The difference between the two different styles of writing depends on the purpose and audience of the different pieces of work. Journalistic is style of writing that is much more targeted to the general public with the main purpose of informing people know of what is going on in the world or telling certain specific stories of people or events in the most direct way possible providing raw information. This allows the reader to intimate details, and the writer or reporter being present in the story to describe it to the reader almost inviting him into the scene. This allows the reader to feel really close to what is happening with further detail being given out through the use of fragments for example to note of the smaller details of characters such as movements, the way they say certain things and so on. Trying to make connections to bigger problems or global issues, is also usually the aim of pieces of work that use this style of writing.

Academic writing has the same purpose of sharing information, however, the information that is shared, itself has a purpose that goes deeper than just informing people about something. While journalistic writing is found in news papers and news outlets, Academic writing is more focused in the sciences, investigations, experiments and theories need to be shared in complete detail for other’s to use this information. The room for any emotion,opinion or bias is not present. The use of formal language is important to avoid confusions.

Academic style is much more formal and structured, with paragraphs and supporting sentences. In journalism, a paragraph is often only one sentence this is to keep the paragraph from looking too long when written in column style for newspapers, which is unattractive to readers.

I can make connection to TOK. One of my class mates Federico had his practice presentation about the different methods of communication and what are most effective in the general public. One of his claims was how journalistic style of writing probably created emotions to this story’s being reported he also discussed how the methodology of reporters is better for the general audience.Lastly he ended with discussing a possible link between shared and personal knowledge which he made in the presentation which would be important in the discussion between the two writing styles.

Guidlines:

What can you tell me about this set of BOW? Give me a summary of this BOW. What is its PURPOSE, AUDIENCE, CONTEXT? 

The following BOW is somewhat new and very different from the previous ones we’ve taken so far. However, I seem to enjoy this BOW more than others. It tends to be simple and organized, this is because it has somewhat limited space and does not want to fill the paper with information. It’s much more visual and easier to understand, it tends to better explain its points. This BOW is one that tends to focus on the main information and rather does not include anything it does not need to have, this where it differs most when compared to previous bodies of work we’ve taken. It includes clear bullet points, allowing readers to understand the purpose much faster making it efficient. When discussing the following BOW that is all subjected to COVID-19 and public health this is a great example. The BOW wastes no space providing the necessary information about the pandemic. Tons of images can be seen to help grab readers’ attention and make the message easier to comprehend. In this case, this BOW would have the purpose of informing everyone on how to avoid the COVID-19 through multiple precautions and stay healthy during this global pandemic. Its target audience would be everyone in this case as the virus has now spread across 140+ countries and there at least 200,000+ cases worldwide. This BOW would be some of the most effective at the moment in regard to informing the public. During a pandemic people tend to be nervous and afraid, watching the news or reading articles contains a bit too much unnecessary information that might make one feel worst, a simple infographic containing a summary of what to do with animations on how to do it would be more effective in reaching some people at a time like this. 

Today we compared academic writing we usually see to the Journalistic writing in TILOHL. I had a document where I had to : consider Audience, Purpose, Context of both texts and how they are similar. I then had to write my own. We then got a chance to practice writing lead paragraphs in the form of Journalistic writing similar to the one in TILOHL. Below is my lead paragraph on school campus closure.

The following Corona virus pandemic has officially hit Sub-saharan Africa. The International School of Luanda has officially announced that they will be closing down the starting on Wednesday due to fears over the COVID-19. There have been no reported cases in Angola, however, this is a precaution that was voted on by the school board, this is in order to ensure the safety of the students, staff, and teachers at LIS. Regarding studying, students will be using google classrooms and google meets in order to complete their work’s when it comes to tests and assessments that will be halted for now. Until further notice the school is closed indefinitely and there is no information about whether the campus will go on this year or the next. One of the main concerns is how will the DP students complete the final exams in may.

I found this to be quite fun and interesting as it is what I mostly read everyday when I go on CNN or BBC for news, this new text type is effective in reaching your audience, as it provides the necessary information directly without any fillers,symbols or themes. However since it is direct it does lack creativity making it a bit dull and not preferred by many people

Below is my non-fiction creative writing paragraph on school campus closure.

