Final Copy

Well I finally got on campus for the first time this week and picked up my edits from Dr. Baltrip.  I was happy to see that there wasn't a whole lot of content changes, so I just had to edit the simple things and not really change a whole bunch which was nice to see.  I copied and pasted the stories to the wiki and formatted the paragraphs so I think that I am done!

I can't believe that this whirlwind of a semester is over!  I am very proud of my final project and feel that I developed a lot of useful skills throughout this semester.  I honestly think that as I pursue a possible career in law that some of the research skills that I have developed could really come in handy.  I thoroughly enjoyed this class and hope that my final project reflects the effort I have put in.

Later days,

Coop

This past Weekend

Well I can't believe that the last week of Junior year is here!

This past weekend I went home for mother's day and to watch my little sister play softball.  While at home, I showed my parents the work I had done on the wiki.  They were thoroughly impressed with the work that I've done on it.  I was so proud to show off all the work that I have done so far this semester.  They really liked the direction of my story and how everything looks.  I'm very happy with the graphics and how the visual aspects turned out.  Now all that's left is to post the final edits.  Now today, Dr. Baltrip just emailed me saying that the edits are done.  I can't believe that I'm on the final step of this semester long project!  I think it will turn out very well.

Coop

Week and a half left!

Wow, I can't believe that we are wrapping up this project!  I'm a little disappointed that I will not really be able to add anything really substantial to my draft right now just because of time constraints.  I emailed Dr. Gordon last week and have yet to hear back from her.  Therefore, I am afraid that I will most likely not be able to have any input from her which sucks...

I just spent a decent amount of time editing my draft that I got back from Dr. Baltrip.  I will say that she definitely made it bleed and I can honestly say that I am happy that was the case.  I feel like she really helped me out with my basic grammar along with ideas.  I may have thrown together my rough draft a little too fast and I really appreciate all the work that she put into it.

I am so happy with how my project is turning out overall.  I can't wait to share the final product with everyone out there!

Coop

Layout

Alright, well this process appears to be comng to an end finally.  I've got both my sidebar and full copy edited by Dr. Baltrip.  I spent a lot of last week's class period working on the layout of my WetPaint site.  I am a very visual person and feel like the design is very important.  I know that this class is about reporting, but I take a lot of pride in how my final project looks.

I hate the way that WetPaint goes about editing the layout.  It's so frustrating that you can't click and drag the different components.  Everything has to be in line with the cursor which makes for a very slow process to get things the way you want them to look.  There's the option to split the whole screen into a wide left side with a skinny side on the right.  I was originally going to use this option, but I found a way around this because I want my side bar to be the only thing on the right side, and I didn't want it to get in the way of the mortar board graphic that I created.  So I created a table for my side bar.

I'm really happy with how the design turned out, so now all I need to do is edit my drafts, get them looked over again, and then put the final product together!  This is a hectic week for me so hopefully I can get those drafts completed sooner rather than later!

Coop

First Draft

Well I figured I'd do my best to stick to the schedule recommended and put my first rough draft together to be edited in class today.  I was honestly surprised at how easily I was able to put together ideas.  I think this goes back to all of the work we have had to do this year.

I was able to use the other assignments we had previously done as references and sometimes even copy and pastes.  It was a HUGE help to have the interview questions already transcribed.  This way I could just search that document and copy and paste the quotes that I wanted to use.

I had over the 800 "recommended" words done by the time I had hardly started into my second subhead!

I am a little bit worried about my national coverage of black retention rates.  I feel like that subheadline is my weakest aspect of the story.  Maybe because I didn't talk to a national expert?  Oh well, I think it is alright but it will need some work.

Now it's time to start working on my graphs and word clouds.  I've got big ideas to combine the wordcloud with my previous knowledge in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop!  I'm pumped!

Coop

Data Driven Sidebar

I've been sitting here working on my sidebar and trying to figure out how I want to include the multitude of data that I have collected without over-inundating the reader with numbers.  I have been able to collect information on KSU's retention and graduation rates for 9 different racial categories over the last 10 years.

