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Creative works at the student symposium

06/08/2018 by afuller

The EWU student symposium is an annual event where students gather to present the research they have worked on through the past year. This year I went to one TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) presentation and a few journalism presentations.

TESL—traditional vs contemporary learning

Renee talked about the benefits and challenges of learning a new language through traditional and contemporary (new) learning styles.

Traditional learning involves collaboration. Students get together and learn a language in groups during class or after school.

This is what you may have experienced in language classes in school, where you learn in a physical environment with other students and study in your free time.

Contemporary learning involves learning online by speaking with native speakers. This type of learning can add onto classroom learning, or help non-students learn.

ESL students will usually feel more comfortable speaking to English students who want to help them learn than talking with classmates or teachers. Online learning is considered a safe ground where students can be more confident in their abilities.

Journalism—social media use in journalism

Grace talked about enhancing reader engagement through social media. She interviewed two people and researched Facebook and Google analytics to find well-received posts.

Grace found that good social media use involves being conversational, knowing the audience, and giving a reason to engage others.

Professional journalists encourage users to visit their website and use word filters on Facebook or other social media sites.

Did you know that Twitter changed journalism techniques? Journalists use Twitter to get news from across the globe minutes after something happens!

Finally, younger journalists can use Twitter to create their own brands. Twitter can be great for a new journalist’s portfolio.

Photo manipulation in journalism

Erica talked about photo manipulation and journalism. Photo manipulation should never be used to change the story of the photo. She said that modern journalism uses only photos with minimal editing.

Erica said that people send doctored images to journalists! These photos are edited to look real, but a few tips can help tell the difference between real and fake images.

Erica also discussed how to identify doctored images. First check the shadows and lighting. If shadows don’t match the light source, the image is probably fake. She says that it’s important to be skeptical of images online and to use common sense. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Erica also talked about reverse google searching an image. If you drag an image onto google, you can find if that image has been used in other places. Don’t use an image that can get you sued!

You can also verify photos by checking the metadata, information on the photo’s location, camera, and date. Unlike photos, metadata is fairly difficult to alter.

Finally, Erica said that photo manipulation should be used as a tool, not a weapon.

Verifying videos online

Dayana had a similar project: verifying videos. Dayana said that with the rise of citizen powered news, doctored photos are more common.

Verify videos by contacting the video author, using geolocation, and checking temporary details (including shadows).

Dayana then talked about geolocation. She showed us a video with a man stuck in his car during a flood in 2007. When she reverse image searched him, she found he was from a different flood. That doesn’t sound too bad, but journalists can get in a lot of trouble for using the wrong image!

Sports podcasts

Michael talked about how to create an interesting sports podcast.

Michael says that there are a few factors including: Fan engagement, forward thinking, strong advertising interest, and serious talks about culture.

One thing that Michael mentioned was that advertising was on the rise and podcast creators are making more money. Podcast creators also can use Patreon, a website that allows people to donate money to support podcasts, art, or music.

Apple podcast analytics can help podcast creators see which episodes are watched and where they are most popular.

More about podcasts

My presentation was up last. I worked with Sam to develop a rubric for successful podcasts. Presenting was a little intimidating at first but we got through it!

Good podcasts need interest, journalism in the field, schedules, and music transitions. We reviewed a few podcasts including Serial.

Wrapping up

The student creative works symposium happens every year in May. All EWU students are invited to participate, and the events are open to the public. This is a great opportunity for future Eagles to present and put in their resume.

Career Classes at EWU: How to Find Your Major

06/01/2018 by afuller Leave a Comment

I'm one of the students who chose two majors instead of a major and a minor (crazy, I know), and I've spent a ton of time figuring out what works best for me. It wasn't always so easy, because when I first had to choose my major, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.

After a few weeks with the catalog, I found design. After a couple quarters supplementing my design classes with English courses, I decided on a creative writing degree as well!

If you want a quicker path to your major, career services can help. Career services offers a class called career advising where you can discover more about the college major you would like in the future.

This course is only two credits, so you won't need to choose between the career development course and a GECR (General Education Course Requirement) class.

