Along with the majority of this class; I truly dislike grammar. However, I dislike grammar in the way that there are absolutely too many rules and it feels as if they constantly change from teacher to teacher. Some teachers could care less about a few grammar mistakes here and there, but then you’ll have a teacher who will count off for every little mistake that you make. The one pet peeve I do have with grammar is when people can’t use possessive nouns correctly. By this I mean the use of the word your, you’re, etc. I can’t stand when people make the mistake of saying “your cool” or “your going to the store, right?” In the same way, I can’t stand when people use the word “you’re” incorrectly by using it possessively. “Is this you’re popcorn” or “is this you’re dog”? It just looks absolutely awful and in my opinion shows that they did not pay any attention to grammar when they were being taught earlier as a child. Granted, sometimes spellcheck causes people to make mistakes, but you could always correct them. Facebook seems to be the primary place for grammar mistakes and I catch them daily.

Punctuation truly doesn’t matter when texting because we are sending just quick messages; however, if you were to read an educational paper with absolutely awful grammar, it would not look credible. I still to this day have the absolute worst time with semicolons because none of my English teachers in the past ever felt we need to use them, but I feel as if semicolons are needed almost as much as commas judging by the last few years of college. Grammar is definitely important and students should know how to use it, but sometimes teachers are a bit too picky on where commas are supposed to be and where certain punctuation marks are needed.

My partner Austin Lester and I decided to do our topic over Johnny Manziel’s recent scandal with the NCAA. With the many speculations of his payments for autographs; there is an endless flow of information coming in with recent stories or leaks of others saying they either accepted payments or providing proof that these allegations were fake. I have personally met Johnny Manziel so I have a little bit of background on his personality and the way that the Aggies seem to view him which helped me out on the topic. Also, Austin and I love college football and decided to choose a topic that we would enjoy researching and writing about. I’m hoping to find some great information over this topic and that I will learn even more than I already know about the Johnny Football scandal.

I interviewed these people with Austin Lester, a friend who I met last semester during one of my classes. To be honest, when I was assigned to do this task I felt very uneasy, as I hate just walking up to random strangers and asking them questions. Not to mention most were in the middle of studying for exams they had during that week and I didn’t want to be the one who interrupted. However, we interviewed three people and got some great answers from them.

The Questions: What do you think of Johnny Manziel as a person? Do you think his off field personality has an affect on his on field game play?

Travis: Travis said that he didn’t think that Manziel was a great person, but figured that because of his college atmosphere and publicity it wasn’t really anything that he could handle. However, he did think that Manziel could clean up his act and become a respectable player.

Jonathan: Jonathan didn’t seem to like Manziel at all. He felt as if he was a very disrespectful player and that nobody should look up to him or any kind of act that he was doing.

Christian: Christian agreed with Travis that Manziel is making some pretty bad decisions, but that his college reputation is getting the best of him. In order for him to get better respect he needs to clean up his act before trying to get a spot into the NFL.

Today I read the Baylor Lariat online and found a great article talking about Bryce Petty’s excellent game against Wofford. “Being out there, it was very humbling,” Petty said. “Just a blessing. It wasn’t necessarily a blur, but I was just in the moment.” This quote describes the emotional impact Petty received after playing as a starting quarterback in a Baylor football game. “There were a couple times I felt rushed,” Petty said. “It wasn’t necessarily anything they did, it was more just mental, but that comes with being out there. It’s part of getting the experience out there.” This quote gives the readers some insight into the feelings going through Petty’s head as he was on the field and had to deal with the many experiences that quarterbacks have to deal with. “This was exactly what we needed to get the first game jitters out,” Petty said. “Especially me. We’ve got plenty of depth, it’s going to be a fun season.” Petty gives us some positive feedback on how he feels like this season is going to be and states that Baylor fans have a lot be looking forward to this football season.

This was my first time reading the Baylor Lariat; however, I feel that I will look into this newspaper more often. There are many interesting topics that relate to me seeing as I’m a Baylor student. The sports section was particularly one that I enjoyed reading about because it gave me some insight on the feelings of the Baylor players and coaches.

I have heard many talk about the Huffington Post, but from what I got from mostly everyone was that their information is not always sound. I had a teacher in high school who never let us read from the Huffington Post because she thought that their information was unreliable. However, when I realize that many were doing Huffington Post I decided to give it a try and to be honest I’m really glad that I did. I felt like it was more geared toward young adults rather than older men and women which is great because I fall into that category of readers. I would definitely read Huffington Post again because many of the topics were very relatable with me and it wasn’t a newspaper full of only politics which I tend to hate.

