Benny+H.

Click here to be taken to a separate page with my final portfolio.
 * __English 103 Final Portfolio__**

**__The //Real// Cost of College Textbooks (Rough Draft)__** Pain, anguish, distress, anxiety and grief: these are all emotions that most college students feel when it comes time to purchase their class textbooks for the semester. We get online, look up the required text and materials, and then usually head for the university bookstore to begin price shopping. Now the savvy student won’t stop there, the smart textbook shopper simply takes down the ISBN number, the unique identifying number given to every book registered with the U.S. ISBN Agency, and starts checking other sources for textbook purchase or rental. There are several online sites for purchasing books either first or second hand. Amazon.com is a popular choice among students, but one of my favorites is half.com, a subsidiary website of ebay.com, which allows students to post their books for sale based on the ISBN number so that the purchaser knows exactly what book they are getting. It also allows them to rate the textbook based on it’s condition so they can set an appropriate price for the book, and the purchaser can choose what condition they would like to pay for. I like this website because I am not too particular about cosmetic appearance so long as I can read the text. Some of the books I buy wouldn’t be accepted at bookstores to be purchased and sold as used. A few other options are places like Chegg.com that allows for textbook rental, either for a semester or for academic year. There’s always Ebay too, and if you’re lucky enough as we students at Ball State are, you have other bookstores besides the University to choose from, like TIS and CBX. All of these options give students the opportunity to shop the competition and see where they can find the best deal for their textbooks. Even with all the competition, it still seems like the cost of college textbooks are still so expensive, such a large percentage of college cost, and are steadily increasing over time. With increases in technology, the ability to more easily edit and print text, and the increased use in electronic textbooks, why is the price increasing so drastically for these texts? According to a Government Accountability study, as referenced in an article written by Susan Kinze from the Washington Post (Kinzie, 2006), the cost of college textbooks have increased at double the rate of inflation for the past two decades. Twice an academic year on average, though it can be more for the student who attends classes year-round, students are faced with the question over and over again: How am I to pay for these text books that are required for my classes? Some are fortunate enough to have funds set aside for them to pay for college costs, and some have worked very hard to have some of these expenses off-set by grants and scholarships they were awarded, but of course there is still a price to be paid for those in the time it takes to complete the requirements set forth to be awarded such a scholarship or grant. In most cases, grants and scholarships wouldn’t cover textbook purchases unless specifically designed for such a cost or the student has earned scholarships and/or grants that exceed the cost of attendance and have those funds available to apply towards textbook purchase. For the average student, however, the choices are usually limited when it comes to paying for college text: either they must find a way to borrow money in the form of student loans in excess of the university’s tuition, fees, and room and board where it applies, or come up with the funds on their own, having to budget for as much as a month or more of their regular salary. With eighty percent of four-year college students graduating with an average of more than $36,000 of student loan debt (Weil, 2010), it would stand to reason that most are not looking to add to it with the cost of textbooks. So let’s take a look at my college textbook cost this semester to use as an example: This semester alone, if I had simply purchased all new books from the campus bookstore, as the University and the publishers would prefer me to, and taken the seemingly easier road and just borrowed more student loan money that I had available, my total book cost for just the minimum requirement, not the extras bundled together that can be purchased, would have amassed a total of $498.40. Considering the cost of attendance for the semester is approximately $4,484, that is more than 11% of the cost of attendance, and if I were to borrow the money would contribute as 10% of the approximate $4982.40 borrowed to attend the university classes for the semester. These estimates don’t factor in any other cost other than the tuition and fees required by the university and the cost of the textbooks. Many students also have to take into consideration things like the cost of room and board and other fees associated. Since I live on my own in an apartment, I pay for my rent and other expenses out of pocket with my regular wages. Now, I didn’t spend almost $500 on textbooks this semester. Being the skillful, savvy textbook shopper I am, I managed to scour the web and sources to find my textbooks in a variety of locations. I ended up purchasing my books for around $220.00 for all my classes. Only one of these books were new, and that happened to be the one text that I ended up renting from the University Bookstore, not purchasing. I didn’t really have a choice though, since it was a new edition of the book that was required, meaning there were no used copies available, one of the ways that publishers keep driving up the cost of books, which will be discussed later. My books had to be purchased from four different locations to get the best price possible. Two were purchased from Chegg.com, a textbook rental