I visited one of these courses with Stan, the career services employee who made the seminars I discussed in previous blog posts.

Stan started the class by discussing the career services seminars available over the next two weeks. There was a seminar about going to grad school, one for law school, and a few on finding jobs or other opportunities after college.

How to choose a major; a quick experiment

The day I stopped by, Stan handed out a career investigation four panel that you can do today! I’m linking the PDF here so you can download and print it out.

If you don’t have a printer, grab a sheet of paper and draw a giant plus sign in the middle so you have four sections. You’ll want to write:

What you like to do in the top left box
What you’re good at in the top right
What is important to you in the bottom left
And what interests you that you have no experience with in the bottom right

I put in about six answers per section and I’ll go over a couple of mine to give you an idea of how to find a field of study further down in the post.

For what I like to do, I wrote reading, writing, and using Photoshop
For what I’m good at, I put in editing and design
For what’s important to me, I put in friends, family, and location
Finally, for what I’m interested in, I wrote carving and painting

What your results say

Finally, we went over the different degree options and talked about each choice. Stan discussed a few fields of study at EWU, and I’ll put an example of each one for reference:

General sciences (geology)
Health sciences (nursing)
Engineering (mechanical engineering)
Technology (computer science)
Social sciences (psychology)
Government (political science)
Business (finance)
Creative arts (creative writing)
Design (visual communication and design)
Education (secondary education)

After looking at my results and the fields Stan mentioned, I came up with editing, humanities, and design based off my interest in painting, carving, editing, and Photoshop. What kind of work will be best for you?

Killer Crime: Get Lit! hosts crime writing panel

05/23/2018 by afuller Leave a Comment

I’ve always enjoyed crime novels and I love to read stories that allow me to piece things together from a set of clues. When I heard that there was a Killer Crime panel at Get Lit!, I had to check it out. Here’s a little I learned about crime writing.

The suspects

Okay there weren’t actually any suspects, but we did get to meet four different crime writers: Mathew Sullivan, Devin Devine, Tony Russell, and TJ Tranchell. They answered a few questions relating to crime writing and their personal experience with the genre.

What drew them to crime?

Matthew was drawn to crime writing from a literary influence and a life influence. He loved the idea of the natural progression of crime (from crime to case to solved), and the clear scaffolding that crime novels fit in. Matthew said he enjoys getting into the book and solving the crime from a writer’s perspective.

Devin said that crime novels have gray areas and even the worst characters can be likeable. She talked about being a nine-year-old watching The Ring as her first motivation to write. She thinks crime writing is realistic and a good sense of the state of things today.

Tony said that crime is universal.

Finally, TJ said that crime is about plot and planning. He said that crime novels are a search to find out if you as the reader are right in your assumptions.

What is suspense beyond “the next thing”?

TJ talked a bit about how Hitchcock used suspense. In one of the old Hitchcock movies, the villain planted a bomb under a table. The viewers knew about the bomb and that it would go off, but the characters had no idea. TJ talked about how suspense is showing readers details about a crime that the main characters don’t know about. Suspense comes from knowing what will happen and having to read to find out if the detectives will solve the crime in time.

Tony talked about the five-part novel he and Devin were working on. For him, the suspense is more about wanting to tell everyone who the murderer is before the series is completed.

Devin said that the series she is working on with Tony changes characters between each chapter. Everyone lies and that for crime novels it’s up to the reader to decide who they think is telling the truth.

Matthew says that suspense as a writer is much like being a therapist. Instead of handing out answers, the job of a crime writer is to let readers get to the conclusion on their own through clues.

What about the Denouement (end)?

Matthew said that he once wrote a story with a 150 page denouement that his editor had him cut to 20 pages.

Devin said that the denouement is about waiting and waiting until the end. She said that like with the Harry Potter series, a denouement does not always give all the answers.

Tony talked a little more about Noir and said that the style of Noir was exaggerated and uses misadventures to further the story.

TJ talked about novels and how he was a bigger fan of questions than he was with answers. A denouement might give some answers, but oftentimes it leads the reader to a few more questions.

