Grammar is the study of the structuring of a sentence and putting words into the correct context while proving a point. I find grammar to be a very important skill to have, especially in the business world when you have a real job that requires you to write a lot. That being said, I am not grammar’s biggest fan. The reason that I do not like grammar is because it is challenging to me.

My biggest problem with grammar is knowing when to use the correct punctuation points and when not to. I do not fully understand when a comma or a semicolon should be placed in a sentence. I also have trouble with knowing when a certain word is being used in the correct context or not.

I believe editing exercises and even writing more are the best methods for me to learn grammar better. Whenever I have to take a test on grammar I tend to overthink the questions and answer them wrong. That is why I believe that editing exercises and writing more are the best ways for me to master grammar.

My biggest pet peeve with grammar is when someone uses the word anyways rather than anyway. For some reason this really tickles my fancy and I usually correct the person that says or writes it.

Lance and I chose the topic of NCAA football controversies as our topic. We will cover things such as paying college athletes, football program scandals etc. We chose this topic because it is something we are interested in and occasionally discuss outside of school.

I am hoping to learn more about the inside part of football programs, the part of football that no one sees on television. This is a topic that I have always been interested in and am excited to learn more about. There are several controversies that occur every year in college football and is widely talked about on ESPN and other media sources.

The interviews that we had to preform were very awkward, especially at the library. I did not enjoy asking random people random questions. Interviews are not my forte.

“Hell yeah. College football is a multi-billion dollar industry. If the athletes are making money for the NCAA then they should get paid.”- Ben Bosse

“It is a sensitive topic, but I think that the NCAA should tread lightly and pay athletes.”- Caleb Swonke

“Education is what college athletes are paid. So they shouldn’t pay them anything at all.”-Trevor Miles

“College athletes make several billion dollars for the NCAA, why would you not pay them?”- Alex Davis

“I think football players shouldn’t receive money because education is their payroll.”- Lindsay Reagan

“Athletes should not get paid. They are student-athletes and that comes with privileges already. They get free tuition, meal money, and all sorts of other things. They definitely should not get paid.”- Taylor Blackburn

“Athletes should definitely not get paid, I don’t get paid to go to Baylor so why should they?”- Grant Kawata

The week we were assigned to read the Huffington Post. Before this assignment, I have heard of the Huffington Post, but I do not read it due to all of the other media outlets I use to gather information.  It was not until the mid-2000s, when the Huffington Post was created. It was developed by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, Andrew Breitbart, and Jonah Peretti. The content that the online news source covers are politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy living, women’s interests, and local news. The layout of the website is very similar to many other online news sources. It has the top articles on the front page and links to other articles as well.

The top story is about the speech that Senator Ted Cruz recently performed. During the speech, Cruz said that he was not feeling confident about the repeal of Obamacare. He predicts the repeal will have to happen after the next election occurs in 2014. Cruz says, “Right now, [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid has 54 Democrats and they presumably are going to stand with him … and a number of Senate Republicans have expressed that they may support the Democrats here.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/ted-cruz-government-shutdown-2013_n_3953754.html

The second article that I read was, “New FBI Director James Comey Expects Bureau’s Post-9/11 Transformation To Continue.” This article was discussed what the new FBI Director, James Comey, plans on doing now that he is the director. He said that he plans on continuing to put defense against terrorism as the FBI’s top priority. Also he stated that in the long-run, like by 2023, he wants the FBI to become another intelligence agency.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/james-comey-fbi_n_3957476.html

The last article that I read was “Heisman Trophy Watch: Johnny Manziel Still Strong Despite Alabama Loss.” The title pretty much describes what the article is about. The author claims that Johnny Manziel still has a chance of winning the Heisman Trophy despite losing last week’s game against the University of Alabama. Although Johnny Football is very talented, the Heisman Trophy is also about character and Johnny does not have good character.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/heisman-trophy-watch-johnny-manziel_n_3957750.html?utm_hp_ref=sports

The audience for this media outlet is most likely people from the age of 20 to 60 and are liberal. I do not like this media outlet because of all of the goofy articles and sections included in the website. Therefore, this media outlet does not appeal to me.

In the New York Times, there was an article posted online that was about the Buffalo Bills quarterback, E.J. Manuel. It talks about the hope that so many Buffalo fans have for Manuel. They hope that he can be efficient. They hope that he can bring them to playoffs. And they hope that he can bring back a Super Bowl Trophy to their hometown. While this article was interesting, it followed the “Good Writing Rules” well.

