Blog #3 Due 11/27

11/25/2019

So far we have read one feature piece "The Making of Dylan Roof". Please explain what you have learned about feature writing from reading it that you did not know in the first half of our semester. Use specific examples from the essay. Be sure to respond to at least one classmate. This counts as attendance for Wed 11/27 and must be completed by the end of the day.

31 Comments

Bri Miller

11/26/2019 12:08:40 pm

The things that I have encountered and learned from this one feature piece is to show different angles and views of the topic. The author of the feature interviewed, researched, and visited many places where Dylan Roof that may have impacted his thoughts. This piece of writing showed me, you can use many techniques. Each piece of writing of feature will be different. However, some are longer than one another. The one thing is I liked when the author visited the plantations and locations where Dylan Roof visited, to have insight why he would go there and how that would influence his behavior and opinions. Another thing that I learned from this feature piece, is that when writing about a topic or person in a feature, you have to be open minded about what you find in your research to find different views and ally ways.

Jesse

11/27/2019 09:39:58 am

I also enjoyed how the author visited plantations as it really cant beat seeing a site in person. I think in regards to length it should be however much the author needs to get a point across. I also realized how key being open minded is as you will never know what you will see in your research.

Arsiama Zacharias

11/27/2019 06:02:16 pm

I agree that you need to have an open mind when writing a feature story. I also agree that this feature has to do with a lot of research, interviewing, and visiting different places to understand and find the full story.

Justin Curtis

11/26/2019 06:56:46 pm

From this feature piece I have learned the importance of showing multiple perspectives in writing. This author was dedicated to researching, interviewing and also traveling to places that could have contributed or had a profound effect on the mindset or thoughts of Dylan Roof. Feature writing can be done in many different ways and at many different lengths also. In this reading, I liked how the author visited the same locations as Dylan Roof in order to get the first hand experience and understand why he went there and how it influenced his life. The last thing I came to realize about feature writing is that it is clearly very important to research in different ways and open yourself to many different views and ideas. This way (like this piece), you can have many different angles or perspectives in your writing and it shows the reader that the author has put in a great deal of time into their research.

Camden Tuffile

11/27/2019 08:27:06 am

I agree that seeing a story from a variety of perspectives is a key factor to understanding the story. I also agree that it's very important to do research on varying ideas and opinions on your topic. Excellent blog!

Justin Curtis

11/26/2019 07:04:42 pm

This is my reply to Bri's blog, for some reason it will not let me click submit on my comment.

Hi Bri,
I agree with you that a key part of the authors research was going to the same places that Dylan Roof did. I also agree with you on the fact that all feature writings are susceptible to differences, and length will definitely vary. Great job on your blog!

Camden Tuffile

11/27/2019 08:21:39 am

Feature pieces come in many forms. They can be any length, though usually on the longer side, and can cover virtually any topic. This particular feature piece showed that it's important to see a story from every possible angle. The author does extensive research on her topic, Dylan Roof, traveling around the country to places he visited and grew up in. She also interviews his family members and friends, as well as victims of his crime. The author put a lot of time into making this story as accurate as possible, while also making it interesting to read. Overall, when writing a feature piece, I think it's important to get as many perspectives as possible and to be accurate with facts and sources.

Ephraima Francette

11/27/2019 02:27:28 pm

Hi Camden!

I agree with you about the author having put a lot of time in the piece thus making the story as accurate as possible while also keeping the story interesting to the reader.

Andrew

11/27/2019 06:50:36 pm

Hi Cami, I love how you mentioned the author must be able to see the story from every possible angle in order for a the story to be worthy of reading. In this case I think it was going beyoud the surface with Dylan Roof by getting deeper into his background and what could have led to the crime.

Quinn DeMelo

11/27/2019 09:00:12 am

What i have learned from this feature piece is that feature writings can be expressed more personal than a news story. Also you can use your own voice and personal experience within the writing. The author of this writing also expressed many different perspectives of the Dylan Roof story. The author performed interviews with people related to the case. Her research was outstanding and you could tell she was passionate about writing this feature piece. She tried her hardest to understand what influenced Dylan to do what he did. The author wanted an accurate story of this case and i believe she worked hard enough to do so.

Zhaoya Xu

11/27/2019 01:56:39 pm

I agree with you. It seems not that objective and isolated from the author. The author's thoughts and prospection also give us new angles to look at the whole issue.