Regarding school closure at first, as I saw other schools around the world closing, I thought school closure would be a great thing since it would be help relive my stress and I believed it would mean that I would have more time to ultimately complete certain IA’s and begin writing my EE which would help me cope with my anxiety and nervousness. I imagined I could lay back in my cozy bed as I sat in a freezing room, being able to get some rest and cool off from the horrible DP. The main struggle I dealt with was was waking up early with bags under my eyes and not having enough energy to complete my homework and even have to resist falling asleep in classes. Which is why the first thoughout that flew across my mind was the amount of sleep i’d get, and how lazy I would become. The closest thing to sport’s or any movement I will be doing is from my bed to my desk, to the bathroom, to the kitchen and back. However, I also hoped this day wouldn’t come, as going to school is part of my daily routine and at this point im cherrishing the schools days, because 2 years from now im gonna be a adult in college and have my own responsibilities which doesn’t sound fun. I enjoy going to school and seeing my friends who have become my primary source for laughter and joy. We were starting new topics in certain classes that I was very interested in and have been waiting all year for. In economics, we began with macroeconomics which is one of the fields I enjoy the most. I thought of how classes would become virtual which isn’t very well for me since I enjoy teachers’ engagement’s and when it comes to learning I  surprisingly prefer paper and pen over my laptop. My most prominent concern with online learning is my concentration skills. During classes, I tend to lose concentration quite regularly but the teacher is normally there to help keep me on course. However, if I were to study on my own there would be no one to control me i’d have 5 minute breaks every 20 minutes. This was also one of the benefits of virtual learning, as I sit isolated it will help me become more responsible especially as I am approaching college and adulthood shortly, where no one will be there to help me but myself. Overall I was more anxious than hopeful over campus closure

Now that school campus has closed down. The first day was a bit challenging, regardless I was able to get up and treat my day in my office as if it was day 5 or 6 in school. However, I do shift everything by an hour so unless I have a google meet I would wake up at 9, In order to get as much rest as I can and obtain that energy to use for the rest of the day. The third day of virtual learning I don’t find anything difficult their plenty of sources online for everything, and if I’m struggling with anything and I could always ask my teachers. Regarding my work I’m feeling comfortable and convenient being able to complete everything so far. I am reminiscing the excitement of being in class and experience of engaging with one another rather than being behind a screen, wearied with no social engagement. The throughout of knowing we may not return to school until august is terrifying for me and the school not giving a date for a possible re-opening of the campus is disturbing since it validates that.

During one of our classes we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Srivastava as she visited us and shared her experience and connections to the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”

She had a presentation about her experience with HeLa cells telling us mostly what makes them great, why they are so important and the role it has in every researcher’s life and how she would sit and work with HeLa cells all day. This presentation was able to personally help me realize the reality of the of the book through her experiences.

She went on to explain how at first she would use HeLa cells in testing all day without really knowing about their origin and Henriettas saddening story. She told us how she heard of the book, got hold of it and eventually was able to read and find out about the cells that she would practice with on a daily basis. She talked about how the book highlighted the importance of the cells and how interesting it was for people that are actually using these cells on a daily basis to find out the origins and history of where such an important “tool” in their field came from.

During our class the other day we looked at the structure of the book that we have been reading. We have found that there are four main narrative/points of views within the book which are the story of Henrietta Lacks the HeLa cells, Deborah Lacks’ journey and Rebeca Skloot’s experience finding the truth and telling the story.

We were in our reading groups when we had to get a cardboard and post it notes, and assign each color to a POV/Narrative. Then we had to break down the book by chapters and what narrative/POV was each chapter while summarizing it on the post it note then sticking it on the cardboard as you can see.

Rebeca Skloot chooses to mix these POV’s/Narrative as it helps the reader to better understand her quest to finding the truth. This mixture allows the reader to understand the difficulty for Rebeca Skloot to obtain information through old documents or meeting with Henriettas family members, in order to get to the bottom and share the truth. The reader gets a sense of how each narrative was being discovered and how the author started adding the different pieces together as she moved along in order to give us Henriettas Story. The author also tends to switch narratives throughout the story to keep a balance, as some chapters are very long and go into detail about cell theory and biology, some readers might become uninterested or bored of the book. Therefore Rebecca is able to switch to her perspective and Deborah’s.

I can see a possible TOK connection.In the form of the following question. “To what extent can using different narratives help the author convey his point” or “To what extent can using different narratives affect the readers” The WOK used to explore this question would Reason and Language.

Personally, I believe that this way of story telling is very interesting and keeps the reader hooked to the story. It could get a bit confusing at times for the reader, however when telling a story using different POV’s/Narratives helps enhances and add detail to the story, as the reader gets to see a bigger picture. I am able to understand the author’s choice and intention in doing this.

Today we discussed the two different structures for our IO.

The Handmaid’s Tale we have read this book twice now and are moving on to another book, before we move on i would like to share my perspective on the book. When it comes to reading I usually tend to enjoy read science-fiction or history books, The handmaid’s tale was an exception. The book was able to show me a possible future, where all these bizarre events could have happened or maybe even could one day happen. A lot of the inequality in the book can be seen daily, women still suffer today throughout various countries around the world with issues like oppression, rape, sexual harassment, sexism, objectification and importantly inequality. The way Moira Donegan was able to address these problems through the use of symbolism had me astonished. At various time throughout the book I was very lost and/or confused as to why she would use “flowers, eggs and colors” so many times. As my group and I analyzed these symbols and their meanings I began to have a much deeper understanding of the book. I come from a place where inequality is seen as a normal thing due to religion and culture. However I am part of most people that believe in change and the events that took place in The Handmaid’s Tale helped me have a stronger approach towards the topic of gender equality not just back home but elsewhere.  As Atwood’s view of a dark dystopian society left me depressed, confused and ultimately bored most times it was still able to cover major issues that could’ve happened if it wasn’t for feminist movements and beliefs which I feel like is one of the major issues that should not even exist or be debatable in the 21st century.