A bit about Get Lit!

While this year’s Get Lit! festival has ended, you can check out the website in spring of next year and check out the schedule for 2019.

Comic Creations: comic artists talk at Get Lit!

05/17/2018 by afuller Leave a Comment

Get Lit! is an annual festival in Spokane where local writers talk about their experience or run workshops to help with writing skills. Each year is a little different, with topics this year ranging from poetry slams to writing workshops and panels.

One of the events I went to was called Comic Creations. A five-dollar purchase got me a four pack of posters made by the panelists. As far as events go, this one was decently sized with about twenty people attending.

Before I went to the event, I didn’t think comics aren’t just about superheroes or political cartoons. Many of these comic artists drew scenes from their own life or created a story that borrowed from literary themes such as character or setting (I suppose that’s why they were at Get Lit!).

Derrick Freeland

Derrick is the leader of Spokane Sequential, a group of comic artists who design a monthly magazine. Derrick talked about his upcoming graphic novel and how the novel reflected his own life. He brought in examples of characters and how they were symbols of his parents, himself, and the parents he always wanted.

Derrick’s art style was the most realistic of the four styles I saw that day. His work was shaded and even his fantastical elements seemed as though they would fit in the world he created.

Tiffany Patterson

Tiffany talked about how she started out as a painter and moved into creating comics. She talked about her paintings and talked about how she started to move away from her perfectionist style by drawing messy lines in the background of her works.

Tiffany’s work had a surreal aspect to it. The main comic she discussed had a Where the Wild Things Are feel to it, with monsters and a child who travels to a magical forest. Her other artwork had fantastical elements with a few femurs and plenty of bright colors.

Chelsea Martin

Chelsea started out as an artist and began to create long descriptions for her works. She then moved into writing and finally became a comic writer. She worked with human interaction and awkwardness.

Many of Chelsea’s comics featured people looking at the floor, awkward silences, and vague relationships. Some of the awkward pauses were uncomfortable in a way that felt realistic and interesting. Her art style was very realistic and had few if any instances of fantastical elements.

Simeon Mills

Simeon talked about how he created his comics. Simeon took photographs of himself acting character expressions and then drew the character in sharpie on the reverse side of the photograph. He redrew each face to make each panel of his comic.

Simeon’s work was completely two dimensional with no shading. His drawings were very detailed with mustaches made from individual lines and highly expressive characters.

A bit about Get Lit!

While this year’s Get Lit! festival has ended, you can check out the website in spring of next year and view the schedule for 2019.

When to negotiate your salary (every time you get a job)

05/04/2018 by afuller Leave a Comment

Imagine that you’re in an interview relating to your chosen career. You’re excited to begin your first full-time job you’ve been preparing for over the past few years. During your interview, your employer asks “What is the salary you want to make?”

If you aren’t prepared for that question, you might answer with a number far too low or too high. You’ll need an accurate number and you’ll need to know how to negotiate your salary. I went to another Career Services seminar called “Got a job offer, what now? Always negotiate your salary” where I learned a few negotiation skills.

Before we get started, let’s talk about why you need to negotiate. Employers want to make money and will expect salary negotiation. That means they’ll lower their offer. Its up to you to bring that number up to what your value to the company is.

Before the interview

Before your interviews even happen, research the typical pay range for your job. Look at the qualifications for the job and determine where you may fit into that pay range. You’ll have a good idea of how much you want to be paid.

During the interview

Don’t say your desired salary during the interview. If employers ask, you’ll want to discuss the market value of the job and mention that you’ll be happy to consider any reasonable offer. It’s important here to stay polite without mentioning an exact number (unless you keep getting pressed for one).

Once you have an offer

You’ve finally gotten an offer, what’s next? Now you’ll want to prepare a counter offer before you do anything else. Thank the company for their time and tell them you’ll get back to them in a couple of days. Then, prepare a counter offer that is 5-10 percent higher than your ideal salary. You’ll have a good place to negotiate from instead of starting your negotiation where you want to end.

