Interactive Fiction: Redefining the Reader’s Role

by Alison Oehmen
Intern, Fall 2014

Have you ever been reading a book and found yourself so engrossed in the plot that you want to reach in and become part of the story? With interactive fiction (IF) you can do just that. Part book and part game, interactive fiction uses an online book format that gives the reader a say in how plots develop. As people read these text games, they have the options of clicking (or tapping in the case of touchscreen devices) on certain words or passages that are interactive, indicating different points where the narrative can branch off into other directions. Depending on which selection a reader chooses, the story can take any number of interesting twists and turns.

Although IF is not exactly brand new—it’s been around since the 1970s, when the reader-to-text interface consisted of text commands—it has experienced a spike in popularity as of late. For those of us who remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books, interactive fiction is a somewhat similar concept. However, IF stories allow for an even greater variety of reader collaboration. For example, one newly released project by IF writer Emily Short allows the reader to direct the main character’s actions. Entitled Blood & Laurels, this text game features an “Act Now” button at various points throughout the storyline that, when clicked, presents the reader with a wide array of specific actions or reactions from which to choose. The reader is consequently transformed into an extension of the game’s protagonist, able to dictate how the character operates within the story. Reading (or playing?) this text game becomes an improvisational exercise of sorts and the storyline, a dialogue.

The genre has come a long way since the first interactive text game, Adventure, was created. A man named Will Crowther created the original game in the 1970s. The program eventually made its way into the hands of Don Woods, who—with Crowther’s permission—worked to fix bugs and modify the game for wider use. Thereafter, Adventure—and interactive fiction in general—gained greater commercial popularity until the late 1980s, at which time interest began to wane. However, improved IF development systems like TADS (Text Adventure Development System) and Inform managed to keep IF alive. Since then, the internet and new technology have helped bring IF even more recognition.

The possibilities for IF aren’t restricted to personal computers or laptops anymore. With e-readers now widely used, design agencies like IDEO are imagining new ways to transform the traditional reading experience. For instance, someday, readers could uncover clues in a mystery novel by shaking their iPads until most of the words “fall off” to show hidden codes. There is even talk of IF readers eventually receiving text messages or emails from characters.

Then there are games like Zombies, Run! that combine narrative and physical activity. Once the app is downloaded on their smartphones, players literally run while the game tracks their location and speed via GPS and an accelerometer. Meanwhile, the game directs players and conveys a storyline using audio clips. The game also supplements these clips with tracks of players’ own music. Depending on how well they follow and react to the action described in the game, players earn rewards in the form of games items. Thus, the readers themselves become characters within the narrative, propelling the action forward with their own movement.

With such compelling innovations currently being released and more prospects on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how IF will fare in the long run. Will it continue to catch on? Could it be the next frontier for reading and literature? Who knows—only time will tell which path this story will take.

Did You Know?

The inspiration behind the game that started the IF craze, Will Crowther’s Adventure, is quite heartwarming. Crowther developed the game for his two daughters as a way to reconnect with them after a divorce. As an avid caver, Crowther mapped some of his real-life cave explorations; in Adventure, he used some of these maps and added touches of fantasy to captivate his daughters. The game was a big hit with the girls. Eventually, the game began making its way around to friends and then spread via the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, which was a precursor to the internet), gaining what would become an impressive following.

Time to Rhyme: Teens Find Artistic Outlet Through WordSpeak Poetry Program

by Alison Oehmen

Let’s face it. The typical high-school poetry experience is usually not the most inspiring or transformative. Toiling over iambic pentameter, archaic vocabulary and the subtlest of metaphors can strike many students as somewhat pointless and irrelevant beyond their obligatory English courses. In Florida, however, a poetry program run by Tigertail Productions called WordSpeak is offering an alternative poetic experience for 1,000 South Floridian teenagers.

Each year, a group of students is selected as the WordSpeak team in order to compete in various poetry slams and competitions. Rather than focus solely on the works of others, the participants—six in number for this year’s team—generate spoken-word poems of their own, which they then perform at various venues and competitions throughout the year. In addition to booking more low-key gigs and local performances in and around Miami, this year the group performed at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden and participated in the Brave New Voices (BNV) national poetry competition.

