broken up into the introduction and the separate annotations made it much more enjoyable to write.  Some other things that I liked were that I got to do a topic that I was actually interested in. 

            Some things that I didn’t like about the project were that it was still a writing project and I have a hard time writing these sorts of things.  Coming up with an idea of what I wanted to do for this project was fairly difficult because there are so many different things to do on and around campus.  Coming up with credible sources was also somewhat difficult for this project because there are not that many people who have written papers on places around the ASU campus.  Another difficult thing to do was to come up with the criteria that I wanted to use to analyze the places I chose.  I wanted to pick things that would actually be helpful to people which turned out to be more difficult than I thought. 

            Once I actually came up with all the places and the criteria to evaluate them, writing the essay was fairly straight forward.  There wasn’t and super complicated things that we have to do and unlike Prof L’s class we could write in a less formal tone which also made the paper more fun to write.  Overall I liked the style of the paper and I would definitely do it again compared to a regular essay or an audio essay.

Ch. 17 & 18 blog

Chapter seventeen talks about using sources effectively in writings.  It talks about the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing and quotations which we also did in work shop.  These things are used to introduce points in writings.  Quotations also work very well and are often used to support the different sides of a disagreement.  The amount of arguments that can be made is based solely on the amount of material in the sources of the quotations.  When disputing things you must provide evidence.  The evidence is best found from authority sources because this makes the dispute that much more believable.  Using quotes along with this evidence helps you seem even more like an authority.  Quotations can also be used to set the mood of the argument whether that be funny and exciting or sad and depressing.  When explaining things it is better to use an example then to just tell a description.  The reader has an easier time understanding this way.  You must always also use in text citations when using quotes, summarizing, and paraphrasing.  There are two main different styles of citations that are used.  One style is MLA which stands for the modern language association.  Another style is the APA format and the Chicago style.  When using quotations in paragraphs it is better to use fewer quotations but ones that are more relevant to your topic, do not over quote.  Always avoid plagiarism by using proper citations.

            When creating your masterpiece there are several qualities that make it more pleasing for the reader to read.  One is the balance of where things like pictures are located on the page.  It is best to try and make things symmetrical.  This leads people to enjoy reading it more.  Another one is the way that titles and headings stand out and how easy they are to spot.  Also that if you use page numbers or headers and footers they should be all the same on each page.  On every page there should be the same size margins and spacing as well.  Different colors, shading, and fonts can make a paper more appealing to the eye of the reader but can sometimes take away from the main points and aspects of the actual paper.  Different spacing can also make the paper nicer to read.  Many times double spacing is preferred because it makes the paper much easier to read.  These things all make papers more interesting to look at.