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In Arts & Writing

News Writing Examples

Author Jesse SteelePosted on Leave a comment

Good story, terrible news writing:

“Nine people were killed in Karachi, including a police officer who was shot, as demonstrations provided cover for arsonists and looters who attacked shops and restaurants.”

Does it particularly matter whether the officer was shot or mauled? It’s a tragedy, leave it at that. And, is it unusual for looters to attack shops and restaurants? I mean, are we distinguishing between these looters and the “other” looters, who were attacking everything EXCEPT shops and restaurants? Were the demonstrator “protecting” the looters not themselves looters?

How about…

“Demonstrators looted in Karachi, killing nine people, including a police officer.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9557463/Thirteen-killed-in-Pakistan-protests-against-anti-Islam-film.html  · · · →

In Arts & Writing

Microsoft Word Measurement Units

Author Jesse SteelePosted on Leave a comment

Having trouble getting the measurement units to show properly in Word?

Try going to Options >General/Advanced > Measurement Units (depending on which Word year 2003/2007/2010).

If that doesn’t work…

Press ALT+F11. This opens the macro editor.

Press CTRL+G (View > Immediate Window). This provides a ‘chat’ window in which you can type vba code to be executed immediately.

In that window, type: Options.UseCharacterUnit = False

Sometimes, units result from Regional Settings of your main system. By setting this as False, the system regional settings in Windows will no longer override the units you select in Word Options.  · · · →

In Arts & Writing

Circles of Fifths

Author Jesse SteelePosted on 2 Comments
Circles of Fifths

The New Circle of Fifths…

Circles of Fifths

The Circle of Fifths is for daydreaming musicians. Once you know your way around, let your mind wander and you’ll invent great chord progressions etc. Understanding the modulation flow of the Old Circle of Fifths helps enhance your mind-wandering music-day-dreaming ability. Each triad-chord is paired with the relative Major and minor chords, ie: C Major and a minor are next to each other. Three consecutive pairs constitute a key, with triads and mode scales based on the Major and minor scales in the center, ie: G, C, and F pairs are all in the key of C, using the C Major/a minor scale and whatever mode changes you make for the others (G Mixolydian, D Dorian, etc, all using the same notes as the C Major scale).

With the New Circle of Fifths, we add the seventh tone for both the Major and Harmonic minor scales.  · · · →

In Arts & Writing

Media

Author Jesse SteelePosted on Leave a comment

More and more Christians are becoming interested in the world of publishing, syndication, writing, and art. Mass Communication is entirely different from the Academic world. Medical, Theology, and Education tend to respect people for their academic degrees. However, authors, artists, entertainers, syndicates, cartoonists—advancement in these careers depend more on whether you “got it” or not. For them, your pedigree doesn’t matter, only your work and your relationships in the industry. You don’t achieve these things without dedication.

Authors and artists may want to emphasize their portfolios. As an opinion writer, if you get published by a large company or syndicated, you’re regarded as an expert, regardless of your school transcripts. As a pundit, you may need to get along well with other pundits, while taking pot shots at them just the same. Facebook, blogosphere, tweetosphere—Social Media is similar to Mass Media: Notice to get noticed. Some news organizations promote within their ranks based on cronyism, but not all.   · · · →