Caleb's Myth-Folklore Assignments

 The first article I read was How to Provide Great Feedback When You’re Not In Charge . This article was a nice refresher on a practice that I already try very hard to use whenever I am asked to give someone advice. The major idea of the article was to phrase your criticisms and feedback in a way that invites growth instead of making the person feel insulted or lesser than. The best way to do this may be to give feedback on what they did well when commenting on what needs work.       I try to implement this strategy when I am giving feedback by using the compliment sandwich. Open up the review by complimenting the person's work and efforts on it. Then, offer up a piece of specific criticism in a specific and helpful way. Finally, close with another bit of praise about them or their work. If there is a lot of feedback, it can be helpful to alternate intermittently between praise and criticism. Giving feedback in this way not only softens the blow of criticism and...

      The first article I read was  Make Good Art: Neil Gaiman’s Advice on the Creative Life . I also watched the video of the speech that was included in that article. I will start off by expressing my admiration for Neil Gaiman. He is a fantastic author and an extremely funny man. His commencement speech in this article highlighted both of those things. I think the advice that Gaiman gave is extremely important. It is especially important to somebody like me who wants to make a career in freelance writing. While the film industry and book industry are different, I'm sure a lot of the basic principles remain the same. This is the first time I've seen this speech, but I've been told most of his points before by other teachers and peers. The part that always sticks out the most to me is not the famously quoted phrase "Make good art." For me, it is the sentiment to just do what it is you want and if you don't know how, pretend you do. When I first decided I want...