Investigative Reporting

1. It is 4:30 p.m. I have been dreading this time all day. I am sitting in Reddefor Commons, my eyes scanning the crowd, trying to not look desperate. It is not working. I have that semi-shaky-but-still-trying-to-hide-my-nerves vibe going on. I do another scan of the room. I see the box before I see the girl carrying it. My heart skips a beat. I do not take my eyes of my Pi Chi, aka my rush leader. Girls swarm her as soon as she puts the box down. However I remain calmly in my chair. I can wait a few more seconds to find out my fate. In fact, I plan on putting it off as long as possible. Then I hear my name. My Pi Chi has pulled out my slip. Fantastic. I slowly reach out and clutch the slim piece of paper between my sweaty fingers. I say a rapid prayer. I am not religious, but rush had seemed to have sparked the little bit of piety in me. Please let me see 6 sororities on that slip, please let me see 6 sororities on that slip. I feel like I am moving in slow motion. I unfold the slip. I see 3 names. 3 names that I didn’t even want to see. I feel my heart drop. It is official; I am dropping out of rush. I am not going to be in a sorority.

2. - “I didn’t get invited back to my first choice [sorority] and I expected to be invited back because I felt like I fit in and I had a family friend there.” –Taylor Beatty, 18, class of 2015

- “I got in an argument with a senior in the sorority the first week of college and she decided to hold it against me.” –Taylor Beatty, 18, class of 2015. On why she didn’t get invited back
- “Yes because I had friends in one and the other one I felt really comfortable and the conversations I had with the girls were really good and it just felt right.” –Sam Metz, 18, class of 2015, On if she expected to be invited back to a sorority that she didn’t get invited back to.

3. – “Any action or situation with or without consent which recklessly, intentionally or unintentionally endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student, or creates risk of injury, or causes discomfort, embarrassment, harassment or ridicule or which willfully destroys or removes public or private property for the purpose of initiation or admission into or affiliation with, or as a condition for continued membership in a chapter or colony of an National Panhellenic Conference member fraternity.” –Penn State Panhellenic Website

-“Many clubs and organizations at Penn State have yearly or semesterly dues to help pay for their events and activities for their members. Sororities are no different, with dues being used to pay for the upkeep of the chapter’s suite, community service events, scholarships, intramurals, and many of the social events offered. Annual membership dues vary per chapter, but an estimated range is anywhere from $350 to $600 each semester. During formal recruitment, chapters will disclose their financial expectations to potential new members before extending an invitation to join.” –Penn State Panhellenic Website

-11% of Penn State women join sororities –www.collegeboard.org

- 13% of Penn State men join fraternities –www.collegeboard.org

4. Upon doing my research about the rush process, I realized that I was asking another question along with it. Why do girls feel the need to join a sorority? Why is not getting into one worth crying over? I decided to ask these questions in my interview. Another question I decided I need to research further is what current sorority girls or girls who went through with rush feel like they have gotten out of being in a sorority and if they would go through the rush process again looking back on it. I also asked these questions in my interviews, which was very helpful and gave me a lot of insight into my topic.

Number 1 Lie

In 2009, Penn State was named the “Number 1 Party School”. The issue of the “This American Life” piece was to prove that the school deserves this title. It is not credible to just claim that Penn State is the biggest party school, there needs to be reasons, anecdotes, interviews, and statistics showing why the university was named this. While some may argue that the intended audience would be students or faculty of Penn State, I think that it is more for adults who are college graduates. Specifically ones that look down on drinking.
There were several details and stories provided to show how the issue affects different people related to the university. One of these anecdotes includes a resident of State College, whose yard is often filled with pizza plates and beer cans, and another resident who had to install motion detectors in their yard due to all of the incidents with drunken students that he had had. Perhaps the story dealing with a resident that resonated with me the most was the one where a male student was found in the bedroom of a young child after breaking into their house.
The report also includes perspectives from the students. Some of these perspectives include “frackets”, “the drunk bus”, getting into frats, football Saturdays, and risqué dresses for girls. It was also very interesting to hear the reporters follow a police officer in State College. Listeners were able to hear directly of 2 arrests made in one night, one for a fake ID and the other for public urination. It was a way to see into a typical night of a Penn State police officer.
Finally, the report included a powerful focus on the death of a student. There was many interviews of students and faculty about this incident. They also looked into the police reports. Students were asked if this death will cause them to stop drinking, and most said no. However the students said that this will cause them to be more careful and stay in a group when drinking.
There were several narrative techniques used in this report. These include anecdotes, sensory details, and firsthand accounts. The report also has a clear structure and organization. It is organized into four separate acts and an introduction. The narrative techniques used make the report interesting and easy to listen to. It does not lag or get boring or repetitive.
Personally, I did not like this report. I feel that is was made by a bunch of stuck up adults who try to act like they are above everyone. Except I guarantee that they drank in college. They could have gone to any college around the same size and nature (i.e. big football team, state school) and found the exact same things. The reason that they made Penn State look like the biggest party school was because they actually put forth the effort to investigate. The same level of partying and arrests and underages happen at colleges all across the country. They used terms that I, as a student, have never heard and clearly exaggerated certain aspects of party life such as the “slutty” outfits girls wear. Not all girls wear these outfits. You can often find girls in jeans and flats. Also, I have never even heard of the rule that only members of fraternities and sororities are allowed in the frat houses. I think that the reporters picked an angle before researching and used every piece of evidence that they could to prove it.

