Thursday, October 10, 2013

What I learned - Sean Doty

When you're writing an article or column, statistics can be just as important, if not more important than quotes themselves. When I was writing my article about CLEP exams, I found difficulty in trying to put good quotes within my article, primarily because it sounded too much like an advertisement instead of an informative article. But with the statistics that I was able to uncover online towards the end of the deadline, I was able to help boost my story on the informative side. The old cliché is that "Numbers Never Lie." That may not always be true, but they certainly can be a major boost.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Learning is accepting personal failures

Issue no. 2 reflections


By Melissa B. Merkler

Hi Friends,

My only intention when I signed up for this class was to have fun and write a few articles for the college newspaper. It was something to put on my resume. Little did I know that one class could drastically change my life. I am now questioning my educational future and considering changing my degree from psychology to English.

On a less dramatic scale, I called Alaska for the first time. (haha) I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard the voice on the other end. Granted it was only a voicemail, for some reason I think I was expecting some strange accent. However, my roundabout source just sounded like a regular guy.

InDesign is becoming easier to maneuver. I also downloaded Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop which I plan to learn to use and incorporate into my art and photography. I'm dreading when my free trial ends because the cloud service is $30 a month. But at least it's tax deductible.

I have learned patience is a key ingredient to publishing a college newspaper. In addition, communication, trust, respect and timeliness are extremely important attributes that lend to being a successful journalist and person in general.

Lastly, I am learning how to break old habits such as using too many comma's and "that's." And "said" is the most effective way of writing a person's quote even though it's so boring.

In closing I have learned that people will do what they want to do regardless of scholarly advice and friendly suggestions. In my opinion a closed-minded person will not go far in this world. No one is perfect (except Jesus) and everyone can always improve themselves. Learning means accepting your failures and faults and not repeating them.

Until next time,

Melissa B. Merkler
EIC

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

What I learned Issue 2 George Rivera

These past few weeks there have been many new things introduced, but my focus has been on self-advertisement and internet identity. While I still do press on with my writing and learning of the proper format, I have been more concerned lately with advertising myself online and am coming to understand how important it is to make yourself known. I have also been focusing on the little things we have been doing in InDesign and outside of class. I have been taking an interest in photojournalism and perhaps will be looking to supplement my writing with my own photos if I can get my hands on a proper camera.

What I learned - Joseph Meadows

I've learned that strict adherence to rules and such make it easy to get around them at times. I'm learning that for me editorializing is much harder for me to avoid and I have to pay attention to that aspect constantly. It's difficult because I'm very opinionated. It's getting easier for me to use InDesign but still a challenge to write as few words as possible whilst still getting my point across. Another thing that's challenging is understanding what is important to people and not just me. Trying to seek out stories that matter is hard but all in all it's getting to be a more fluid process for me. Which is encouraging.

What I Learned Issue #2 - Joey Metych

1)Leave the Recorder On: When finishing up an interview I realized that some people gave me better quotes after I had ran through all my written questions and was just having a conversation with them. Once you turn the recorder on, leave it on!
2)Anticipate the shot(sports photos): Trying to take sports photos for the paper the first time was a little bit of a challenge for me...I consistently was a second or two late when attempting to get the perfect shot. When action shots are involved as with sports, you must anticipate the action or motion that will occur.

What I Learned ~ Carissa May

Well, let's see...I learned that once you know the rules of journalism and have practiced them a bit (hence the strict guidelines for the first article) you can start to bend the rules a little bit AS LONG AS everything is fact, quotes are correct, and sources are accurate. After the first article I felt more confident when writing my second one. Plus, it helped that I had a very specific goal for my article topic because there were several different ways my story could have gone, but I chose the one that would probably benefit students more (which happened to be the one in which information and facts could be easily accessed). I still struggled with writing a good nutgraf, which is one thing I really hope to improve on for the rest of the semester. My second article seemed a lot easier to write and it's given me more confidence for my next one.

Monday, October 7, 2013

What I learned

I think the most important thing I learned this time around was that even though it seems annoying to just randomly ask if you can interview someone, it's actually not. People are more than willing to talk and have their voices heard and I just loved my article this time because it didn't feel forced. I had all the information I needed just by letting the people I talked to... talk!
I also took my experience from the last issue and made sure I wasn't as crammed as last time. Deadline means have it checked a thousand times before the day and have it ready ASAP. There was also a lot less copy editing done to my paper this time because I learned what I did wrong last time.
More later!
-Leyla

What I learned

There has been many things I've learned that I didn't expect to learn in this course. The smallest of details are the most important. The setting, the way the source looks, just the whole environment of the situation can really make the story come alive without the readers physically being there. Also leaving your personal information with the sources you interview is vital! In case they have to get in contact with you or vice versa, communication is key to a successful interview with someone. Another thing is that it is very difficult to write the same time that your source is talking. You don't want an awkward pause in between asking questions but you can't continue until you've written the quote you need. Also it may seem easy writing an article considering you've read them since young, but once you write it, there are so many rules and formulas to write a great article that really captures the audiences attention. Interviews aren't as scary as I imagined, they are actually really fun, it's just the writing down what the source has said that is the scary part. Thankfully, I haven't encountered a bad interview yet, but I'm sure once that comes about there will be more things to learn from that situation and interviews to follow.
-Tiffany Rosario

Christina Fleming What I Learned edition 2

When writing the feature story over Mrs. Weldon I learned a new way of writing. When I was writing the story it was originally coming off as a biography instead of an actual feature stroy. Then, I went back through and listened to the interview I had with Mrs. Weldon and I had to pick out all the important things I thought people would truly find interesting. Another thing I learned was how true it is that the more people you interview the better your credibility is. When writing the feature story I kept hearing the same things about Mrs. Weldon from each person I spoke to about her and it made me more confident in what I was writing.
I also learned that you cannot rely on anyone else to be a source for your work because people do forget, backout and change their minds. I had a situation where I was supposed to interview someone several times and each time that person did not show up.
Thus, I cannot wait to write another feautre story in the future, and I will use what I learned from this one to make it better!
--Christina Fleming

Continuing to learn- Eric Anderson

With my first article going to print I wanted to follow up on my experience and what I have learned. I could have never imagined the time consuming process that goes into an article.  Most of us take for granted the amount of steps that go into getting one article printed let alone those who on a regular basis work multiple stories.  When I first came up with a story idea I thought this is not going to be very hard. Ha, needless to say it is a lot more difficult than most people will anticipate. As said in many of the blogs short and to the point is the idea. Writers tend to throw in a lot of fluff words, a lot of expensive words and we tend to use words that we would use when writing a novel or short story. Writing an article is much different and at the end of the article that was very evident.
The design was somewhat more challenging.  InDesign editing software is another beast in itself. If a person is not familiar with the software like myself, than there is a lot of catching up to do. The software is amazing; however for me it was a whole new experience. Fortunately I had a lot of help in the class and hope that in the future I will have a better understanding of all of its unique features.