FALL 2019 REFLECTION
What I have learned on the Gazette staff this term
This term, I learned to appreciate journalism more than I had before. I grew a love for the Gazette. I started off the year resentful towards the GBHS journalism program because I had a bad experience in Intro to Journalism, but since joining the Gazette staff, it's become something I look forward to going to every day. Just by jumping straight into the experience of writing, I learned tricks to improve my journalistic writing and I learned to get better at AP style. One of the biggest things I learned to do was produce a well-written article in a short period of time given something didn't go as planned.
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An analysis of a specific piece of work
The very first story I wrote for the Gazette, 'GBHS band ‘chases UFOs’, was, for a first story, well written. However, there were certain things I could've done better. One thing I did struggle with throughout the semester that really showed in this piece was my disorganization when it came to getting quotes. The quotes that I had for the piece were rather scattered and hard to place, and it was even worse for other pieces. Another way this affected me was because it was difficult to find a way to tie the piece together, and I didn't have a good ending quote for the feature story. The ended turned out alright, but it didn't have quite the ending that I wish it had. So, my takeaway from this is that I need to be more organized with quotes and find ways to direct quotes towards the angle of the story better than what I've been doing.
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Goals/plans for the future
I definitely plan on continuing with the Gazette. I enjoy the program too much to quit here. I want to try becoming a senior editor, hopefully for my senior year, but we'll see how it goes. For my other writing projects, I hope to at least get a significant chunk of the book I'm writing done by the end of 2020 and start looking towards publishing. I've been working on the book for years and I feel like it's time to begin getting work done with it. If I end up publishing, it will definitely be my proudest accomplishment, however in order to publish and afford an illustration for the book, I'd need to raise a bit of money.
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Advice for newbies
Use spellcheck. Don't make the editor's job harder. Put genuine effort and interest into the stories you're writing and you'll become more passionate about your work than you might've been before.