Writing Advice that Lasts a Lifetime

Before I started reading Bird by Bird, I thought it was going to be a boring and instructional book on how to write. I expected to almost be put to sleep by it, and skim it at best. But when I started reading it, I realized that I was not bored in the least bit. Yes, it was a book on how to write, but it was written in a way that made it interesting. Lamott didn’t simply lecture the audience on what they should do; she shared stories and anecdotes from her life and applied them to writing skills. She made me have a different perspective on writing, especially when it comes to writers block and the purpose of writing.
However the part of the book that sticks out the most to me is the chapter entitled “Shitty First Drafts”. Instead of taking the normal approach towards unappealing writing, Lamott says to embrace it. According to her, the shitty first draft is something that you have to deal with in order to make any progress. Like “gen eds” you have to complete them to get to the good stuff or the stuff that you care about. In a sense, these drafts are like a rite of passage. I think that this advice will stick with me for the rest of my writing career. Whenever I start writing something that I don’t like or that just isn’t working, I get frustrated. I often want to give up or toss the idea or approach away. But now I realize I will just have to think of these less-than-brilliant drafts as a gateway to my final masterpiece. Lamott says that while most of your first drafts are “shitty”, there is some material in there, even if it is just a sentence or phrase, that is worth running with. It’s as if you have to write 1000 words in order to get about 30 good ones. But once you have those 30 inspired words, the rest of your piece will flow right along. The other 970 were just there to guide you along.
I think that the concept of shitty first drafts can be applied to other aspects of life. One aspect for example would be in the working world. You have to have some degrading jobs (i.e. doing monotonous work in a law office for hours at a time) in order to work your way up to the job of your dreams. Shitty first drafts also apply to finding true friends. You won’t know what a true friend looks like until you’ve had some shitty ones. I think that this principle will cause me to not be so critical of myself or my situations. For example, college has been a hard adjustment. But if I think in Lamott’s terms, I can label this the “shitty first months”, make some friends, join some clubs, and go on to have an amazing college experience. I love that this book gave me advice that I can use in both my writing and my life.

"Confessions of a Bad Teacher"

I recently read “Confessions of a Bad Teacher” by John Owens, which was featured in Salon. I found that as I was reading it, it didn’t feel like I was reading for a school assignment, but rather for enjoyment. The story flowed very well and kept me interested. I think this has to do with how it incorporated the key parts of a memoir. “Confessions of a Bad Teacher” is about how Owens decided to go from being a writer and publisher to being a teacher. A teacher in a bad area, nonetheless. The story tells us about the troubles he faced, such as kids not wanting to learn, administrators who didn’t care, and trying to discipline difficult students.
The conflict of the story is between Owens, who wants so badly to teach and help these students, and the students who would rather do anything than learn and behave. Owens shows the audience the conflict through many examples, such as trying to hold the students hostage for an extra ten minutes, or being called a pervert for trying to get a student to put her cell phone away. The resolution of this memoir ends up being that Owens quits, or is let go, after receiving a “U”. Even though he quit and it seemed like he failed, at the end his students told him what an influence he had on their lives and how they didn’t want him to leave. There are actually several morals to this story. One is that one does not always realize the affect that they have on someone else’s life. Owens thought that he was a failure of a teacher who didn’t even deserve to teach anymore, when in reality the students confessed that he taught some of them more than anyone else ever had. This story also teaches to not go by the normal definition of “right” and “wrong” when it comes to teaching and discipline. Even though some of his methods were unconventional, i.e. singing the Star Spangled Banner very loudly, they still worked. Finally, this memoir shows that even if you technically “fail”, in this case by getting a “U”, its all how you look at it. Yes, Owens ended up leaving the school, but he left a lasting impression on his students’ lives. This story is relevant to the times because a lot of the public school systems in urban areas are overlooked. There are many problems with the administrators, teachers, students, and parents. Many officials tend to turn the other way and pretend these problems don’t exist so that they don’t have to deal with it. “Confessions of a Bad Teacher” exposes these problems in a way that will make readers want to be informed. This story could potentially spark a change. The intended audience for this story would be aspiring teachers, current teachers, or administrators. It could teach them many new things or encourage them to rethink their old ways.
I think that a narrative technique that was used well in this story was characterization. Owens provides strong details and dialogue so that the reader can truly visualize the students. Owens also has a very strong voice, and it is as if you could almost hear him telling you the story. He also uses subheads to transition between time and different subjects. I think that “Confessions of a Bad Teacher” was a well-written memoir.