A brief letter to editing 422

Hi All,

My name is Cathryne. I grew up in Dallas and moved to Topeka when I was 14. I have two dogs and two cats. I love traveling, shopping, and reading. I have two blogs, one is about thrift shopping and the other is about recipes, restaurants, and food products.

I had an amazing grammar teacher in 6th grade. She taught me the acronym Ivan Capp. I feel like I have a pretty solid foundation of grammar knowledge, but today's quiz left me thinking otherwise. Currently, I intern for se2 and I have helped proofread all of their onboarding material and eLearning courses.

-Cathryne 

Introducing Josh Wallentine

If I had it my way, I wouldn't need an introduction. I mean, I am Josh Wallentine after all - Just kidding. I am a junior from Wichita, Kansas. My family has two dogs and two cats who are all rescued. One was rescued from a puppy mill and one was rescued at the bottom of the kennel from a hoarders house. One cat we rescued from a farm, which isn't much of a rescue, but it was in the middle of a blizzard! Our other cat was found in a beer box on the side of a street. She weighed only 2 oz. when we adopted her and was miraculously a "false-positive" for kitty leukemia. It is a crazy life, but I wouldn't have it any other way! I am easy going. I like to watch racing, take naps, and run with my girlfriend. I hate running, but she makes it a little more bearable.

I don't have any more experience with editing other than that of high school. I am remaining optimistic about this class, even though Regina seems to make it out to be so awful! :)

Welcome to Editing!

Give us a quick introduction and in the last line share your overall experience with editing :)

Thanks!

Reporting and Writing? Same as Tow-May-Toe/ Tow-Ma-Toe?

(390 Words)

I remember clearly a night I was riding my bike with my family on the Shunga Trail, which is located really close to campus, just to the south of 21st Street. Sometimes I daydream as I ride along and other times ideas will float into my mind.

There were a lot of families out last night, but so many other things were happening. I started to think about how fun it would be to turn into reporter mode and find out some interesting information. Why were two people climbing up the big tree in the open area just west of Gage Boulevard? They had climbing ropes and were high up in the tree. Were they just having a night of fun or preparing for a big climbing trip?

A little while later I noticed a trio who had set up their temporary hammocks in a trio of trees. Young people sitting in the tree, lounging, and having conversation. I wondered is this a new hobby? Was this a planned outing or a spontaneous whim realized?

Many smaller groups lined the trail engaged in games of Frisbee golf and many others were walking dogs along the generous pathway. Here a slice of the community coming together for an ordinary Tuesday evening.

Had I spent a mere 10 minutes talking to any of these groups, I would have had more than enough information to write up a quick human interest story.

I share this with you today because I have been meeting with or having phone conversations with media professionals supervising our mass media interns. The ability to write well and communicate with diverse people was mentioned to me over and over again. I'm 100 percent biased, as a trained journalist myself, but I firmly believe working as a reporter for a year gives anyone an amazing lineup of skills to begin any number of career paths.

As you all begin to consider future paths, I urge you to consider taking a journalism class or working for Student Media. This fall, I am also offering a pretty cool WTE that would look terrific on anyone's diploma. You can even complete it as an independent study if you wish, which would give you mass media elective credit. Contact me if you are interested. You can apply online for Washburn Student Media at www.washburnreview.org.

The em dash, en dash and hyphen

The EM dash:

http://www.wordrake.com/writing-tips/emenem-part-i/

The EN dash:

http://www.wordrake.com/writing-tips/emenem-part-ii-of-iii-the-en-dash/

The HYPEN:

http://www.wordrake.com/writing-tips/emenem-part-iii-of-iii-the-hyphen/

A boring night turns into a victory

(Needed two stories to edit)

She sat there, all cuddled up in sweatpants, a hoodie, fuzzy socks, and a big fluffy blanket that warmed her in happiness. The room was filled with silence; only the murmur of the heater turning on created a calming and soothing mood. The candlelight flickering on the coffee table was her only company. Nights like these, without her roommates, brought the right peace that allowed her to finally relax and finish her homework.
 

Suddenly the moment is disturbed as the roommates and their friends magically get off work early and ruin everything. They turn-on all the lights, turn the TV on to ESPN, and take over a perfectly nice evening. She was really enjoying the night and felt disappointment to have it ruined in less than ten minutes. Had her boyfriend, one of the roommates, not brought her a Jimmy John’s sub and some curly fries from Arby’s, two of her favorite things, she would have lost it. They both knew they could count on food to calm her down instantly and make her smile.
 

She then realized that they came home for the Chiefs vs. Raiders game! She became immediately pumped to watch. Her boyfriend was from California and is a die-hard Raiders fan; she also hated the Chiefs so naturally they were the only two in the room cheering for them to win. The Raiders won over the Chiefs and it turned an awesome night turned to a crappy night then turned to an amazing night

Student arrives late, like usual (Edited)

 (I needed to edit another post so I just chose this one, Regina)

Edited by: Jenn Funk

She glanced down at her phone and realized her first class started five minutes ago. Once again, she was going to be late.

If it weren’t for the horrendous morning she just had, she may have made it to class on time. She had set the alarm on her phone to go off at 8:15 a.m. That gave her 45 minutes to complete her morning routine, which was plenty of time. However, she woke up on her own that morning and abruptly learned that her alarm never went off. It was now 8:45 a.m. While jumping out of bed, she wondered what went wrong. Did she accidentally set her phone on silent? Was there a problem with her phone? After rechecking the time she had set for the alarm, she found that it was her mistake. Her alarm was set for 8:15, but 8:15 p.m. instead of a.m. like she had intended.

She rushed to get ready after mistake No. 1 that morning. Clothes were frantically being thrown around her room as she tried getting dressed while combing her hair. As she got ready to leave, she hoped she looked at least half-decent because she didn’t have the time to glance at herself in the mirror.

That’s when she stumbled across mistake No. 2. She had lost her shoe. One shoe was on, but the other was nowhere to be found. Her pesky dog possessed a bad habit of stealing shoes and hiding them wherever he pleased. While silently scorning her pet she searched under her bed and the couch. Finally, she spotted her missing shoe behind the door. While tempted to yell at the dog, she knew she had only herself to blame and sprinted out the door instead.

After checking the time, maybe she would only be a little late after all. It was 8:55 a.m. and she knew that if she could make the drive to school quicker, she would make it to class sooner than expected.  That assumption was mistake No. 3 because she didn’t foresee was that every single stoplight would turn red upon her arrival. This caused her to be stuck in the middle of morning traffic. Her hands moved up and down the steering wheel anxiously and she muttered "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon".

When she finally turned into the school parking lot, she took a deep breath. Her clock said 8:59 a.m. She was late, but not too late.

Her next task was to find a parking spot. Mistake No. 4 was hoping that she could find a close one. On the days when she actually did arrive on time, it was still nearly impossible. She quickly circled the parking lot for the first time, desperately looking out her window at every parking stall. Every spot was taken. She circled once more; this time more carefully searching to see if there were any available stalls she may have missed before. Nothing.

Reluctantly, she decided to park in a different lot that was farther away. Only there, was she able to finally find a spot. She swerved into the stall, coming to a screeching halt. It was 9:05 a.m. and she knew that she would not only be late, but really late. Her day was not off to a good start. She jumped out of her car, grabbed her bag and sprinted to class.