Extra Blog: April

It was my final day at the courier on Tuesday April 24th and I wrapped up my mentorship with a final article pertaining to the proposed construction plans at Cal Poly's West Kellogg Arabian horse center.

During the last week of May, I began looking into the dig as well as the online campaigns sponsored by students it was here that I got my lead for my article which was completed within the span of a few weeks, the longest that I've ever worked on a piece.

Through this journey, I was prompted to leave my comfort zone which included long over the phone interviews and trips to the Arabian horse center. With notepad and recorder at the ready, and my handy photographer Marissa Jasso, I was able to see the horse stables as the students who protested for their preservation saw them. A prominent piece of the Cal Poly Heritage.

It was a wonderful experience to finally be out and about, talking to the students and community that were dedicated to protecting this specific equine species. Although I felt like a journalist sitting at my desk in the Courier, it was nothing compared to the moment I held my recorder up to one of the students at Cal Poly.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Content:  

LITERAL (a) “I, Aralia Giron, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

(b) sources:

Bender, Sheila. Creative Writing Demystified. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print. 

Gutkind, Lee, and Hattie Fletcher. Buck. Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know about Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. Print.

Hart, Jack. Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2011. Print.

Kidder, Tracy, and Richard Todd. Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction. New York: Random House, 2013. Print. 

Klaus, Carl H. A Self Made of Words: Crafting a Distinctive Persona in Nonfiction Writing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

(c) Update your Independent Component 2 Log (which should be under your Senior Project Hours link)
(d) During this independent component 2, I was actually able to delve into my senior topic and put to practice a majority of the techniques involved. There was definitely a lot of research involved whether it be having to reference my research check notes, searching the web for credible publications, or simply checking out more material to help aid my findings. In doing so, I created a blog and put these research techniques to practice but giving an explanation of why the technique was important and listing two examples (one from a published author and my own attempt) that really encompassed these various aspects of the creative nonfiction genre and ended each blog with what did and didn't work in each piece. 

INTERPRETIVE
Defend your work and explain the component's significance and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

My evidence that I did in fact complete my independent component posted on the right hand side of this blog under the label "Independent Component 2." Also here is the link: http://agironwriter.blogspot.com/

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

This independent component in particular  helped me answer my EQ because I was able to experience and practice utilizing the main elemental techniques of creative nonfiction. I was able to dissect the writing styles from the various authors I studied and apply it to my own by delving into the unique elements that were incorporated into their work.