RatchMorg's Weblog

Welcome!

ratchmorg — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:59:51 +0000

I just wanted to update my weblog and say welcome to all of the new students in Marlen’s 202 writing class. I took this course quite a few months ago and haven’t been on wordpress since– so, I thought I’d just give a few sentences about why this class is worth taking! First off– It’s Marlen! What better of a professor could you choose than him? Honestly, what other prof lets you have complete control over your class and is so relax and chill about a lot of things? He does have his academic sternness quality about him (aka get your shit done) but other than that (which really isn’t much to ask for since well, you are in college) this class will probably be the coolest class you can take at IUP. I had him for my English 121 course only because my real prof was on maternity leave and he subed in for at least 8 weeks and decided to take him for 202 as well. These blogs may seem a little annoying here and there (because of their frequency) but, the good news being that at the end (well more like the middle of the semester) all you need to do is basically copy and paste together a lot of the blogs to create that large paper! Being in my 9th semester (I’m a dual bacc. with Art Studio and History and a minor in Art History) I have had to write A LOT of 10-20 page papers by now and learning how to write one from Marlen has been a big help and time saver. If you think this is your last huge paper– think again! It’s only getting started. This course will help develope your writing skills and broaden your horizons on how to gather information and process it to turn it into an outstanding paper. I’ll be in classes at least every Friday to help with anyone who needs some assistance or for anyone that just wants to complain about Marlen , but really– I’ll help you in whatever you need and don’t be afraid to ask for it! I’m excited about working with this class and I hope that you are too.

Some quick info about me…

Name: Rachel (Morgan) …listed under that facebook name if you want to hit me up that way

Status: Senior, 9th semester

Majors: Bacc Fine Arts for painting and graphic design work / History, B.A. (Concentration in WWII and surrounding time periods as well as Civil Rights/Slavery issues). My minor is art history (Concentration in 19th C European painting).

E-Mail: kksn@iup.edu

I work at Sheetz (great wages and tuition reimbursement program) and live outside of Indiana.

I just got back from taking a class at Oxford University (in England) through IUP as a senior snythesis course with Dr. Mukasa, which was the Rock & Roll Society LBST 499. I then went backpacking throughout the rest of Europe and went to Paris(France), Amsterdam(Holland), Copenhagen(Denmark), Szczecin(Poland), Berlin(Germany), Prague(Czech Republic), Vienna(Austria), Budapest(Hungary), Venice-Milan-Bologna-Pisa-Rome(Italy), and London! And if you travel anywhere– be ready to be greeted by the ‘golden arches’–it’s always the first thing you see!

oh and PS- sorry if my grammar or sentence structure is a bit goofy! I’m still a little jet lagged…

Creative Project

ratchmorg — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:52:35 +0000

So this is my pretty much completed creative “paper” aka my painting…

Artist Statement:

The focus of my research paper was about global warming and what IUP is doing compared to other American colleges, specifically more local-based colleges such as: Penn State, Carnegie Mellon, Duquense University, Philadelphia University and Lehigh University. Through my research, I found that IUP is making an effort but a minimal one. So I decided to transfer my 23 page research paper into a creative piece of artwork: an oil painting. On the left-hand side of the painting, I have a scene of a SUV driving towards Indiana University of Pennsylvania. It is a nice and clear day as the driver is driving through the countryside approaching the arch of IUP. The SUV is letting off emissions into the air and killing the clean environment as it is approaching the campus. The road then wraps around and behind a lively tree that complements the nature scene; but the right side of the tree is dead. These scene is the far future of what the world could become. I focused on IUP and its main building on campus, Sutton Hall. On this side of the painting I have an ocean scene in front of Sutton. If we do not make a difference now then there is the possibility of the world’s major cities being flooded from rising ocean levels. I decided to exaggerate this scene by applying these conditions to IUP’s grassy areas on campus. I also made a vibrant sun and murky sky. I wanted to make the atmosphere dense and seem to have been depleted by all of the emissions that have been released in prior years. Overall I think that my painting represents the information that I learned from my research paper.

Transitions…

ratchmorg — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:43:52 +0000

I am going to make my transition by using my information that I learned from my research paper into my painting by developing pictures that I get in my head from certain words and phrases from my paper. I am going to look through my research paper and find my main ideas that I want to present and then transform them into pictoral representations. I hope to have a strong set of images that will make people aware and see that things can and will happen. I want to use an abstract concept and place images that are superimposed onto each other and develop a sense of a timeline of events over just one basic image. I am going to get pictures of campus and then use them throughout my theme and with the inspiration of Diesel’s ad campaign about global warming i will base my ideas off of their pictures, but represent mine in my own idea. Basically it will be a respresentation of what is to come and to show what IUP could look like. I hope to convey a strong message that will be visually appealing.

Free Writing

ratchmorg — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:10:00 +0000

Working Title ” Global Warming Faces College Students Episode 1 “

Description: I want to make a TV episode based like “Gilmore Girls” but only with my sister and I as the main characters. I want us to be portrayed as two college students living our daily lives with the drama, etc., and have my investigation about global warming and her interests in it. I want to use IUP and my research as the main topic and the answers to the episode.

Question: How do I turn my topic into an interesting episode?