Guided by Teo Castellanos, who has served as the WordSpeak coach for eight of the program’s nine years, the WordSpeak teens learn about the logistics of language, rhythm and stage presence while also discovering the power of their own unique points of view. After all, beyond the straightforward elocutionary and literary knowledge that Castellanos doles out to the teen poets, the ultimate goal of WordSpeak is to provide a constructive and creative outlet for them. As Mary Luft, the director of Tigertail, remarks, “We see it as a transformative project. . . . [The students] start thinking differently about their place in the greater world and what else is out there.” With this philosophy in place, WordSpeak strives to instill a sense of confidence and empowerment in young individuals who might have otherwise not had a voice.

In order to achieve these broader aims, WordSpeak fosters an atmosphere of collaboration, an effort that begins with the program’s coach. Castellanos interacts with his students as an instructive yet relatable presence, providing useful tutelage in an engaging and relevant way. The WordSpeak teens also participate in collective brainstorming sessions, wherein they discuss and exchange new ideas for poems. Although the group participates in competitions, it is nonetheless a tight-knit and supportive unit.

Moreover, Castellanos encourages the members of WordSpeak to draw inspiration not only from personal experiences but from farther-reaching current events issues as well. Whereas many teenagers grow up paying little attention to social problems and concerns, members of WordSpeak are challenged to cultivate a broader awareness and perspective that reaches beyond the self. This outward focus not only specifically strengthens the teens’ writing by giving their pieces wider audience appeal, but also bolsters their sensibility and self-confidence—characteristics that place them in good stead far beyond their stint as WordSpeak poets.

Even the more competitive events in which WordSpeak partakes have a concentrated emphasis on edification. The BNV, for example, though widely recognized as the Olympic equivalent of spoken-word competitions, offers a range of activities beyond the competition itself. Each year for the impressive crowd of entrants, which includes over 500 youth poets from 50 different teams, the BNV hosts a number of workshops and readings with established poets and performers, as well as open mike nights. Previous years’ events were even aired on HBO.

On a personal note, as a poetry fan myself, I think WordSpeak, the BNV, and similar poetry groups and coalitions sound fantastic. It’s nice to see poetry is alive and well nowadays, and functioning as a healthy, dynamic outlet of expression for many students across the country. I only wish I had that kind of opportunity when I was in high school!

Did You Know?

The Brave New Voices competition was the first poetry slam competition of its kind in the world that was dedicated exclusively to youth poets. Since its creation by Youth Speaks Inc. in 1998, the BNV has become the largest ongoing spoken-word event worldwide.

Kicking It Old-School: Micro-Schools Bring Back One-Room Schoolhouses

by Alison Oehmen

Much of the rhetoric concerning the present state of America’s education system revolves around the need to create new assessments, new standards and new methodologies. But what if progress lies somewhere in our past? An interesting model of personalized learning—reminiscent of the old-time one-room schoolhouses—is just now emerging and beginning to gain some traction.

Dubbed the “micro-school,” this divergent educational format breaks with the modern trends that have shaped our notion of schools for most of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Over the last hundred years or so, with cost reduction primarily in mind, schools have generally become big, impersonal and inflexible. The institutional focus on efficiency through standardization began to overshadow the bare-bones objective to educate unique, individual students. Thus, the micro-school initiative, for one, attempts to redress this oversight by revitalizing the personal side of learning.

As far as micro-schools themselves are concerned, the major unifying characteristic is their purposefully small enrollment figures. Each micro-school caters to a student body numbering from a handful to a few dozen children. Not only does this allow the teachers and staff to properly attend to each learner’s needs, it also encourages greater experimentation from both the instructor and the pupil. After all, by nature, the small scale of these schools allows each student to discover how they learn best and each teacher to tailor their instruction specifically to meet these needs.

Contemporary strides in software, internet and other technology capabilities have greatly enabled micro-schools to get off the ground. Micro-school teachers rely upon technology to diligently yet easily monitor student progress and track which forms of instruction suit each pupil. Technology is likewise integrated into the classroom setting as a vehicle for instruction. As many of today’s students are comfortable and well-versed in the latest and greatest technological innovations, micro-schools encourage their students to use technology as a way to acquire and process new knowledge.

This is not to say, however, that micro-schools dole out information strictly via technology. On the contrary, micro-schools utilize a wide range of teaching styles, depending on the needs and preferences of the individuals enrolled. From the traditional lecture format to the more private, one-on-one setups like tutoring and homeschooling, micro-schools try to offer up as much opportunity for specialization as possible.

