TV: Sex, Lies & Promos; Ca$hing In On TV's Best Kept Secret Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow, how complete! I've been in TV for over 30 years and I have never seen as informative a piece of work about the industry. The book covers all aspects of the TV World from a extremely knowledgeable position. The authors did themselves proud and preformed a service for anyone who wants the "inside skinny" about our truly American Industry. Good read for the insider and the causual viewer alike.

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TV: Sex, Lies & Promos is a sizzling insider's how-toguide for anyone who has ever dreamed of a career in television,working with famous people and making great money.

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Roll Shooting TV News: Shooting TV News:Views from Behind the Lens Review

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(More customer reviews)I was afraid it was just going to be another text book by someone who had a small TV background and then went into teaching. However, I was very interested to see the article on how the BBC photographers cover international news...(after all they invented it). The articles on network freelancers I would have liked to see expanded as this is now a major force in top TV coverage. I liked seeing the sidebars on the primary tools each person uses. The book has a blend of large and smaller market stories and is a good read. I wish it was longer! John Treadgold, news photographer

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Roll! Shells fly overhead as night-scopes capture deadly fire fights with an eerie green hue, a category 5 hurricane devastates the Big Easy, hidden cameras enter a Cambodian village of brothels and a veteran journalist interviews himself throughout his own brain surgery. Part non-fiction drama, part trade publication, part text book, all woven together giving the reader a look through the viewfinders of the very best television photojournalists. As 19 experts weigh in with their candid, personal stories and photographic tips, it's as if you're over their shoulders, following their intuitions and hearing their thoughts as they shoot. The trade term for what they do is called ENG (Electronic News Gathering) and whether they're called Cameramen, Backpack Journalists, Television Photographers or any other moniker de jour, they're all paid to bring the world's events into living rooms around the world. These are the men and women who capture the bleeding edge of history - as it happens.Written in a smooth, unique interview style, this book is a necessary read for photojournalists, videographers and tv photojournalists.*Interviews with successful, professional TV photojournalists will inspire you*Lively tone conveys rich, practical know-how and peer advice from-the-trenches *Explains video shooting techniques within the context of the broadcast news profession *Loaded with hundreds of interesting photographs

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Inquiry-Based English Instruction : Engaging Students in Life and Literature Review

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(More customer reviews)I recommend this book to teachers hoping to energize their literature or writing classes by positioning all students as creative, ambitious researchers capable of critiquing or even transforming worlds outside the classroom. When I discovered it two months ago, it struck me as just the resource I needed for revitalizing my college survey of multicultural literature for freshman and sophomores, a course which sometimes engaged and sometimes bored students. I have since redesigned materials for the course, using Beach and Myers' idea that to fully understand literature-or our own lives-we must think of individual people (whether characters in a story, authors of those stories, or ourselves and others in the real world) as part of larger systems or "social worlds," acting to protect and continue those systems or to challenge and change them. The book clearly delineates the components of social worlds and is full of sample activities and assignments; with these, I have revised my own discussion questions, presentation assignments and writing prompts. I have also shown Chapter 8, "School and Sports Worlds," to several high school teachers, who now plan to assign the ethnographic inquiry projects outlined there rather than assigning traditional research papers. This is a practical, accessible, entirely useable book.

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This valuable resource offers an alternative framework for middle and secondary school English instruction. The authors provide concrete strategies for engaging students in critical inquiry projects about the social worlds they inhabit or about those portrayed in literature and the media, their peer, school, family, romance, community, workplace, and virtual worlds.

You will find numerous examples of middle and high school students using various literacy tools (language, genres, narratives, signs, multimedia, and drama) to study, represent, critique, and transform these worlds. Rather than simply studying about literacy practices, this new framework shows how students learn best through active participation driven by a need to critically examine and promote changes in their social worlds.

