Three Months at a College Newspaper. What did I Learn?

Covering news on the Opinion Section at USF Oracle over the summer is for sure the most stressful yet rewarding time with the team. It is my first official writing job in college, and so holds a special place in my heart.

Here are five things I learned from the Correspondent position so far:

Be prepared to read a LOT

And by that, I mean a WHOLE lot.

I try to read and gather information from a wide range of newspapers and sources to deliver the most objective and comprehensive angle. 

This took me up to 2-3 days just reading and exploring different journalists’ take on the news, but from which I discovered the most logical approach to the topic at hand.

 Note down comments and feedback

It is easy to make the same mistake over and again, losing you invaluable time in the copy-editing period. I made this mistake at the beginning, so made sure to note down any notable advice from the editors moving forward to avoid wasting time.

Make it your daily routine

A news-writer’s job is never done.

I scramble through every newspaper and magazine you can possibly find on the Internet. I go about creating a logical and engaging article structure, before carrying out another round of research and deep reading into specific topics.

I pitch my angle to the head editors, (hopefully) get my idea approved, and try to brace myself against a storm of writing, heavy copy-editing, taking feedback from editors and doing a second, third or fourth edits before (again hopefully) getting my article published.

I am relieved to finally be done with work soon before realizing that it is time for another pitch meeting that same week. Every step of the cycle above returns to me.

As such, it is important to learn to incorporate the daily work at the newspaper into your daily routine. This will help you make sure all the work is done on time to move harmoniously with the fast-paced industry culture.

The first few weeks might be hard, but once you have gotten the gist of it, the “words” are your oyster.

Write without fear

My first week at the Opinion section was definitely scary. I had to deliver my personal take on controversial issues and was afraid to spark negative impressions and hate from others.

My first ever article to be published was on the global K-pop phenomenon BTS. I still remember vividly sitting on edge at the moment of its publication, fearing the judgements and hate of BTS fans against my opinion on their meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.

I later stumbled upon this quote: “Write what you believe – believe what you write,” and have been constantly reminding myself of it every time I open the writing tab.

Writing without fear helps me learn to believe in myself and has opened up the opportunity to deliver my authentic viewpoint to the world in a fearless manner.

Edit without Mercy

I felt sad deleting whole chunks of my own writing in the early days as a correspondent.

There were pieces I condensed into grafs after hours spent on research and editing, yet still got omitted entirely in the end.

I learned to NOT take it personally and understand how merciless copy-editing would help me perfectly deliver my essential angle to readers. That is how my works start to become much clearer and more concise as time goes by.

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