Why is Writing for Radio and Television Different than Writing for an Essay

Why is Writing for Radio and Television Different than Writing for an Actual Newspaper or Magazine - Essay Example Various genres exist within conventional creative writing – prominent among them are novels, short stories, poetry and plays. Hence, both the medium and the genre combine to lay a set of guidelines for the writer. The rest of the essay will outline those guidelines and also provide examples. With the advent of long distance telecommunication technology during the early twentieth century, radio took off as the most sought after public broadcast medium. Writing for radio then became a specialized field for there are unique qualities associated with a purely aural mode of communication. This posed challenges as well as opportunities to writers and broadcasters. Those pioneers who conquered this new horizon in writing established a genre that was both refreshing and demanding. For example, listening to a play in the radio is quite different to watching it onstage. The playwright will have to supplement through audio the events on stage that are not accounted in words. In other wor ds, special audio effects to reflect transpirations on stage became important. Hence, writers had to pay more attention to detail and try to incorporate various kinds of information into the aural form. What radio writers also did was to improve the attention span and concentration of the audience, for the narrative tends to be information packed and tightly plotted to maximize content output. Coming to creative writing for television, the rules are not as rigorous as that applicable to radio writing, for the genre draws many of its rules from motion pictures. This is especially true with respect to soap operas, sitcoms and other televised entertainment. The British Broadcasting Corporation, which has mastered both radio and TV drama over the years, has the following to say about good TV drama writing: â€Å"TV is easy to turn off or turn over, so open your story as dynamically as you can. Try to hook the interest of the audience as soon as possible so that they will want to stay t uned and, if there are more episodes to come, will want to keep tuning in. Ask yourself if there’s a strong enough sense of character, drama, and story to sustain an audience’s engagement.† (www.bbc.co.uk, 2012) But, when it comes to news coverage in television, the main focus tends to be the headlines, with sound bites and video footage complementing the scrolling text. Television talk shows, on the other hand, have now become a time-tested concept that can succeed with even basic recording technology. We’ll now see how writing for radio and television is different to writing for newspaper and magazines. The printed word has always proven to be more powerful in expressing complex thought or argument. Hence, the media of magazines and newspapers are more apt for carrying out in-depth analysis of public issues. Writing for the print media also requires a greater command over vocabulary, grammar and usage. Hence, writing for publications is far more challeng ing and exacting than writing for television or radio. It is only those intellectuals who can perform incisive analyses that make it to editorial pages of major newspapers. Reporting for print media, on the other hand, is usually about following a set format or template, which doesn’t require high analytic skills. The following tips will come handy to the news or opinion writer: â€Å"The opening line of the article must grab the reader’s attention straight away. This is no different to any other form of writing: a story must hook the reader in a very short space of time...this hook must be the first sentence, not the second or the third...Another crucial point here is the length of the opening sentence. The word count needs to be no more than twenty-two words for your

Dangers of Plastic Bottles Essay Example for Free

Dangers of Plastic Bottles Essay Plastic bottles are hugely popular these days for their convenience and perceived purity, as portrayed by effective marketing strategies. But according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, consumers should not assume that bottled water is safe. Â  Reusing plastic drink bottles is not recommended, as it increases the likelihood of impurities due to the introduction of bacteria and the potential leaching of plastic compounds into the water. Common Types of Plastic Drinking BottlesPolyethylene terephthalate or (PET plastics) are most commonly used for disposable plastic water bottles. High-density polyethylene, or HDPE (No. 2); low-density polyethylene, or LDPE (No. 4); and polypropylene (No. 5) are also used for drinking containers, though less frequently. PVC (No. 3) and styrene (No. 6) are sometimes used for food and beverage containers but are generally considered unsafe for this purpose. No. 7 plastics are a mix of different plastics and generally contain bisphenol A (BPA), which is under much scrutiny for its potential health risks. Bacteria ConcernsAll plastic bottles, when reused, are subjected to high levels of bacteria due to contact with hands and mouths, creating moist conditions that encourage bacteria growth. Water bottles can be washed with warm soapy water and allowed to dry before being reused. But the process of washing and agitation has been shown to damage the structure of the bottle, causing release of chemical compounds Leaching ConcernsPET and BPA plastics are the most common types of containers for water and other drinks. Both PET plastics and BPA plastics have been shown to leach over time. PET plastics tend to leach when exposed to realistic though extreme conditions, such as exposure to sunlight, heat and storage time It has been shown that exposure to BPA can interfere with reproductive development in animals. It has also been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans. Safe Alternatives to Reusing Plastic BottlesStainless steel bottles are considered the safest alternative to plastic bottles. They are durable and do not leach. Aluminium bottles may also be considered. Glass is another safe alternative but less practical due to its breakable nature.

