Reilly's Ramblings

Reilly Mahon

Ross Fuglsang

Story #2 Reflection

26 October 2017

Socializing Story Reflection

This experience with writing this recent story was very well for me. As a future sports reporter, I need all of the experience that I can write quick stories. This story helped me with my interviewing problem of just going up to people, ask them if they want to be interviewed and ask them questions about the socializing problem in today’s society. This reflection is going to be a learning lesson on reporting and what I need to improve to be a better reporter.

The part of the assignment that concerned me the most was the interviews. Interviews worried me because I am not good with going up to people and asking them questions. The interviewing part of the assignment helped me get out of my shell and talk to strangers. This concern affected my writing process of trying to have all of the interviews done before the first draft was due. Scheduling interviews are hard to do because you’re making sure that your schedule and the interviewee’s schedule are available at the same time. I decided to go straight up to the interviewees’ and asked them if I can ask them questions about socializing, and they all said yes. So, I just asked them a couple of questions that were quick and then to questions that came from the interviewees’ responses to questions.

One revision that I made between the first draft and the final draft was the cutting out and reorganizing of the story. This change took a while because I had to figure out what goes where after cutting a couple of paragraphs from the story. I had to see how the story looked and figured out how to make the story better than the first draft. The revision made the story more efficient because I eliminated some paragraphs that had no importance to the story. I cut out the section “Social media helps people hide online. People also use technology as a way to talk to others more easily” from the story. This item makes no sense in the story, and it is also weak too. This section is one of four parts that were taken out of the first draft to make the final version better.

The part of the process for article number two that I put the most effort into is the interviews. The interviews were the tricky part because I had to find the people, interview them, and make sure that I have their answer written correctly. I wanted to be able to quote my interviewees accurately in the article. The part of the process that I wish I spent more time on is how to put the story together. It took me a while to figure out how to have the story the way that I want it to be. As a reporter, this is a hard part in the beginning but the more experience I get, the better I will be in news story organization.

The news writing strategy that I learned that I would intend to use in the future is to organize my stories better. Organization in writing is very significant because it helps the readers understand the story and have information in order. This strategy also helps me, as the reporter, to have things and events for a story. Stories need to be able to have information in order and correct for readers. I want to be able to improve on organizing, so in the future, my articles are better.

This recent story helped me see where I am at in my progress in journalism writing as a reporter. I need more improvement in organizing, but I will get better with more practice and time. I have learned a lot about myself as a reporter and how this story made me want to go out and interview people better. Practice makes perfect for anything that someone wants to be good. The story is a good stepping stone to improve and be better. This story, in my opinion, is better than my first story that I did earlier in the semester and the next story will be better than this one.

A man is in his office at the Krone Advising Center on a busy, November Wednesday afternoon. He is at his desk working on his schedule for the next day.

Alex Watters is a first-year adviser at Morningside College and a member of the city council in Sioux City, Iowa. His regular schedule is full every day between city council duties and his responsibilities in Morningside College.

He graduated from Morningside College then returned as an adviser to help out students who are coming out of high school and entering the college world. He graduated with a major in political science and global history.

He is overloaded completing both jobs at the same time. Doing two jobs at once means that there are times he can’t do everything he wants to in one day.

He has short brown hair, blue eyes, and wears a professional-looking sweater or a white, long sleeve dress shirt with a blazer. He wears slacks and dress shoes most of the time, but once in a while, he wears blue jeans with tennis shoes.

He is a long-winded talker that can talk for at least 20 minutes. With this ability, he has to take breaths of oxygen and take a drink of water from a pouch occasionally.

He came to Morningside on a golf scholarship. His golf handicap was a plus three to plus four. He also said that it “wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.”

Alex doesn’t play golf because he is in a motorized wheelchair. He sustained a spinal cord injury in a diving accident. This injury hasn’t stopped him from doing what he wants to do in life. He continues to live his life to the fullest every single day.

One of his students, Hailey Barrus, thinks that he has been great as a first-year adviser. “He’s a super cool guy and easy to talk to.”

One of his co-workers, Kate Miltenberger, who is also a first-year adviser at Morningside, says he is a great co-worker. “He’s lots of fun. He has a smile on his face and a song in his heart. He always gets the mood up in the office when everybody is tired and stressed.”

He recently won the city council election in November. He is now serving his first full term as a member of the city council. The length of a city council term is four years.

He balances city council and Morningside College duties by making sure that everything in his schedule is in order when it comes to times in a day.

