Second Semester News Writing Reflection:

I have always pictured myself as a future journalist but I have never written in a news writing style. My entire life I have written MLA essays, that's it. So my learning curve in this class was huge, I felt like every single week I actually learned something new. I discovered that I learned the most during the writing process of my articles. There were many moments in my writing process where I felt stumped and needed to check my notes. I think the challenge really helped me grow as a journalist over the semester. I learned about AP style, quoting, interviewing, different article styles, and the use of leads.

The biggest adjustment to my writing was learning the AP style. This was something I knew nothing about at the beginning of the semester. I bombed the first AP stylebook quiz I took. I had no idea how to even find the answers in the book. The first writing assignment I asked so many questions about AP style and I was really uncomfortable writing that way. I always was unsure if I was doing it right. However, as the semester progressed, I started to get it. I learned how to use the AP stylebook, and I found myself not needing to look up answers at the end of the semester. I think the initial failure really motivated me to actually understand AP style. At the end of the semester my articles barely got marked down for AP style violations. While I feel like I got way better at this, I think there is definitely still room for growth as I continue to write articles. I know I will keep using my stylebook for help in the future.

Another thing I learned in JTC-210 was how to use quotes in a news article. There are very rare times where I quoted a direct source before News Writing class. So I learned how to quote a person directly from an interview. I learned how to format articles around quotes and what length of quote is appropriate. One little cue that I learned this semester was to follow quotes with “she said.” This was a little detail that is so important. I didn’t know about this before, but now I always double check that my quotes are properly used.

Before taking JTC-210 I had never interviewed someone for an article before. This was a huge growth area for me. At first, talking to strangers and asking them questions felt super awkward and forced. As I completed each article I noticed it got easier and easier. Professor Cada gave a lot of great tips when it came to interviewing. I think I learned the most listening to her personal stories from being out in the field. She shared heavy stories of what it was like to interview people after the Columbine shooting and a mother who had just lost her son. Then she also told us about interviewing a woman with a salt and pepper shaker collection, or a hardworking animal story. All of her stories and experiences gave me different ideas on how to interview different people for different situations. For my local angle story I interviewed a women who was against getting the vaccine, and asked her what she thought of mandatory vaccines. I had to be very careful not to show my personal bias, and ask her questions that would get thoughtful answers without making her feel attacked for her views. I learned a lot when I interviewed people with different perspectives than my own. I think I can do an even better job leaving personal bias out of the tone of my questions in the future.

Like I said, I had no news writing experience so I learned a lot about the different styles of articles. I learned about event stories, kabobs, hourglass stories, different beats, local angles, and profile stories. All of these different story styles were new to me. I think my favorite story was the profile story. This story gave me the opportunity to tell the story of an individual but make it my own in little ways. I think I could still get better at hourglass stories. I struggled a little bit to figure out this style, I remember it took me a while to write. With some more practice I think I could grow a lot when it comes to this writing style. I need to get out in the field and practice reporting different events so I can practice the hourglass style from diverse events.

Lastly, I learned how to write leads. This was another skill that did not come easily to me. In fact, writing the lead is still the hardest part of writing my stories. I think it’s so important to have a catching lead that draws the writer in. I think this is a skill that will get better with time. I learned that I can’t force a lead to work, I have to come up with something that sounds good but also fits my writing style. It sounds very odd when a lead doesn’t flow with the writer’s style. As I read more stories and write more stories I think I will grow a lot and develop my own style when it comes to writing leads. For me, it was the hardest to make my leads concise. I tend to want to include all the information, so I am still working on minimizing the information I include while still giving the facts I need.

I am so glad I took JTC-210 because it proved that I enjoy news writing and the process of journalism. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of learning how to write articles and interview people. I got better at AP style, quoting interviewees, interviewing, writing in different styles, and using leads. I learned so much over the past year and I’m so excited to see how I grow as a journalist over the years.

My first day of freshman year picture!! It flew by way too fast.