“He led the Seminoles to four consecutive bowl victories and ended his career with a 66.9 completion percentage, the best in the storied program’s history.”

This sentence specifically followed the second rule, which is using short words. The author of this article was able to use as short of words as possible, while still proving a point.

“The Bills apparently liked him most of all. They chose Manuel with the 16th pick in the draft, making him the first quarterback taken. The next one, Geno Smith, went to the Jets with the 39th pick. ”

The paragraph above followed the seventh rule. This rule explains that good writing comes from short paragraph use. The author used three short sentences. While doing this, he was able to explain that E.J. Manuel was the most desired quarterback in the recent NFL Draft.

“E J Manuel was 25-6 as a starter at Florida State.”

The first rule for good writing could be found in this sentence, good writing uses short sentences. The author’s short sentence was very efficient and effective.

“He has a work ethic and meticulousness that comes, at least in part, from his father, a former supply analyst for the Air Force now employed in the hazardous materials unit of the Department of Defense.”

For this sentence, the author did not follow the third rule of good writing. “Good writing eliminates wordiness.” The above sentence began to drag on towards the end of the sentence.

While writing an interesting story, the author was able to follow many of the rules for good writing, but would challenge the rules occasionally.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/sports/football/bills-like-what-they-see-in-ej-manuels-promising-start.html?ref=sports

I thought writing the leads homework in inverted pyramid style was not challenging but was useful. An inverted pyramid style is where the article has the most important information written at the beginning and then the information written gets progressively less important. I did not find the style to be challenging to use because I already write with the inverted pyramid style for research papers. During class, I had the opportunity to hear my classmates’ lead sentences. I found this to  be very helpful. I will now be able grasp a reader’s attention better while, also, getting to the point quicker when writing an article.

The name of the media outlet that I was assigned to read is The Washington Post. Millions of people around the country, including me, read The Washington Post today on September 12, 2013. I happened to read the Post online rather than the actual newspaper. Because, the online newspaper is constantly being updated, I was only able to read a few articles. The Washington Post is an American newspaper head quartered in Washington, D.C., and has been publishing breaking news for over a century. The Post is widely known for covering topics like politics, sports and international news.

Like the tangible newspaper, there is a front page filled with articles of the most popular news on the website. For today, the cover story on the front page is about the potential attack on Syria. The article says that if the current deal with Syria is not reached, The U.S. will be ready to strike an attack on them. President Obama called for a pause on the strike though, while the negotiation takes place. Syria announced that they would be willing to eliminate their chemical weapons, only if the U.S. quits threatening to attack them. I read another article that discussed the issues on Syria. This article states that the U.S. is currently reaching the Syrian rebels and providing them with weapons. The C.I.A. has found a way to deliver light weapons to the rebels to fight against their corrupt government. Lastly, I read an article in the business section of the website. The article announced that Twitter has filed for an initial public offering of stock. The IPO is expected to happen in the late part of this year or the beginning of next year.

I believe that The Washington Post has appealed to people between the age of 20-80 years old, employed and in the United States. The readers read the newspaper, because the news is likely to affect them in some way, whether it is about their favorite team or about a company’s IPO.  I am interested in this media outlet, but since I already read the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, I will most likely not read the Washington Post in the future.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-russia-talks-on-syria-chemical-arsenal-begin-on-tense-note/2013/09/12/70d0e376-1bd7-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html?hpid=z1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-begins-weapons-delivery-to-syrian-rebels/2013/09/11/9fcf2ed8-1b0c-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/twitter-files-for-initial-public-offering-of-stock/2013/09/12/4ff14d6a-1bf2-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html

I am Bobby Beaty. I am a junior, majoring in Accounting and Entrepreneurship. I am from Houston, Texas where I have lived my entire life. My blog is going to be about my different evaluations and critiques of many news sources that people use every day. I typically recieve my news from a few different sources such as: The Wall Street Journal, all ESPN outlets, Morningstar report, and Fox News. I use The Wall Street Journal to learn about different companies and markets to invest in. All of the ESPN outlets that I use inform on what is happening in the sporting world. Morningstar provides me some additional information on different stocks to invest in. Lastly, I use Fox News to inform me on the big events happening throughout our country and world. I do have a Facebook account and a Twitter account, but I find both of them to be quite annoying and filled with information about other people’s lives that I do not care about. I do not use NBC as a new source because, it is a biased against my political beliefs, so why watch something that is only going to make me angry?