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Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles Review

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(More customer reviews)Before reading this book, I'd written and sold a couple of short fiction stories but had never tried nonfiction. I liked the idea of writing magazine articles but had no idea how to go about it. I picked up "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles" because I like their simplified approach to topics and because I'd read the other IDIOT'S GUIDE Sheree Bykofsky co-wrote (Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published).
The Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles gives you a no-nonsense approach from start to finish, covering things like studying the market, generating ideas, querying editors, assignments, conducting interviews, and actually writing the article, as well as some tips on book proposals, the life of a magazine writer (waiting/praying for checks), even taxes.
After I read "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles" I thought up a couple ideas, fired off some queries, and sold three articles the month after I bought the book. Now I'm working on assignment (not spec) writing a second piece for one of the magazines to which I sold an article last month.
If you can write and if you have something interesting to say, this book and a copy of "Writer's Market" are the twin pillars on which you can build a freelance career.
Charles Hustmyre
New Orleans, LA

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Take the mystery out of selling your ideas to magazine, newspapers, and web sites by reading this book.It explains who hires writers, whateditors want from freelancers, how much you can expect to be paid, how you can write effective query and pitch letters, and how the Internet can help your writing career take off.

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The Legacy Guide: Capturing the Facts, Memories, and Meaning of Your Life Review

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(More customer reviews)I teach a course in Life Stories and Legacy Writing at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, so I'm always looking for books I can recommend to my students. There are many "memory jogger" books of the type that ask things like "When was your first kiss" or "tell me about the first day of school." This one provides similar but better triggers for memories but also helps readers find a pattern in their lives, which I think will be helpful for people working on their own. During this session I've recommended this book and Tristine Rainer's book, YOUR LIFE AS STORY, for students who want to do more on their own. I'm glad someone is asking for "facts, memories, AND meaning," and with such good examples.

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The ultimate guide and companion for anyone who wants to record the story of his or her life or that of a loved one. Have you ever wondered about an ancestor you know only as a compelling face in a faded family photograph? Imagine discovering an entire book on this ancestor's life -one that described the world in which he lived and detailed his dreams, accomplishments, disappointments, and the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime. The Legacy Guide helps readers create such a book. Designed for writers and non-writers alike, it outlines a simple, intuitive, and highly flexible framework for turning your personal history-or that of a loved one-into a treasured family heirloom. It's been said that everyone has a story to tell, but anyone who has sat down to record his or her life story will tell you that there were moments of feeling completely overwhelmed and frustrated. Introducing the innovative program Facts to Memories to Meaning, The Legacy Guide takes you step-by-step through the seven stages of life-such as childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, etc.-to recall moments long forgotten and to discover their significance. And it helps you fashion these pieces together, much as you would a scrapbook, into a creative and compelling whole. Full of engaging and instructive quotations from the famous and the not-so-famous who have committed their stories to paper, The Legacy Guide will inspire you to capture the milestone events that have given shape to your life and allow you to weave them into a book that preserves this legacy for generations to come.

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Everyday Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Reading Effective Arguments Review

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(More customer reviews)The book was shipped immediately after process. The book is easy to comprehend and is straight to the point. Many tips in this book help students understand more college-level writing.

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Everyday Arguments combines a highly-practical, student-oriented argument rhetoric with an anthology of illustrative readings drawn from everyday life. Part I includes thirteen chapters devoted to the actual demonstration of how to write arguments--ranging from the motives behind writing and the intended audience to effectively supporting and using logic in writing. Part II is devoted to readings that exemplify the kinds of arguments laid out in the first part of the book. Readings are divided into thematic chapters: Today's College Student, The Internet, Sports, Earning Your Living, Diet, and Reading Popular Culture.

