Week Ten - Reviewing my blog

Blog writing checklist 
When I was reviewing my blog, there were a few things on the checklist that I had to fix up. One of these issues included using figures that were over 10 as spelled out and figures that were under 10 as numerals. I realised I made a few errors here and there throughout the blogs regarding this issue, so it was good to go back and check. Another issue I had was the length of my sentences. I am known to have too many thoughts and then I try and cram them into one sentence. This usually makes my sentences sound and look terrible. I tried my best to go through and shorten as many sentences as I could.

Blog review
After reviewing my blog using the blog writing checklist, I feel like I have done a good job on this assessment piece. I have worked very hard on each blog post and in trying to keep up every week with it. I found the entire assessment to be quite time consuming and difficult with a lot of work involved. From doing 10 blog posts with three activities to reviewing other people's blogs, I really became stressed out as I had many other assignments on top of this one. However, I came out on top and here I am writing my last blog! I finished all the requirements for the blog so nothing was missed out. I think my blog's layout is very clean and easy to read. I have used bright colours and funky fonts in certain places to gain attention, but I kept the body of the blogs very simple in regards to font and colour. Ames (2014) explains that colour can be used to add impact. I have done this to bring attention to my blog. With every blogpost, I added usually one to three photos that are relevant to the topic so I eliminated any white space. Ames (2014) explains that photos should be used consistently with the message and should have a purpose. Overall, I think I have done a good job on the entire assessment and fingers crossed that my hard work will be duly noted.

Source: Keep Calm, 2015

Website review

The website I reviewed can be found here.

https://www.zoella.co.uk

This website is a blog run by a British beauty blogger. Zoe Sugg (known as Zoella) uploads posts related to beauty, fashion and lifestyle. The layout of her blog is very simple and she has used a quirky font for her heading which is 'Zoella'. Ames (2014) explains that the purpose of photos and graphics is to support the message and gain attention of the reader. Sugg evidently does this in her posts, as the majority of her blog is made up of photos. 

The homepage 

A really interesting component of her blog is the changing pictures on the homepage. Every second, the pictures and heading will change to a new one, similar to a GIF. Sugg has used a very plain background behind the photos which is the colour white. Her font for her blog posts is just a standard font that is easy to read and understand. 

What a blog post looks like

When viewing all her blog posts, the main thing that will grab any viewers attention is the stunning photos that were taken by Zoe. What really appeals to me is all the photographs of makeup products and travel photos. It really inspires me to go out and try a new makeup look or to save up all my money and just fly to Greece! In her writing, Zoella really showcases her happy personality in all of her posts, making me then feel happy. Overall, Zoella's blog is a really good example of a website, as it grabs the attention of readers by beautiful photographs. 

Browsing through blog posts

References:

Ames, K 2014, Study guide lesson 10 - impact of design and structure, course notes, COMM11007: Media Writing, CQUniversity e-courses.

Keep Calm 2015, I made it, digital image, viewed 9 September 2015, www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk

Week Nine - Reviewing Peer's Work

Business writing quiz 
According to the Business Writing Center (1997), passive voice is when the writer does not specify who is acting and active voice is when the person acting is clear.  To me, this seemed simple. Question one I found to be very easy, however the other questions were a bit tricky in particular question three. The original sentence was:

If you have questions, I can be reached at 712 288-1144. 

The answer was:
If you have questions, call me at 712 288-1144. ~ OR ~ Call me at 712 288-1142 if you have questions.

To me, this sounds exactly the same so I was still very confused with how it changed from passive to active voice. However, all the other questions I got correct. 

Source: Mobieg, 2015

Reviewing two examples of curation
Content curation is very important in delivering meaningful messages to an audience (Whitaker, Ramsey & Smith, 2012). Curation is not about creating new content but instead, bringing together and compiling the most relevant information for the audience. Meaningful curation is a very important skill of media writing in today's age because of the amount of information and data available via the internet. Curation makes sure that the messages are representative of brands and are tailored to the needs of the audience (Whitaker, Ramsey & Smith, 2012).

Below I have compared and contrasted two websites on how they have used curation.

Trip Advisor
This website depicts the information to be very data driven, clear and direct. The presentation of this site is purposely curated to deliver to the audience brief and good reviews of hotels all around the world. The difference in presenting the information this way means that audiences and readers of the website, are getting only the important and essential information about the hotel. Viewers or readers of the site only receive pure reviews on the hotels listed and not an overly articulated description.

