"Practice makes perfect:” What Journalism means to me

Written by: Elizabeth 

t the start of the year, I chose journalism as my enrichment honestly because nothing else looked interesting to me. So, coming into this, I didn’t expect to love journalism as much as I did. Writing articles is a form of expression for me, a way to dive deeper into my interests and create fully fleshed out pieces. I have loved the amount of creative freedom I had throughout the year with being able to choose my own topics. This has allowed me to learn what topics interest me, for example pop culture or fashion. 

To begin with, I didn’t really know anything about how to structure my articles and what areas to focus on within the article but over time I figured out my style. I then naturally began to develop my writing skills especially with the help of my friends reading my pieces from time to time and telling me their thoughts. 

But, what do I mean by my style? Obviously, each article is going to be slightly different because of the topics discussed, but there are some things I’ve found I do in many, many of my articles. For instance, in my titles I like to add a quote such as my article on Letterboxd which had the quote “Everyone is a critic” or my Star Wars article titled “All art is political.” I don’t actually know why I tend to do that, I think I just like finding a quote that exactly fits my vision for the piece. Another example is my use of rhetorical questions (as you can tell from the beginning of this paragraph.)  That one I do know why I do it, it helps me engage with you, the audience and to emphasis my points or to encourage reflection on my points. 

That’s enough about me, let me actually get to my point of giving advice to anyone who is interested in taking journalism next year or just interested in writing in general. My one piece of advice when you start off is write about anything and everything, find out what you like. Also, don’t let yourself shy away from writing because you think what you write is bad, that’s what a first draft is for! I  would especially encourage you to remember that your writing isn’t going to be perfect at the beginning but needless to say over time you will improve and you will develop critical thinking skills, editing skills, communication skills, research skills and more. I hope I’ve convinced you to start writing so go find a topic and just write because “Practice makes perfect.”