December 1, 2011
Fletch Farrar
Illinois Times1320 S. State St.
P.O. Box 5256,
Springfield, IL 62705
Dear Mr. Fletcher
“I wish I could feel some of that love, this year,” laughs Christine, a restaurant server in Springfield, Illinois. She is referring to the holiday spirit that used mean better tips and is trying making light of a situation that is affecting many in the service industry. Anyone who relies one tips for a large part of their wage, also relies on customers spending money and showing them gratitude.
In this economy, people are not spending money on luxuries such as eating meals out. Rightfully so, many are putting that money towards bills and necessities, without much to spare on entertainment.
I feel that this article will we of interest to your readers. Many of whom themselves, will able to relate. I highlights the growing concern those who rely on other gratitude to make their living.
Attached is a sample of my work, as well as photographs that may be used in conjunction with the story.
Respectfully,
Rachel Seaver
912 S. 5th St., Apt 5
Sprinfield, Illinois
(217) 652-2890
SeaverRS@yahoo.com
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Grauity Counts
I was sitting in a restaurant. I was not hungry but I needed internet. I am a college student and like so many others, my budget is pretty tight. No internet this semester. I realize though that I am here and I need to support the business that is at the moment, supporting my college career. I peruse the menu. What’s cheap? What can I justify spending money on? We order two coffees.
Our server, however, does not let this offend her, as far as I can tell. She graciously refills our cups many times, and trip after trip manages to be sweet and witty. Despite the fact that is near midnight, ours is sure to be a small bill, and we have been seated in her table for over an hour. This place is not busy place tonight, but I’m betting she’s tired. I have been there before. It’s a tough job.
Now, I fear it may be even more tough. It’s no secret that the economy is facing hard times. With high unemployment and many struggling to make ends meet, it would make sense that we aren’t eating meals out of the home as often as we do when the economy is better. For the restaurant business, this is bad news. For servers, it is even further stress. Servers are working harder for less.
“The economy has definitely taken a toll, tips have been getting worse and worse because people just do not go out as much as they used to,” say Christine 20, of Springfield. Serving was her first job at age 16. She has since worked for four different restaurants, at time balancing two places at once.
The holiday season, has likely taken had an effect, as well. Everyone wants to give their loved ones the best, and that certainly includes servers who have families and bills but are feeling the sting of lesser tips and smaller meal costs.
Christine says, “So far, the holiday season hasn’t helped like I thought it would. One thing I had noticed in the last 2 years, especially, is that people always tip a little better percentage-wise from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I guess they get in the generous mood. I was hoping I could feel some of that love, this year,” she laughs, “I guess thing are tight for everyone.”
It will get worse, she fears, “Right after Christmas people tip really [poorly], probably because they are really broke after Christmas shopping and whatnot and they are usually grumpier, probably from having to go back to normal life with no holidays to look forward to. And in January service is very slow so that worries me.”
I asked if she felt she had to work harder for tips in the current economy. She hesitates, “I wouldn’t say I’m working any harder but I am most definitely stressed and can’t let it show. Customers want you to be happy even if they aren’t.”
Others say they are feeling like they do have to work harder as in the case of Vicente, 23, of Springfield. “I just think that people in the food service work a lot harder sometimes than other people for less money, especially right now.” He has recently taken to working two jobs, which often means juggling both places in one day.
“Tips just aren’t what they were. I am going to school, though. It’s hard to juggle it all but I know that I am lucky. I know that I am an exception.” He is referring to the fact that he is working to get his masters, while other employees may consider food service their career.
“A lot of times the only separating a food worker from people they are serving with other jobs is a degree. And I know people who are struggling to go to school or go back. It seems like such a cycle. Some people are in the food service as a career. They don’t necessarily like it, but they can make more with less qualifications to put on paper. Right now though, I think my friends are suffering.”
“Yeah, it’s just stressful,” he adds.
Mona, 54, of Springfield, has worked serving and bartending jobs throughout her adult life. “I have had other jobs, but serving has been good to me for the most part.” For her, it was a good career. She says could work around taking care of her son, who is now grown and living out of town. “It wasn’t always steady work but I could always find work. I always got paid.”