site, one of which I do have to return at the end of the semester, and the other that in such bad shape that it was only sold to me, because they won’t take it back after this distribution. Others came from half.com, purchased from other students, and also one from Ebay, a novel that was widely available in multiple locations. Readers of this might look at $220 and say “that’s not a bad price to pay for those books,” and I would tend to agree, but I would remind the reader that to reduce the cost to that amount it required an investment of about ten hours of my time, searching the web, checking prices, comparing prices, following up with online users on places like half.com and Ebay to ensure that my purchase was the right copy and version before I submitted for payment. The alternative that I described earlier would have likely taken only a half an hour or so to gather the same text. So what is the driving force behind the skyrocketing cost of college textbooks? Where is the justification in these price hikes that we have seen over the last several years? As it was stated earlier, textbook prices have risen nearly double the rate of inflation in past years. Where is the reasoning behind that? Information available states that it’s because everyone else (except for the student) involved in the book sale process has an incentive to keep it this way (Applebaum, 2010). Why? Because the publishers know that these texts are a requirement for classes and as such, most students will find a way to pay for them. By paying royalties to professors agree to use the text in class and to bookstores who agree to sell the text exclusively, the publisher can ensure their profits on the sale, while also on paper showing a narrow profit margin or loss because of these royalties that are being paid. With these contracts that university bookstores have with publishers, they are often also likely to sell the bundled versions of books with study guides and CD-ROMs (Koch, 2010) that the publisher has had little cost to produce and include, but attaches a hefty price increase with it, and leaving the student no choice but to purchase the bundle and materials that he or she may not have needed. Others contribute the high cost to things like copyrights: monies that have to be paid to every author in the text; lack of used textbooks: publishers make no money when the market is flooded with used textbooks. As a result, they often release new editions with minimal changes to make the old versions obsolete; and the fact that professors are often oblivious to the cost of the text because if they choose to adopt the text, they are usually given a free copy of the teacher’s text (Grove, 2010). Citing other information though, we can’t point the finger of blame at the authors. According to Dr. Janet Belsky of Middle Tennessee State University, textbook authors make less than minimum wage hour-for-hour when writing a college text, only making roughly 15% of the wholesale price of the book when it’s sold as new (Rollins, 2008). So with seemingly no alternatives, most students look at the price as a sacrifice they will have to make if they wish to succeed. In this mindset, they see the cost of the book justified, because they have no basis for comparison. But finally we are beginning to see just that alternative we have been wanting. In recent years, new startup companies have been emerging to combat the ever-increasing cost of textbooks. These companies provide texts to students at little or even no cost when using the online module, and when compared to the mainstream text is just as good of quality as stated by Professor Dennis Passovoy of the University of Texas’ McComb School of Business (Tozzi, 2010). Startups like the Flat World Knowledge spoken about in Tozzi’s article are giving students the opportunity to purchase the text in multiple formats: PDF, audiobook, or print, but also making some available online for free. Doing such, they are beginning to drive down the prices in some markets they serve on a competitive basis, and according to the article, are seeing a dramatic increase in their popularity and use. While some might try to justify the costs of these texts by comparing to the average student’s mobile phone bill or the amount a student might pay for a new iPod, it seems they fail to see the issue that plagues most students: that this is at least a twice-an-academic-year cost. Using these examples one can debunk the justification for cost: most student’s cell phone bills are paid by their parents as an add-on line to their family share plans, reducing the overall cost of the individual line and also acting as an alternative to a land line. People have had phones for a century now, including students. The difference is now that so many have dropped the landline and moved exclusively to mobile, therefore this cost should not be used for comparison. Secondly, yes, an iPod may cost a student around $400, but it is a product that is designed to last for a length of time, and doesn’t have to be purchased twice a year like books. If the device were to last a full two calendar years, four-semester cost would be $100 each semester. Most iPods would last far longer than that. I find the new startup companies encouraging, and only hope the alternative will be available sometime before I graduate myself. I find complete justification in their rapid and immense growth, because they are providing a product of equal quality at a lesser price and profiting from their endeavor. Students and university faculty are beginning to take notice and finally realizing that the information being given to them by these major publishers is in fact, untrue, that there is an alternative, and perhaps if they aren’t willing to change their ways they may fall by the wayside, opening up a whole new kind of textbook market to students.

