Author: Kelly Hall

Ah, I can’t believe the time is finally here! I’m putting the finishing touches on my capstone and am thrilled to finally get to share it with the MiW community.

This semester, I decided to explore how social media and our devices either hamper or improve communication with others. Nowadays, some people choose to interact with their electronic devices rather than the people around them. But is this necessarily a bad thing? It is called “social” media for a reason. 

This Minor in Writing portfolio consists of three creative nonfiction short essays, written from my perspective, and a research report that analyzes the usage of technology in lieu of communication with others.

It is important to society today to think about the impact that our attachment to these devices has on the people around us. So now it’s your time to decide: does it encourage communication, or does it stifle it?

Link: https://hallkl.wixsite.com/website-1

In my entrepreneurship classes, I’ve learned that people often pivot during their endeavors, meaning that they quite literally move in a completely new and different direction partway through their project. The scary part? This is often after a good chunk of work has already been done. I pivoted big time last week after having a discussion with my friends about my capstone project.

Hearing their comments and suggestions was humorous.

“Oh, we know you love to people watch, Kelly.”

“It sounds like you’re looking mostly at people on their devices. Why can’t you write about that?”

“You love watching people–both in person and on social media!”

This reaffirmed that I was in the right genre, but my topic needed a little tweaking. After some brainstorming with Clint in class, I made an executive decision and did a lot of thinking and working on my Wix website this weekend. I’m still observing people, but now I will be focusing on people who are using technology in public, even when they’re surrounded by others. I’ll explore the idea of if it inhibits social interaction or not through three creative nonfiction stories. Now, I’m even more excited about my project and I’m ready to really get going. I’m a dork when it comes to human behavior, and I don’t care who knows it.

I’ll also probably need some help from you guys soon. I plan on creating a Google Form that asks about your own technology/social media usage, and how you perceive it impedes on your social life.

As always, thanks for reading!

While I definitely consider myself a writer who is very comfortable with the revision process, I have no idea how to move forward with revising my writing for the capstone project. Revision is a very necessary process for every single kind of writing I have done in the past, and I’m assuming that will be no different for this project…but at the same time, that thought makes me uncomfortable. In class on Thursday, we discussed addressing something that makes us a little uneasy, and this is one of those things.

For my capstone, I’ll be exploring the idea of shifting perspectives through creative non-fiction writing. It sounds so simple when I put it that way, but as I’m sure many of you know, this capstone project is far from simple. The project needs to solve some sort of problem or question, and though mine will certainly explore multiple perspectives, I feel like I need to narrow down my problem even further.

For some background information, I plan on going to places around Ann Arbor where I can sit and observe someone for around 20-30 minutes. As I sit there, I will write notes for a small creative nonfiction story, likely around 600-800 words. My story about the stranger will undoubtedly be different from other people’s stories, however. That is why I will be enlisting a few friends to come with me on these journeys. They will take field notes as well, and afterwards, we’ll discuss what we thought we saw. After discussing and looking over their notes, I will write a second creative nonfiction story about what my friend saw. There will likely be a large juxtaposition between the two stories, and that explains how a perspective can influence a story. At the end of it all, I will publish my story, their notes, and then the written story of my friend’s notes.

One of the issues that I have is that I need more ideas for places to visit where we’ll be able to observe a variety of people. I don’t want to observe just college kids, for example.

My second issue is that I feel as if I can incorporate a second topic into my project. For example, I could work out some of the problems that technology and social media pose on interactions between strangers and people watching in general. I would be willing to bet that most people my age wouldn’t know how to observe a scene or a person for a full half hour without looking at their phone.

I would appreciate any suggestions or comments you may have!

Hi everyone! It’s good to be back.

At first, I was worried when I read the prompt for our first blog post. I instantly knew that one of my communities would be The Michigan Daily, but was petrified that I somehow floated through three and a half years at this university without joining a single other writing community. Once I calmed down, though, I realized that quite a few of my experiences on campus could be considered involvement in a writing community.

I have spent most of my time on campus at the Daily, and I couldn’t be more happy in my decision to do so. I covered the softball, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and football teams over the past few years and it has taught me so much. Also, sitting through this guy’s pressers has been a fun time.

I cringe when I go back and read my articles from my freshman year, but I’m also happy to be aware of the improvements I’ve made in my writing. I also really enjoy helping new writers as a senior editor at the paper and trying to make them cognizant of the pitfalls I committed when I was their age. The Daily engulfed my life for a while there, so it will be strange to sit back this semester and just relax now that football season is over.

The main community that interfered with my sports writing would have to be the psychology community. After reading through a few others’ posts, I know I’m not the only one who experienced difficulty transitioning between APA caveats and other kinds of writing. One time last semester, I finished a developmental psychology grant proposal and then went to write a sports column. I submitted it later, thinking that it looked good, but another editor pointed out all of the academic language I was using in my supposedly casual article. I had to slowly rework the entire thing, but that just goes to show you how beautifully expansive writing can be.

There are countless types of writing, and I’m hoping to expand upon my writing experiences, which have been overwhelmingly journalistic. Adding to my experience with straight-laced writing is my internship in the corporate communications department of Blue Cross Blue Shield two years ago. AP style 4 lyfe.

Looking forward to learning from everyone this semester!