Meet the TA: Hayley DiReda

Name: Hayley DiReda
Major: English Teaching
Minors: Undetermined - Philosophy and/or Italian
Year in School: Senior with 2 years left
Where did you grow up? Kaysville, Utah
Mission: N/A
Hobbies: Reading, writing, sports (I love them all but I am partial to Soccer and Ultimate Frisbee), dancing, music and cooking.
Favorite Internet Meme: I don't have a favorite! I just love to laugh!
Favorite Book (Non-Scriptural): Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Favorite Musical Artist: The Script.
Musical Instruments: Viola - Yes, it is a real instrument and no, it is not another name for a violin. 
Languages: English and Italian. I've studied Spanish but I am extremely rusty. I can understand a decent amount, but replying is tricky. My roommate's friend is from Israel and she started to teach me Hebrew. I still don't know anything about the language, except that it sounds beautiful. 
Other Things You Might Want to Know About Me: I am currently working on a novel and I am hoping to be published before the end of next year! Fingers crossed. I am also hoping to snag an internship, in either Peru or China, teaching English. I am dreading the impending winter weather because I hate the cold. I also don't know how to ski or snowboard, so that may have some impact on my relationship with snow, which is strange considering I grew up in Utah. Feel free to laugh. I think its comical as well. 

Meet the TA: Kyra Nelson

Name: Kyra Nelson
Major: Linguistics
Minors: Editing and English
Year in School: First Year MA
Where did you grow up? Billings, Montana
Mission: Impossible
Hobbies: Reading, writing, cake decorating, Tetris, blogging
Favorite Internet Meme: That escalated quickly
Favorite Book (Non-Scriptural): Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Favorite Musical Artist: Taylor Swift. That's right. Don't hate.
Musical Instruments: Violin
Languages: English. Some Japanese. I took Spanish but was told I had the worst accent that instructor had ever heard. Once I tried learning Welsh for ten minutes.
Other Things You Might Want to Know About Me: I intern for a literary agency, which is a fancy way of saying that I crush the hopes and dreams of aspiring authors. I also love superheroes (not just because I think the actors in Avengers are foxy, even though they are).

Open source vs. open-source

Don't use the hyphen

When you use open source as a noun, do not hyphenate.

For example:

Open source allows universal distribution of a code.

Use the hyphen

When you use open source as an adjective, use the hyphen.

For example:

Open-source code is available to the general public to use and modify.

Featured Blog Post

We've been discussing ideas for how to better utilize the blog, and we've decided we want to post student blog posts that we enjoyed. Although these posts may not be perfect, we will point out things we appreciated about the post.

This week we want to feature Leah Loughran's second smallish post. You can find the original post here.

"Today, when we research our family history, we find great joy in discovering an ancestor’s name simply listed on an old census.

Imagine what it could be like for our descendants in 100 years. Your children’s children’s children could be reading your blog archive, flipping through the thousands of photos and videos you’ve captured on your smartphone, and analyzing the meaning behind those passive-aggressive updates you’ve shared on social media sites.

In the digital age, we’re able to easily and almost thoughtlessly create an intricate record of our daily lives. Someday, that record may very well be studied by our ancestors. Will they find as much value in our terabytes of political arguments and HD photographs of food as we do in the single journal page of our long-lost ancestor we shed tears over today? Today, we carefully extract every last drop of information from our few glimpses into the past, but in the future, we may just be trying to wade through all the junk."

What do we like about this post? First of all, the idea is original. While many of the posts were very similar, this one talked about something nobody else did. It went beyond summarizing the articles, and even beyond just giving the author's opinion on how cool family history is. It provides legitimate commentary by asking what this technology could mean in the future. Also, the example of somebody flipping through thousands of photos and videos provides support for this proposed idea of the future.

The final sentence gives a nice conclusion to the idea presented in the post. It ties together the examples of modern family history and future family history, and it leaves the reader with something to wonder about.

Good job, Leah!

Writing Excuses Podcast

Yesterday in class, Dr. K mentioned the Writing Excuses podcast. For anyone interested in giving it a listen, click the link below!

http://www.writingexcuses.com/

Might as well try at least one episode, because they're only fifteen minutes long! Perfect for a break between classes, a drive home, or a nap (just kidding)!

Meet the TA: Kelsey Allan

Name: Kelsey Allan
Major: English
Minor: Editing
Year in School: Senior
Where did you grow up? Franklin, Tennessee. My favorite place on earth.
Mission: Nope!
Hobbies: Blogging, writing, reading, traveling, watching movies, hiking, Ultimate Frisbee, baking, and eating.
Favorite Internet Meme: Ridiculously Photogenic Guy.
Favorite Book (Non-Scriptural): The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.
Favorite Musical Artist: I hate to pick a favorite...but for now I'll say Fun.
Musical Instruments: None. I somehow missed out on the musical talent gene in my family.
Languages: English, with snatches of several romance languages. I'm taking Latin now!
Other Things You Might Want to Know About Me: I recently completed a publishing internship with Cedar Fort Industries. I absolutely loved it because I am a total nerd!