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Garner's Modern American Usage Review

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(More customer reviews)For three generations, a single book dominated the market as the authoritative reference in matters of grammar, style, and usage in the English language: "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage" by H.W. Fowler, first published in 1926, ably revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965, and now in its third edition (published 1996). But by the century's last quarter, the modern English language -- particularly its American dialect -- had begun outgrowing Fowler, and several newer guides began competing with it. The third (1996) edition of Fowler was a disappointment, and left the field without a clear leading authority.
That gap was filled in 1998, when Bryan A. Garner wrote "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" (published by the Oxford University Press, which also published Fowler). Finally, someone had written a book that matched Fowler -- not only in its erudition, but also in its accessible style, and even its wry sense of humor. And Garner's book had the advantages of being written both in modern times for a modern audience, and in the United States by an American author about American English. The book is a gem, and as authoritative a reference as you will find in this field in the last several decades (and probably the next several too).
"Garner's Modern American Usage" is this oustanding work's second edition, now retitled after its author in view of the acclaim that the first edition earned. A new edition is appearing after only five years because, as Garner explains, "changing usage isn't really the primary basis for a new edition of a usage guide: it's really a question of having had five more years for research." The payoff shows. And the second edition builds upon the first: the first edition was a dictionary of words in usage, rather than words about usage, and therefore assumed that the reader possessed a certain working knowledge of basic grammatical terms and concepts. For example, the first edition didn't define such basic terms as "sentence," "phrase," "clause," "word," or "part of speech." The second edition appends a glossary that defines many such basic concepts. It also appends, as did the first edition, an 11-page chronology of books about usage, which illustrates both the rich tradition that Garner's work joins, as well as the tremendous resources upon which he drew in producing this magnum opus.

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Rhetoric in Popular Culture Review

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(More customer reviews)Barry Brummett's "Rhetoric in Popular Culture" seeks to bring the traditions of rhetorical criticism and critical studies together. Brummett applies the growing and cutting-edge methods of critical studies to the study of rhetoric, because he sees critical studies AS rhetorical criticism. This is a premise with which I whole-heartedly agree, which is not surprising given my interest in rhetoric and social theory. Part I consists of four chapters dealing with theoretical and methodological concerns. The extended case study is on the film version of "The Wizard of Oz," in which Brummett looks at how five critical methods (Marxist, feminist/psychoanalytic, dramatistic/narrative, media-centered, and culture-centered) would render different interpretations of Dorothy's trip over the rainbow. Part II provides three critical studies: "Paradoxes of Personalization: Race Relations in Milwaukee," "Twin Peeks: Using Theory in Two Analyses of Visual Pleasures" (by Brummett and Margaret Carlisle Duncan) and "Afrocentrism and 'DO THE RIGHT THING'" (by Detine L. Bowers).
Fortunately in this Postmodern world history is dead and most students are not aware of the rhetorical tradition that would disdain critical studies, not to mention popular culture. Consequently, Brummett does not have to convince students of the rightness of his cause, they are simply going to want to understand what he is talking about. Part I of this book is the stronger section, because Brummett's strength is in laying out his approach. Chapter 3, in which he looks at the key notion of "text," is the best one in the book. How you feel about Part II will come down to how relevant the specific case studies are to your students. Certainly "Do the Right Thing," despite its cultural importance once upon a time, would be considered "dated" by most students, although we might think it has again become relevant because of recent events. But Part I is basically two-thirds of the book, so I do not really think that this becomes a major consideration in deciding whether or not to use this book in class. Ultimately, the key consideration is going to be the sort of assignments you have the cherubs do off of the theories laid out in Part I. Brummet's point is that students should be empowered to "find the rhetoric in rap music, the motivations in heavy metal, and the arguments in argyle socks." That pretty much covers it all.

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Rhetoric in Popular Culture, Third Edition provides students with a solid background in the central issues in interpreting pop culture. Author Barry Brummett helps readers use techniques of rhetorical criticism to analyze texts from popular culture including print ads, music videos, TV advertisements, Internet user groups, movies, and television shows. Part I covers rhetoric as a concept, the history of rhetoric, and a method for doing rhetorical criticism. Part II includes critical essays and case studies that show students how the critical methods discussed in Part I can be used to study the rhetoric of extended texts.