Hard vs. Soft Negotiators

You’ll meet two common types of negotiators: hard and soft negotiators. If you stay assertive and polite, employers will respect you more than if you let them rattle you. It’s important here to know your value and your pay range.

Hard negotiators will attempt to intimidate you into accepting a lower pay. They’ll act as if your ideal pay is unreasonable. You want to make sure that you stay polite, but don’t let them rattle you. As long as you’re working within your value as an employee, you should keep to your convictions!

Soft negotiators will attempt to sway your emotions. They’ll make coffee, treat you well, and when you negotiate will act as if your base is unreasonable. The trick here is to remember your research and stay away from feelings of guilt.

What if they lowball?

Lowballing is when employers give you a far lower offer than is reasonable. If you ever come across a lowball, you’ll need to develop a strategy before responding to the offer. Make sure you meet all the qualifications for the job and look at the benefits package to see if any benefits make up for the low pay.

It’s a good idea to politely bring up that the salary listed is too low. Make sure to listen to the employer and see where they’re coming from before making a decision. If you can’t come to an agreement, then you need to learn when to walk away.

Walking away from a job

If you notice your employer does not treat you well or does not seem a good fit, you may wish to walk away. If you love the job but the pay is too low to support yourself, it may be a job you need to walk away from as well. It’s important to remember that you should only walk away if you intend to walk away, not as a negotiation tactic.

If you decide to walk away after a failed negotiation, refuse the job offer politely and explain the salary was too low. In any case, send a thank you letter to keep a good relationship with the employer. You may find another job with that company in a couple years.

Wrapping up

1: Before the interview, research what other people in that job are typically paid.

2: During the interview, discuss the market value of the job but don’t disclose the salary you want.

3: Once you have the offer, thank your employer and tell them you’ll be in touch in a couple of days.

4: When negotiating, stay assertive while being polite.

5: If they lowball you, research why they might and then ask why the listed salary was so low.

6: If you must walk away, reject only if you really mean it and send a thank you letter.

Four Yurt tapestries you'll want to see

05/01/2018 by afuller Leave a Comment

Have you ever wanted to curate your own art gallery or exhibit? Anthropology student and artist Angeline Nesbit has by curating the “Song of Silence” gallery in the EWU Downtown Student Gallery, displaying tapestries that once hung in yurts across Kyrgyzstan.

What are yurts?

Yurts are large hide buildings held up by wooden poles. They aren’t as pack able as tents, but are sturdier. Basically, a yurt is a house that can be torn down and put up somewhere else. Central Asia has extreme weather, so nomads keep moving with their flock.

Why these tapestries?

I was able to talk with Angeline about the tapestries and I learned a lot about tapestry creation and designs. She said that “I also have a background in weaving and more traditional craft like quilting, knitting, all that kind of stuff, so I have an interest in textiles.”

Angeline picked eleven tapestries from over a hundred to display, and her choices show that she carefully studied the tapestries to find variety in technique and color use.

The tapestries themselves range from 19^th century (really old for a fabric) pieces to more recent works that give insight into the Soviet control of Kyrgyzstan in the 1950s. Designs range from simple mandalas (circular flower shapes) to the large Soviet star and symbols.

Let’s take a look!

This tapestry is a great example of a finished tapestry. It’s about five to six feet tall and ten feet wide and has all three sides and two triangular pieces attached. Most of the tapestries depicted in the gallery were incomplete, missing either the middle piece, or one or more of the sides. They took up to ten years to make so it’s not surprising to find incomplete ones!

This piece was made in the late 1800s and shows off the different fabric used at the time. Red was one of the rarest and most valued colors, but as time went on, red dye became more available.

This appears to be a side piece and a top piece. Nothing new to add, I just think they look cool!

This is one of the triangle pieces that either detached from the main tapestry or was never attached to a completed piece. The birds and the intricate flowers here look really complex. Whoever made this tapestry went through the trouble of stitching the bird wings in a shape that separate them from the body of the bird. Although the fabric is faded, you can kind of see the different colors used in this tapestry.

I did say four images but I really like this one too. I’m not sure where this panel fits in a tapestry, it may be part of a side piece or it might be a complete piece.