Patricia Speer 
Freelance Writer/Photographer  
Writing Samples


Employment Objectives:  To acquire a number freelance writing positions for magazines that allow me to freely express myself as a writer and thinker.  Ultimately, I would like to become Contributing Editor for a cutting edge publication with integrity.


Experience

Photographer for the Institute for Objectivist Studies
In October, I worked for I.O.S. as photographer at their annual Objectivism Today event where more than 200 people gathered to discuss the state of our culture.

Conference Assistant for Institute for Objectivist Studies
In July 1998 I was selected as conference assistant for the I.O.S. annual Summer Seminar.  This year the seminar was at Colorado University in Boulder.  Over 265 people attended the conference.  While in Boulder I acted as photographer and writer for the institutes celebrated journal Navigator.  Several of my pictures and interviews were included in the September issue of Navigator.  I.O.S. is a think tank located in Poughkeepsie, New York.  Their mission is as follows:
"The mission of the Institute for Objectivist Studies is to advance Objectivism as a basis for theoretical knowledge, social progress, and individual happiness. Since 1990 the Institute has offered programs for students, scholars, and the public at large. As an educational organization based on a philosophy of reason, the Institute encourages the discussion of ideas in an atmosphere of free and open inquiry."

Contributing Writer for Sabine
I've been a Contributing Writer to Sabine for over a year.  In that time I've tackled such issues as censorship, the holocaust, the NEA's continuing plight, and pornography vs. art.  In that time, I've been promoted from the column Faded Ink Spots/Faded Brushstrokes whose focus was biographical accounts of obscure artists, to Endangered Expressions where I've been able to focus on defending artists' rights through the fundamental discussion and deconstruction of censorship.  You may visit Sabine .  Here is a link to my current article featured in Sabine.

Contributing Writer for Rationale
I've written two articles featured in Rationale.  One was an op-ed piece concerning the attack on the Tobacco Industry.  The other was an in-depth look at the history of anti-trust from its inception with the Rockefellers to the present situation with Bill Gates and Microsoft Corporation. You may visit Rationale
 

Interests 
As a writer and thinker, I have many varied interests   My strongest and noblest intention as a writer and a journalist is to objectively inform the reader of something that may help, instruct, advise, and enlighten him or her.  I want to defend First Amendment Rights, lead people to new places and heroic individuals, and help others discover new ideas that will transform everyday life into a romantic and heroic existence!

I am very interested in all of the arts including music, representational art, abstract art, classic literature, contemporary literature, poetry, sculpture, architecture, and the culinary arts.  I love to travel to new and exotic places on this incredible planet of ours.  I constantly strive to learn more as a writer and a thinker.  I'm literally a sponge for knowledge pertaining to almost everything.  I'm strongly opposed to unnecessary violence.  I'm constantly looking for ways to live a longer, more rational life on Earth.






Contact Information


This page last updated on November 19, 1998.