Jesse Frazier

11/27/2019 09:35:47 am

From this piece I have learned how important preparation is for such a piece. Seeing other perspectives and pieces only makes your writing better as it expands your mind and knowledge. It is also important to not overthink what you write as John Woodrow talks about that in regards to his piece on gun violence. Stores from every angle and view are also important as it gives your reader even a better understanding about what is going on.

thomas frati

11/27/2019 02:14:24 pm

Jesse i totally agree with preparation being a huge part of this.I also like that you said to not overthink because i think that is a big problem among a lot of people when it comes to writing pieces like this.

Michael Romano

11/27/2019 04:27:43 pm

Sup dude,

I agree with your points in your piece about how you should over think writing. I can say from experience that writing can be easier when you just write and not get writers block as much. i also agree how preparation plays such a big role in writing a paper or profile cause your research is everything.

Zhaoya Xu

11/27/2019 01:38:53 pm

I can notice that the author utilize subtitle to present the whole issue in different angles. This is what other pieces we have learnt do not have. Meanwhile, some observations even thoughts from the author also are involved so that we can pry how the author thought. From the paragraph of “Father”, We can know that Benn Dylan cannot accept the reality that his son has killed people. Though there are some descriptions of Roof Dylan to his father’s emotion, the author said, “there is no nostalgia” and the note “is devoid of a loving tone”. This section shows the improper educational environment and method from his father.

Thomas Frati

11/27/2019 02:12:33 pm

some things i have learned from this feature piece is that feature writings can be expressed more personally than a news story. Also you can use your voice and personal experience within the writing. I also liked how the author visited the same locations as Dylan Roof in order to get the first hand experience and understand why he went there and how it influenced his life. Feature pieces come in many different forms of writing. It is important to understand them all. In this one particular you have to keep an open mind about what you find.

Michael Sheehan

11/27/2019 02:35:36 pm

Hey Thomas,

I liked how you said you have to keep an open mind about the situation you are researching, when doing a specific case like this it could be out of the ordinary. You have to look through the eyes of the profile you are doing. You shouldn't have to put your own spin on a story or feature piece if you do the leg work and keep an open mind.

Joe Aoude

11/27/2019 05:46:52 pm

Hey Tom,

I totally agree with everything you said! We kind of said the same thing. I also like how she used her personal experience - I think it made the piece interesting and also I like how the author went back to Roots community and to talk to people who knew him and get their thoughts, too.

Kailyn Cogan

11/27/2019 06:57:35 pm

I also really liked how the author took the time to go out of his way and get his own experience and understanding of what it was like to be in the actual places. It really gives his writing more of a different viewpoint to readers that helps us understand what it was like for him. I think this would be really helpful to use in our own feature writings.

Ephraima Francette

11/27/2019 02:24:44 pm

From this piece something that I learned was how impactful it can be for the author to bring forth their own emotions within the piece. Throughout the article the author makes sure the audience is following her emotional journey. For example when Dylann Roofs mother faints in the courtroom as the author goes to help her she describes how she feels kind of "out of place" but also "realizing she was too much in place". This is something presented throughout the piece, the authors inner emotions and thoughts. Tis helped the reader feel everything the author felt.

Nhamaa Cortes

11/27/2019 08:08:37 pm

I also thought that the author inserting her own opinion had an impact. It helped keep me engaged. like when she equated the killer to hate.

Michael Sheehan

11/27/2019 02:33:43 pm

From this piece I have learned quite a lot about a specific writing style, the author profiled the case of Dylan Roof with many different feature styles of writing. The author takes many points of view from the incident with Dylan Roof, his education, family life, and even how the community responded. It takes a great deal of preparation and background research of a profile like this, to explain in such detail the story from many different angles. In the section called "The Gun," it goes to show the author did the leg work. Even to find out just where Dylan Roof purchased the gun and to explain to the reader in a lengthy analysis takes a ton of research and time. The author also went to many places that Dylan Roof visited just to experience it first hand, when you get in person experience it can really help with the full understanding of how to write a feature piece.

Michael Romano

11/27/2019 04:22:39 pm

From this featured piece I encountered and learned different writing styles through the profile of Dylan Roof. I like how the author devoted so much time to find research for his profile, I also like how the author took the time to go to the places that Dylan did. By doing that it helps the author put himself in Dylan's place. Learning how to do the different views and perspectives can show the writer just how much research and time you put in and it can help keep the audience alive.

