Professional Writing Story Response

Reading the short stories in Tuesday's handout helped me get a better idea of how to write the Professional Writing Story. First and foremost, the most memorable part of the reading was the passage about Disney World. This  made me realize the actual meaning of "story". A story is not simply a beginning, middle, and end, used to describe what happened to you yesterday or to ease a child to sleep. It is a message you want to portray and revolves around a central theme. I came to this realization because of the statement that even maintenance workers at the amusement park are called "cast members" and are expected to communicate with children by coming down to their level, as any princess or character would. Furthermore, a friend of mine was lucky enough to intern at disney (as a princess nonetheless!), and she always had to say she was a "friend" of her character in order to maintain the "magic". I will use this knowledge and realization to maintain my theme throughout the story I write.

The next article that really sticks out in my mind is "Bang the Drum Strategically". This piece taught me that choice of words can make or break your story. I myself am guilty of using the Word thesaurus to spice up my writing, and I'm sure that it's been quite apparent in some of my papers. This article takes it further than that. I've learned that you must be a "wordsmith" and the words must reflect the theme, not just "intellect," even the kind that comes from your computer program.

Finally, "What Babies Know" was really interesting to read! I took a course on linguistics last semester so this article is very memorable for me. While the class taught me all about how words and sounds are made and why we say them that way, I never realized that certain letters and sounds are used intentionally, as in lullabies. I learned from this that if I am writing a mellow piece, I should use terms with soft letters such as "s" and "l," and when I am writing dramatic, harsh stories I should use harder-hitting consonants, such as "t," "p," "f," and so on.