What's up

What’s up everybody my name is Alan Vogel, I’m a 32 year old junior who returned to college a couple summers ago. I’ve worked for Impact Guns (family business) in Ogden for the last 14 years. Currently I’m the purchasing liaison for that company and buy the products that stock their retail stores and shooting ranges. After climbing the corporate ladder as high as possible, I chose to finish school to remedy the gap in my education and move up a notch, or possibly leave the family business behind and run a different company.

My major at Weber State is Organizational Communication with a minor in Professional and Technical Writing. I plan to graduate in 2016. Once I receive my undergraduate degree I plan to continue my education with a Masters in Business Administration. Ideally that would come from Stanford with a J.D. in tax law, however the cost to finish the entire M.B.A. program at Weber State is far less than one semester in Stanford’s program.

During the summer months I spend as much time as possible up at Pineview on my boat with friends. We wakeboard, fish, listen to music, party, and hit on hot babes up in party cove. Also during the summer my main ride is a Harley Davidson XR1200. Most people have never seen an XR they are rare and no longer produced. It is the same motorcycle raced in the Vance & Hines series. My other bikes are a Harley Sportster that I’ve rode since 1996, a Kawasaki KX 500 two stroke beast, and a little KX65 that I’m currently rebuilding. Nothing makes me feel more alive than motorcycles. Taking a corner at 100 mph leaned over off your bike really makes me aware of my own mortality.

During the winter months I spend all my free time shredding the slopes on my snowboard. Park City is by far my favorite resort, their mountain is huge and the nightlife is awesome. The plan for this winter is to rip it up at Snowbird. The tram there is awesome. It takes you up above 11,000 feet and has 3,500 feet of vertical drop. The runs are steep and the powder is deep.

Football season just started and I have a bit of a sports gambling addiction. A few seasons I’ve done really well and cleaned up at the end on the super bowl. Betting on sports makes the games way more intense. Weber State sports might not be the best in the around, a lot of people don’t support or give our teams credit. Always bet on our school to cover the spread anytime they play major teams in football or basketball. They almost always have covered and you’ll beat the casino more times than not.

That’s pretty much me in a nutshell. I enjoy adrenaline rushes and having a good time. If I offend any of you with anything I write this semester I’ll go ahead and apologize in advance. I tend to be direct and opinionated. Good luck everyone with school this semester.

Oh So Many Punctuation Rules

    So punctuation is really confusing to me.  I did learn some cool things about punctuation though.  I didn’t know what a semicolon was used for because I rarely see them.  I use them all the time in computer code to end a section of code, but I just haven’t really seen them in reading.  Now I know that they join two independent clauses and separate list items that contain commas.

    I also learned that you shouldn’t put a comma before the word “because.”  I always did this because that’s what I remember being taught.  Now I know that you don’t need a comma there.

    I didn’t know that you were supposed to put a colon before a quote that has more than one sentence.  I always saw this, but I just thought the writer was trying to make the quote standout.  Now I know that you need a colon before a long quote and a quote that begins the next paragraph.

    As for seeing editing mistakes, I saw this today.  The screen shot is from IO9.com.  The title of the post is “Is the Flash’s Rogues Gallery Already Starting To Team Up?”.

    The writer didn’t put quotes around the movie title “Tomorrowland” and the book title “Before Tomorrowland.”

    There are so many guidelines for commas and quotations, that some of them are a little confusing.  That doesn’t mean they don’t make sense, it’s just that they will be hard to remember.  The reading was very informative, now I need to put the guidelines into practice.

Punctuation Chapter

      I survived the punctuation chapter pretty well.  I thought I knew more than I did as I was reading chapter eight, and I am realizing the mistakes that I have made in the past.   I think that this class is a real eye-opener and it will be good to learn and brush up on some of the rules.  I think the one rule that stresses me out the most is the comma rule. I tend to use more commas than I should at times.  One of the biggest mistakes that I have seen over and over again is with separating items in a series. Before the "and" with the last item listed, I have always put a comma.  For instance with red, white and blue. I have always thought you were supposed to put a comma after the "white" which  according to AP style, you are not.  With using semicolons, I have always just avoided them in the past and just put periods to be safe. I understand joining two independent clauses together, but it is setting off the parts of a series that also contain commas that sometimes confuses me.   After reading the chapter, the supplemental reading, and the AP style book, I still feel like I need them as a crutch to get through writing.  I am definitely more conscientious about my writing more recently as I have been learning all of these rules.  It has been a very long since I have taken a basic English class, so this is also a very good review with all the parts of speech that I have forgotten over the years. This is a needed class for me and I hope I can continue to study and retain all that I am learning. 

