Before I began researching information for the cultural artifact I reviewed my requirements that I needed to include in this particular assignment. I looked over the purpose first and I thought of some of the important questions that weren’t obvious that I should include in webpage that my readers would find interesting about the Docuteller ATM. After finding information that I wanted to incorporate in my webpage I started researching. Reasoning and Content was the next item that I need to add to my webpage. In specific was pictures that would help the readers relate the pictures to my cultural artifact. In addition to pictures that I added in my web page I also uploaded a video from YouTube of an early version of the ATM. For my organization of my webpage I tried to use a balance of text and pictures to make my webpage seem easier and more inviting to read. I also used a different colored font which would add character and jazz up the page as well. At the bottom of the webpage I thought it would be appropriate to put my references and suggestions for further readings of the Docuteller. Putting everything together to make my webpage about my cultural artifact was a new and interesting way for me to learn more about my year. However I found that this was a time demanding assignment but the end results paid off in the end.

For the Cultural Artifact assignment I was torn between a couple of artifacts that represented 1969 that I wanted to write about. Those artifacts were the Nerf Ball, the Big Wheel, and the ATM. I knew that I would most likely not be able to meet the requirements of the assignment by writing about the Nerf Ball and the Big Wheel because I didn’t know how they described America in 1969. However I knew I could write and meet all the requirements of the assignment by choosing the ATM to write about.  After choosing the ATM to represent as 1696’s cultural artifact I started researching information about the ATM. ATM was also easier for me to write about because I had mentioned and wrote about the ATM in my Year in Review essay which was my first assignment for English 015. Doing the ATM as my cultural artifact allowed me to learn more about the machine’s history that I didn’t know as well as anyone who reads my cultural artifact web page. In particular one of the interesting facts that I learned was that the ATM never used the ATM cards that we are all familiar until 1969. The name of the Docuteller ATM actually came from the company that produced the ATM is also something that I learned as well. If you can only imagine the Docuteller ATM really was another step in America’s technology in 1969.

When it came time for me to put all the information together about 1969 for my Year in Review assignment I did so by importance of events. I started off of course with my introduction and that was based off of hints you are going to read about in the essay, and why 1969 is still important to us today in 2009. To me one of the most important events in 1969 was the election of President Richard Nixon. I feel that it was important because it is a President who helps maintain a functional country. Next was the importance of the Apollo 11 Mission. Without this who knows just exactly when we should set foot on the moon? Another reason is because it was America who accomplished this and it is something that all Americans should be happy and take pride in that our country managed to walk on the moon before any other country could do so. Finally Hurricane Camille was the next important event that happened in 1969. This was the worst natural disaster of the year and was one of the deadliest hurricanes to take place in America at the time. All the other facts in the essay are just about what the average person was dealing with and seeing in an everyday life. One of those was about sports like who won what. “The Brady Bunch” first aired on television in 1969, and I enjoy the television show too so I added that in my essay. Not only did I enjoy it though, but it was also one of the most watched television shows in 1969 I learned when doing research. I also had a part about an interview that I conducted with my Grandmother over the telephone. In the interview my Grandmother told stories about her life in 1969. In the conclusion I just restated important events.

When it came time for me to choose my year for English 015 I knew that it was going to be a tossup between following three years, 1953, 1999, and 1969. My reasoning behind choosing 1953 was mainly because of the saying “Buy now pay later,” which we all know as the introduction to famous credit card slogan. In 1999, the West Nile Virus hit America, and that was something that I was always concerned with getting when I was younger playing outside in the summer. Finally in 1969 there were a lot of events that were happening in America like Neil Armstrong, President Nixon’s election, Hurricane Camille, and the first ATM. So when I looked back at my three choices it was obvious to me which one made the most since to use as my year, and that was 1969.  When I decided on 1969 I knew that writing my Year in Review would be easy to get information about. After researching information in the beginning on 1969 I already knew possible topics to write about in my assignment. Those specific topics were going to be: President Nixon, Apollo 11 Mission, Hurricane Camille, first ATM, sport records, hit television show Brady Bunch, and an interview. I figured with all this information about 1969 it was going to be successful semester in English 015 all because I chose the right year to write about, educate others on, and to research more information on.

The whole concept of me choosing to write a narrative script about  Hurricane Camille was to inform people in a creative way of the hurricane’s facts and to show an example of emotions that might have been going on at the time of the actually event. I thought that best way to show that was to do a historical news report. So when I started to working on the facts of Hurricane Camille I came up with a list. The facts that I wanted to incorporated were: the death toll, victims injured, damages costs, wave heights, and wind gusts. After making the list I then took to the internet to find the appropriate facts. I found a very informative website and used that one to obtain the information that I needed for my script. In the end I the facts that I found were: the death toll was around 255 people, 8,900 victims injured, damages costing Mississippi around 4.2 billion dollars, wave heights recorded as 20 feet, and wind gusts up to 200mph. When I was researching these facts I learned more about Hurricane Camille as well. It was a very devastating disaster and caused the state of Mississippi a lot of pain and suffering. That is another reason why I wanted to choose Hurricane Camille as my narrative topic. It was an event that happened in 1969 that many people will never forget. On top of that Hurricane Camille fit the purpose of the narrative assignment perfectly.

