How is our discussion today change your thinking about the meaning of the term style and its use in writing for the media?

Today’s discussion made me understand deeply what style is all about. As I said before, there are many styles but only some specific ones can be used in writing for the media. Also my reaction to the statement in my past blog “Writing is thinking,” helped me understand how many different ways you can express yourself. There were numerous different styles; some classmates expressed themselves in poems, lyrics, or writing music like me. Others enjoyed writing research papers, as others didn’t have a specific style. Writing for the media might be considered complex, but it can be done with facility if the correct and appropriate styles are used. There are two levels of styles, which are individual and editorial. This made me understand better the way you can use each style in writing for the media.

For example: I like to express myself through music. I could be happy, angry, or dejected and I would sit down, grab my guitar and just play. Then after a while of jamming on a specific rhythm, an idea would come up and with those ideas I create a song. Sometimes I express myself through lyrics but not very often, usually through music. There was another classmate that expressed herself through music, writing lyrics. Another classmate expressed himself through poems. I think that poems a great ways to express your writing since you can use simile and metaphors in which it puts more life into the poem.

So definitely today’s class made understand the different styles that there is and the way you can you use it in writing for the media.

People say that a consistent style restricts creativity. Others say it enhances creativity. What are the arguments on both sides of this question?

In my opinion, I believe that writing in a consistent style will restrict your creativity. But of course, that depends on the writer because some might like to be restricted in order to enhance or kind of bring out their creativity. If you don’t have any restriction then you can combine your creativity by using different ideas and somehow connect them together making your writing more enjoyable and more persuasive to the reader.

Sometimes is hard to write in a consistent style, depending on the writer. Since your creativity is restricted, now you have to sit down and come up with ideas and one way or another integrating it to your writing. There may be times in which you run out of ideas of the consistent style your were ask to write in, making it harder and longer to complete your task. Due to this situation, now you have to sit down again and try to gather more information and put it together with the rest of your writing. In the other hand, if you are not restricted you can jump into other topics and try to get something out of it and then include it in your writing. You can keep doing this once you start running out of ideas and then you just have to put it together. So I think that if you don’t have any restrictions you can be more creative and even make a fusion of different types of topics that will make your writing yet more creative.

"Writing is Thinking"

When people write they get their thought across to others, therefore influencing their actions of everyday life. Writing is the vehicle for which people express their inner thought and emotions. I think that writers should first brainstorm and make an outline of the ideas. Then they could start writing, so as a result I believe that you need to think before you write. Writing definitely complements thinking, since you cannot write without thinking but even though you might need to think before writing, thoughts might naturally emerge in the process of writing. Writing helps develop thoughts and at the same time make them clearer. Clearer in a way that the reader understands what is trying to be expressed, and what are the exact thoughts that the writer is trying to describe.

I think that you can think in different ways and then write. For example: you can first draw some idea that is in your head or you can express your emotions in the present time. Then you can focus on the picture and you could explain and make the reader understand your emotions or idea and what message are you trying to portray. Another way to express your thoughts before you write is through music. I believe that you can write a song about something that happen that day and express your emotions by venting with your instrument. That’s what I do, I always vent with my instrument. Then later on you can sit down and write something about the song, what drove you to that stage and you can write a poem about it and sing it.

So I believe that in no matter what way you write, you first need to think your emotions or ideas, so when you write them, your expressions could be interpreted much clearer and your message would be delivered.

I was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I did elementary, middle, and high school over there. After I graduated I decided to do my college studies in the United States. Currently I am a senior in Manhattanville College in New York. My major is Finance and also have a minor in Political Science. I first started with Music Management but then as time passed, I started to get interested in the economy and its markets and that is how I started to study Finance.

I plan to graduate with a Bachelors of Arts degree. After that, my plan is to get a job in an investment banking firm in New York City and keep playing with my band. After a couple of years working in New York City, I want to do my masters in a economics school in London. The way I would like to do this is by trying to get the company that I am working for to transfer me to a branch in London, and that way I could have a working experience there while doing my masters. Also I would like become part of the music world in London since the music industry over there is really big and that is my hobby and passion.

I think that this class would help me understand and improve the various types of copywriting used in the mass media today. Also it will make me understand effectively the role of communication in the world today since in the finance and music world, communication plays a big role.