Hi, Editing Class.

My name is Greg Shaw.

I'm a non-traditional student (just turned 35) here at Weber State studying digital media with an emphasis on audio production.  Truth be told, I'm actually a returning student after an 11 year hiatus from university.  My first go at college ended rather horribly by being expelled for pretty much receiving the worst grades known to man.  Upon return I put an academic renewal into effect which cleared all of my failing grades, but I had to essentially start from ground zero again as I was only able to salvage nine usable credit hours from my previous attempt.  That being said, this time has been much better.  I've managed to maintain a reasonable GPA and should be a senior after this semester.  But it has definitely come with a price.  I quit my steady job, cashed in my 401k, drained my modest savings account, and have been taking student loans along the way.  Is it worth it?  Well, I have no other choice at this point but to believe that it is.

During the time I was away from college I worked as a youth counselor.  I started by working for private providers in behavioral facilities, and then later worked my way to the title of Counselor II for the State of Utah in secure facilities such as Decker Lake and Wasatch Youth Center.  These are basically treatment-oriented prison-type environments for long-term detained youth between the ages of 13 and 21.  It was pretty cool at first, but ultimately ended up wearing on me psychologically and physically to the point of absolutely hating every hour that I put in.  You see, in therapeutic environments a person sort of finds themselves in these states of introspection no matter what side of the fence you're on.  It just sneakily seeps into you.  One minute you're trying to help someone find a path of self and happiness in life, the next minute you may be struggling to take your own advice.  The upside is that I learned a lot about my own life, and my own self throughout that time. So when the time was right, I decided to take the proverbial plunge to see about following my own passion.

I am an audiophile, a rhythm junkie.  I've been a musician since I was nine.  Throughout every other endeavor in my life, it's always been there.  I've always played.  And now at this point, I don't think I'll ever be able to not play.  I began on the cello and played in school and various orchestras until I graduated high school.  During that time I also began playing bass guitar with anybody I could.  Something I've done ever since.  To this day, you can probably find me playing in some bar or somewhere on any given weekend.  And If I'm not playing, I'm running front of house sound downtown.  My first band was a Beatles cover band at the age of 14 with a guy who taught at the middle school I had gone to, and his sons. It was awesome.  After high school it didn't take me long to figure out that my musical preferences went way beyond what could be heard on the radio.  I fell in love with classic jazz, blues, R&B, soul music, and good hip-hop.  I listened to anything I could wrap my ears around.  To this day I still do, but those first years still feel monumental.  Beyond that, I started becoming really interested in the production of music.  Not only from a compositional standpoint but recording, editing and mixing techniques, live sound and front of house mixing.  Sounds.  Where they come from, where they go, where they fit.  The stereo field and frequencies.  Radio and broadcast is cool to me too, not necessarily the music played on mass corporate radio, but the function of.  I could ramble for a long time about it.  Yeah, I'm a total nerd that way.

So yeah, that's what I do and why I'm here.
 

Punctuation

I found the chapter on punctuation very interesting. The first rule of punctuation that peaked my interest and taught me something new was in the comma section, but particularly the part on nonrestrictive and restrictive clauses. I did not realize that when the middle section could be removed from a sentence and it still make sense that it was called a nonrestrictive clause. Now that I know the difference between these two clause, it will be easier to recognize them in my everyday reading and studies. Another punctuation rule that interested me was what was said about colons. I do not consider myself a writer by any means, but I have used colons in some of my past writing materials. However, just because I have used them, that does not mean that I fully understood what they meant. The book put it well when it said that a colon 'announces'. I have never thought of it this way, but hearing it in that term will make it easier to remember in the future. Reading through the textbook and doing these assignments has definitely been an eye-opener for me. In the past, I have just been writing to write and put a message out there, but after studying these materials and doing these exercises that have been introduced to us, I am beginning to realize how hard writing really is and how much time and effort have to continually take place.
I have been looking this past week for some punctuation errors, but to no avail. I have not found any. However, I have a friend who is a horrible writer. Whenever we communicate via text a comma is placed after almost every other word. He loves to use commas and it bugs me to read texts like that, but as far as this assignment goes it was perfect!