Theory of Knowledge is a IB only subject that explores how knowledge is created and the different knowledge systems that humans have adopted. This is one of three cores in the IB however this core is a class we take. I really enjoy the classes as it has many elements of philosophy which is one of my favorite topics, I used to study before I came to LIS. I read books in arabic of famous philosophers in history including Socrates, Karl marx and many arabic philosophers.

We have read multiple Moira Donegan articles in class, I used one of those articles for my paper 1 #2 practice. As I was writing it in class and evaluating the stylistic choices used throughout the article a TOK question popped in to my head. I don’t know how good of question this might be but I had a discussion with Mr.Todd and he discussed how it could be used in a presentation. The question was “To what extent can a authors use of stylistic choices persuade the reader”. The article would be a real life situation as Moira Donegan uses stylistic choices like structure, irony, word choice, and tone to exploit emotion, set the attitude and so on in order to persuade her readers to whatever her point is, in the article it would be the oppression of women’s rights through the granting of fetal rights.

Over the December break, we had to read the book: “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, which was written by Rebecca Skloot (a journalist) and published on February 2, 2010. This book revolves around the story of a african american woman, who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, but before she died her cancerous cells became the first immortal human cell line, called HeLa cells. She was a typical African Americans in 40-50s in America, she had 5 children and worked on a farm . The book itself I would say I enjoyed more than the handmaid’s tale due to being able to understand it better. The book was a autobiography about somebody who’s cells shaped the world of medicine and helped people make millions while her family never knew about it. The book itself includes a lot of science; biology explaining Henrietta’s cancer and the procedures she would go through and of course her cells and how they were so influential. I personally enjoyed some of the biology included in the book as I could make some connections and understand what was happening to some degree because of my Bio HL class, but I feel like for other this got them a bit bored.What I liked most was how the book tackles ethical issues of race and class in the field of medical research, by doing this it allows the reader to understand how unacceptable and wrong this case was, since during the 40s-50s African-Americans did not enjoy the same freedoms as their white counterparts, segregation was still present in america and sadly so was racism. The author was able to switch from different point of views throughout the story and timelines as she would talk about henrietta then henritta’s daughter, this allowed the reader to comprehend the story better and showcase how tough it was for her to collect all this information highlighting how no one knew anything about Henrietta but everyone knew about her cells.

We were supposed to have a paper 1 practice #2 before the december break but it got rescheduled to after the break. I took this time to plan for the second practice of a paper one essay which was meant to be a commentary over one of the works written by Moira Donegan a columnist for the guardian who also is a feminist. We have read 6 of her articles in class, which all discuss women’s rights more importantly how they are violated and oppressed she demonstrates this through of sexual assault and laws regarding abortion.

We had to choose one of the articles we had read in class and use it for the essay writing. I choose the article that discussed the passing of fetus rights in alabama and how fetesus were now considered real people. This article discussed how the passing of these laws granting fetuses rights, lead to the oppression of women’s rights. Moira was able to use a great example for proof. She introduced a case where a pregnant women got shot causing the baby to die which then lead to her being charged with manslaughter. This example set a great tone, especially how it was the first section in the article. task was to examine how effective Moira was with the use formal and stylistic techniques to fulfill her purpose. The structure of this article seemed confusing at first and I wasn’t sure what formal techniques she had used and more importantly how to organise my 3 points in an essay. I eventually decided what my 3 points were and in what order I can organise them as I was going to separate my points based on the different sections of the article. This was a great idea because the quotes for each point I would use as evidence were in the same order as the my structure. This helped me focus on the main points of each section and how Moira used different various devices. The way that Moira had structured her essay was very convenient for the structure I was going to write my paper 1 #2 in.

After practicing with my 3 desired points which were structure,tone and irony I noticed how I could break down one of my points into 2 points and that was tone. I broke down tone into word choice and tone. I decided that I was gonna discuss how she used word choice to set the tone of the article and thus showing her emotions/attitudes towards the laws being passed but she was using word choice to also exploit and trigger the audiences emotions throughout the article. So I had 4 body paragraphs, my irony point wasn’t very well supported due to me rushing since i had no time left and the lack of evidence of quotes.

Regardless I believe the essay went well I was able to finish during class time (thanks to Mrs.Leong allowing us to write our introduction´s the last class) . The only thing I need to think about for next time is to be a lot more organized with my points and not too repetitive. I was able to explain to what extent Moira used her different formal devices/techniques and their effect on her readers.