[Journalists] About writing for school newspapers

Thu Feb 25 22:38:33 UTC 2010

Hi:

This is really interesting.
I cover college sports mainly basketball and football so I listen to
the games on the radio and I understand those sports enough that I do
okay.
But your way sounds really interesting and maybe something I should
investigate more.

Kerri

On 2/24/10, Corbb O'Connor <corbbo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I'm a senior at The George Washington University in DC, and am
> currently interning for NBC News. While I agree with everyone who has
> responded to you so far, I'd like to add another idea.
>
> When I served as the Managing Editor for my high school yearbook, the
> Editor in Chief and I asked all of our staff writers to cover two
> sports teams each season. Editors, because of their extra
> responsibilities, only had to cover one sport. I was nervous about
> covering a sports team...I mean, as a blind guy, I thought, how can I
> describe the most suspenseful moments of a game or match when I can't
> see it? Part of my trepidation, too, was that I'm not much of a sports
> nut. Far from it, actually, unless it involves the Chicago Cubs.
>
> But I found a solution: I interviewed the teams and covered stories
> that were interesting to even the non-sports fans. Sometimes that was
> about how the team connects with one another. Another story was about
> how the boys gymnastics team, despite competing in individual events,
> used their practices to coach and support one another as they learned
> new routines. Sure, I had to work in some of the competition stuff,
> but to get those details, I interviewed the coaches, players, and
> spectators afterwards. I asked them to describe the most suspenseful
> moments. From my cane, and later guide dog, they knew I was blind, so
> they were happy to help. That reporting, too, made the stories
> stronger, because I had the chance to get more connected with my
> sources who, in turn, gave me more story ideas.
>
> I encourage you to do the same, and to write me anytime with questions
> about high school journalism...or professional journalism for that
> matter!
>
> Best of luck,
> Corbb O'Connor
>
> On Feb 23, 2010, at 8:32 PM, Kerri Kosten wrote:
>
> 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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>>
>>
>>
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>
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