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Write More Good: An Absolutely Phony Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)As a writer, there are certain "rules" you're supposed to follow in terms of style. Even if you're not a writer, you're affected by these styles as they dictate what you read in media stories. A couple of guys decided to take some liberties with those guidelines and created a Twitter account named fakeapstylebook to parody the rules, and that led to this book... Write More Good: An Absolutely Phony Guide by The Bureau Chiefs. If you've ever had to write an article for some publication (and you have a sense of humor), this is a great parody that offers plenty of laughs and hits close to the truth on more than one occasion.
Contents:
News & Headline Writing & You & Journalism
Politics: When The Horse Race Lasts 30 Months
Entertainment: The Glitz, The Glamour, The Death of the Superego
Sex: Ew
Religion
Sports: The Sport of Kings
The Shiny Money Box, Or, Technology and the Death of All Paper
Science (and the Blinding By Thereof)
Pseudoscience and the Supernatural: Ya Rly
Weapons and the Military: Shoot First, Then Ask Questions About Shooting
Citation and Attribution: Do Not Hit the Snooze Button
Punctuation and Grammar: LOL
Media Law: You Are So Screwed
The Morgue: The Dead Live!
The Ghost of Basics Past
Glossary
Each chapter starts out with a few snide comments about the topic, slides into the "basics" along with related detail that spares nothing and no one, and then ends with a topic glossary that is far more interesting than any other glossary you've ever read. Do you want to be an entertainment writer? Learn how to become a blogging review quote machine so you'll get free tickets and videos! Sports writer? Get a nickname and a stance, and then market yourself shamelessly!
But there are always things to remember... For instance, if you're a sports writer, remember that professional bowlers should never be referred to as "heavy-set." It's assumed. If you're writing about soccer for North American audiences, remember to consider the fact that no one cares. And of course, any story on Brett Favre's retirement should end with the ;) emoticon.
What I found impressive about this book (and which was also pointed out by Roger Ebert in the forward) is that it's not a book composed solely of tweets from the authors. Too often a book based on a blog or Twitter account is just a compilation of the same material that's already been used. Fine if you don't follow them online, but a waste of money for regular readers. Write More Good borrows the attitude and style of the fakeapstylebook tweets, but that's where it ends. As such, this is an entertaining read regardless of how much you've read on Twitter.
One small caution... if you're easily offended when someone pokes fun or parodies something that is close to your heart, then you might want to stay away. Everything is fair game here... you have been warned. :)
Write More Good is one of the more entertaining books I've read of late, and I know plenty of writer colleagues who will enjoy it as much as I did. They just need to remember the warning on the cover... "If you use this, you will get FIRED!"
Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publicist
Payment: Free

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Still clinging to your dog-eared dictionary? So attached to The Elements of Style that you named your rabbits Strunk and White? Maybe you're a beleaguered reporter, or a type-A newspaper reader who unwinds by e-mailing the editor about whether "tweet" is a verb?It's time to face up to reality: Writing clearly, checking facts, and correcting typos are dying arts. Whether you're a jaded producer of media or a nitpicking consumer of it, this book will help you to embrace, not resist, the lowering of standards for the written word! Part dictionary, part journalism textbook, part grammar and writing manual, Write More Good is a "comprehensive" "guide" to today's "media," in all its ambulance-chasing, story-fabricating, money-hemorrhaging glory. (LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The authors are not responsible for consequences that may result from actually using this book as a dictionary, textbook, or grammar and writing manual.)Let The Bureau Chiefs, the ritin' and reportin' geniuses behind the Twitter phenomenon @FakeAPStylebook, teach you about:* Proper usage!"World War" should be used only for conflicts involving countries on at least three continents. For large-scale battles against clones, killer tomatoes, or a fifty-foot woman, use "attack" instead.* Entertainment Journalism!When writing about a celebrity for an online audience, save your readers time by linking directly to nude photos of him or her.* Science Reporting!When writing about those robots that seek out and consume houseflies for energy, the parenthetical aside "(OH GOD, WE'RE DOOMED!)" is implied and is therefore not necessary to include in your story.And much, much, more!

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