Closing Comments

           1. I believe that I have had a very positive experience in this course. I have gained valuable skills that I know will be useful throughout my post secondary career. Writing has always been something I have been interested in and found enjoyable. Before taking this course I did not consider myself as a creative person and I did struggle with coming up with ideas to write stories about. Now, I have learned that the best thing to do is to just start writing things down, even if it makes no sense at all, it really helps to unleash my imagination. I have learned how to use proper punctuation in every piece that I write, weather it be dialogue, a news paper article or a simple story. I feel that this course has helped me to expand my vocabulary and it has also helped me to improve my writing style and to be able create more descriptive and interesting pieces. This course was recommended for the communications program that I hope to get into next year at Wilfred Laurier. My experience from this course has helped me to make a decision about what I want to do for post secondary and it has made me feel confident about taking this program.

              2. Overall I think that this course was fun, interesting and very helpful. If I was to make some suggestions, I would say that the instructor should start to include stricter deadlines and have consequences for late work because for anyone who wants to pursue a career in journalism, or any form of writing, they will have to understand that they need to have pieces done by very strict deadlines otherwise they could potentially lose their job. I think that this course should stop incorporating so much poetry because I feel that it was the least popular of all the assignments for many students in this class. I enjoyed the freedom we were giving in this class in regards to picking our own photos for our character sketches and creating our own story lines. I also thought it was great that we had the chance to have our worked edited as we go. 

 

Christmas! What is it all about?

Christmas is my absolute favourite time of year.  To me the holidays are all about family. The feeling I get from big family dinners, spending the whole day together on December 25th and giving gifts to my loved ones is unbeatable. As I get older it is starting to become clear that the real meaning of the holidays is the birth of Jesus Christ. When I was younger I thought Christmas was all about Santa and presents as do most kids. Now at the age of 17 I enjoy going to mass with my family on Christmas eve. Christmas is an extremely busy and commercial time of year and in today's society it is unfortunate that many people forget about the true meaning of Christmas due to the commercial aspects that have taken over. It is important to remember that the true meaning of Christmas is not running around malls to get the best deals on Christmas presents, but to sit back and enjoy the company of your loved ones and realize that this wonderful holiday only exists because it is the date of birth of the Lord.  

Nativity Scene 

Journalistic Ethics

      Journalism is meant to be honest, insightful and informative of actual events that affect people and their community. Journalists are expected to gather important information and quotes, reference their work and maintain an unbiased tone. Stephen Glass is a former American Journalist who was found guilty of producing work based on events that he made up and even going as far as to create fake websites to reference it all. His entire career was made off of a pathological lie. It has also been reported that some of his work involved negative statements about ethical and political groups that offended many people. I strongly believe that when a journalist lies the consequence should be that they do not receive any profits from the work , they should be fined with money going to the editors and people who wasted their time helping publish the work. However, I think with an sincere apology and a fine that prison is not necessary and will not accomplish much. Of course this depends on the severity of the situation. From the information I have read about Stephen Glass, I get the impression that he may have mental health issues that should be taken into consideration when investigating his story.  

Stephen Glass

Poetry Analysis

"My Own Day"

By: Jean Little

Hey World, Here I am! (pg.56)

Jean Little is a Canadian author who was born in Taiwan ,but has been living in Canada since she was seven years old. She attended the University of Toronto and graduated with honours in English. Jean has never let the challenge of being blind stop her from achieving her goals and being a great writer. She writes her books and poems by using a talking computer that reads what she writes back to her. Jean currently lives in Guelph Ontario with her sister and many dogs. Her work is very light hearted, witty and enjoyable. Many of her poems are meant to make the reader laugh and others are meant to express emotion and make you think. 

Her poem "My own day" was published in 1986 and sends a message about how it is important to live in the moment, not the past and look forward to the future. This is referenced when she says

"So I stood and I considered"   

"Stopping the world right there"   

"Making today go on forever"    

"But I decided not to"      

I was intrigued by those lines because I can relate to the feeling she is trying to describe. I know that there have been many times where I have been enjoying myself and not wanting moments or days to end. Just because one day is great doesn't mean the next day won't be better if we decide to make it so. 

My favourite line from the poem is the last one which is 

"Who knows what you might be missing tomorrow" 

This line reassures the message that is being sent from the poem and it makes the reader feel positive and optimistic. This poem personally made me feel hopeful about the future after I read it.

Jean Little

The Right To Vote

I personally think that Canada's voting age is reasonable at eighteen. I understand that by the age of fourteen most teenagers get a job and by sixteen we learn to drive which are major responsibilities ,but voting for the future of our country is even more important. I am currently sixteen years old and I do not know very much about politics. If I had to vote in the past election I am not sure I would have made the right decision due to my lack of knowledge. Also, I believe that if the voting age was lowered to sixteen a lot of teens would not vote because they do not understand how important it is  or they just do not know who to vote for. When I am eighteen I will have reached adulthood and I think I will understand the issue that take place in our country and I will have more of an opinion on who should be the leader of our country. 

Your adaptable mind

I believe that I already have a good sense of curiosity. I enjoy learning new things that can help me to expand my mind and my knowledge. I am aware that learning never stops and I will continue to learn about new things for the rest of my life. A willingness to learn and curiosity towards new topics will only benefit me in the future when I go to university and when I go on to get a job. I think I could improve on my initiative and start to get things done to the best of my abilities. It is no secret that when I have to do something I do not want to do I don't give it my 100% effort. That is not a good habit to have and it is something that I need to improve on before I leave high school so that I am not stuck with that bad habit in university and in the working world. Improving my initiative and determination will help me to achieve the goal I have of getting a job that I will truly love.

Education is the key?

             In the video "Why I hate school but love education" I thought Darrll Suilman made some excellent points. I believe that there is a very negative feeling that many students get towards school that society has brought upon us. School is a place where students are forced to come day after day to memorize material and write tests that will result in some kind of number that shows how well we memorized the material. Education on the other hand  is something that too many of us take for granted. Education is a gift that is provided by school. Having a good education results in getting good jobs and chasing your dreams. The material that we choose to educate ourselves on after high school is entirely up to us. I think that the point made in the video is that we should learn to enjoy education and choose to go to school for something that we like and something we are interested in to become well educated people on anything we choose to be educated in no matter how much money it will make us in the future.