He has to have “patience, time management, and be able to schedule what you need and can do for the day.”

Being a part of Morningside College and a member of the city council means that an average day is a very busy one for Alex. He only gets six to seven hours of sleep, but he says that “six to eight hours is the sweet spot for me.”

With the busy schedule on his plate, he doesn’t have a lot of free time on his hands. He said, “I do the best I can to have free time and have it whenever I can.”

Barrus is impressed by how he handles his schedule. “He’s a very busy person but doesn’t make me wonder about it very much because he handles it so well.”

Miltenberger thinks that he can do more than a lot of people. “He wants to be as active as he possibly can.”

For Alex, there is not a goal at the end of the day for him. He says, “There’s always going to be something.”

Being on the city council and a first-year adviser at Morningside College, Alex Watters will always have something going on for the next four years. But Alex hasn’t decided yet if he wants to go for reelection in the next city council election. He said, “That’s a bit too early to know and who knows what the future holds.”

A man is in his office at the Krone Advising Center on a busy, November Wednesday afternoon. He is at his desk working on what’s going to be on his schedule for the next day.

Alex Watters is a first-year adviser at Morningside College and a member of the city council in Sioux City, Iowa. His regular schedule is full every day between city council duties and his responsibilities in Morningside College.

He graduated from Morningside College then came back and became an adviser to help out students who are coming out of high school and entering the college world. He also said that he graduated with a major in political science and global history.

He is very occupied completing both jobs at the same time. Doing two jobs at once means that there are times where he can’t do everything he wants to in one day.

He came to Morningside on a golf scholarship. His golf handicap was a plus three to plus four. He also said that it “wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.”

Alex doesn’t play golf anymore because he is in a motorized wheelchair. He sustained a spinal cord injury that was pinched and wasn’t severe. The damage from the injury made his spine like a banana and will stay this way for the rest of his life.

This injury hasn’t stopped him from doing what he wants to do in life. He was to be able to live his life to the fullest every single day.

One of his students, Hailey Barrus, thinks that he has been great as a first-year adviser. “He’s a super cool guy and easy to talk to.”

One of his co-workers, Kate Miltenberger, who is also a first-year adviser at Morningside College says he is a great co-worker. “He’s lots of fun. He has a smile on his face and a song in his heart. He always gets the mood up in the office when everybody is tired and stressed.”

He recently won the city council election in November and won. He is now serving his first full term as a member of the city council. The length of a city council term is four years.

He balances city council and Morningside College duties by making sure that everything in his schedule and order when it comes to times in a day.

He said that you have to have “patience, time management, and be able to schedule what you need and can do for the day.”

Being a part of Morningside College and a member of the city council means that an average day is a very busy one for Alex. He only gets six to seven hours of sleep, but he says that “six to eight hours is the sweet spot for me.”

With the busy schedule on his plate, that means he doesn’t have a lot of free time on his hands. He said, “I do the best I can to have free time and have it whenever I can.”

Barrus is impressed by how he handles his schedule. “He’s a very busy person but doesn’t make me wonder about it very much because he handles it so well.”

Miltenberger thinks that he can do more than a lot of people. “He wants to be as active as he possibly can.”

For Alex, there is not a goal at the end of the day for him. He says, “There’s always going to be something.”

Being on the city council and a first-year adviser at Morningside College, Alex Watters will always have something going on for the next four years. But Alex hasn’t decided yet if he wants to go for reelection in the next city council election. He said, “That’s a bit too early to know and who knows what the future holds.”

There was an explosion early this morning at the Mega City Mall. The center of the explosion was located near the food court and near Dairy Queen.

About 100 people are injured in the explosion with fire and smoke inhalation with other severe and non-life threatening injuries, according to the Mega City Police Department’s report. The report also states that two people have died from the explosion.

At this time, there no new updates to the injured and all are being treated at St. Mercy and Jean-Luc hospitals. The damage to the mall property and the extent of it not known at the moment.

Sgt Fuglsang said, “The investigation is ongoing at this time. The names of the deceased will not be released at this moment. We are notifying their loved ones of their passing.”

Sgt Fuglsang did give some details of the deceased. One is a male from Sgt Bluff, and the other is a woman from Mega City.

Homeland Security will help out in the investigation of the explosion. More federal law enforcement agencies will work alongside the Mega City Police Department.

The Mega City Mall said that “Our hearts and thoughts go out to those who were injured today, and to their families. MCM will be closed while we assist law enforcement’s investigation of this tragic event.”

A retired police officer, a witness to the explosion, said that “it was pretty chaotic.” She was able to help as many people leave the mall as possible.

There are reports that a 12-year-old boy was missing in the mall when the explosion happened. Sgt Fuglsang stated that the child has “not been found yet.”

Another press conference is scheduled today at 3 PM to update the public on any new information into the investigation of the Mega City Mall explosion.

-Fox News

The story is newsworthy because there are reports of anti-Trump bias in the FBI investigation of Trump and the Russians. The story is also newsworthy by the claims of double standards in the case by the Republican Party.

The article has a broadcast video version of the story. The video goes deeper into the report and discusses what is going to happen next.

The article is long, but it also has information from other stories like the firing of an FBI agent for anti-Trump texts and Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the investigators.

The audience is political fans, people interested in the Mueller probe, Trump supporters, and people who are very curious to see what is going to happen next in the anti-Trump dossier.

The lede is compelling because it gives details on what exactly is happening at the moment in the Mueller probe.

The point of view is in the third person. The quotes are in the second and first persons.

One thing that is missing in the article is President Trump’s response to what has been happening recently with the dossier and the other investigations.

Another thing missing in this story is an official statement from the Republican and Democrat parties, the FBI, and Justice Department. The comments that these groups make will help people to see what each side is trying to do and think to complete the investigations correctly.

A man is in his office at the Krone Advising Center on a busy, November Wednesday afternoon. He is at his desk working on what’s going to be on his schedule for the next day.

His name is Alex Watters, and he is a first-year adviser at Morningside College and a member of the city council in Sioux City, Iowa. His regular schedule is full every day between city council duties and his responsibilities in Morningside College.

An interesting fact about him is that he graduated from Morningside College then came back and became an adviser to help out students who are coming out of high school and entering the college world.

He also said that he graduated with a major in political science and global history.

He came to Morningside on a golf scholarship. I asked him what his golf handicap was and he said that it was a plus three to plus four. He said that it “wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.”

But what makes him a unique individual is that he is in a motorized wheelchair. He sustains a spinal cord injury that was pinched and wasn’t severe. The damage from the injury made his spine become bend seriously like a banana and will stay this way for the rest of his life.

This injury hasn’t stopped him from doing what he wants to do in life. He was to be able to live his life to the fullest every single day.

One of his students, Hailey Barrus, talks about his personality as a first-year adviser.

“He’s a super cool guy and easy to talk to.”

One of his co-workers, Kate Miltenberger, who is also a first-year adviser at Morningside College talks about how she sees him as a co-worker on a day-to-day basis.

“He’s lots of fun. He has a smile on his face and a song in his heart. He always gets the mood up in the office when everybody is tired and stressed.”

He recently was in the city council election in November and won. He is now serving his first full term as a member of the city council. The length of a city council term is four years.

He talks about how he balances the city council and Morningside College duties by making sure that everything in his schedule and order when it comes to times in a day.

He said that you have to have “patience, time management, and be able to schedule what you need and can do for the day.”

Being a part of Morningside College and a member of the city council means that an average day is a very busy one for Alex. He only gets six to seven hours of sleep, but he says that “six to eight hours is the sweet spot for me.”

With the busy schedule on his plate, that means he doesn’t have a lot of free time on his hands. He said, “I do the best I can to have free time and have it whenever I can.”

Barrus also spoke about how she sees him handling his schedule as a student.

“He’s a very busy person but doesn’t make me wonder about it very much because he handles it so well.”

Miltenberger also talks about how he can do more than a lot of people.

“He wants to be as active as he possibly can.”

For Alex, there is not a goal at the end of the day for him. He says, “There’s always going to be something.”

Being on the city council and a first-year adviser at Morningside College, Alex Watters will always have something going on for the next four years. But Alex hasn’t decided yet if he wants to go for reelection in the next city council election. He said, “That’s a bit too early to know and who knows what the future holds.”

Reilly Mahon

###-###-####

Morningside College

1501 Morningside Ave

Sioux City, Iowa 51106

Morningside Student selected for internship with Chuck Grassley.

December 5, 2017

Nat Simpson has been selected to intern for Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley.

She is from Colorado Springs, Colorado. She currently studies Graphic Design at Morningside College.

She applied by an application that had a get-to-know section and short essay about why she wants to be an intern for Chuck Grassley.

She will be learning what it is like to work in the federal government and work for a Senator.

Over 1,000 people applied for this internship. She stood out by her many hours of volunteer work in her hometown.

The internship will be six weeks long and will start in February of 2018.