[Journalists] About writing for school newspapers

[Barbara Pierce]

You should not presume that the sighted students have strengths that you do
not because of blindness. You apologized for your spelling errors, and I
suspect that you connect poor spelling with blindness. If you are not a
Braille reader, that may be the case, but you can overcome the problem if
you decide to work on it. I never send out an email without running my
spellchecker on the text. Certainly articles should not be turned in without
very careful proofing and checking of the spelling. I feel certain that
other members of the newspaper staff struggle with spelling as well, so do
not excuse yourself or presume helplessness in dealing with poor spelling
because of blindness. 

I suspect that English is not your first language. Nothing but reading a lot
of well-written English will help you with the finer points of grammar and
syntax. I hope that you use NEWSLINE. That is your best hope for exposing
yourself to the best journalists writing today.

Barbara Pierce

-----Original Message-----
From: journalists-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:journalists-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of hmp
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 8:03 PM
To: journalists at nfbNet.org
Subject: [Journalists] About writing for school newspapers

Hello to all in this list: I'm sure the majority of you are all 
journalists. I need some advice for writing stories on my school 
newspaper.
I'm not a professional journalist, though I write for a high 
school newspaper. I am a staff writer. I write articles for 
Eisenhower High School which is the name of my school in Yakima, 
WA, and the name of my school newspaper (kind of small) is the 
Five Star.
I'm not sure if this list is appropriate for non-professional 
journalists, or for starters, but please apologize me if this is 
not appropriate for the list, and/or because I'm not a 
professional journalist I am not suppose to write on this list. 
Anyways, I need some advice, I'm pretty sure that you all have 
experiences. I write and when I join my group every day, I am 
surrounded by sighted people, all my fellow staff writers are 
sighted. I am actually in a Journalism class in which I join and 
participate daily. We are very independent, but we have a pretty 
nice adviser.
Anyways, because everybody in my class/Journalism club is sighted 
except for me, I would like to know something:
As a blind journalist, what things do I have to know, such as 
strengths, or things I should consider doing more or less than my 
other fellow partners? What things do I have to work on better or 
less? I understand all of what journalism implies now that I 
joined the class, such as how to interview, to give a voice to 
the public, about the freedom of press and etc. All I need is to 
know these things and if someone can advice me that'll be great. 
Also, any suggestions will be always very appreciated. Sorry if I 
have many spelling errors. But thanks.

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