The number one hotel in the world in the Maldives!
Source: Tripadvisor, 2015

Conde Nast Traveller
The information shown on this website is descriptive and generous. In direct contrast to the Trip Advisor website, information is curated on this site thoughtfully to offer readers an immersive sense of what staying in these hotels would actually be like. More than just factually driven reviews, this site brings the hotels to life through very vivid descriptions, giving the audience of feel of what staying in these places would actually be like. The attraction to readers is then a full review that goes far over the basic details, giving a deeper and enriched vision of what these hotels have to offer.

Reviewing peer's Storify submission 

Below is my review that I sent to Stephanie Christensen. This is the link to her submission.

Stephanie Christensen - Storify Submission

"Steph, you have done a really good job on your news article!

Who do you think is the audience? It is evident that the audience are people that have been effected by suicide and mental health. I can imagine all the people who attended will have their own story in regards to why they are at the event and as a result, raising awareness and money!

What did you learn about the event? That teams walked up and down Castle Hill repetitively for 24 hours! I’ve only been to townsville a few times and I know that this hill (to me at least) is so big! Good on them!

What else (if anything) could be included that would make the story more interesting or have more impact? I noticed you have only included one quote. To make the article more interesting, it would have been good to add in maybe another two quotes perhaps from the event coordinator and a witness of the event (not a participant, but just someone watching the event)

If the structure is confusing, how could it be important? I don’t think the structure is confusing at all. The article flows very nicely and is easy to read :) The only small structural I can think of is that your quote should be indirect, direct, direct. Hope that makes sense :)

What do you like about the story? I really like that Steph has added in a website where people can donate to the charity!

Well done and I hope I have helped somehow!"

References:

Business Writing Center 1997, Passive and Active Voice, viewed 9 September 2015, http://www.businesswriting.com/tests/activepassive.htm

Mobieg 2015, Quizzes, digital image, viewed 9 September 2015, www.mobieg.co.za

Trip Advisor 2015, Gilli Lankanfushi Maldives, digital image, viewed 9 September 2015, http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/TravelersChoice-Hotels-g1

Whitaker, R, Ramsey, J & Smith, R 2012, Media Writing: Print, Broadcast and Public Relations, Routledge, New York. 

Week Eight - Using Pinterest

Chapter 9 quiz

I was so happy when I completed the last quiz as I knew I had learnt a lot and survived all the quizzes! I received 7/10 on my first attempt which I thought was a good effort. On the second effort, I received 10/10. I thought this quiz was quite easy and self explanatory on a lot of questions. However, question 8 asked:

Thirty women from Japan were in a tour group. Which sentence is correct?
A. The group comprised 30 women from Japan.
B. The group comprised of 30 women from Japan.

I answered 'B' as I have always said and heard a sentence this way, so I was really surprised when the answer was 'A'. The explanation of this is that comprised of is redundant, because comprise means include. Well I learnt something today!

Source: Desiretree, 2015

Pinterest and makeup as an interest
Pinterest is a free social media network that can be used via an app or on a website. The purpose of the site is for users to 'pin' inspirational photos to their profile via different boards. Users can also upload their own photos to a board. For example, a user may have one board called 'baking' and put other user's pictures of baking into this board. Users that may have an event coming up such as a wedding can search for inspiration on ideas. Users can follow other people and follow what they share on their board as well.

An interest of mine is doing makeup on myself and on others. I have created a board called 'makeup looks' on Pinterest which features many different makeup looks that I may want to try and recreate one day. If I was a makeup artist professionally, Pinterest would be a very good site to use. Firstly, I could get clients to scroll through all the different looks to chose a look they want me to do on them. Secondly, I could keep a portfolio of my own work on my makeup board to show new clients what I can do for them.

My makeup looks board. 

How my pinterest profile looks like.

Pinterest review

What is Pinterest 
The premise of Pinterest is to create 'pinboards', which are basically categories, to which a user can then 'pin' images that they find online or via other Pinterest users to a board. The user's virtual pasteboards become small collections of visually stunning images, with captions and links back to the original source from where the images first came from. A layer of social interaction sits beneath the whole site, as you can follow other users, or just specific boards that they create

Additionally, a user can add content that they find somewhere else on the Web using Pinterest's bookmark bar button. When someone sets up an account, the site will walk you through installing the button based on the browser you're using at the time. The social media network can be used on a website or on an app on a smart phone.

How to use Pinterest
Firstly, once you are on the home page of the site, you'll be able to establish an account with a username, email and password. During this short setup, Pinterest will help you install a book mark button that you can use to 'pin' interesting things you see online.

