Read every line.

Since I entered CreComm last fall, I have started looking carefully at everything I read. I question what the writer was thinking, where they obtained their information, and what circumstances surrounded the story. But more than anything, I search for spelling and grammatical errors.

Writing a grammatically and technically perfect piece of writing is hard work. It takes a lot of time and dedication, and a person really has to know what to look for when trying to edit.
In class last week, we were talking about the fact that basic spelling and grammar really isn’t taught effectively in school. Most students learn the parts of speech early, and have a refresher course in high school. That’s not nearly enough exposure, and the number of twenty-something’s who don't know what a noun or adjective is astounds me.

With that being said, I have included a few grammar sites that I think are quite helpful...

http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp
GrammarBook.com - This site breaks down basic grammar and punctuation rules. If you're confused about when to use a comma or colon, check it out!

http://www.splashesfromtheriver.com/spelling/spelling_rules.htm
Splashes From the River - This site explains some basic spelling rules. It's worth a read, and even if everything seems common sense, the refresher is good.

http://www.creativeteachingsite.com/humorgrammar.htm
Humorous Grammar Rules - This site is funny, but the rules make sense.

http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/branches/elearning/tsl/resources/subject_area/ELA/ELARR/Spelling.shtml
Spelling - This site is decent enough. Read the poem

Hopefully some of these websites will help. Maybe not. At the very least, they are an interesting read.

P.S. If there are spelling or grammatical errors in this blog, I quit.

Summer is the time to read

I love to read, and one of the most depressing aspects of being a full-time student is the lack of time available to read throughout the year. Don’t get me wrong – I read a LOT at school. But by the time I get home, finish my homework, start more homework, and finish THAT homework, I am too exhausted to pick up a book. Summer is my time to catch up on reading, and so far, I’m catching up quickly.

I have been out of school for just over a month, and I am proud to say that I have read 17 novels thus far. First, I tackled the Outlander series for probably the 20th time. I usually read Diana Gabaldon’s series two or three times a year, and I have yet to get bored of it.

After the Outlander series, I decided to re-read a few classics. I started with Middlemarch – my all-time favourite novel – and moved on to Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Little Women.

I also re-read Scar Tissue, and I think I read that book once or twice a year as well. It’s an engrossing story, and is told so well. After Scar Tissue, I re-read The Heroin Diaries – which is NOT told as well, in my opinion. I personally believe parts of the story have been fictionalized, but who knows.

Lately, I’m on a law/crime/spy kick. I read a variety of John Grisham novels, including The King of Torts, The Broker, and The Associate. Now I just need to see the movies for some of them (project, Jen). I read a few Jonathan Kellerman novels after that, and highly recommend The Innocent Man. It’s a true crime story about two men who were wrongly accused of murder, yet were sentenced to time in prison. One of them was actually sentenced to death row, and he narrowly escaped it.

Currently, I’m working through a collection of novels by James Patterson. I finished Along Came A Spider and Kiss The Girls – both of which were made into movies – and am working on Beach Road at the moment. It’s pretty good.

My goal is to read 50 books this summer. This is in addition to researching my IPP, writing my IPP, and submitting various other materials for publication. Sure, I can do it all. I just need to stop sleeping.

Let me be now, o, oh, let me be...

Last night, I went to the Burton Cumming's Theatre and saw Xavier Rudd perform. He is a too-cute-for-words Australian folk singer, and the concert was superb. I am not going to write a full review about the show, but I wanted to mention a few things that blew me away...

• IT WAS LONG - Everyone in the audience definitely got their money's worth. He must have played for at least two hours, and had tons of energy throughout the entire show. Some shows are so short they leave the audience feeling cheated; Rudd made the audience feel like they got what they deserved.
• HE PLAYED CRAZY INSTRUMENTS - Most of them I could identify, but Jeff had to explain what the didgeridoo and mahovina slide guitar were. I was blown away when Rudd began to play three didgeridoo's AND the drums simultaneously. Now that is talent.
• AUSSIES DON'T WEAR SHOES - When I was in Europe last year, we had a few people from Australia on our tour. Whenever possible, they would take off their shoes. Rudd didn't wear shoes at all last night. I don't get it. What if you step on something?
• HE PULLED GIRLS ONSTAGE - Yeah, and I wasn't one of them. They got to dance with him. He hugged them. Enough said. I'm bitter.
• HIS BAND ROCKED - Rudd had two other men with him. One played bass guitar; the other percussion. They both rocked. Absolutely rocked.

Xavier Rudd, I salute you. Hopefully you come back soon, when I have floor seats, and I will have the chance to ask you in-person why you don't wear shoes. Or I'll just hug you. That works too...

Rock on, research.

It has become obvious that my IPP will not begin successfully unless I start to do some serious research. And I don’t mean simply sitting in front of a computer screen and typing keywords into Google. I’m talking about getting out there, in the world, the real world, and doing some leg work.

I finally signed up for a library card two weeks ago, which was one small step for womankind, but now I have to spend the hours sitting in the library learning about Winnipeg. I also have to wander the areas of Winnipeg I will be writing about, because a picture will only get a person so far.

And so it begins...

My CreComm classmate – Samantha Pitsanuk – took pity on me and agreed to spend last Friday wandering around the downtown area checking things out. I had a number of locations I wanted to visit on my list, but it quickly became obvious that I would not get to them all. It was necessary to pick what was most important, and we started our day by walking down Main Street – disposable coffee cups in hand – in the direction of Winnipeg’s Union Station.

If you have never entered Union Station, I suggest you do so. Immediately. It is beautiful, and so often overlooked. Rail travel is nowhere near as popular or economical as it used to be, and I think that’s really sad. There is something very romantic about trains, which is one reason why I decided to include rail travel in my IPP.

The entryway is a large, circular room with marble floors and marble walls. A huge skylight sits high in the centre, and the entire room is framed by a second-storey walkway around the circle. Sam and I managed to find our way up to the second level, but a few people were giving us curious glances when we started to take pictures. After passing through the entryway, there is the waiting room, baggage claim, and staircase to the train platforms. It is all very old and very interesting. The train station opened in 1911, and it’s incredible to think of how many people have walked across the weathered, marble floors.

We next stopped at Upper Fort Garry – or what’s left of it. I am excited that The Forks North Portage Partnership is creating a historical site people will actually be excited to visit, because that wall is pretty old. There are large boards with photographs at the site currently, and they are fun to look at. Yes, there are people sleeping on benches nearby, but if you spend any amount of time downtown, you get used to it.

The Fort Garry Hotel was a short walk away, so Sam and I decided we needed to visit it as well. And plan my theoretical wedding. I have never been inside the hotel, and when I stepped through the revolving door I felt like I was walking into a scene from The Shining (is that on your movie list J-Han?). It`s truly magnificent, and I understand why people choose to be married there.

Our research day ended with lunch and a relaxing stroll through the Exchange District. By the time we reached the car, I realized I had more questions to answer than when I started. I know of at least twenty other pieces of information I have to research, and the list of places to visit grows by the minute. I guess that's the way you work through a project like this. Keep on going, and eventually, you're done.

Easy to say, hard to do... I have 6000 words written, and a long, long way to go...

Thanks for the lovely Friday, Sam. It looks like there will be many more in the future!

University essays... I don't miss you.

In CreComm, we are taught to write. Now, I don’t mean that we aren’t able to write. We just don’t know how to write in specific formats until we are properly trained. Journalism news stories, public relations news releases, and advertising copy. These are just some of the things a first-year CreComm student becomes acquainted with, and we are worked hard to refine each medium. Out of every class and every style I have been introduced to this past year, I must admit that I found writing for journalism to be the most difficult.

I had just graduated with a history degree, and the four years preceding my entry into CreComm were spent writing essay after essay after essay. University professors are specific about what they want to see in university calibre essays, and what they really want are words. Lots and lots of words. Big words, little words, simple words, complex words. It doesn’t matter. Throw a 15,000 word essay at a professor and you’re good to go. Things are not so simple in CreComm, and I found myself struggling at the beginning of the year to adapt to the difference.

I have spent the past eight months in journalism class learning to cut out unnecessary adjectives, construct stories in inverted pyramid style, and refrain from editorializing. My first story of the year was a testament to my university days, and despite being quite embarrassed about the piece, I will share what I wrote. We were given an assignment in which we had to interview a classmate and write about them. I really wanted to impress my instructor, so the following was my lead:

It was with the early morning traffic and first shift change of the day that Thomas Shirtliffe entered the world peacefully on January 24, 1990, at 6:30 a.m.

Ouch. That’s pretty much as wordy and watered-down as imaginable, and there is unecessary stuff floating everywhere in that sentence. I’m not even going to touch the fact that the sentence itself is crap. The point I’m trying to make is that I was used to making sentences long, drawn out, and full of descriptive details. That seemed to be how one was supposed to write in university.

My instructors comment about the lead was as follows: Why is this significant or interesting?

