Journalism: Unlocking New Skills
A lot was learned, and new interests were discovered throughout the semester.
By Nick Scarfo
Time sure does seem to go by fast. It feels like yesterday we all came together for the first the first time in Decary 204. After sitting through classes, writing papers, and even having to deal with ramifications from a worldwide pandemic, here we all are at the end of the semester.
Before taking Journalism, I knew two things about the subject, one, journalism is the news, and two, I was interested and wanted to do it. However, during the course of the semester, myself and my classmates learned new things about journalism, and honed our skills to become better journalists. The class also opened the door for my classmates and I to further practice the skills we learned by joining The Bolt staff and being a part of that rebranding process.
Kole Lentini, a junior communications major is one of those students whose thoughts about journalism changed and expanded over the course of the semester. Lentini enjoyed one aspect of the class that opened his mind to new thoughts and ideas,
“I loved the overall group editing and workshopping process and seeing the class come together and grow a mutual respect amongst each other. You got a wide range of views and opinions and it presents you with a lot of options in revising your piece,” said Lentini.
Fellow student Harry Wardwell had similar thoughts about the environment of the class,
“I enjoyed the collaborative aspects of it the most. The round table set up we had going really worked for the format in which the class was being taught. I very much enjoyed analyzing articles and conducting peer review workshops,” said Wardwell.
The workshopping periods and the ability to speak openly about our work and the work of our peers, allowed for more ideas and information to float around on a daily basis. You could observe that we were getting more comfortable with our classmates as revisions got more and more detailed.
I found my ability to revise other people’s writing improved throughout the various workshopping periods we had. By reading other people’s ideas I could improve my writing skills by observing the techniques shared by my classmates. Since I have done journalistic writing in the past, it was easier for me to apply those skills.
For some, the experience was new, “My writing skills definitely improved. I haven’t written anything like journalism before, using quotes in an essay is much different than doing the same in an article,” said Wardwell.
Others displayed writing skills that they didn’t even know they had, and largely went untapped before taking the class, “I definitely improved upon my descriptive writing ability. I found out that I’m pretty good at setting the scene and painting a picture for the reader and it was nice to see myself hone that as the class went on,” said Lentini.
The class clearly impacted students like Kole and Harry, who decided to continue practicing journalism outside the classroom.
Information gathering is an essential element of journalism, and that played out in class assignments. We were asked to interview multiple sources to enhance credibility of a story, and to back up statements made by the reporter.
Despite only having a semester of experience practicing journalism, Harry learned the importance of some elements of journalism, ““I plan to use the information gathering skills I learned as well as maintaining journalistic integrity,” said Wardwell. “Throughout this class it struck me just how important it is to provide true information that has been validated with a source.”
The class taught us early on how important skills such as gathering information and creating images from your writing are important aspects of journalism. Clearly students have been impacted by the class, despite all that has happened, as they continue to take lessons learned and apply them to their work for The Bolt, or for other work in general.