Meredith Beckett

11/27/2019 04:50:43 pm

After reading this featured piece, I learned that even if an author goes into cover a story with an idea in mind of what they want to write about, the story can take it's own form and reveal deeper or multiple meanings. Rachel Kaadzi, didn't just give the reader insight on the story behind the man who committed such a Haynes racial crime, but she took another angle by showing the resilience of the survivors, and the African American community as a whole. The story covered the crime beyond face value, the author did background research on the offender so the reader would understand the the roots of his ideology and where his sinister behavior stems from. The way the story was constructed helped the reader get a full understanding of the hate crime.

Joe Aoude

11/27/2019 05:40:50 pm

What I learned from reading this feature piece that I did not know before is that it is totally fine to insert yourself into the story at times, but there is a way to do it right.
To me, the author did not make the story about her, through reading it and her tone you knew how she felt, but she stayed on topic and didn’t stray away from the story. She reminded factual and the piece was very balanced and tried to look at both sides of the story. There are so many journalists I’ve watched over the years who don’t make themselves the story-they don’t really insert themselves in the story they just tell the story as is.
I appreciated that the author had such a commitment to service and took charge to really tell the story because Dylann Root wasn’t going to. She went back to his family and where he grew up and places like his school and church to really get an idea of who he was and as the article says ‘’to try to understand the place where he wasted 21 years of his life until he committed an act so heinous that he became the first person sentenced to die for a federal hate crime in the entire history of the United States of America.’’ That to me is what good journalism looks like-getting the opportunity to see both sides and hearing everything not being tribal and writing something that only shows one angle and one sided.

Arsiama Zacharias

11/27/2019 06:00:10 pm

I learned that feature writing requires research, interviewing people, and traveling to different places to understand and find the full story. The author, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, traveled to “Richland County, to Columbia, South Carolina” searching, for an answer to her questions about Dylan Roof (Ghansah, Rachel). Ghansah spoke with Roof’s family, friends, former teachers, and victim’s family members, to “unlock” how he became to be known as the coldest killer. Ghansah put a lot of time and effort into this story because it’s important to have accurate information so people can understand the story.

Kailyn Cogan

11/27/2019 06:38:17 pm

Something that I realized and learned after reading this feature piece, was the way the text was set up. In this piece, we started off by learning the main story of Dylann Roof, and the damage he caused in the Mother Emanuel AME church. The first section of this piece takes us through the whole story and the trial of what happened with Dylann Roof. Then, the writing is divided up into different sections that also gave background information about Dylann Roof, but just in the a different way. For example, information on his father, education, family, the church, etc. All of these different components give us as readers, more background information to help piece the story of Dylan Roof together. I was unaware that feature pieces included so many different viewpoints and topics based on one character and story.

Andrew Arsenault

11/27/2019 06:46:05 pm

This article was very interesting, and led me to find out what exactly feature writing is. The article was structured perfectly, giving the reader all of the background and information that is necessary about Dylan Roof. I was able to see the different viewpoints from Dylan Roofs life, what his parents were like, where he grew up and what could have led to what ultimately happened. All of this information made the piece have much more meaning to me as the reader. Feature writing is deeper than just a piece about someone, feature writing uses research, interviews and possibly even other traveling techniques so the writer can get a better understanding of exactly what Dylann Roof was living.

Nhamaa Cortes

11/27/2019 08:03:38 pm

what I learned from reading the Dylan Roof article is that feature writing requires a lot of work because have to get multiple perspectives. the author of the article interviewed many people such traveled to places, and did extensive research. Getting all the perspectives helped to clear up the truth about the topic. I like how the author still gave her opinion throughout the writing. one part of the article that shows how deep into research a writer must go is when the author researched the killers family tree to figure out his family's past.

Brianna

12/2/2019 09:55:49 am

From reading "The Making of Dylan Roof" Ive learned that the author put a lot of work and time into this piece. It had many different perspectives, along with interviews, and research. I feel that having multiple points of views and traveling to different places helped really bring the piece alive. Also the break down of the story (beginning, middle, end) benefitted the flow of the story. I feel that the writer of this piece was super committed to writing a good story about Dylan Roof, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to find much on his life just by sitting around. She traveled to his hometown and investigated his life from the beginning which gave the reader a full 360 of his life.

Alexis Ellis

12/2/2019 03:35:55 pm

After reading "The Making of Dylan Roof", I noticed that having different perspectives in this piece was important for the author. She used imagery well. She personally visited the courtroom and was able to give details of the case. She even talked about his father, his education, his family, church, community and so much more. She really gave the reader an interesting storyline and showed her passion and interest in the subject which is important in any feature piece. The more passion the more life and realness to the piece.

Blog #3 Due 11/27

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