U huh. He’s got a point. When writing a history essay, many of the details can be uninteresting or downright boring. But professors want those details, so students deliver.

When writing a journalism story, everything that is not necessary or relevant should be omitted. After that, the story should be edited, revised, and cut some more. If your best friend’s, sister’s, next door neighbour’s grandmother didn’t have anything interesting to say, don’t quote her in the story. Don’t use a phrase like “his achievement level blossomed and flourished by leaps and bounds” when “he improved” will suffice. Finally, don’t assume things and include them as fact. How do I know if there was traffic the morning Thom was born? What if the shift change was at five-thirty, and not six-thirty? Why did I think writing that was a good idea in the first place? Granted, you’re not supposed to make things up when writing most essays either, but whenwriting for journalism,a falsified detail is the best way to be shown the door.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to attend university, and learn to write essays. I am also glad that I started attending Red River College, and have now learned how to edit, chop, dissect, and otherwise mutilate a piece of writing until it contains only the most important words. It has made me a better writer, and has taught me that it isn’t always necessary for a sentence to be long and detailed for it to be interesting. Hopefully, by the end of my summer class, I will be the best editor I can possibly be, and I will be able to axe any piece of writing to perfection.

Before I end this post, I want to include another example of my own writing. Just before class ended for the year, we were given the same assignment as at the beginning of the year. We interviewed a classmate and wrote about them – again – and the point of the exercise was to see if our skills had improved. Here’s what I wrote for my lead the second time around:

Sports are an integral part of life for many men and women throughout the world, and for Keith McCullough, they are also a necessity.

At least I didn’t mention his birth date, time of birth, or circumstances surrounding his birth. I think that’s progress.

Aqua Books hosts awesome events

Aqua Books has been a favourite hangout spot for me since I started Creative Communications last fall. Its combination of books and food fulfills pretty much every basic need, and its proximity to campus means I'm never more than a ten minute walk from a wealth of creativity. The bookstore also hosts over 200 events each year, and tonight I witnessed one of them. In celebration of the May Works 2010 Festival, I spent the evening listening to epic poetry and foot-tapping, head-bobbing music. Watching the performances gave me a much needed boost to continue writing the collection of short stories I have been slaving over for the past month. Sometimes the best way to find one's inner creativity is through the celebration of another person's creativity, and the "Bread and Roses" artistic evening gave me exactly what I needed.

Poet Ron Romanowski kicked off the evening with readings from two of his books, including Insurrection, a collection of poetry about the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. I purchased this book from McNally Robinson a few months ago, and it's definitely worth a read. What drew me to this collection in particular was the historical aspect. I am currently in the research stage of my IPP, and most of the stories are set in Winnipeg. I was curious to see how another Winnipegger approached writing about the city, and was not disappointed. Romanowski also read a few new pieces, which will be published next spring. His delivery was honest, straightforward, and heartfelt, and I believe words on a page really come alive when they are read aloud by the person who has written them.

Following Romanowski's poetry reading was a musical performance from Liliana Romanowski - Ron's wife - and Ferruccio Moscarda - Liliana's father. They performed a collection of songs together, and brought the audience through both the "bread" and "roses" aspects of the evening. Liliana's vocals were very impressive, and she is currently training with an opera singer at the University of Manitoba. Moscarda accompanied her on guitar. After listening to him, I wanted nothing more than to run home and play my own guitar. Which I will. After writing this blog. My favourite part of the performance was when father and daughter sang an Italian love song together. There is something about song in foreign languages that simply can't compare to English. Maybe that's why I love the opera.

Finally, John Baillie read his poetry, and this man is absolutely hilarious. His poetry is great, but his delivery is simply superb. I have not laughed that hard in a long time, and he seems like the kind of interesting, animated individual you would want to buy a beer and talk to for hours. Writing is definitely an art, and the way Baillie constructs sentences to be both humorous and informative is artistry at its finest. I could learn a thing or two from this man.

The evening was fantastic, and I am impressed by how confidently and gracefully each of the presenters took the stage and shared their passions. I will strive to be able to present my work with such flair, and hopefully one day it will be me who has both the microphone and attention of an entire room. Watching fellow Winnipeggers do what they love is the perfect way to spend an evening.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some more writing to do...

Yes, we have a navy. True story.

There's always room for shameless self-promotion on my blog, and what follows is a link to the online edition of Canada's History magazine. My internship there ended in April, but items I wrote are still being posted. Check it out!

http://www.canadashistory.ca/getdoc/dc3159a0-85f4-4c9e-8fd3-9847f8f65fc8/default.aspx