Some micro-schools, like San Francisco’s Brightworks and New York’s Brooklyn Apple Academy, have a project-based learning approach, whereas Austin’s Acton Academy uses the Montessori and Socratic methods to structure student learning. More important than these schools’ specific pedagogic approaches, though, is their overriding dedication to making the educational experience open and fluid. Students who attend a micro-school experience a considerable amount of agency in determining their own daily routines and schedules. The reasoning behind such a collaborative teacher–student dynamic is that it helps not only to inspire deep interest in subject matter but also to instill vital traits like self-sufficiency, self-control and initiative.

Although this endeavor to scale back in class size, re-prioritize modern education and make the individual student the main focus sounds like a grand and noble one, the micro-school model is still in its infancy. It has yet to be seen whether it will produce favorable results that are long-term and widespread. Who knows? Perhaps the idea behind a one-room schoolhouse can, in fact, address some of the problems we’re hoping to repair in our education system.

Did You Know?

In 1635, the Town of Boston founded the Boston Latin School, the first school in America, and allocated public funds toward supporting the school. Philemon Pormont acted as the first schoolmaster and held classes in his home, teaching the humanities along with Latin and Greek. More than a few notable historical figures have attended the Boston Latin School, including five of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Robert Treat Paine of Massachusetts; Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania; and William Hooper of North Carolina. The Boston Latin School remains open and running to this day.

A final point of interest about Boston Latin that deserves some attention is that Ben Franklin is one of the school’s most famous dropouts. As with many young people from poor families during that time, Franklin’s help in his father’s soap and candle shop was considered by his father to be more important than his education. Franklin was removed from the Boston Latin School age 10 and, from that point on, was self-taught through reading and writing.

Right at “Holmes”: Traveling Exhibit Transforms Visitors into Real-Life Sherlocks

by Alison Oehmen, Intern Fall 2014

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s eccentric yet brilliant detective, Sherlock Holmes, is arguably one of the most enduring literary characters of all time. From the original mystery novels to more current television series and movie franchise adaptations, Conan Doyle’s characters seem to champion all aspects of the entertainment business time after time. Following the recent resurgence of all things Sherlock in popular culture, a recently created Sherlock Holmes exhibition has begun traveling to different cities across the United States, once again capturing the imaginations of its patrons.

Debuting at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in October of 2013, the exhibit allows visitors to become real-life Sherlocks, confronted with crime scene conundrums and a handful of clues and tasked with solving a case using nineteenth-century technology and other Holmes-esque sleuthing techniques. Visitors step into reinterpreted life-size crime scenes as well; settings such as the Bakerloo train station and 221B Baker Street are all modeled after the period. Sherlock and Conan Doyle aficionados even have a chance to marvel at the variety of items that are on display throughout the exhibit, such as the author’s original manuscripts, period artifacts and props used in the Sherlock Holmes movies.

In order to solve the mystery, the amateur detectives receive instruction and guidance on the various Victorian-era processes through live demonstrations. They also receive tutorials on such topics as botany, ballistics and the bygone technology of the telegraph. Using this knowledge, along with Holmes’s hallmark skills of deductive reasoning and observation, the sleuths travel through different interactive stations of the exhibit to piece together what happened at the crime scene.

As a result, this exhibit offers a uniquely rich and complex experience for those who walk through it. Science, detective work, popular culture and literature come together under the thematic umbrella of Holmes’s history for a multi-discipline perspective. So far, it has hit Portland and Columbus; St. Louis is its most recent stop, a stint that begins in early October 2014. The exhibit is continuing to make its way throughout the United States, so if you feel an itch to don Holmes’s trademark deerstalker cap, make your way to the International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes when it visits your area.

Did You Know?

Conan Doyle attributed the creation of his Sherlock Holmes character to three real-life inspirations. The first was Joseph Bell, a renowned English surgeon and lecturer who was also Conan Doyle’s one-time teacher. Taken by Bell’s acute observational skills, Conan Doyle fashioned the Holmes persona after his mentor. The second was Émile Gaboriau, a French mystery novelist whose main protagonist acted as a prototype of sorts for Conan Doyle’s Holmesian invention. The final inspiration came from America’s own Edgar Allan Poe, the author widely acknowledged as the father of detective fiction, whose works attracted Conan Doyle to the genre.

And the Home of the . . . Average: America’s Higher-Ed Credentials Slipping in Global Rankings

by Alison Oehmen

There is a rather confounding dynamic currently at play when it comes to our country’s views on education. Popular opinion would categorize our colleges and universities as top-tier institutions. In contrast, however, for many years now, the condition of the United States’ K–12 system has preoccupied many as a pressing and disconcerting issue. So are we donning rose-colored glasses when we turn our attention to higher education?