The main story that I saw was the article talking about how the House passed the vote to cut food stamps by $40 billion dollars. The Republicans feel that this food stamps cut will get people to look for jobs and further boost the economy. Many Republicans lashed out saying that rather than sitting on the couch all day and enjoying taxpayer benefits; people should be searching for jobs in order to help our economy. The writer even brings up a resident of San Diego who claims to have been living on government benefits rather than going on the search for a job. The majority of the House believe that this cut will help Americans who are not pushing to find jobs; rather than being secure with what the government is supplying them with. The crucial part that I found from this article are the many requirements the House is enforcing for someone to get food stamps such as drug testing, making these people search for jobs in order to receive benefits, and denying adults who can work but choose not to.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/food-stamp-cuts_n_3957509.html

The next article I found interesting was the story talking about the football player who died from an on-field injury last Friday. This article spoke to me because I had a friend during high school who suffered bad injuries from playing football, and he is still having to deal with them today. Football is a very dangerous sport and rules should be enforced to ensure that these players are safe from any injury and even worse; death. Damon Jones was the 16 year old running back who died after a hard hit that he received when he collided helmet-to-helmet with an opposing player. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and his parents announcing his passing that night. It is so sad to see such young football players receive severe injuries or even end up dead due to the danger of football. According to this article, “Since 2000, 39 high school football players have died directly due to injuries sustained while playing, according to The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/high-school-football-player-dies-helmet-injury-brocton_n_3941680.html?ir=Sports

Lastly, I found an article talking about the new iOS7 which was officially released yesterday. I easily related to this article as I tried to install this update yesterday but couldn’t due to the overflow of Apple users flooding the network. This article talks about the many different steps you should take before installing this update which is great because many of my friends did not back up their phones before updating and are now on the search for getting their contacts back. Another crucial step is to find WiFi with a strong connection because if you happen to get kicked off you will have to start your update all over again. In my opinion, iOS7 looks amazing and I’m happy with the updates that Apple has released. It just shows how they are still coming out with such great updates and will continue to surprise their users with every update.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/ios-7-release_n_3948901.html?ir=Technology

For my article I read the Dallas Morning News article talking about the potential danger of Texas Ranger’s manager Ron Washington losing his job. The Rangers have fallen into a losing streak and many ESPN commentators have been talking about the danger he is putting himself into.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/texas-rangers/headlines/20130917-cowlishaw-why-rangers-manager-ron-washington-s-job-is-in-danger.ece

If this is the end for manager Ron Washington, it’s not going to be a case of the media running him out of town. But his own team just might run him out.

This sentence displays Rule 5 which states: Good writing comes to the point quickly.

It’s all about getting the most out of your players.

This sentence clearly follow Rule 1 which states: Good writing uses short sentences.

Believing in and supporting your players can pay dividends over the course of long seasons. But it’s the kind of rationale that gets you beat in a short series that demands immediate reaction.

These sentences use great writing because they don’t create a lot of jargon or institutional language which states that it passed Rule 4: Good writing clears away redundancy, jargon and institutional language.

Lastly, towards the end of the article I found a paragraph that confirms Rule 7: Good writing has short paragraphs.

Washington doesn’t pitch or hit; Ryan’s absolutely right about that. But he does control the running game. Actually, he allows it to remain permanently beyond control, which is why the Rangers and the majors’ worst team, Houston, have been locked in a season-long battle for running into outs on the bases.

This sentence seemed to be longest in the whole article; so I feel that the author did a great job with clarity and conciseness in his article.

Writing in the inverted pyramid style proved to be difficult for me. I found it hard to gather my thoughts together in order to come up with a good way to word my sentences. Making sure to include every important part of the writing was the problem that I seemed to deal with the most. However, recognizing the inverted pyramid in a newspaper is much easier now now and spotting the main points of an article is fairly apparent to me. Hearing lead sentences from other students gave me some insight on the many different ways that I could word my sentences as well as make sure that every detail was included when I came up with my own lead sentences.

I read the Washington Post on 9/12/13. The front page contained much about the Syrian crisis along with other political issues that are having a large effect in the government. This paper is definitely not one that younger readers would be able to understand; however, I think that this newspaper can relate to adults who are well educated. The Washington Post is a very well known daily newspaper as it has been around since 1877. It contains many different topics such as politics, local, sports, national, tech, and even world news.

Syria’s Assad says he will give up chemical weapons if U.S. ends strike threats: This front-page topic caught my eye because I’ve been keeping up with the issues relating Syria. It is scary that we have to worry about chemical warfare and that Syria’s government is basically taking over their people. Seeing as we are supplying weapons and supplies to the rebels trying to overthrow the government; it makes sense that we would be threatened. Dictatorships never work, and America must put a stop to Assad’s rule as he was just accused of authoring a poison-gas attack against innocent civilians that he claimed were a threat. The problem is that Syria claimed to not have possession of chemical warfare, which are banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention that Syria had agreed to. This convention has been agreed to and signed by almost every country in the world; so it is worrisome that Syria is not abiding to these standards. Obama tried to threaten to wage war, but the Congress said “no” which is very surprising because this is the first time in history that this has happened. It seems to me as if the majority of America’s would oppose the decision to declare war against Syria; so I believe it is a good thing that Congress did not allow the President to make such judgments.