=Works Cited= Weil, E. (2010, July 29). //How Students Really Buy Textbooks.// Retrieved October 29, 2010, from NewYorkTimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/07/25/the-real-cost-of-college-textbooks/how-students-really-buy-textbooks Applebaum, R. (2010, July 29). //Little Incentive to Control Cost.// Retrieved October 29, 2010, from NYTimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/07/25/the-real-cost-of-college-textbooks/there-is-little-incentive-to-control-textbook-costs Grove, A. (2010). //Why Do College Books Cost So Much?// Retrieved October 29, 2010, from About.com: http://collegeapps.about.com/od/payingforcollege/f/college-books-cost.htm Kinzie, S. (2006, January 23). //Swelling Texbook Costs Have Students Saying 'Pass'.// Retrieved October 29, 2010, from WashingtonPost.com: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012201290.html Koch, J. (2010, June 29). //Like the Pharmaceutical Market.// Retrieved October 29, 2010, from NYTimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/07/25/the-real-cost-of-college-textbooks/how-colleges-profit-from-high-textbook-prices Rollins, L. (2008, September 21). //Rising Cost of College Textbooks: High Book Prices Hurt Students and Authors, but Benefit Sellers.// Retrieved October 29, 2010, from Suite101.com: http://www.suite101.com/content/throwing-the-book-at-high-textbook-prices-a69839 Tozzi, J. (2010, 09 27). Online Startups Target College Book Costs. //Bloomberg Businessweek// (4197). (D. a. Rocks, Ed.) USA.

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Making an Argument
1. I definitely was impacted heavily by the source that I personally found, entitled “Online Startups Target College Book Costs” by John Tozzi. It emphasizes the fact that it is possible to create legitimate, comprehensive text without the sky-high cost. Also, the topic of students forgoing the purchase of textbooks because they cannot afford them heavily affected me, because I can personally relate to the issue, having skipped over a book before, and it did have a negative impact on my overall grade. 2. So far the sources we have pulled have only compounded the issue at hand. College textbook prices are in most cases outrageously priced. There are some arguments towards the reasons for the cost in our first source from the New York Times online article and opinion page “The Real Cost of College Textbooks,” the case presented is that the publishers agreed to the legislation put forth by our elected representatives, and in another argument, that college students spend more on their monthly cell phone bills. Mostly though, we have information that backs our feelings that college textbooks are overpriced. 3. The perspective that there are opposing views to this issue did somewhat throw me off. I expected that only those who are profiteering from these overpriced textbooks would have a different opinions on the pricing of books, but it seems that there are other facets of people, who in my opinion come from or are in situations of privilege and don’t understand the pain and frustration of having such an expense twice a year. 4. I will certainly take the information I have and stake my argument despite the opposition. I hope to debunk this idea that college textbook cost and continuing increase is necessary. I intend to show with the resources that I have that publishers and printers are taking advantage of the growing number of students in this country and their desperation to make a better life for themselves, only to be faced with increasing cost of attendance, including this unnecessary hike in textbook prices.

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__Examples of using sources:__
Radiohead Tip Jar example: 1. Author cites newspaper editorials, blogs, etc. to emphasize the magnitude of the issue and Radiohead's actions, and to show that she has done her research to know that the issue is larger than just her. 2. Author cites Greg Kot's observations in the book or article "Ripped" which is evidence to the change in music in the digital music revolution. 3. Author cites personal quotes from other artists, giving credibility to the subject from others in the same field.

Prision Privatization example: 1. Author cites very specific articles and reference materials like an author named Young, the date and page it can be found on so the reader can verify the information for themselves 2. Author cites very specific percentages and numbers of control for the CCA to back up his/her claim for the privatization of prisons. 3. Author cites other researchers of the issue like Geoffrey Segal of The Reason Foundation to alert the reader that he/she is not the only concerned person of the isse, and also to provide an expert reference to the subject.

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Open Letter Rough Draft
A letter to Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei:

I’d like to start by asking you how much value you put on life. Please really consider this, I’m not just asking in general, I’m asking you to evaluate the value you put on your own life, the life of your family members: your brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, even your own parents. Since I imagine neither of you have children yourselves, you cannot at this point in your lives imagine the pain that comes with losing a child, but I hope you can at least compare somewhat with your other family members. Now I ask you, what kind of value do you put on the life of your fellow man? Is the life of someone you don’t really know completely dispensable?

