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This is a photograph of the actual physical front page story that I wrote about the successful Internet poet. I was both proud and excited to have my first feature story published on the front page!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
A Man of Many Words
This is a photograph of the actual physical front page story that I wrote about the successful Internet poet. I was both proud and excited to have my first feature story published on the front page!
Feature Writing vs. Hard-Hitting Writing
Those that have been reporting for even a short time know there is a harsh difference between feature and hard-hitting news writing. Working for the Student Life desk at Central Michigan Life, I've been exposed to both forms, each taking a little while to get the hang of.
Feature writing is so much more fun and energetic in my opinion. I can make a creative story using any angle I want. I've found that through interviews and story formulation, you can discover more about your creative writing abilities than you ever knew possible through the outlet of feature writing. Below is a link to my first front-page feature story I wrote on an Internet poet success story - an amazing guy and so fun to work with.
CMU alum becomes successful Internet poet
Hard-hitting news is much different and is almost formulaic in the way it is produced. The who, what, when, where, why and how are the most important aspects and it's guaranteed that they'll all have their own graph with a lead and some quotes placed intermittently. It's almost like creating a puzzle with a different picture, but all the pieces are identical as every other puzzle. You know just where to find them and right where they fit, but each time a new story is being told. That's not to say I don't like news writing - I actually love it. Producing news and letting the masses know important information is one of the key responsibilities of a newspaper and individually, the reporters themselves. While regular news writing can be formulaic, that's not to say you can't spice it up and add a little of your own writing style into it, as long as the facts are being conveyed accurately.
Below is a link to a news story I wrote about a Unified Sports soccer league that combined Special Olympics athletes with Central Michigan University students to create a unified team. While it was event coverage (and thus, more of a hard news story), I took more of an emotional approach to appeal to more readers.
Unified Sports
Feature writing is so much more fun and energetic in my opinion. I can make a creative story using any angle I want. I've found that through interviews and story formulation, you can discover more about your creative writing abilities than you ever knew possible through the outlet of feature writing. Below is a link to my first front-page feature story I wrote on an Internet poet success story - an amazing guy and so fun to work with.
CMU alum becomes successful Internet poet
Hard-hitting news is much different and is almost formulaic in the way it is produced. The who, what, when, where, why and how are the most important aspects and it's guaranteed that they'll all have their own graph with a lead and some quotes placed intermittently. It's almost like creating a puzzle with a different picture, but all the pieces are identical as every other puzzle. You know just where to find them and right where they fit, but each time a new story is being told. That's not to say I don't like news writing - I actually love it. Producing news and letting the masses know important information is one of the key responsibilities of a newspaper and individually, the reporters themselves. While regular news writing can be formulaic, that's not to say you can't spice it up and add a little of your own writing style into it, as long as the facts are being conveyed accurately.
Below is a link to a news story I wrote about a Unified Sports soccer league that combined Special Olympics athletes with Central Michigan University students to create a unified team. While it was event coverage (and thus, more of a hard news story), I took more of an emotional approach to appeal to more readers.
Unified Sports
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Social Media is the Future.
Just today, I've already learned how to use three different forms of social media, one of which I had never heard of. This just proves that not only is social media a tool for personal and professional communication, but it is a tool that encourages learning and development. Whether you're a small business, a large corporation or run a one-man-show type of business, social media can always help grow and develop your business through promotions and advertising, exposure and it can be used as a tool to increase efficiency.
Today, learning about the benefits of Vimeo and Google+ (both of which I had heard of, but never knew how to use) was awesome! Vimeo allows you to see/share/like videos of all kinds and gives a kind of support to video and audio that YouTube cannot provide. Google+, which is similar to Facebook, gives users an opportunity to see and share information for social or professional reasons.
It's clear that social media is the future - and it's true what they say; if you don't use social media to your advantage, you're only missing out on a great opportunity to further your success.
Today, learning about the benefits of Vimeo and Google+ (both of which I had heard of, but never knew how to use) was awesome! Vimeo allows you to see/share/like videos of all kinds and gives a kind of support to video and audio that YouTube cannot provide. Google+, which is similar to Facebook, gives users an opportunity to see and share information for social or professional reasons.
It's clear that social media is the future - and it's true what they say; if you don't use social media to your advantage, you're only missing out on a great opportunity to further your success.
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