[Journalists] About writing for school newspapers

Wed Feb 24 01:32:02 UTC 2010

Hi:

I am a sportswriter for a website.
I would definitely read, read, read...that has helped me tremendously.
I am a college student...and I know how you feel...I often doubt
myself and compare myself to others and think my writing is not that
great but you've gotta just try your best and work through it.
I would also definitely use spell-check and also when you are finished
with your story, after it is spell-checked, read it over using your
screenreader or a braille display. Often, when you do this, you find
errors you've missed that spell-check didn't catch or sometimes you
come across sentences with words you need to change that may make the
story sound better.

Also, consider yourself one of the equals on the team...work on what
you think your strengths and weaknesses are...don't let blindness
stand in your way or think you have to do things better or worse
because of your blindness!!

Everyone I work with is sighted too...and I am in a bunch of clubs
including RTNDA, and SPJ and a group for women who work in sports
media called AWSM...everyone is sighted.
There are certainly blind journalists out there but it is definitely a
predominantly sighted profession if you know what I mean by that.

Hope this helps!
Kerri

On 2/23/10, Elizabeth Campbell <batescampbell at charter.net> wrote:
> Hello Barbara and other listers,
>
> I workk for a daily newspaper,and we are required to run a spellcheck on our
> stories before we submit them to our editors.
> Even then, spellcheckers don't catch all of the errors, especially on
> unusual names or terms. So, it is always best to "tripple check" as we say.
> I think it's great that we've got a high school student on this list.
> The list caters to people on all levels, from students to professionals.
> Our goal is to share ideas and methods of accomplishing our goals and moving
> forward with our careers.
>
> Liz Campbell
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barbara Pierce" <bpierce at oberlin.net>
> To: "'Blind Professional Journalists List'" <journalists at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 7:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [Journalists] About writing for school newspapers
>
>
>> 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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