Even though, she had always enjoyed serving and had been pretty successful in her career, she says she has seen a change and it‘s only seems to get worse.
“I had to leave my last job, I have asthma and the atmosphere was not healthy for me. That was really hard. I was doing well there. I was bringing home money. I think I stayed there longer than I should have because I didn’t think I had any other choice. Finally, I had to leave. It was hard while I looked for a job. Really hard.”
Serving jobs are harder to come by, she says. Restaurant are not hiring. They aren’t getting business. Their employees are struggling. They can’t stretch the payroll any farther.”
Unemployment rates are high right now, no doubt. For Mona, she says even though she’s just getting by, “It’s where I can find a job and so I’ll stick with. It will get better.”
Our server, however, does not let this offend her, as far as I can tell. She graciously refills our cups many times, and trip after trip manages to be sweet and witty. Despite the fact that is near midnight, ours is sure to be a small bill, and we have been seated in her table for over an hour. This place is not busy place tonight, but I’m betting she’s tired. I have been there before. It’s a tough job.
Now, I fear it may be even more tough. It’s no secret that the economy is facing hard times. With high unemployment and many struggling to make ends meet, it would make sense that we aren’t eating meals out of the home as often as we do when the economy is better. For the restaurant business, this is bad news. For servers, it is even further stress. Servers are working harder for less.
“The economy has definitely taken a toll, tips have been getting worse and worse because people just do not go out as much as they used to,” say Christine 20, of Springfield. Serving was her first job at age 16. She has since worked for four different restaurants, at time balancing two places at once.
The holiday season, has likely taken had an effect, as well. Everyone wants to give their loved ones the best, and that certainly includes servers who have families and bills but are feeling the sting of lesser tips and smaller meal costs.
Christine says, “So far, the holiday season hasn’t helped like I thought it would. One thing I had noticed in the last 2 years, especially, is that people always tip a little better percentage-wise from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I guess they get in the generous mood. I was hoping I could feel some of that love, this year,” she laughs, “I guess thing are tight for everyone.”
It will get worse, she fears, “Right after Christmas people tip really [poorly], probably because they are really broke after Christmas shopping and whatnot and they are usually grumpier, probably from having to go back to normal life with no holidays to look forward to. And in January service is very slow so that worries me.”
I asked if she felt she had to work harder for tips in the current economy. She hesitates, “I wouldn’t say I’m working any harder but I am most definitely stressed and can’t let it show. Customers want you to be happy even if they aren’t.”
Others say they are feeling like they do have to work harder as in the case of Vicente, 23, of Springfield. “I just think that people in the food service work a lot harder sometimes than other people for less money, especially right now.” He has recently taken to working two jobs, which often means juggling both places in one day.
“Tips just aren’t what they were. I am going to school, though. It’s hard to juggle it all but I know that I am lucky. I know that I am an exception.” He is referring to the fact that he is working to get his masters, while other employees may consider food service their career.
“A lot of times the only separating a food worker from people they are serving with other jobs is a degree. And I know people who are struggling to go to school or go back. It seems like such a cycle. Some people are in the food service as a career. They don’t necessarily like it, but they can make more with less qualifications to put on paper. Right now though, I think my friends are suffering.”
“Yeah, it’s just stressful,” he adds.
Mona, 54, of Springfield, has worked serving and bartending jobs throughout her adult life. “I have had other jobs, but serving has been good to me for the most part.” For her, it was a good career. She says could work around taking care of her son, who is now grown and living out of town. “It wasn’t always steady work but I could always find work. I always got paid.”
Even though, she had always enjoyed serving and had been pretty successful in her career, she says she has seen a change and it‘s only seems to get worse.
“I had to leave my last job, I have asthma and the atmosphere was not healthy for me. That was really hard. I was doing well there. I was bringing home money. I think I stayed there longer than I should have because I didn’t think I had any other choice. Finally, I had to leave. It was hard while I looked for a job. Really hard.”
Serving jobs are harder to come by, she says. Restaurant are not hiring. They aren’t getting business. Their employees are struggling. They can’t stretch the payroll any farther.”
Unemployment rates are high right now, no doubt. For Mona, she says even though she’s just getting by, “It’s where I can find a job and so I’ll stick with. It will get better.”
