A Reflection on My Journalism Journey
When I first started this Journalism class, I did not have any experience or knowledge of journalism. I had no idea what was an inverted pyramid, an alternative style pyramid, leads, etc. This was my first year of college and I would say that I had no idea what to expect for this college year, but the more I engaged in this class, the more I learned so much in a short period of time.
When I was in high school, I had opportunities to learn more about Journalism, but for some reason, I did not have any interest in it. I believe I was more focused on getting good grades and getting at the top of the class that I lost focus on finding my passion. I have found that now that I have been introduced to journalism, I am interested in it more than ever.
Since this is my first Journalism class, I had found the information we were learning was sometimes difficult, and one of the writing skills I had found to be the most difficult to grasp was the interview. It is also something I need to practice more. I believe it was especially hard for me because I had to make sure that I could find an interesting story to write about. It was also hard for me to figure out how much information I needed for the story.
At the beginning of this semester, AP styles had been hard for me to grasp. But I was able to quickly understand the rules of using it. And that was all thanks to me continuously reading the AP style handbook and reviewing the notes the professor gave. I became more familiar with it after that but I still found myself forgetting the AP style in my writing sometimes.
However, the writing skill that I was able to master was the leads. I had found them to be difficult at first to write because I tend to write short sentences instead of making complex sentences. But I was able to get the hang of writing the how, when, what, who, etc. in one sentence. Also, in the beginning, I made simple mistakes as well. Nevertheless, I got the hang of it.
Thus, through this journalism journey, I had grown fond of the press release assignment. It was fun to write a short press release where I did not have to overelaborate to get my point across. It was straight to the point and it was also fun to create my little logo for the assignment. I also enjoyed the inverted assignment where I was able to piece together a story.
There was another assignment or writing skill I had enjoyed, but it also was difficult for me to grasp. And that was the interview assignment. It wasn’t a complicated assignment but I had found it hard to begin my search for a topic to write on my subject. So, I decided to ask questions about the Pandemic and ask if anything was interesting I should know about my partner. Ultimately, my idea worked but I was left with the problem of piecing the story together to make it interesting.
Hence, after this semester, I will continue to practice my skills to better myself by refreshing my memory and reading more news articles. Since the only way to not lose your abilities, you must continue to practice them. I will also make sure to review AP styles to further my understanding of journalism.
Overall, I would say this semester had taught me a lot about myself and my writing. Through this self-reflection, I can see what I need to improve on, how far I have come, and it has made me realize that no matter how well you know something, you still need to practice it to improve and refresh your memory.