Hi! I'm Sandy

Hi All! I am Sandy and I am currently in the MPC program, I just joined the program this summer. I have really enjoyed the classes that I've taken so far, and look forward to learning more. (It just so happens that I love going to school, crazy, I know.) I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley in the beautiful state of Virginia. My parents still live there, and I try and go back and visit about twice a year. I have three older sisters, and we all live out here on the est coast, with my parents still living back east. As a working professional and student, spare time is rare, but when I do have free time, I like to do yoga, swim or go to the movies. I am not an avid reader, but after having a couple of MPC courses under my belt, I have enjoyed the books I have read as part of the program, and I even read a book on my break. That was kind of a big deal for me. :) I do enjoy editing, so I was excited to take this class when I saw that it was an elective option in the MPC program. I do a little bit of editing at work, but nothing too elaborate, just some basic proofreading. I thought I was a good editor, but just from glancing through the stylebook , I realized that I still have a lot to learn. I have a bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion and Education from Weber State University. Ironically, I live rather close to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, but commuting to WSU once a week isn’t that bad. Yes, I obviously bleed purple. I currently work at SelectHealth in Murray, I am a Health Education Specialist and I have worked at SelectHealth for 11 years. In this position I do quite a bit of health coaching and education, so we create a great deal of educational material that is distributed to our members. In creating these materials I get to do some writing and editing, but I need to sharpen my skills so that I can be a more effective writer. My goal with this degree to is to take more of a communications role, and possibly get a position that focuses mainly on creating materials that is disseminated to SelectHealth members. Perhaps that idea will change as I dive more into the program, and learn more skills. I’m glad to be part of this class with all of you, and hope to learn more about you. (My attempts to upload a picture have not been successful, I will try again on my next post.) Sandy

Hello,

My name is Marcus Call.  I am currently a grad student in the MPC (Master in Professional Communication) program and I am on schedule to graduate at the end of February 2015.  I enjoy writing, specifically creative writing, and I am seeking to improve my skills as an editor.  As part of the MPC program we took a course titled, Professional Writing, which was a good overview to the world of professional writing and editing but I would like to build on that on that skill-set even further.

My wife and I are originally from Seattle, WA but moved to the Salt Lake metro area Labor Day weekend of 2012, and we currently live in Centerville.  With the majority of both of our families living in Utah it made sense to make the move, and I also seized upon the opportunity to complete a master’s degree.  It has been a rewarding experience thus far, and I would highly recommend the MPC program to anyone seeking a master’s degree from Weber State.

In my free-time (not that I have a lot right now) I enjoy reading, creative writing and hopefully soon editing.  I am also an avid sports fan, and am obviously a fan of Seattle sports teams, and was thrilled earlier this year when the Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl.  My wife and I are currently enraptured by the current American League pennant race for the Wild Card in Major League Baseball right now as we are both Seattle Mariners fans as well.  I also enjoy hiking, walking our Siberian Husky, and still go skiing occasionally.  The proximity of the mountains here in Utah make these type of recreational activities easily accessible and this feature has been one of our favorite of this state so far.

Fall is my favorite season here in Utah, or anywhere for that matter, and I am looking forward to enjoying recreational opportunities with the leaves changing colors and the cooler temperatures.  I am looking forward to this semester, as I am also enrolled in a Web Usability course as part of the MPC program, where I hope to learn more about analytics and other web features related to business.  I am also going to be pursuing a volunteer editing project as part of this course where I hope to help edit a newsletter for the assisted living facility my mother currently resides in.  Additionally, I am looking forward to the conclusion of the MPC program so I can have some more time to enjoy my hobbies and to pursue my career interests.

I currently work for a medical credentialing company in South Jordan, Verisys Inc, where I work as a Quality Analyst helping to ensure the accuracy of the company website.  I have also worked in online retail as an editor and at some point would like to make the transition back to that field.  I am hoping that the additional skills I obtain from this course will help increase the amount of opportunities for me in that industry.