The Relationship between Human Nature and Global Warming Essay

The Relationship between Human Nature and Global Warming According to the National Academy of Sciences, global warming over the past century has caused a rise in Earth's surface temperature of about 1 degree Fahrenheit. There is evidence to substantiate attribution of the increased rate of this warming phenomenon over the past 50 years to human activities. Human activities have altered the chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide (Internet 0). This paper will explore modern human nature, the technology that it demands, and the effects, both positive and negative, that these factors have had on the environment. The advent of the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s brought with it unprecedented improvements in the quality of human life. Individual freedom, technology, industry, and economic growth became symbols of success and happiness, and society molded itself around these new technologies to the point where they were necessary for survival. New applications of energy developed by the Industrial Revolution provided energy-intensive agricultural methods that caused death rates to fall sharply and population density to increase significantly (Internet 1). Over time, improvements to human life increased as industry developed. Industry is now a worldwide, powerful and booming establishment. It is impossible even to imagine all the aspects of modern life that exist as a direct result of industry, and few would disagree with the statement that industry has afforded humans life improvements on an unprecedented scale. Yet this success has come at a great cost to our environment. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revoluti... ...bal Warming Information, http://www.globalwarming.org/index.htm Internet 4 United States Environmental Protection Agency, yosemite.epa.gov /oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/emissions.html Internet 5 United States Environmental Protection Agency, yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/ content/emissions.html Internet 6 United States Environmental Protection Agency, yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming. nsf/content/emissions.html Internet 7 The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability, http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/uniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5BPJWH/$file/chaptsum.pdf?OpenElement Internet 8 United States Environmental Protection Agency, yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/emissions.html Internet 9 United States Environmental Protection Agency, yosemite.epa.gov/oar/ globalwarming.nsf/content/emissions.html

I’M Nobody, Who Are You – Emily Dickinson

â€Å"I'm Nobody! Who are you? † This poem opens with a literally impossible declaration—that the speaker is â€Å"Nobody. † This nobody-ness, however, quickly comes to mean that she is outside of the public sphere; perhaps, here Dickinson is touching on her own failure to become a published poet, and thus the fact that to most of society, she is â€Å"Nobody. † The speaker does not seem bitter about this—instead she asks the reader, playfully, â€Å"Who are you? ,† and offers us a chance to be in cahoots with her (â€Å"Are you – Nobody – Too? ). In the next line, she assumes that the answer to this question is yes, and so unites herself with the reader (â€Å"Then there’s a pair of us! †), and her use of exclamation points shows that she is very happy to be a part of this failed couple. Dickinson then shows how oppressive the crowd of somebodies can be, encouraging the reader to keep this a secret (â€Å"Donâ⠂¬â„¢t tell! †) because otherwise â€Å"they’d advertise,† and the speaker and her reader would lose their ability to stand apart from the crowd.It then becomes abundantly clear that it is not only preferable to be a â€Å"Nobody,† it is â€Å"dreary† to be a â€Å"Somebody. † These somebodies, these public figures who are so unlike Dickinson, are next compared to frogs, rather pitifully, we can imagine, croaking away to the â€Å"admiring Bog. † These public figures do not even attempt to say anything of importance—all they do is â€Å"tell one’s name,† that is, their own name, over and over, in an attempt to make themselves seem important.This â€Å"admiring Bog† represents those people who allow the public figures to think they are important, the general masses who lift them up. These masses are not even granted the respect of having a sentient being to represent them. Instead, they are something into whi ch one sinks, which takes all individuality away, and has no opinion to speak of, and certainly not one to be respected.