Originally I was worried that I would not have much to write about and would fall well short of the "maximum that's not really a maximum" of 600 words.  Then I started to write and realized that I had 100 words in just the first bit while I was still introducing my topic and hadn't even dropped a piece of data yet.  I have no doubt that I have plenty to write about but now I'm just worried about dropping boring facts all day that the reader will quickly become disinterested in.

So far the things that I have decided to compare are the numbers of enrollment for the different races and the average retention rate and graduation rate.  I think that averages speak the most to this problem that K-State faces.  But then again their are some groups that are so small in numbers that for a couple of years there are some extreme outlyers that I feel like I should mention because they skew the average.

I was hoping that the sidebar would be the easiest part of the story and here I am stressing out about it!  Oh well, I'm sure it will all work out!

Coop

Transcribing

Well I just spent the majority of the last two hours transcribing the four interviews that I have done.  I had a total of 35 minutes of raw audio and it took a long time to get it all down on Word.

I thought about just transcribing the required five questions for each interviewee, however I decided that it would probably be better to do it all just in case I needed to go back to it.  I was pleased with the overall sound quality.  I recorded 3 of the interviews on my Flip camera and imported the audio into Garageband.  The other I recorded straight into GarageBand.  Two of the interviews were done over phone and the other two were in person and I was happy to be reassured that you could understand everything that they said.

Now it's time to start putting together and editing a podcast of their most prominent statements.  I'm really liking how this project is mirroring some of the things I have been learning in my other Mass Comm classes!

Coop

Interviews

I just finished up the 4 required interviews and now I'm trying to shape up my story.  I was impressed with how educated all of my interviewees were.  I thought that they would kind of dance around the questions a little bit, but all had answers ready and were very helpful.

I think that now that I have all of my people sources I can really start shaping up my story.  I am going to lead with the Caiel Noble personal story and close with that as well. Now I'm starting to think about how I am going to divide up the story.  I'm thinking about the organization and the flow and I'm going to start by presenting the problem, then I was thinking about talking about what the reasons are, then maybe what KSU does to help retain minority students.  The interviewees were also very optimistic about K-State's future, so I may have that right before the closing for Caiel Noble.

Coop

Interviews

I'm finally starting to feel like this whole process is coming together.  I recently did a great interview with Ms. Johnella Holmes.  I had her as a teacher a couple of semesters ago and I still wasn't sure what to expect from the interview, and I was extremely pleased with the results.  She had tons of information and, in all honesty, was probably one of if not the best persons to talk to on campus.  I know so much more about some of the reasons universities across the board have trouble retaining black students.  She also had some great insight as to why Manhattan presents its own problems for KSU.  She had great facts and just gave it to me straight and I loved that.

I have an interview set up for Friday morning at 9 am with Dr. Pat Bosco that I am really excited about!

I think that I am getting into my comfort zone on this project now.  I was worried that it wasn't going to come together simply because I was so used to only using people sources.  Now that I am adding people sources to my research I am already seeing ways to tie it all together!

Cooper

Working hard over break

Well folks, I've completed my case study that's due on Thursday which is quite a relief to get it out of the way.  I definitely enjoyed my week off of school but now I'm working on that news planning sheet.  After filling all of these out I feel like I'll have more than enough sources!

I've been having some trouble with the Delicious site though... I'm not sure how to link an article found in LexisNexis to it, so I have just been emailing the articles I have found to myself.  If anyone knows how to circumnavigate this problem it would be appreciated!

Coop

Introduction to my blog

My name is Cooper Mach and I am a junior in the journalism school at Kansas State University.  I have created this blog to follow the progress I make as I complete a project for my Mass Comm 316 course.  The topic I have chosen to address is black student retention at public universities, particularly Kansas State.

I feel like I've got a solid baselayer of information under my belt at this point. I have a solid set of resources on my Delicious account, however, I feel like I need to go out and get people sources at this moment.  I feel like I am struggling with a direction for all of my information and once I get some actual stories from individuals I will be able to find a focus.  Hopefully I can iron out these details in the near future!  Looking forward to this adventure.

Coop