Recent statistics suggest we are, as the problems we see in elementary, middle and high schools carry through to higher institutions. It is indeed true that, according to global university rankings, most of the world’s best universities are located in the United States. The catch, however, is that these international rankings predominantly use statistics about an institution’s research work and staff rather than undergrad performance or the caliber of education being provided. The disconnect, therefore, occurs because we are comparing different sets of data: the academic performance of a wide range of K–12 students versus the research performance and staff qualifications for a few collegiate institutions.

What happens if we approach the subject from an apples-to-apples standpoint, then? The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the results of the 2011–2012 Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). This test, designed to measure literacy and math skills in real-world contexts, showed America’s scores consistently bringing up the rear. While 18 percent of American adults with bachelor’s degrees scored within the top two levels of numeracy, the international average of 24 percent outstripped that figure. Moreover, we ranked 16th out of the 24 countries tested in literacy. So, on average, we’re looking a little haggard in relation to our counterparts abroad.

Part of the problem can be attributed to some of the troubling trends taking place within the United States’ higher education system. Between government cutbacks, increases in foreign competition and tuition costs, and decreases in graduation rates and education quality, it’s no wonder that our once gold standard of education has become a little tarnished of late. A veritable perfect storm has been brewing, and we are beginning to experience the fallout from it.

The drop in financial backing has dealt a significant blow to our nation’s colleges and universities. As a result, deficient funding has driven tuitions sky-high, which has, in turn, driven students away from the college track. Thus, even if the United States were offering the best educational opportunities on average, the astronomical and ever-climbing cost of such opportunities could soon make them irrelevant. After all, if most or many cannot afford to take advantage, then the benefits are virtually immaterial.

Meanwhile, elsewhere around the world, billions are being invested into higher education systems, most notably in Asia and the Middle East. As a result, the world’s best and brightest have more of an option now to receive top-notch educations in their home countries. As Robert Berdahl, the head of the Association of American Universities (AAU), pointed out, “the fact is—and this was flat out stated to me by a leading educator in China—‘You used to get our best students; now we keep our best students.’”

So, as we pour all of our efforts into troubleshooting the pre-college system, we leave the higher education system to largely fend for itself. While we assess and compile copious data on K–12 student knowledge, no corresponding network exists to assess the skills following college graduation. It seems most skills assessments take place internally within each individual institution. This island-unto-itself methodology likewise affects graduates once they enter the job market. According to a 2009 Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) survey of employers [PDF link], while most of the 302 polled employers looked to hire only college-grad candidates, a mere 28 percent of them felt confident that our higher ed system prepares students adequately for the workforce.

The good news, though, is that this issue is gaining more attention. Our rose-colored glasses are coming off, and people are beginning to discuss and explore more deeply the state of America’s higher education system. As with all things, finding a solution here—or at least making improvements—begins with awareness and diagnosis of the problem. My research into this topic reassures me that we are at least that far into the process of reassessment and correction, which makes me think there is definitely hope for us yet.

Did You Know?

A woman named Fatima al-Fihri founded the world’s oldest university in the year 859. Following her father’s death, al-Fihri dedicated her inheritance to building a mosque in her community of Fez, Morocco. The mosque was accompanied by a madrasa (a mosque school) wherein patrons could receive religious instruction as well as education in such subjects as grammar, mathematics, music and the natural sciences. Although it wasn’t officially incorporated into the Moroccan educational system until 1963, the University of al-Karaouine nevertheless makes an appearance in the Guinness World Records book as the world’s oldest continuously operating university.

A Novel Approach to Learning: The Graphic Novel’s Growing Popularity in Education

by Alison Oehmen

Almost since their inception, comic books and graphic novels had a large following, particularly among young people. In recent years, not much has changed in this regard, as the graphic novel sections have become some of the most trafficked and fastest-growing areas in many libraries . Graphic novels and comic books have likewise gained wider use in academic circles. Why are these changes taking place? The answer lies in a new generation of teachers and librarians, a broadening use of the comic-book format across multiple genres and the evermore technology-centric focus our society has adopted.

As far as libraries are concerned, this trend is developing as they attempt to stay current and attract younger generations of readers. For decades, comic books occupied only a marginal space—if any space at all—on libraries’ shelves, since popular opinion generally dismissed them as frivolous and uninformative. However, as greater populations of comic book readers reach adulthood—and consequently become the newest group of librarians and teachers—the comic book’s standing in the literary world is steadily improving. In fact, these materials are increasingly regarded as valid tools with academic and artistic worth.