Relationship with Parents as Presented in Foer’s Book Essay

A child’s relationship with his or her parents is a sensitive and moving concept as well as an interesting one to be presented in a contemporary book. This is especially if such idea is being discussed in a point of view of a nine-year-old main character. Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 book titled â€Å"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close† is an example of how a very young yet notably intelligent boy named Oskar Schell was able to effectively tell or portray his relationships with his parents, as well as his grandparents. The relationships between Oskar and his parents, as well as with that of his paternal grandparents, are compared with something which can only be imagined and invented. This is because with the extra-ordinary personality of Oskar, his character actually just played up on a lot of scenarios and possibilities that enabled him to establish his relationships with his immediate family and create a connection that only he was able to recognize. It was actually through the uniqueness of Oskar’s persona that allowed Foer to depict the implications of several serious issues such as the World War II firebombing of Dresden and 9/11 terrorist attack. In effect, Oskar’s relationships with his parents and paternal grandparents has proven Foer’s ability to effectively depict that war, terrorism, the future and love are concepts which are loud and close. However, it was likewise Oskar’s family links which determined that there are also things in the book or even realities of life that are seem to be silent and far away such as human relationship. The main character of the Foer’s novel is a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell. He is characterized in the books as a discoverer, jewelry designer, a young entomologist, protagonist, music enthusiast, good writer, archaeologist, artist, explorer, actor in a Hamlet production, sometimes a vegetarian, and collector of rare items, but definitely an unreliable narrator. Through these attributes, Oskar manifests the loudness and closeness of life realities such as war, coercion, and love. Eventually, he realizes how quiet and distant his relationship with his parents and grandparents is. Foer unveiled the story of Oskar with the death of Oskar’s father who was among the many Americans who died when the twin towers were attacked in the morning of September 11, 2001. This is the point where Oskar exerts efforts to trace the sense of his father’s death. Instead, however, his journey leads him to recognize and eventually accept what kind of relationship he has with his parents and paternal grandparents. Notwithstanding the efforts made by Oskar in order to establish his relationship with his parents and grandparents, he ends up understanding his sincere fondness towards his family as the mystery behind their relationships is uncovered, and ultimately searching for their love or affection (Foer, 2005). Foer’s utilization of magical realism, the book’s literary genre, as presented in a form of photographs in the book, exposed that Oskar was apparently too late in realizing how he long for the love or affection of his father who was taken away from him so early and made their relationship short-lived. Moreover, Oskar’s incomparable personality has also paved the way for an unassuming and clear presentation of how he relates with his mother whom he criticized for not mourning the death of her husband because of her new-found love. Foer, through the perspective of a nine-year-old boy, was also able to connect past event such as the Dresden bombing with Oskar’s longing of his grandparents whom he was not able to see; he was only able to get to know them through their letters which were written way before he was born. Such literary styles of Foer and ironic scenarios involving Oskar’s life provided the readers with a glimpse of how a father values his son. As portrayed in the three generations of the Schell family, Foer disclosed the long-desired but belated connection among the three men—a relationship that is coincidentally loud, yet silent and close, yet far away (Foer, 2005). Such contradicting metaphors are also evident with how the author presented the relationships between Oskar and the women in his life—his mother and grandmother. The child in Oskar was apparently obvious in times when he displayed some sort of jealousy with the new man in his mother’s life as well as bitterness with his grandmother’s absence. In particular, the book showed that Oskar endured the emotions of hatred and mental confusion apparently due to his mother’s new-found man. He expresses such feelings by hurting himself until he got bruises. This indication, however, only exposed more the kind of relationship that Oskar had with his mother and grandmother. It turned out to be a relationship similar to his father and grandfather; it was characterized with the boy’s intense desire of their affections and centered on his profound longing for their love. Foer emphasized how Oskar, despite his hardships, valued life and his relationships with his family as he echoed the boy’s feelings and said that â€Å"†¦ life made sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible. Alas. Your songs. My parents’ lives made sense† (Foer, 2005, p. 232). It was unfortunate to note, however, that the realization of an equally utmost relationship, which Oskar’s parents and grandparents actually wanted, was not achieved. Hence, the boy was left with his unique antics and loneliness (Foer, 2005). Meanwhile, the novel did not only result in giving praise to Foer. Rather, the story unlocks the mysteries in Oskar’s journey as well through which a clearer representation of the impacts of life realities is provided. The book suggests that there a lot of substances as there are emotions in this world. However, the realization and benefit of enjoying life instead of succumbing to absurdity is actually not impossible if only one would open his or her heart to the eventualities of love which will eventually challenge one’s worries and loss. The book makes Oskar as an adorable yet intriguing character because he exudes both naivete and sophistication and one can be truly affected by his fate. Although the novel discusses real issues like war and terrorism, it embraces other life’s dramas which are led by the portrayal of Oskar as a tough character trapped inside the body of a boy. Furthermore, it is worthy to note that amidst darkness in Oskar’s life, he was able to see light. This, in effect, can lead the readers to recover humanity which is human’s link with one another especially during times when human quality is apparently abandoned. In the end, Foer’s book shows the balance between wit and disaster, devastation and innovation, living and dying, and, most definitely, between showing the loudness and closeness of life realities.