A beginners Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 10 (final chapter)

What to Expect On Your First Job

When you get your first job as a journalist, do not expect to make much money. I have already told you about my first job. Although I stayed with the paper after graduation and was brought into the office as a full time employee, I still wasn’t making much money. I found out that everyone in the news room was in the same boat. Journalism, at least on the smaller scale levels, does not pay
very well.

A beginners Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 9

Online journalism is the way of the future

Online journalism is the way of the future and needs to be acknowledged by anyone who is seriously considering pursuing a career in this field. Many traditional newspapers are having a hard time maintaining their circulation due to the fact that people can get their news right on the internet, and much quicker than they could if they waited for the latest edition of the paper. We are gradually moving towards the internet for the latest news and the traditional newspapers are being left in the dust.

A beginners Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 8

                                                    Additional Degrees To Consider

After you have achieved your BA in journalism, you may want to consider furthering your education. You can choose to embark on getting a post graduate degree and get a Master’s Degree in Arts if you want to open up more doors for yourself. These days, a Bachelor’s Degree is like a high school diploma used to be 20 years ago. If you want to go far in any career field, you should consider getting a post graduate degree in that field, including journalism.

A beginners Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 7

What Does A Copy Editor Do?

A copy editor goes over your work, corrects style errors and also makes sure there are no grammatical errors or spelling. In some cases, especially when you are first starting out, the copy editor will rewrite certain parts of your story. They will make sure that the article makes sense and conforms with the media for which it is written.

Many papers today are asking writers to do their own copy editing. This is the same when it comes to some online venues. As news and entertainment media are trying to trim their budgets, many are cutting out copy editing as much as possible.

A beginners Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - What Is Style?

Style allows for all writing to be consistent. There are two main style guides that most papers use. They are the Associated Press Style Guide and the Chicago Style Guide. They have to do with using commas, what to capitalize, writing out numbers and other matters of form. It is desirable for any media to use the same style as it makes everything more consistent and easier to read. Here is an example of poor style:

On Friday, April 23, 2008, John Smith stole 12 oranges from Gallo’s Supermarket. Smith was arrested and detained on three charges for stealing the twelve oranges. In addition to oranges, Smith also stole apples, tomatoes, and pears.
Henry Gallo, owner of Gallo’s supermarket stated that he saw Smith look at the oranges, apples, tomatoes and pears and looked like he was considering theft. He watched him pick up 3 apples but put them down. The he stole the twelve oranges……
You can get the picture. The story does not use commas, capitalization or numbers consistently. This is just an example of style and how it works. It can be difficult to read an article that is not consistent when it comes to style. Nothing is wrong with the facts of the article, but it is difficult to read because it does not follow a certain type of style.

If you are in college, you are most likely being taught a different style of writing than you learned in high school. Some colleges have their own style guides. Many writing jobs, especially those online, will not want two spaces after a period. This is standard when you are learning how to type, or keyboard as it is now called, but there are many online outlets that do not want the two spaces after the end of a sentence. This is for space reasons and is also a style issue.

Commas are very subjective, although some people go a little comma happy and use them too often. Some do not use them at all. Commas break up a train of thought in a sentence. For the most part, it is difficult to what is right or what is wrong. But when it comes to writing for print media or online, you need to understand their style manual so that you know how to use commas as well as other elements of style.
Many copy editors will go over style for you and make corrections. But it is important to learn about writing styles and what to use when you are writing for any company. While you are in school, you will most likely be taught AP style as this has become the most accepted style.

Learning style points is not difficult. At first, if you are used to using a certain type of style, you may find that it is hard to change the way that you are used to writing based on a new style guide, but as you continue writing, you will find that it gets easier and become more natural. In order to pursue a career in journalism, you are going to have to be flexible when it comes to style and be careful to use it according to the style manual used by the company for which you work.

One way to brush up on your style is to pay close attention to the details given to you when it comes to turning in college essays. Most college professors will mark off for style errors, especially if you are a journalism major. While some writers do not like this bit of detail, it is crucial to understand style, why it is used and how to use it for your own writing. Again, the more you get used to the style, the more natural writing using a certain style will come to you. It may take a bit of effort at first, but it will soon become second nature to you.

Next:Chapter 7 What Does A Copy Editor Do?

A beginners Guide to Becoming A Journalist Chapter 5

Building A Portfolio

Earlier, we talked about a portfolio and how important it is to have one. Your education will not get you in the door unless you have some experience to back it up. Fortunately, there are ways we discussed that will enable you to write even if you do not have your degree and get your name out there.

There are two ways to build a portfolio of your writing samples and you should use both of them if you are gong to look for jobs in journalism. Just like a resume, the portfolio needs to be updated often. You never know when you are going to need to look for a job, so it makes sense to have a resume and portfolio ready to go.

A beginners Guide To Becoming a Journalist Chapter 4

The Rules Of Journalism

Earlier, I talked about the rules of journalism. That your stories need to be timely. That they have to be fact checked. That they have to be unbiased. Other rules are not to fall in love with your own work and, of course, to always quote your sources. At one time or another, I broke all of these rules. I’m going to give you examples of the rules, how I broke them and what should be done in the same situation.