Investigation

Scene:
You’re sweating profusely as you make your way back to your residence hall after a long, exhausting yet rewarding jog to the Nittany lion at Old Main. A feeling of proudness takes over you, as you feel the beads of sweat permeate your back, face, and hands. All you are looking forward to is taking that refreshing hot shower. As you gather your toiletries and enter your compact dorm shower, you immediately notice you’ve forgotten your flip flops. Since your feet have already hit the grainy concrete shower floor, you simply figure it’s no big deal, right? Wrong. Sometimes it can be easy to forget how many other students are sharing that very shower stall. According to Penn State’s Residence Life Website, approximately 5 showers and toilet stalls are shared with 40-44 students per floor. These numbers should paint a picture of how it easy it is for harmful bacteria to spread from the shower floor to your feet, the moment you decided to continue your shower without flip flops. Even the beads of sweat that touched the railings of the staircase as you hiked up the stairs to get to your room, contain various bacteria and germs from your skin.
Interview/Quotes:
Name: Brooke Durham
Age: 18
Year: Freshman
Major: International Studies/History
Q: How often do you come across or notice staff cleaning the bathroom on your floor?
A: “Usually once a day I see a woman cleaning the bathrooms, except on weekends.”
Q: Have you ever seen unusual things or items in the bathrooms or shower stalls? If so, what are some of these things?
A: “I come across underwear, Band-Aids…and a lot of hair on the shower floor. It’s hard because people try to ‘personalize’ their shower experience forgetting about the other dozens of kids.”
Q: What types of things, such as fungus, infections, or substances, do you think linger in dorm bathrooms?
A: “I’ve heard of Athletes Foot fungus being pretty common in the showers, and Ive also heard a story about the ‘Gorilla Man’ who travels to girls’ bathroom showers and masturbates in them. It’s really gross.”
Facts:
1. According to CBS News, cited by Bridget Widdowson of the The Penn an online magazine, “Foot infections like athlete's foot and toenail fungus spread from person to person when people are sharing close living quarters.”

2. According to an article on helium.com submitted by Elle P. C. Smith, “Throughout the nation this year, especially in the Northeast, college campuses has seen a rise in staph infections. Staph infections are caused by bacteria that can be spread through skin contact. A good way to spread this infection is using public showers without foot protection for your sores or infected skin.”
3. The same source stated, “Another great way to prevent infections is by investing in shower shoes. A simple $1 pair of flip flops can save you a trip to the doctor's office.”
4. “If you have a floor shower versus in room bathrooms, the trip down the hall with your shampoo, conditioner, soap, wash cloth and towel can be an annoyance.”
Further Research:
I would like to get further research on how sanitary the bathrooms are by interviewing the housing staff and getting their take on it. I would like to know their procedures as well as find out more about the unfortunate cleaning situations they have come across during their time here at Penn State. Also, I would like to interview a student at another large university, and ask the same questions I asked my first interviewer to see if the answers are similar or different. This will help me better form my solution at the end of my investigation.

#1 Party School

The issue of the piece on “#1 Party School” by journalists from This American Life was the amount of partying and drinking done by Penn State students here in State College, PA. The journalists speak to students as well as various other people about this issue and their take on it. Some interviewee’s were actually briefly interviewed while in the act partying and drinking. There are several obvious reasons as to why this particular issue needed to be investigated; however, the reporters mentioned how one student at Penn State a couple years ago actually died from drinking “too much” at a frat party. The reporters stated how his body was found after leaving a frat party highly intoxicated after the 18 year old boy attempted to jump off the roof of one building and onto another. This shows just how dangerous getting drunk and partying can be, especially when you are alone.
The intended audience for this investigation would be Penn State students living on campus, as well as any other college student. I also think parents would be an ideal audience because it could be very informative to parents who have children attending Penn State University. The report sheds a direct light on the abundance of partying and drinking, as well as how often it occurs and I would think parents and students would benefit from knowing these findings. In the report, the journalists identified two different kinds of drinkers: the hard drinkers, and the casual drinkers. They found that the hard or heavy drinkers could be hazardous to themselves as well as others, but another interesting point they mentioned was the fact that casual, or light, drinkers are the ones to be most cautious of. According the report, light drinkers often have a night or two where they “let loose” or in other words, drink a lot more than they usually do. This causes a scare because some cases end up being fatal, such as the case mentioned before with the over-intoxicated 18 year old freshman. I thought their findings were pretty neat because most students at Penn State fall into one of those two categories, and upon listening to the report, the information presented would be an eye-opener.
At the end of the report, the overall conclusion drawn was that Penn State was in fact, the number one party school in the nation, and in being so, there were both negative and positive outcomes. The positive outcome was that the nearby beer and liquor businesses flourished, and the negative outcome was the outrageous behavior by some students, was caused by drinking too much alcohol. Both local business owners and party-goers were interviewed in the investigation, which ultimately helped the journalists come to their conclusion. One of the narrative techniques that I noticed the reports use was their organization, more specifically the “Arc” that we spoke about in class. There were scenes included in the investigation such as the bar scene, which had smooth transitions. Also, the reporters had background information and small anecdotes ever so often, so I was never lost at any point in the report.
Overall, I think these journalists did a pretty good job at putting everything together. I definitely learned a lot from listening to it; therefore I would say the report was very effective in captivating the audience and keeping their attention.

