AustinCountry.com

Sometimes, I write things. Anything from short stories and poetry to research papers (while in college) and dramatic monologues. Instead of writing these items and never seeing them again, I thought I would post them on my webpage for all to enjoy! Exciting, huh? :-) So, here for your reading pleasure are a few of the various pieces I have written. Enjoy!

Creative Writings

NEW! Everyone's Leaving (2005)
This is a monologue that came from me just writing what I was feeling toward the end of my senior year of college. I'm still working on it, but I thought I would put it up for feedback's sake. Let me know what you think. I'm open for suggestions.

Research Papers

Theater Related

Romeo: An Insider's Perspective (2005)
In one of my last productions at Mississippi College, I had the wonderful opportunity to play Romeo in William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. This essay provides a character analysis of the role I played. The paper covers both character clues in the script and in directorial interpretation. Although this was a class assignment, it helped me greatly in developing Romeo for the production.

Media Related

The History of Public Broadcasting in the United States (2004)
In this paper, a detailed history of public broadcasting (radio and television) is outlined. The main focus of the paper, however, is the influence of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. This Act created the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB) and eventually National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

The Constitution in Conflict: Free Press v. Free Trial (2004)
Another requirement for the Media Law class for a lengthy research paper. In this paper, the seemingly contradicting First and Sixth Amendment are examined to see if the Freedom of the Press is in direct conflict with the Right to a Fair Trial. Landmark cases are used to discover the historical stance of the Supreme Court on this matter.

Discussions on the Bill of Rights (2004)
As part of a Media Law class, we were required to write essays on each of the Bill of Rights. I compiled all ten essays into this one huge paper. Each Amendment is discussed and then compared to the First Amendment. If the paper does not help any one writing such an essay, perhaps the reference links will.

The Quiz Show Scandal: A Nation Betrayed (2004)
The Quiz Show Scandals of the late 1950s is what inspired this paper (and the movie, of course). This paper details all of the events surrounding the scandal, including the rise of the television game show genre. I wrote this paper for a Mass Media Survey class.

The Day of Infamy: FDR's Declaration of War (2003)
During a public speaking course, we were "asked" to write a speech analysis on some historical oration. I chose Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech. It is rather long, but the paper details some important information regarding the speech, the setting, the audience, and Roosevelt himself.

Social/Psychological Related

Social Penetration: The Development of Interpersonal Relationship Among Roommates (2003)
This is an application of the Social Penetration theory to college roommates. The theory basically seeks to put a formula to the process of a relationship building. Basically, authors Taylor and Altman compared people to onions (much like Donkey in Shrek). Learning more about that person involves peeling away at the layers that compose all of us. The paper is quite long. I wrote it for a Communications Research class.

Newspaper/Journalism Class Articles

Culture, Crafts and Catfish (2004)
As a Journalism class assignment, we were to write a travel article. I chose my hometown of Belzoni as my focus. The Catfish Festival, to be more specific. The Festival is always fun, so hopefully I got that across.

I'm In With Outsourcing (2004)
This was another class assignment, but this time it was to write a humor article. I rather enjoyed this one. I got the idea after reading another humor columnist write about outsourcing his article. I just took it a step or five further.