Question: Are you for or against the Keystone Pipeline XL and why?

“I am definitely for it. I think it will bring jobs. It is going to cost a lot of money, but it is going to make a lot of money as well and it’s something that we definitely need right now.”                –       Christopher Duncan, senior

	“I am for it because I think it would help out the economy by bringing in jobs and having a minimal effect on the environment.”      –       Kirstyn Dominy, junior
	“I’m against it because American could supply itself with oil instead of depending on foreign oil.”-       Sean Van Winkle, freshman
	“I am for it because we are bringing in oil from sources that are not America.”-       Rob Jochetz, senior
	“I am for it because it encourages growth of the United States economy and industry.”-       William Sealy, freshman
	“I’m a proponent of it, if it will help to limit the amount of oil we have to import from the Middle East.”-       Chase Wiley, senior

Texas billionaire Ross Perot plans to start converting a local city park into a theme park in one months time. Despite several protesters  he met with local media to discuss plans for, “Perot World.” The city council will vote next week on whether or not to sell the land to the former presidential candidate.

Local groups have been lobbying to make the land into either an off-leash dog park or a farmer’s market. The park is 20 acres located on the edge of town with private land near the park including large-acre farms. Currently, there are not any structures present in the park to be demolished in the process.

“The city is in need of economic development, and that’s what I do best. When everyone has a job at Perot World and tourists fill the local establishments, all this hullabaloo will be forgotten.”

Of the two other local groups wanting to use the space, only one would generate revenue to bring into the community. Miles, one of the protesters said, “A farmer’s market would occupy only half an acre initially and might grow to one acre.” Hopefully these two groups can make room for both ideas bringing more money into the community.

The Keystone Pipeline has been one of the hottest topics around ever since it came on the scene. With the economy not being the best in recent years and unemployment being high, most would think anything to bring more jobs into the United States and to support the economy would be welcomed with open arms.

This issue is constantly being debated by politicians all over the United States. Regardless of how many new jobs would be made available, the current administration continues to delay any forward movement. Most opposition is coming from environmental groups.

A decision was supposed to have already been made on the Keystone Pipeline, but it looks as if that announcement will continue to be unknown for now. According to an article, “…the administration will not announce until June whether it will approve or reject the proposed plan to build an oil-carrying pipeline from Canada to Texas.”

This topic will continue to be very popular over the next few months, if not longer. Politicians are expressing their stance on this issue all of the time along with many others.

Grammar and I have never gotten along. It could not be further away from “peanut butter and jelly” or “cake and ice cream.” I think I might have even spelled grammar wrong when I first typed it on the computer earlier. This subject has always been difficult for me, because I am not a very detailed person. As much as I have tried to work on being more detail-oriented recently, nothing has really appeared to help. Hopefully the practice in this class will help me to improve in this area.

I would like a better understanding of grammar so people can determine exactly what I am saying all of the time. I never want my audience to always be questioning exactly where I am coming and why. My grammar pet peeve is seeing what I consider to be “simple mistakes” being made. I know I tend to have a good number of them more often than not. I believe if I begin to go over my papers more and more before the due date, less of these mistakes will be present.

I have never tried using all of the “good writing rules” in the past when putting together a paper. Hopefully I will learn how to implement them more in the near future!

I am writing on, Texans among House members working on bipartisan immigration deal, by Todd J. Gillman, because I find this type of article to be especially relevant to Texans and other people from border states.

A Few Rules for Writing:

Use short sentences
The two shortest sentences in the article read ““It’s amazing that the group has kept it quiet this long. Normally secrets like this get out,” Stone said.” In comparison, the longest sentence says, ““With a high-profile bipartisan Senate plan unveiled this week and President Barack Obama making his case Tuesday in Las Vegas for an overhaul of immigration policy, the House effort could add to momentum.” Overall, the sentences being written are not too long, but more effort could have been made to make some of them shorter.

Use short words
Most of the words used in the article are not too long. Some longer words are used, but only when necessary. They typically are dealing with something political. For example, “Carter, who now chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that controls billions of dollars for homeland security, has led the Republican side of the secret working group. Democratic heavy hitters include House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra of California and Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, point man on immigration for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.” That sentence contained the longest words of the entire article.

Eliminate wordiness
Todd Gillman does not use a lot of extra unnecessary words when writing his article. Most of the words are helping him get straight to the point and are supporting what had been said earlier.

Come to the point quickly
The author of the article does a great job telling the reader what the article is basically covering. At first, he does not give his audience all of the details, but makes them want to keep reading to find out. He begins by saying, “Two immigration hard-liners from Texas have spent the last four years in secret talks aimed at forging a bipartisan deal.” After saying this, he goes into more detail about what specifically is going on.

The New York Times

Monday, January 28, 2013

The New York Times newspaper was first published on September 18, 1851. The paper seems to cover almost every topic imaginable. It is the third largest newspaper, only falling short to The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. On the left side of the home page, the different news topics are found separated into twelve broad categories written in bold: World, U.S., Politics, New York, Business, Dealbook, Technology, Sports, Science, Health, Arts, Style, and Opinion. After clicking on one of the options, the categories start becoming much more specific.

Today’s top story, Senators Offer a New Blueprint for Immigration by Julia Preston, is focusing on bipartisan efforts in the Senate to reform immigration in the United States. Basically, this plan would make it where any person who is currently in the United States illegally would have the chance to become a citizen. Democrats want to make the process as easy as possible, while Republicans want to make it take longer. In light of Republicans appearing to be giving some ground in this particular area, they are still very insistent on continuing to further strengthen the borders.This effort to create a more efficient immigration system, which was referred to as a, “practical roadmap”, is primarily being led by eight U.S. Senators: Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NM), Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

Two other articles I enjoyed were Egypt’s Leader Declares State of Emergency in Three Cities by David D. Kirkpatrick and G.O.P.’s Cantor, Looking Past Politics of Debt by Jonathan Weisman. The first article is more for those interested in foreign policy or events happening in other parts of the world. Egypt continues to fight for maintaining order as violence escalates.
The second article goes into more details on different workings of the budget fights among Democrats and Republicans.

The audience for this outlet is very broad because of the wide range of topics it includes. I enjoy this newspaper because it keeps me very updated on a large overview of important things taking place all around the world. Some writers tend to be a little more biased in areas, but this is true for all media outlets in one way or another.

Hello,

http://espn.go.com/

Hello all,

My name is Ben Van Sickle. I am currently a senior by age and a junior by hours. I started out my freshman year as a political science major and then changed over to the business school after the first semester of my sophomore year. I was born in Fort Worth, Texas and I have a lot of family there. My family moved to Nashville, Tennessee when I was in 1st grade and then back to Texas once I was in 5th grade. My family now resides in a town about four hours directly south of Waco called Victoria, Texas. Both of my parents graduated from Baylor University. I have a younger brother who attends Texas A&M (he wasn’t able to see the light) and then another brother in 8th grade.

As far as my news interests are concerned, I enjoy reading different columns dealing with politics and sports. Some of the sources are covering what is happening in Washington DC on a daily basis. I know it is not for everyone, but I find it extremely interesting and entertaining. My political reads include:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.drudgereport.com/

One issue I have with news in this area is how over dramatized many stories seem to be. In recent months, I have taken a break from reading these stories for that very reason. I still try to keep up with some news here and there though.

Even though I have moved around a little, I have continued to be a fan of sports in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Most of my sports sources are based around here or Baylor:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/

http://www.baylorfans.com

http://espn.go.com/