A little background about me: I was born and raised in rural Midwest Indiana, right in the middle of the bible belt, in a traditionally conservative state; I even grew up in a Quaker Church. I had every reason to stay in the closet. I was taught to be ashamed of who I was; not directly, but indirectly, from the sermons I heard, lessons learned, subliminal messages delivered. It was drilled into me that being gay was wrong. It’s a common problem in the midwest, as much as it is commonly seen in the south. I can remember a guy from school whose uncle hanged himself for the torture he received from people for being gay. I also remember the kid who ran away from home for the constant torment he had to deal with. To the best of my knowledge, no one has heard from him, not even his parents, in about ten years. I of course never told anyone, not even my best friend.

So when I was finally free of it all, I left Indiana and headed for New York, the land of tolerance as so many immigrants through Ellis Island came to know it. Unlike others, I didn’t just leave with the idea that I’d make it big or something and find myself a year later struggling to make rent in a cruddy, run-down apartment somewhere in the Bronx, I enrolled in university. Moving to New York was the best thing that could have happened, because it only took a few weeks to realize I was in a place where being who I am was not only accepted, but in many places embraced. I came out within the first few weeks of moving, to open arms from many, and very, very little opposition.

That is why I was so disheartened to hear this story on the television the other day. I know Rutgers isn’t New York, but it’s damn close enough. After all, the bridge that Tyler killed himself on connects New Jersey to Upper Manhattan. The fact that Tyler felt so alienated in a place where he had so many opportunities for outlet means that what you did must have truly hurt him. Imagine, and I mean //really// think about being in a position where you feel like the only way to squelch the pain of being different, being outcast is to end your own life. Consider the amount of hurt, anguish, and anger he must have felt to come to such a devastating conclusion.

I am sorry if this feels like an attack, I don’t intend on it being one. I really just want you to think about the damage you have caused and take responsibility for it. The law may not have caught up with the crime you have committed, but it is a crime none the less. Be the adults you are and take full responsibility for the actions you have taken. You may not have pulled the trigger, but you most certainly loaded the ammunition.

Finally, I don’t feel like others that you should never have a life of your own, even though you did cause someone to take their own. I want you to pay for your mistakes, and then move on with your life. Have children, and teach them what you have learned from your mistakes. Teach them love, acceptance, and the value of human life.

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Memoir Reflection
1. What called me to write this memoir, to be perfectly honest is the fact that it was an assignment. Now, that is not to say that I didn’t enjoy writing the story, nor does it mean that it isn’t a story that I tell on a regular basis anyway. I’ve just never had the inclination to actually write it down and analyze how it’s told like I did with this assignment. What I will say is that it did spark me to think more deeply and recall more specific details that I normally give when telling the story audibly. It also pushed me to recall the moment with others involved, my grandma and Tiffany. It’s much different writing the story than telling it audibly, because I can keep my audience entertained audibly with non-verbal communications (gestures, laughing, etc.).

2. Planning for this writing was fairly easy. I didn’t need a lot of organizing of ideas and whatnot; I have told the story many times. I simply started with the rough draft and wrote down my story as I remember it, as I tell it to others. Once I had finished the rough draft, I took a day or so to think about details I may have missed, or what I might be able to do provide additional entertainment on my story. I then returned to re-work the draft, reviewing tenses and making sure the verbs agree, and added plenty of more description to paint a more visual picture, hopefully identical to the one I try and paint when telling the story in person. In short, I did little or no planning, except what I did mentally, before going straight into the drafting process.

3. As I said before, I essentially went straight into the drafting process. The first draft was extremely rough, very basic, almost like a transcript of listening to someone’s personal conversation, incomplete sentences, interjections, etc. I then went back on multiple occasions and revised it to a final piece that I feel is narrative in nature, but that the reader feels like they are having a conversation with me, the writer.

4. I made revisions every step of the way, from the first modification of the rough draft to the final piece. I even made revisions when I thought I had the final product and was ready to turn it in! Just before leaving for class, I noticed some information I could add and modify, some other information to re-arrange to make more sense, I rushed to my computer, made the adjustments, printed another copy and then dashed for class.