The title of my narrative script is “Hurricane Camille” I came up with name simply because of the topic I chose to write about. When it came time to write my script I prepared myself by writing down ideas of what I wanted to say in the script and other ideas that I wanted to include in the script as well. So I made a list of all the characters that I wanted to use in my narrative. When choosing my characters I took in consideration that I didn’t want all boys or all girls, so I tried to have a variety with ending results of three boys and three girls. Choosing the names for my characters were thought up by either someone I knew or just names that I heard on television shows.  Gary, Mary, Mike, and Leigh were all names that I knew for actual people. However, Susan and Paul were names that heard from the television shows “Desperate Housewives.” So with the names of my characters picked out I then went about giving them roles in my script all by random selection. Gary and Mary are the news reporters on a radio station in Florida. Susan and Paul are locals in the town. Leigh and Mike are from Georgia and are looking for a potential home in Mississippi.  My vision of the whole script is that Mary was interviewing the locals and the visitors the day before Hurricane Camille came to Mississippi because she was already in Mississippi due to family, and when Mary returns back to Florida a week after the hurricane her and Gary share the interviews with everyone listening to their radio station.

When it came time for me to write essays or research papers while I was in high school I always found it hard to get me ideas on paper. It wasn’t until I was in English 004 that I really learned how to transfer my thoughts and ideas on paper. Not only was getting my ideas to my essays hard for me, but also getting back feedback from people. I have found that the best way for me to get my ideas on paper and to get back positive and even negative feedback is to do something that is called “peer review.” It was Dr. Maggie Froehlich my English 004 and now English 015 instructor who introduced this technique for improving writing skills to me, as well as her other students. I found that by using “peer review” I was able to get the feedback that I always needed and it was a way an excellent way for me to organize my thoughts. Now when I write any assignment I always know that my paper will come back with good results in the end due to “peer review.” However, I found that I don’t always need to be in class to get feedback from readers because I now have a copy of the “peer review” questions that we should ask ourselves when done writing a paper with me, and I use that for my friends and family. Knowing that I am getting back helpful ideas and knowing what I did right really helps me become a better writer.  So now when I write any essay I have confidence that my final copy will be successful because I took the steps necessary to make it better by taking advantage of “peer review.”

In the narrative assignment we were challenged by our instructor (Dr. Maggie Froehlich) to write a script and make a podcast about a specific event that happened in the year that we chose to focus on for the semester. Like I mentioned in my previous blog about the Year in Review I will be writing about the year 1969 I have chosen to write about Hurricane Camille. Hurricane Camille will fall under the historical fiction category. I have chosen to write about a historical fiction, so that my readers or listeners of my assignment will get some educational use of my project.  I will make a news story where a news reporter is in Mississippi the day before the Hurricane is said to arrive. The news reporter will interview locals and visitors who are evacuating and are taking precautions in the town of Pass Christian. I plan on making a very thorough script that includes a lot of details, so that when it comes time to record my podcast part of the assignment I can do so quickly and accurately. I myself will not be the only one who speaks in my podcast. I will have help from a couple of friends to make my podcast unique with different voices for my characters. I got my idea for Hurricane Camille because I knew that it was one of the many events that happened in 1969 that had a great impact on many people’s lives at the time, and I wanted my narrative to recreate some event that many people would remember from the year; besides Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

For my Year in Review assignment I chose to focus my attention on the year 1969. I decided to choose this particular year is because it is the year that my mother was born, and I figured that my Grandmother Carol would have a great deal of information on the year. When it came time for me to start writing my Year in Review essay the first step I decided to do was to call my Grandmother Carol and interview her with a list of questions that I had about the year. After I got the information that I needed from my Grandmother I then researched more information about historical events, clothing styles, natural disasters, and popular televisions shows. I found that most of my information about my year was from the internet that I used in my essay. I feel that the internet is easier to use and is a faster way of getting information. After I got all the information that I felt that I could write an informative essay about the year 1969 I started organizing my thoughts. I formatted my essay by starting off as follows: the first paragraph is an introduction to the year 1969, my second is about President Nixon, the third paragraph is about a historical event, the fourth is about a natural disaster, fifth paragraph is about an important invention, sixth is about sports, seventh paragraph is about a popular television show, the eighth paragraph is about my interview with my Grandmother Carol, and finally my ninth and last paragraph is my conclusion. Each of the subjects that I chose to write about in my essay all were picked based on the importance, and some fun facts about the year 1969.