Bird by Bird

After completely finishing Bird by Bird, I came to really enjoy it. One aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was the fact that in the midst of all her advice and examples, there was always a life lesson that could be applied. However, when it comes to my writing I think the most useful advice that I gathered from the entire book was to listen to the characters in my head whenever I am writing a short story. I’ve always had difficulty developing characters in my head because I had a different mindset: I believed that I should create characters from scratch and they should act and do and say things a certain way. Anne Lamont disproved this idea in a great way for me. In her book, she explains that characters in your story are most often based off of people that you have met before, or noticed. She also explains that you should “squint” at your characters in your mind and try to listen to what their saying, how they are saying it, and jot it all down. I really liked the idea she posed about how “you are going to love some of your characters, because they are you or some facet of you.” Prior to reading this book, I never understood how phenomenal writers created these characters, but now I can say I understand.
Another part of Anne Lamont’s book that really stuck out to me was actually within the same chapter “Character” that I mentioned before. She explains that the characters that you grow to love in your story, wont have much of a story if you don’t let bad stuff happen to them. I think the reason why I agree with this idea so much is because it is completely true and relevant. In the real world, bad things do actually happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Therefore, without all this, our lives would all be boring and so will your story. In addition to Anne’s ideas and advice, the way she expresses it in the book makes it even easier to understand and relate to. She uses personal examples after every point she makes so the reader is more captivated and excited to read and learn more. For example, uses quotes that she has read or heard before and incorporates it into her book to make her own points more clear to the reader. In her book, she says “A man I know once said to me, ‘The evidence is in, and you are the verdict.’” She says this after saying how you have to “get to know your characters the best you can, let there be something at stake, and then let the chips fall where they may.” Anne continues to use this technique thorough the book and in my opinion makes the whole book flow together quite smoothly that it’s easy to understand.
Overall, I’m glad that I had the opportunity to read Bird by Bird. It was more helpful than I originally thought and know for a fact that I will actually use some of the advice she gives whenever I write.

Shirt-Worthy: David Giffels

When I read this memoir, it was really easy to summarize what the story was about. “Shirt-Worthy” from my understanding is a personal essay that shows how the author went from once having a great passion for owning a particular t-shirt (a Ramones band tee-shirt), to not having that desire for it as he got older and wiser. I feel like the author sort of takes his reader on a journey of how this particular t-shirt, or the idea of having the t-shirt, has reappeared in his life on more than one instance.
In my opinion, it wasn’t particularly clear what the main tension or conflict of the story was until I read it over a second time. In his story, the author explains how important it was to “earn” the right to buy the Ramones t-shirt, which essentially meant going to one of the band’s concerts and then buying one… and although he attended a couple shows, he still never felt he earned the right to wear one. This leads me to believe that the main conflict of the story was whether or not he should’ve bought a Ramones t-shirt.
After a while, the author says he simply began to accept the fact that he didn’t own a Ramones tee. He was actually comfortable with it, and he figured no one would even notice he didn’t have one since…he didn’t have one. Eventually, he explains how his son wanted one for his tenth birthday. Although it seems he was momentarily skeptical about it, he bought one anyway. His son ends up ripping it playing near the fence and he was really sad about that. He bought him a new Ramones tee, and at the very last sentence of the story the author says how he never threw the old tee away but instead wore it himself (it being an Adult Small and all). To me, this moment seems like the resolution of the story because in the end he actually ends up owning a Ramones t-shirt by a means he didn’t expect.
I think the author’s audience would generally be adults, ages 18 and up. I say this because most teenagers could relate to the Great significance of owning a rock band t-shirt. Also, parents could probably relate to this story because he makes a couple references to his children…and baby vomit. Switching gears, I really loved how the author jumped from one moment in time to another, and yet it all being so smooth. I thought that was a strong narrative technique he used. In addition to great transition and movement, I thought the author did a good job at “showing not telling”. The fact that he didn’t come right out and say the point/ purpose of the story, and I could still fully understand what it was, is pretty impressive. One aspect of the authors writing that I plan to use in my own memoir would be the almost comical undertone he has in “Shirt-Worthy”; having this made reading his work a lot easier and more enjoyable.