Next, you can choose your areas of interest from a diverse list that is provided which includes design, education, pets, beauty, sport and much more. These interests will determine what kind of content you will see when you first log into your homepage.

Finally, when you have a few interests selected and boards named, you can search for other users or things such as 'basketballs' or 'peonies'. Keep in mind that you can always edit your board's name, description and category at any time.  Everything you pin becomes searchable, which may be one of the best features of Pinterest. If you clip a bunch of images for an idea or future brainstorming, it's very useful to able to search all those visual scraps based on text you entered into the description field.

Pinterest serves its purpose of helping people visually explore the Web and save images they like into virtual pasteboards, better than other sites that try to do the same. The content leans toward travel, crafts, beauty, decor and so many other things that will leave a user dreaming. It is an app that everyone who needs inspiration or likes to dream should definitely check out!

Pinterest Logo
Source: Bookshepherd, 2015

References:

Desiretree 2015, 'I worked it out!', digital image, viewed 7 September 2015, www.quiz.iskcondesiretree.com

Bookshepherd 2015, 'pinterest logo', digital image, viewed 7 September 2015, www.thebookshepherd.com

Week Seven - Assessment One Review

Chapter five and eight quiz

Once again, this week we had two quizzes to do. In quiz 7A, I thought I did really well as spelling has always been a strong point of mine. However, I was really surprised when I got 7/10 on my first quiz as a couple of the questions I thought were right, were wrong. It was very interesting to learn the different spelling mistakes and then apply it. Quiz 7B was also a little bit tricky. This quiz was more technical and asked interesting questions about 'style' which I honestly did not know about. It was very interesting to learn. 

Assessment one review

I have been reviewing my assessment one as I went so I was certain there were no errors. It was very helpful having a marking checklist as there were many common errors that were addressed, that were not mentioned in any other document. Fortunately I was lucky I found that I had no errors from this list. Although, I do believe I may have been a little repetitive in some aspects of the media release, as I was struggling to get the word count. I also was not sure if my writing was active and succinct, but after a lot of reviewing, I do believe it is. I am still a bit uncertain on whether a lot of my punctuation is correct such as where commas belong and so on, but I am staying positive that I have addressed any errors. I am hoping that it will make a big difference to my overall result as I have addressed the most common issues that previous students struggled with. 

Source: Airforce listed families, 2015

Newletter review 

The Crocodile Specialist Group newsletter (2014) in general provides information on the conservation, status, news and current events concerning crocodilians and on the activities of the CSG.  This particular volume has stories that include: a biography of a successful group member who has contributed greatly, a book review that was written by the chairman of the group, a student research assistance update and various regional reports on crocodile related incidents from all over the world. 

This newsletter is distributed to CSG members and to other interested individual and organisations. All newsletter recipients are asked to contribute news and other materials (Crocodile Specialist Group, 2014). Therefore, since the organisation's audience all have a strong interest in crocodiles, the newsletter in every story has talked about crocodiles and other related topics.

At the very end of the of the newsletter, there is a section that has a heading of 'science'. This headline has many different abstracts on various journal articles that explain the biology of crocodiles. Some abstracts discuss the different species of crocodiles and some discuss that the crocodile eggs that were found were supposed to be of an extinct species (Crocodile Specialist Group, 2014). As a science journalist, these journal articles the newsletter has supplied would be very good to use as a reference as there is a lot to base a story on. 

What I find very effective in this newsletter, is that it has made readers feel as if they are apart of the group. Kate Ames (2014) explains that a good newsletter can build morale and make individuals feel part of the organisation. It is a highly personal document and has the ability to focus on the accomplishment of individuals. This newsletter has done this as it has included a biography of a member and then further encourages readers to put their input into the newsletters. Another aspect that makes a newsletter is filling the target public's need, which in this case it has (Ames, 2014). 

A Crocodile
Source: The Telegraph, 2015

References:

Airforce Listed Families 2015, 'checklist', digital image, viewed 31 August 2015, www.airforceenlistedfamilies,com

Ames, K 2014, Study guide lesson 7- newsletters and brochures, course notes, COMM11007: Media Writing, CQUniversity e-courses. 

Crocodile Specialist Group 2014, Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter, viewed 31 August 2015, 

http://www.iucncsg.org/365_docs/attachments/protarea/News-7c3e7324.pdf

Telegraph 2014, 'Crocodile escape gives school children a day off', digital image, viewed 31 August 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk