Another Journalism assignment.

I'm feeling pretty good about the article I "published". There aren't any typos I'm aware of (it does help to be using Firefox, which has a built-in spell checker). I've got a lot more than one quote, although I did the names in reverse - I started with the full name, but rather than switch to using only the last name, I was using only the first. I don't know how strict of a guideline this is, but hopefully it's not bad. I know the quotes are accurate - considering I was recording the interview, I'd say my note-taking ability is flawless. (Tounge-in-cheek, of course.) In all seriousness, the notes I jotted down helped me remember important phrases I wanted to quote, and the recording ensured they were accurate. I don't feel particularly strongly about being "published", though it really isn't the first time, is it?

I'm a good writer. I don't say this because I feel like inflating my ego, I say it because I've been told countless times that it's true. In high school, my senior year English teacher was the best english teacher I've ever had. Other teachers focused on grammar, and sentence structure. He focused on writing, and word use, and how to make your sentences come alive. He showed us how to write cleanly and clearly, and while he didn't teach us much about grammar (we had, after all, been doing it our whole lies, and he didn't want to waste time on it unless he had to) he was a stickler for proper syntax. He made the quality of my writing improve about a thousand times, simply by teaching us what we really wanted to learn.

Now, the reason I bring this up now is so that when I say that reading the article on me made me twich invoulantarily, you will understand my full meaning. From the opening sentence - "Not a lot of things inspire him to be who he is," - to the title (Technician Magician? Really?) to the numerous and astounding factual errors, not to mention the grammatical maze the author has written herself, I could almost feel the hatred for every word of this article ready to burst from my chest in a blaze of palpable rage.

I could correct every single thing that's wrong with this article, but there are easier, faster ways to commit suicide. For example, in talking about Broadway by the Bay, the author says it's a play which I'm trying to get into, implying to the unaware that I intend to be an actor. This is completley untrue. The theater is called Broadway by the Bay. The play is called Into the Woods. And I'm not trying to "get into" it, I'm working on Stage Crew. Two simple mistakes have changed the meaning of this sentence entirely, and frankly I'm appaled at such a casual error being made - and the article is littered with them.

Does the beginning of the article make me want to read more? No. "Not a lot of things inspire him to be who he is." The first time I read this article, I stopped there, and the article is about me. When the subject of the profile doesn't want to read the article you wrote about him, you're doing something wrong.

I can't go on. I really can't. At this point it should be obvious how I feel about the article.

Those of you who want to read the article for yourselves can find it here.