Media Punk'd by Poe

Edgar Allan Poe wrote a piece for the New York Sun about a "group of British adventurers who had built a propeller-driven balloon, had taken off to cross the English channel . . . and ended up being blown across the Atlantic to a beach in Virginia, thus effecting the first aerial transatlantic crossing. This was BIG news! The Sun's unnamed correspondent [Poe] was the first to . . . interview the intrepid airmen."

Soon other reporters were scrambling "down to Virginia and began cranking out their own exclusive interviews with the [ballooning] Brits. There was only one small problem: There was no balloon, no balloonists, and no transatlantic crossing." But the papers didn't care "they just wanted a hot story, even if they had to make it up" (Bloom Puppets).

Do you think today's newspaper journalists just make up stories? Do you ever embellish your essays to make them more interesting?

Comments

  1. Ivery SmithApril 13, 2010 at 12:33 PM

    I don't think they make up stories, they just keep it real. Yes I do, to make them in a good sense, have more specific details and to do better with my conclusion.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Superpower Would You Choose?

Image
Do you want to fly? Would you like be invisible? How about superhuman strength or X-ray vision? My superpower of choice is to be able to speak every language in the Universe - from Elven to Italian, Mandarin to Romulan, cat to bat, and everything in between. I'd like to hear (or receive, if it's a telepathic language) everybody's story in their own language and understand all the delicate nuances intelligent beings can fashion. Speaking of stories . . . think of the stories these guys could tell. Imagine talking to Thor in Asgardian or being able to translate all the spells from the stacks at Hogwart's (BTW - the best class EVER!). So what superpower would you choose?
Read more

17 Majors Where you Might Not Find a Job

Image
Forbes just released a list of  " 17 college majors that report higher unemployment ." This report completed by PayScale, polled 962,956 workers between March 2014 and March 2016. What they found may or may not be surprising depending on your major, but it correlates with the idea that popular majors may not be the best choice when it comes to finding a job. So let's take a look. No. 1 - Physical Education Teaching. 56.4% underemployment. No. 2. - Human Services. 55.6% underemployment. No. 3 - Illustration. 54.7% underemployment. No. 4 - Criminal Justice. 53% underemployment. No. 5 - Project Management. 52.8% underemployment. No. 6 - Radio/Television and Film Production. 52.6% underemployment. No. 7 - Studio Art. 52.0% underemployment. No. 8 - Health Care Administration. 51.8 % underemployment. No. 9 - Education. 51.8% underemployment. No. 10 - Human Development and Family Studies. 51.5% underemployment. No. 11 - Creative Writing. 51.1% unde...
Read more

MLA Citations

Image
When you reach college you will be writing a variety of research papers and by the time you reach second year English, your instructors expect that you know how to paraphrase, quote, use in-text citations, and create a works cited page entry in your sleep. Why is citation important? Plagiarism is one thing that can get your kicked out of college. Your ideas and your writing belong to you. Just like my thoughts and my writings belong to me and Shakespeare's thoughts and writings belong to him. So give credit where credit is due. Here are a couple of quizzes to test your knowledge: Click on the link for an In-Text Citation Quiz offered by McGraw-Hill Click on the next link for a Works Cited Quiz created by McGraw-Hill . So how did you do? Were you surprised by how much you knew about in-text citations and works cited entries? Or how much you need to learn? Don't worry it's not too late there are all kinds of online resources for avoiding plagiarism. I would also r...
Read more