The Internet: How It’s Helping Me Pass English.

Yes, mother, all that time I spend online is helping me with my English. Science and maths are my strong points, but English bores me to the state of denial. But this is where you guys come in…

Blogs
Blogs help me with my informative writing, purposeful writing and explaining; my weakest points in the lesson. And I think I’ve grown, one of my first blog entries was this:

“After meeting them, i really want them to go far. They weren't arrogant, they we're mean, they were nice. Sadly the HMV security tried to hurry you on, but the band made the most of the short 2 minutes. None of them seemed to care how many people wanted to see them, or what they had to sign, they just looked like they were loving every minute�.- Elliot Minor: Awesome!!!!

From a blog about when I met Elliot Minor. Reading that back there are so many amendments I could make, now beneath is an extract from a recent blog about an Elliot Minor concert:

“Elliot Minor are seen as ‘tame rock’, but tame wasn’t the word to describe the mosh pit. I was about 3 rows back from the front when they started, and soon I was pressed up against the barrier. I have bruises and I’m sore but it was worth it. The crowd were one person, moving as if we were connected� – Elliot Minor: Leeds Met Uni 27th Oct 2007.

I see a vast improvement within my writing style and believe my flair is starting to leak from the creative writing to the more educational topics and stories. Sure, neither extract is perfect, but I plan to keep posting blogs and keep trying to improve my style.

Articles
I submitted an article to Mibba a few days ago, it was rather standard and a little less than what I’m capable of, so you can imagine my surprise when it was published. Now, writing this article and reading the guidelines helped me with my English exam on Tuesday, when I had to write a magazine article, thinking of the purpose, audience and format.

“Meanwhile, Mr Dogan, the kebab shop manager, maintains the story that he was suffering from clinical depression at the time of the murder. Denying his wife’s murder in December of 2005 on the grounds of diminished responsibility�. – Wife Murdered Following Online Affair.

This small trial item, posted here was based on a murder, supposedly caused by an online affair, quite different from the smoking article that had to be constructed in 45 minutes, but in all honesty, it helped me so much.

Stories
Some of you may remember this story, below, off old GSB. It’s an extract from a one part, that was later submitted for my creative writing assignment at school,

“Water dripped from every surface in the frost room, leaving open the window was not her best idea. Cold breezes ran through her veins among blood which was soon to be lost. Clouds of breath still blew out from her frail body, distilling into the icy room. With each one life left her body, life she could never claim back�–Eyeliner Tears

That used to be the extent I could write to, an odd good paragraph in a sea of disappointment, but after writing over 10 stories I feel I’m improving. Green Day ‘fan fics’ were never something I was good at, I absolutely, for lack of a better word, sucked. But then I got a new muse: Elliot Minor. After meeting them [3 times to date] and watching all their webisodes, I became intrigued with the boys behind the music. Semi-knowing them, I was inspired to write, the first story was a simple band fun thing, based on a cross breed between webisodes and experiences, but then it’s evolved.

I wanted to try something different. I could write the simple story, but themes and plot lines were lacking, which is when I started ‘Harry Cotter And The Philosopher’s Brothel’. Originally a spoof to spite my sister, it became my attempt at following a plot, and an attempt at comedy, which seems to work, looking at some of the comments it has received.

But, I still yearned to write more Elliot Minor. My one shot stories of songs weren’t large enough to have a plot line; which was still my area to work on, so after inspiration from ‘Stay Alive’ and a story with Steph, I began to create a horror story, where I found my passion…I just hope this comes up on tomorrow’s descriptive exam. You see, now I feel like I’ve advanced from the quote above to this, one of my proudest pieces:

“If they had dared to enter the red mess they would have seen the pale body of their friend, lips of a purple tinge, skin of yellow. Below his torso loose skin flapped down, drips of blood occasionally falling. The intestines were held in place by the large fan that had dug itself into the ground after severing the guitarist in half. To the other side it was identical, the skin, the blood, the gore; except this side seemed out of place, almost like the force had made it spasm slightly, causing it now to rest at a weird angle. The blood had slowly began to spread throughout the night, with the original splatter covering nearby tables, chairs and even hitting the fridge which had been left open throughout the night. Puddles had scattered round the room, some dispersing into the doorway, being soaked up by the hall carpet, turning the once neutral fibres into a source of brown oxidised blood. Not a sight for the faint hearted�. – Stay Alive

I know it’s not brilliant, but I like it and feel it shows my progress. I’m sticking to a plot [25 parts and now has a 6 part unfinished sequel] and exploring emotions, guess we’ll just have to see how it goes.

But it’s not just my stories that help me; other people’s do. I’ve spotted mistakes within stories, then spotted them within my own and made amendments.

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See, all this time online IS helping me. Just…okay…maybe not all the time, but when I’m doing this kind of stuff. 6 months till my actual exams, I just hope I write enough articles, blog enough and create more stories to prepare me.