Today it is our last day to be as a reporter in Columbia Missourian. I felt so happy. After all, I finally can have a good relax and be sad because I will miss our professors and classmates. Back to see my first assignment, I found I have improved a lot. So I want to write a blog regarding what I learn and earn in this class!
The first improvement I want to point out is that my writing skills have improved significantly. I remember that on the first day of the class, I was assigned to write a story based on the news release. At that time, I felt it was so hard to write about a 400-word story. However, now I can do a complicated assignment right now and write about a 1600-word story with minor edits. I am so happy to see a significant improvement and I feel a sense of achievement!
These experiences also made me braver. I was afraid of making phone calls as well as talking to strangers. But during this working session, I don’t have time to be scared and have to call people every day. Finally, I am surprised that I am not afraid to make phone calls and talk to strangers at all.
Here are some suggestions I want to give to other students who are willing to take these courses:
- Be persistent to contact sources
- Be brave to ask from editors
- Never hesitant to contact others via email or phone (because sometimes sources will give you responses at the specific time, please contact people as early as possible)
- Do research before every single story, including simple stories
- Have a good relax on weekends if you are not on-call reporters
- Stop working after a specific time if possible
- When feel stuck, take some time to have a break
This course is very challenging, but I managed to go through it! Thanks to all my professors and TAs who worked with me. They were so nice and could always encourage me to write complicated issues. I have learned a lot from more experienced journalists. I hope in the future I could still have other opportunities to work with them!
Larissa Gao 