5. Yes, I did read and edit the final form, several times. I must have printed the pages three or four times, because every time I thought I had a finished product, I would see something in print that I had missed when looking on screen.

Finally, I feel that in the case of this story, I didn’t have much planning to do, I was extremely familiar with the information described and have had a plan in mind for it since before the project began. Other projects, I agree, would take more pre-planning. In this case however, I think my writing practices was right on the money. ===

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by Benny
Most of my childhood memories revolve around either time spent with my cousins, or time spent with my siblings, either of which usually involves getting into trouble. I was a young kid, who grew up on a farm, in a time where parents didn’t have to be concerned as much with their kids being outside alone. When I was growing up, when mom, grandma, or whoever was in charge needed a break from ornery kids, the first thing they did was send us outside. Needless to say, without supervision, we tended to find ways, without realizing it, to get into trouble.

Take two to three parts ornery, a dash of mischief, and a seemingly endless amount of space and terrain to roam, and you have a recipe for disaster. The earliest of my memories begin with my cousin Tiffany, who is only six months older than me. When we were very young, we were both “only” children, and even when Tyler, her younger brother was born, he couldn’t partake in the high jinks for several years to come. The greatest part was that we both spent lots of time at our grandparents together, and for a certain length of time, how long I can’t remember, Tiffany also stayed at our house while her mom was working. Needless to say we had hours upon hours to find ourselves in a number of troublesome situations.

One particular time I can remember, vividly as any memory I’ve had in my life, when Tiffany and I were at our grandparent’s farm. I seem to remember it being a fairly warm spring Saturday afternoon; I’d say late April or early May. I can remember wearing my jeans and a windbreaker just for the little chill that was in the air. Tiffany and I had been playing outside in our playhouse, which was actually a hog hutch that wasn’t in use by my grandfather, so it was out by the back fence and our favorite tree. We were fashioning yet another alarm system for our playhouse, which consisted of using bailer twine tied between the branches of the trees on either side of the playhouse and strung with anything we could find that would make noise, usually empty soda cans and broken machine parts that had been thrown out. For some odd reason, we felt a sincere need to defend this playhouse from some unknown outside intruders, which never seemed to materialize and set off our elaborate alarm systems. In addition to the alarm systems, we also made inventions for moving things up and down from the playhouse, again mostly made of twine over branches used as pulleys.

Eventually we tired of stringing tin cans and hauling up buckets of rocks, so we began to wander the farm. I should also include that in addition to our incessant need to defend our playhouse, we also had a deep desire to nurse any animal we found back to health, whether it actually needed it or not. On occasion, we might find a baby bird that fell out of the nest, a lost kitten, a mouse, etc., which we immediately snatched up and headed straight for the house to find an old shoe box. We would line the inside with paper towels and place items inside that we thought the animal would eat. Apparently, we thought every animal ate twigs and leaves, because that’s what we always put in there. Needless to say, at five and six years old, we weren’t the best nurses and didn’t have the best success rate at survival. On this particular occasion, we found a little lost worm that we were certain needed our expert medical care. While I held the worm, Tiffany ran to the store room and grabbed a shoe box. We got the very typical paper towels, twigs and branches, poked some holes in the side of the box. We were shocked to return an hour later to find the worm shriveled and dry. No one ever told us that worms and paper towels don’t mix.

Now, Tiffany and I were no ignorant little children, we knew what to do in the situation of a passed loved one, and as much as someone can, we loved our little worm. We had just been through our great-grandfather’s funeral earlier that year. So we asked our grandma if we could have a funeral service for our worm. Being the loving, caring and understanding woman she is, she agreed, and told us we could bury the worm in the back of the orchard, just dig a hole the right size for the box and nothing more. We used nearly every bit of energy we had digging that hole, just deep enough to cover the box with about an inch of dirt or so. Guessing today, I would say it was about a foot and a half deep. We said a prayer, and asked God to watch over our precious worm, and thanked Him for our short time together (like I said, we were no amateurs). Finally, we knew there was still one element missing, one piece of the funeral puzzle that just wasn’t there. Yes, you may have guessed it, decoration. What is present at every funeral surrounding the deceased: Pillars and bounds of flowers, arrangements, etc.