“Apple’s iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C: Three ways the rumor mill got ahead of the tech giant”: The first topic that caught my eye was about the new iPhone that is coming out toward the end of September. The big thing that seems to happen is that when Apple are about to be releasing a new product; it seems as if everyone already knows some of the key features. The marketing chief even made a joke during his presentation saying that people probably already knew what he was going to show them. Apple is introducing an iPhone known as the iPhone 5C; which is significantly less due to a plastic backing, allowing those who might be on a tight budget to enjoy the benefits of having an iPhone. It was also interesting to see how much Apple would make from their products if they were looking to pickup more overseas market-share because of the steep price tags due to tariffs and taxes. Apple is not changing from its mindset of trying to improve their profit margins and lowering production costs, and by inventing cheap products such as the iPhone 5C, it will allow them even more profitability.

F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11: This story was an absolute amazing story of a female pilot who was about ready to give her life for the lives of others on September 11, 2001. Lieutenant Heather “Lucky” Penney was ordered to take down United Airlines Flight 93; however, she was not provided with live ammunition, missiles, or any sort of weapon to perform such an act. Instead, she was ordered to ram the aircraft and essentially become a kamikaze pilot. She describes the worry that if she happened to miss the target or if the ejection seat didn’t work that it could lead to her eventual death. Penney later figured out that United 93 had already crashed in Pennsylvania and that the passengers had taken the situation into their own hands. Penny even calls the passengers on Flight 93 the real heroes of 9/11 as they saved the White House from potentially being hit. This story gives us some insight into the emotions and thoughts that these heroes go through when they are ordered to do certain tasks and missions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/kerry-russian-delegation-in-geneva-to-explore-syrian-deal-to-eliminate-chemical-weapons/2013/09/12/891c6ca8-1b9a-11e3-80ac-96205cacb45a_story.html?hpid=z2

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apples-iphone-5s-and-iphone-5c-three-ways-the-rumor-mill-got-ahead-of-the-tech-giant/2013/09/11/4feef086-1af5-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/f-16-pilot-was-ready-to-give-her-life-on-sept-11/2011/09/06/gIQAMpcODK_story.html

The Washington Post was a very interesting newspaper to read; however, it was not particularly one that I enjoyed. I feel as if most of their topics dealt with politics; which isn’t particularly an area of news that I enjoy. It was good that they mixed other genres of topics along with their political issues; however, I feel as if their main focus was on politics and their sports section was not one that I enjoyed. Overall, it was a well written newspaper and I would probably read it again to check up on politics if I was ever bored or interested in a certain political issue.

For my second blog post I read the New York Times. This American daily newspaper is one of the oldest and most read newspapers in America; falling behind the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. It was formed in 1851 and contains all sorts of news such as sports, business, local, and political issues. This paper has also has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes and its website continues to be the most popular news site in America.

CBS Returns, Triumphant, To Cable Box: This article caught my eye because CBS is always the channel I flip to when the Houston Texans are playing football. It seems as if Time Warner Cable was trying to take control over CBS due to their contract, however, CBS seemed to come out victorious and even won a financial increase for their programming. It doesn’t seem fair that Time Warner Cable would suddenly remove channels that CBS offered their subscribers such as Showtime just because Time Warner felt CBS didn’t have as much publicity outside of football season. CBS has a big name in cable and definitely shows in the way that Time Warner didn’t stand a chance when CBS fought back for their rights to have their show aired.

E-Cigarette Use Doubles Among Students, Survey Shows: During high school I would always see someone using an E-Cigarette, but the realization of how this number of smokers has doubled is shocking. I myself am not a smoker, however, it seems by commercials and friends that these are a lot healthier to smoke than regular cigarettes. I would assume it’s better that students are using E-Cigs rather than actual cigarettes, but the problem with E-Cigs is that it could lead to students trying traditional cigarettes due to the curiousness of the extra kick of nicotine.

National Debate on Gun Control Hits Home in Colorado Recall: This article caught my eye because gun control is always such an interesting debate and it is so much fun to see how each side argues their case. Apparently, the National Rifle Association are paying government officials to release ads ousting the strict new state gun control laws of Colorado. In my opinion I think that this is a great thing because guns don’t kill people, people do. All of the gun control is something that is really annoying to me because the government is trying to take away our rights for ammunition and guns. It is great to see politicians stepping up for their gun rights and even donating money for campaigning against these strict gun control laws. According to this article much of Colorado is full of people who love gun ownership, sport shooting, and hunting so taking away gun rights for these individuals would be awful.

The New York Times is read by many Americans and is full of very interesting stories. Although I don’t very much enjoy reading about politics, it is good to see other types of articles along with the political issues because everyone needs a mix of information when they are reading. It is definitely not a paper for a younger kid to read, however, it is very informative for older readers such as college students and older and is very well written. This paper definitely appealed to me and I would definitely read it again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/health/e-cigarette-use-doubles-among-students-survey-shows.html?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/us/national-debate-on-gun-control-hits-home-in-colorado-recall.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/business/media/cbs-and-time-warner-cable-end-contract-dispute.html

Hello JOU-3372! My name is Bolton Boone and I’m taking this class in order to avoid another foreign language class. This is my first time blogging so hopefully this will all go okay.