3001 Reflection
At the beginning of the semester I really didn’t know what to expect from this class due to COVID-19 (which I now learned is supposed to be used exactly like I used it upon reference and then anything that relates to the pandemic is the coronavirus pandemic and the virus can be referred to as COVID). One thing that I learned is you should always have an idea for a story and start to think in terms of stories. After taking this class, everyone that I met or talked to whether it was my best friends or a stranger I had never met. If they said something interesting I would always think to myself “could I turn this into a story?” It’s also a good idea to always have a backup plan and be creative in your reporting because you won’t be able to talk to everyone that you want to every single story. I also think that coming into this semester I had a pretty good idea of what my story style was when it comes to the way that I write and the topics that I want to cover. Something that I really tried to do throughout the semester was pick stories that people want to read and try to bring life into a story and actually put the reader inside of the story, all while remaining as unbiased as possible.
Some of the ways that I believed that I have evolved as a writer is I am a more comfortable with AP style. I think AP style is something that you can only really learn by just getting those reps. I do think that I came in a little bit set in my ways because I used to work for The Bark my freshman year and being at UMD Athletics for a year in there as well has lead to me developing habits that can be hard to break. I do think that I broke some of those bad habits this semester. For example, coming in it was harder for me to write stuff that wasn't just the quote. I think I have done a better job at setting up the quote and overall just telling the story without myself being in the story.
Article 1: Dating during covid
I think the biggest strength in this article is the topic and the headline (I’m really proud of the headline), because I think that if you see the headline it makes the average reader want to click on it because that kind of content is what people love. I for sure could have been stronger in reporting here because I kind of fell back on people that I knew. I didn’t make the same mistake the rest of the semester however.
Article 2: Election story
I thought that my reporting on this piece was the strongest piece because of how long it took to find people who actually weren’t planning to vote and the measures that I took in posting on my Snapchat story to find people. Something that I wish I would of had in this story is more outside research about voting percentages in Minnesota and college students and maybe a little bit of better quotes.
Article 3: Super One Profile(link in canvas) It wouldn't work on medium
I thought that the strongest part of this piece was the overall storytelling mixed in with the facts from outside sources. As far as the writing aspect goes I thought this was my best piece of having a topic and putting the best possible outcome into the form of a respectable piece. The only thing I thought I could of done better was I think there was a more interesting story out there I could of told. Not saying this was a bad story, but I could of looked for a better one.
As far as new goals, I really would like to become a better writer in general of just telling the story. I feel like I have the reporting capability, the charisma and vocabulary to make a piece come alive. I just feel like I am missing that last piece (which is probably the most important one) of being able to tell the story in the most efficient and interesting way possible.