Another contributing factor towards the upsurge in graphic novel representation in libraries is the movement to digitize. While most graphic novels remain available in physical book form, the comic book community has quickly jumped on the technology bandwagon with new innovations like Comics Plus: Library Edition, a service that specifically makes graphic novel and comic book downloads available to customers through library websites. As students become increasingly comfortable and partial to reading via resources like ebooks, this innovation serves as yet another way for libraries to make reading more palatable for young, tech-savvy people.

After all, the comic book is not just a domain for superheroes anymore. Now people can find comic books and graphic novels that run the gamut of different genres, from classic literature to history and biography to mystery, horror and romance. Even from a demographic standpoint, comic books have expanded their reach, coming out with titles geared towards everyone from kids and teens to adults. Consequently, comic books and graphic novels have become attractive to new audiences and provide new ways for teachers to present and students to absorb information.

Therefore, some educators have started integrating graphic novels into their curricula and finding favorable results with readers of all abilities. One Kaplan survey, for example, reported that a third of ESL instructors utilize comics to teach new English speakers. Moreover, teachers of English-speaking students find that graphic novels help them to reach struggling or reluctant readers yet also challenge more confident ones. Where the density of a heavy prose novel might deter a less advanced reader, the visual impact of a graphic novel piques their interest and enthusiasm. By the same token, graphic novels can also provide the level of plot and structural complexity necessary for a more sophisticated reader. According to Stephen Weiner, director of the Maynard Public Library in Maynard, Massachusetts, and an award-winning writer on the subject of graphic novels in modern society, “researchers concluded that the average graphic novel introduced readers to twice as many words as the average children’s book.”

However, this is not to say that the comic book’s foray into more academic circles doesn’t have its critics. For the considerable strides it has made towards mainstream acceptance, the graphic novel still strikes many as an unorthodox, and therefore controversial, tool. Furthermore, because the educational use of graphic novels is still a relatively new methodology, curriculum support is not as widespread as for more traditional materials. One pair of authors, Allyson A. W. Lyga and Barry Lyga, has published a resource entitled Graphic Novels in Your Media Center: A Definitive Guide to address this concern by providing lists of age-appropriate and edifying graphic novels to use in the classroom. Other resources have popped up to aid in the comic-teaching process, including No Flying No Tights, which is a website staffed by librarians and teachers, and “Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens,” which is a downloadable PDF guide by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic. Finally, even within the Common Core State Standards, graphic novels are suggested as sample texts; they are mentioned in both standard 5.RL.7 for grade 5 and the range of text types for grades 6–12. Nevertheless, as with any literature, the question of which comic books would be academically suitable and relevant remains a contested issue.

As this story of the academic graphic novel continues to develop, one wonders what this could mean for the trajectory of modern learning. With the call for new approaches to instruction for modern students, we could very well see the implementation of the graphic novel as a scholastic tool become an even more widespread practice soon enough. Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen, of course, but I know I will be interested to see how things unfold either way.

Did You Know?

Although the first smash hit from the comic book world came in 1938 with the introduction of Action Comics #1’s enduring Superman character, the United States’ first major graphic novel, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, was published nearly a century before, in the 1840s.

Diagramming Sentences: Pictures Worth a Thousand Words?

by Alison Oehmen

In 1877, two professors at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg, published a book entitled, Higher Lessons in English, wherein they offered an altogether new way of teaching students how to structure sentences. Termed sentence diagramming, this technique used a particular graphic layout to demonstrate the relationships between the various parts of speech. By configuring the individual parts of sentences in this visual array, Reed and Kellogg anticipated that students would better learn how to write sentences correctly.

Following its invention, sentence diagramming became an instant educational sensation. It experienced a kind of Golden Age within American classrooms and remained an instructional fixture therein for the next half-century. During the mid-1900s, however, the heyday of sentence diagramming was fading, and the once-commonplace approach began to garner criticism. Though some continue to teach it, sentence diagramming has now largely fallen out of favor in academic circles.

Theoretically speaking, sentence diagramming is a means for students to learn how to self-edit and become good writers. As Kitty Burns Florey, author of Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences, puts it: “When you’re learning to write well, it helps to understand what the sentence is doing and why it’s doing it and how you can improve it.” Once students understand how words and phrases relate to each other, they can more easily recognize and generate grammatically sound sentences. With this foundational knowledge in place, students would then hopefully be able to employ varied sentence structures throughout their writing. All told, these skills serve as the building blocks for more coherent and appealing writing.