Articles 3 and 4. Draft
Donald M. Murray, in Writing to Deadline, distinguishes journalism from literature which is a form of art. He says “After graduation I wrote journalism and dreamt literature.” He had firmly believed that journalism was not literature, this idea he seems to credit to a English degree. This was until one day, when that he realized all art is first craft. To him, it seems, this validated his work. He could take pride in his journalism as a fine piece of literature.
Murray, who says he grew up in a world of contradictions, writes “stories explained the world, found cause and effect in confusion, sequence in contradiction, order in disorder.” Early in his life he studied the stories of life. His curiosity taught him to find the details of a story. He learned to answer the who, what when, where, how, and why in order to make sense of information. In Writing to Deadline, he writes that his mother complained that “Donald can hear the grass grow.” He heard everything. He writes “I was a listener, a watcher, a spy, a sneak.” He acquired and instinct for story.
Murray says that school teaches students to write long but looking back at some of his stories from just third grades, he says that this type of writing is “surprisingly close” to how he writes today, with “strong verbs, specific nouns, short sentences.” he learned “less is more” and he had to learn change his writing styles from complex to simple, words are became symbols for information. Meaning, he says, now came from connections between pieces of information rather than connection between words.
He says that the lede is what is important in the story. Ledes direct an article. The lede, he claims, became his obsession. He says he would write an everage of about 75 ledes for a story. When read them, he would know which to pick and then he would know what to write about.
Michael Lewis wrote a series of articles, in the style of a travel writers, on what he calls his “financial disaster tour.” In this series, he includes a piece about California and a piece about Iceland.
Lewis’s article, California and Bust covers the economic crisis in the United States and in California. The article begins by explaining that the United States bill is too large to be paid. Meredith Whitney, a private wall street analyst, predicted “that the Citigroup’s losses in U.S. subprime bonds were far bigger than anyone imagined, and predicted the bank would be forced to cut its dividend” and when asked when people should begin to worry about a financial crisis, she said “It’ll be something to worry about within the next 12 months.” This statement, Lewis claims was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“People started worrying about U.S. municipal finance the minute the words were out of her mouth. The next day the municipal-bond market tanked. It kept falling right through the next month.”
Whatever else she had done, Meredith Whitney had found the pressure point in American finance: the fear that American cities would not pay back the money they had borrowed.
Murray, who says he grew up in a world of contradictions, writes “stories explained the world, found cause and effect in confusion, sequence in contradiction, order in disorder.” Early in his life he studied the stories of life. His curiosity taught him to find the details of a story. He learned to answer the who, what when, where, how, and why in order to make sense of information. In Writing to Deadline, he writes that his mother complained that “Donald can hear the grass grow.” He heard everything. He writes “I was a listener, a watcher, a spy, a sneak.” He acquired and instinct for story.
Murray says that school teaches students to write long but looking back at some of his stories from just third grades, he says that this type of writing is “surprisingly close” to how he writes today, with “strong verbs, specific nouns, short sentences.” he learned “less is more” and he had to learn change his writing styles from complex to simple, words are became symbols for information. Meaning, he says, now came from connections between pieces of information rather than connection between words.
He says that the lede is what is important in the story. Ledes direct an article. The lede, he claims, became his obsession. He says he would write an everage of about 75 ledes for a story. When read them, he would know which to pick and then he would know what to write about.
Michael Lewis wrote a series of articles, in the style of a travel writers, on what he calls his “financial disaster tour.” In this series, he includes a piece about California and a piece about Iceland.
Lewis’s article, California and Bust covers the economic crisis in the United States and in California. The article begins by explaining that the United States bill is too large to be paid. Meredith Whitney, a private wall street analyst, predicted “that the Citigroup’s losses in U.S. subprime bonds were far bigger than anyone imagined, and predicted the bank would be forced to cut its dividend” and when asked when people should begin to worry about a financial crisis, she said “It’ll be something to worry about within the next 12 months.” This statement, Lewis claims was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“People started worrying about U.S. municipal finance the minute the words were out of her mouth. The next day the municipal-bond market tanked. It kept falling right through the next month.”
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