Free writing time!! yay ok so first of all i hate stupid people… so with this paper i am not too excited about it i think that this class should be just based on writing a research paper instead of having to do two major papers i think that we should only do one! and so i am really not interested in doing this so therefor it will be reflected in my paper that i am not enthusiastic about and hoepfullly it wont turn out shitty and be a mess… and then i think that it will be hard to just turn my topic into something interesting that is considered “free writing or creative writing” whatever it’s called and then make it interesting enough that someone will want to read it! so i only have like 9 minutes left with this stupid free writing part… i think it is showing that im such a pessimist right now… ok i deleted the rest of this…

Blog 16…

ratchmorg — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:23:26 +0000

The main problem that I can see with doing the creative writings will be that it will be hard to find my own voice for this paper. I think that since I have never written a script for a tv show before, I have to find a style to write it in. Not only would I have to find the voice of my own character portraying as myself, but I will also have to find the voices for my other characters and accurately represent them.

The other issue I will have to face is length. I need to be very descriptive and detailed with my writing. I will need to think back to what I have heard and then turn that into a script. So memory will be a key factor for me and what I cannot remember then I will have to make up what was said in the stylized way that that person speaks.

The last issue I will face will be having to create a whole plot to go with my narrative. I think that having to come up with a whole setting and climax and so forth will be difficult. I haven’t written a paper like this is a while, if not ever to my memory, but I’m not too excited to write it so therefor I will have a hard time to become creative for this process.

Blog 15…

ratchmorg — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:41:04 +0000

I will need to research tv shows and scripts. I think that I have a general idea of how to write one since I know my own voice and I know all about my research at this point, but I think that I should find a script and try to mimik it to fit my voice. I have watched enough tv in my 20 years of living but I think that it would be easier to read up on some scripts and fill in the gaps that I’m missing.

This process is different because I am using a very relaxed piece of writing to turn it into my own. A tv script for a show is a lot different that a referred journal or a book with very accurate information. So learning how to relax and play it up in my own voice rather than directing it towards an increadibly specific audience will vary in this process.

It will be similar only to the extent that now that I have all of my research done, I won’t have to research my topic, but I will have to research how to fit my topic into something. I think that by doing a tv show it would be easy to get my views out to a larger scale rather than publishing it in a book or magazine, that only a select few would see.

Blog 14…

ratchmorg — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:36:14 +0000

So far the books that I have read… well all one… has given me an insight to how to write a creative piece. I have only read The Emperor of Scent and thought it was amazing. I think that the author couldn’t have written a book like that if he hadn’t lived through the experience of interviewing Luca Turin to get his point of view. I think that it gives me the opportunity to see that it is easy to be able to live through something and then turn it into a creative piece.

My research paper is my life experience. I had to do everything for it! I e-mailed the professors and I sat through the lecture to get the information for my results. But most importantly I had the desire and the will to ask the questions I did and I was the one who had the urge to find out this information. So it was in my own personal interest that demanded me to write this research paper and I can recall all of the emotions I encountered throughout the process to turn them into my creative writing.

Overall I think that the research paper and the book(s) have been useful. I have experienced others perspectives and point-of-views as well as my own. So I will know how to turn my experience into something else by reading about others.

Creative Writing Proposal

ratchmorg — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:01:13 +0000

For my creative writing ‘novel’ I intend to do a paper that is a script for a TV show. I want to make it so that it is lengthy, but still fun to do. I think that the topic of my paper isn’t one to do a children’s book or to write a short story about. Well I guess that the short story aspect is considerable but I want to do it in a form of a TV episode where there will be a script with interactions and dialogue involved.

My characters will be two college girls, ages 20 and 21, who are sisters that go to the same school. They will be at IUP and be discovering out the facts about what IUP is doing for global warming and what other schools are doing. I will make it interesting enough that it could be considered for a TV show. The plot’s rising climax, climax, and fall will be based around the research that they are conducting.

There will be seperate events such as attending meetings, interviewing several persons, and e-mailing conversations to find out information. I feel that if I do what I have done and pertain my actions and events that I have taken towards writing my own paper, I could easily manipulate it into a TV script. So basically I will put myself and my sister, to whom of which we both attend IUP and are interested in Global Warming, that the information in the script will be identical to that of what I have already done for this class.

New Post since 1972… HOW DOES IT FEEL!?!?!?!

ratchmorg — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:34:43 +0000

Seriously it doesn’t feel any better. I am still stressing out. I guess that’s just my personal nature. I do have over 15 pages done and completed but I still need a response from my main man who is going to make or break this paper. He is out of the office this week which is totally not what I need. I am glad that I have as much work as I do but without this last section this paper is basically useless!

I’m glad that I have all of my CMS editing done and the notes page/bibliography done. That was A LOT of work and took a lot of my time. It was nice to do my first paper is this method because I am a history major and that is the style that historians use. We won’t learn how to do that until my junior or senior year until we write papers for history classes. So I’m glad to be one step ahead on that.

The next big milestone I need to cross is editing to a shorter paper. I know that I always write waaaaay too much! So with this 15 page limit, it’s not going to be easy stating what I want to in such a short amount of pages. I will have to figure out how much to cut out of the “what is global warming” section.

ldkjalskhflkahesiflnslkd can I be 35 yet???

Three Improvements on Research Paper

ratchmorg — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:44:34 +0000

The first thing that I would improve would be to have a clearer introduction. I think that the seven pages of explaining what global warming is might be too much for readers. I think that it will bore them and make them not want to read the rest of the paper. I feel that it is necessary for others to know what exactly global warming is and what the main properties of it are, but I think a lengthy description might bore them.

Another thing is if I shorten the description section, I would want to give more examples from other colleges that have changed their patterns in energy and efficiency. I feel that that is the strongest part of my paper so far so I think that I should extend it more and give readers a more “awwed” inspiration.

The last thing that I should do is to work on my Chicago style formatting. I know how to do the citations and reference page, but I’m not sure how to do the formatting of the overall paper. I need to look into my book that gives how to do all of that. I need to spend more time on getting the minor details right.