However, when it comes to real-world application, the actual efficacy of this method has proven inconsistent. Much of the criticism leveled at sentence diagramming over the years has related to its polarizing effect in classrooms. For instance, for students who tend to be visual learners, it can be highly effective. And yet, because it is such a visual methodology, non-visual learners can find the process utterly mystifying. For these individuals, sentence diagramming is simply a confusing and overly complicated way of looking at a sentence.

So perhaps it’s for the best that this hit-or-miss technique goes into retirement. In my own experience, a comprehensive working knowledge of the different parts of speech—how to identify and use them properly—wasn’t reinforced during my schooling. My teachers never attempted to teach me sentence diagramming, so I can’t speak to whether it would have helped or not. The relative effectiveness of sentence diagramming in particular aside, its general goals do seem worthwhile. Even in today’s internet and text message world, where people are writing more than ever before, correct sentence structure can still be used. After all, LOLs are just interjections and totes is still an adverb, abbreviated or not. Who knows? Maybe diagramming tweets or blog posts will make us all better writers.

Did You Know?

Take a look, grammar and English-language enthusiasts. Can you figure out this sentence? A grammarian constructed it in the nineteenth century to explore how far one could go in assembling a grammatically correct, logical sentence using words that end in the ever-versatile –ing suffix.

This exceeding trifling witling, considering ranting criticizing concerning adopting fitting wording being exhibiting transcending learning, was displaying, notwithstanding ridiculing, surpassing boasting swelling reasoning, respecting correcting erring writing, and touching detecting deceiving arguing during debating.

For anyone who is up for an extra challenge, try creating a sentence diagram for this beauty. You may need to use paper larger than your standard 8.5-by-11 size . . .

Intern Spotlight: Meet Alison

by Alison Oehmen
Intern, Fall 2014

As far back as I can remember, I’ve been the modest bookworm type. Always the soft-spoken one and often referred to as “quiet Alison,” it’s taken me awhile to accept and embrace my introvert’s personality. Although I’ll never be the life of the party, I like to think of myself as a highly thoughtful and empathetic person. Despite heavy and longtime involvement in team sports when I was younger, my favorite pastimes by far are painting and reading; I’m drawn to the analytical and reflective aspects of such artistic and literary pursuits.

When it comes down to it, though, my first love was the written word. In elementary school, I’d sneak a flashlight into my room and stay up until all hours binge-reading Roald Dahl books. Then, in middle and high school, I was the girl who had her nose in a book as she walked between classes and who actually looked forward to writing essays on Shakespeare. And for me, the best part of Fourth of July celebrations has been the annual book sale held that weekend near my family’s lake house on Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. I’ve been known to spend hours combing through the collection and then leaving with boxes of books in tow. As a result, I am quite literally surrounded by literature at home. My room boasts two large bookcases filled with books, all lovingly alphabetized by author.

So when I decided to major in English at Bates College in Maine, no one close to me was particularly surprised. However, the inevitable follow-up question asked by friends and family—“What will you do?”—was a much more difficult one to field. When I was younger I had dreams of becoming a writer, and during my high school years I briefly contemplated becoming a teacher. But it wasn’t until my college years that I discovered the wide world of publishing while interning at a small New Hampshire publishing company one summer.

Since graduating college, I’ve had the good fortune of snagging two concurrent internships, one of which has been at PSG. It’s turned out to be a very advantageous arrangement, as it’s afforded me the chance to explore and become more familiar with different facets of the industry before I attempt to navigate through it professionally. After all, at Bates there weren’t any courses that related directly to publishing, nor were there any internship opportunities near campus.

But PSG has made up for that in so many ways. I’ve been able to continue writing and to expand my skills in this regard by doing research for and constructing blog posts on a myriad of fascinating topics. I’ve also brushed up on and strengthened my proofreading skills on a few projects. Most recently, though, I’ve begun assisting with fact-checking work, which is brand-new territory to me but very interesting all the same. Nothing makes me happier than the challenge of mastering a new skill.

Little Known Facts about Alison

Many people have a sweet tooth, but few have one to rival Alison’s. If it were socially acceptable, she would spend her days eating bags of M&M’s. Nothing is too sweet for her taste buds, especially if there’s chocolate involved, and she’s never met a dessert she didn’t like. As a result, she loves to bake. From cookies and cakes to brownies and pies, she loves to make anything sugary and nutritionally useless. She is sure to share the scrumptious wealth, though, and her baked goods are well-known and amply appreciated among friends and family.