It just so happened that in that very week the tulips all around the area were blooming. My grandma had two rows of them planted down the front sidewalk going all the way down to the road. Still there and growing today, grandma’s prized tulips are a wide array of beautiful colors, beautiful goldenrod yellows, vivid shades of red, soft shades of lavender, even ones with an almost bluish hue. Tiffany and I found this as the perfect opportunity to decorate the grave of our beloved worm. We picked ever last petal, not leaving a single one left on a stem, and placed them upon the worm’s grave. We bowed our heads, and said another prayer, and while having a moment with God, we heard something we had never heard before. At first it was foreign, unrecognizable. It took a moment to register, but only a short moment. It was grandma, yelling from the back step for us to get our butts back to the house. We had never, ever heard her yell like that, much less yell at all. The anger on her face when we made it back to the house was stunning. One look at her face and we knew we had done something very, very wrong. We were in trouble again, the worst we had yet been in. You do a great job of capturing the mischievousness of your childhood self. I also like the way you comment on events from an adult perspective. There are lots of nice details here. The ending, though, doesn't really provide a sense of ending. Is there more to come? At least another paragraph? --msh

=Benny Hill =

(Yes, I know the implication, and I've heard it before)
Hello everyone! My name is Benjamin Hill, but since this isn't 1891, I go by Benny. I am 26 years old, and I am a non-traditional student at Ball State, although I wasn't always. I started my college career the fall of 2003 at a small, private university in New York, NY called Pace University. I originally went there to study in Pace's highly recognized Forensic Science program. Luckily for me, I realized I was in the completely wrong field of study within one semester, and quickly switched to a communications studies major. I came home for the summer after my freshman year, and had every intention of returning to Pace and New York, when I was finally convinced that there was no reason to spend so much money on a private school for an education I could receive closer to home, for much less. By that time, it was too late to get into school for the fall semester, so I sat out one semester while I applied for admission to Ball State. After being accepted for transfer, I began my classes at Ball State in the spring of 2005.

Shortly after classes began that Spring, I was involved in an automobile accident, one where I was not at fault, and not seriously injured, but one that never-the-less, caused quite a mess in my life as well. Without going into too much detail about it, the stress built up and something had to give, and since I couldn't quit working, I had to sacrifice school. One semester turned into five years, and here I am, back in school finishing my undergrad and loving every minute of it, even if I do have to work myself to the bone to get it all done.

While on my 5 year "vacation" of sorts, I held a plethora of different jobs, usually more than one at the same time. I spent several years working as a server and a bartender, which worked for the time, but I'm glad I no longer have to do it. My favorite of jobs was the year and a half I spent working as a flight attendant. I worked for a regional airline out of Indianapolis called Republic Airlines. They flew as code share partners for the major airlines such as United, US Airways, Delta, Continental, and American. I loved my job and would likely still be there if it weren't for being laid off through the strains of the airline industry. However, I don't regret it, because it was being laid off and realizing I had no way up the ladder that I decided it was time to return to Ball State to finish my education.

So now I'm back, this being my second semester back at Ball State. It's been both easier and harder in different respects. When I applied for re-admission, I declared a new major, doubling in Psychology and Sociology, and I feel like I am completely in the right place. People, especially family, often ask me what I what to do with degrees in Psychology and Sociology, I usually answer, "I don't know." I'm really not sure what I do want to do, but I really don't feel like I have to. One thing I am looking into is turning my love of travel into the next level career. Next summer I hope to get my private pilot's license, and perhaps, if I really like what I'm doing, I might go for the full deal and get my commercial license. Either way, continuing my eduction is still the right way to go, and will leave me many options in the future, no matter what I decided to do.

By Tiffany Creal What Benny likes most about writing is that he is able to express himself in a way that helps him to organize his thoughts. He feels that it’s better to write down ideas rather than say them out loud and forget them soon after. What he likes least about writing is that it can become tedious and makes him want to stop writing altogether. Benny believes that his best writing piece was when he interviewed Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a civil rights movement legend who was friends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He felt it a great honor to speak with him. What inspires him to write most is being in extreme emotional states such as grief, happiness, or anger drive him to write. When he has writer’s block he usually will walk away for awhile to process all of his thoughts. Finally, when I asked him about what he wrote about most often he said he never really sticks to just one topic. He writes about whatever is on his mind.
 * About Benny as a Writer**