Keep a journal or log of your activities. Start a blog. Offer to help your friends and relatives by completing writing tasks to help them with work or self-promotion. For example, create a short newsletter for your club or church.
Double-check for homophones and often-confused words that might not show up on a spellcheck. Familiarize yourself with the Associated Press style guide. Use online resources like Purdue’s OWL and Grammar Bytes to improve your grammar.
Choose a style to emulate, or experiment by writing the same story in different writing styles. Outline an article that you think is formatted well, and write your own article in the same format. Use sample texts to practice new ways of writing, but make sure that you don’t try to pass off someone’s writing or unique style as your own.
Practice by setting a time limit for yourself to complete writing tasks. When your time is up, stop writing, even if you’re not finished. Assess your performance to see if you’re meeting your goals. Try to improve each time you do the exercise.
Join a writing group that does regular critiques. You’ll get help from people who know what they’re talking about and meet other writers. Look for a group on social media or http://www. meetup. com.
You can take a basic writing course or one that’s targeted to a specific area. You may want to take classes outside of journalism to help you build different skills. Try https://www. edx. org/ for free classes from elite colleges and universities.
Stay close to your mentors, teachers, and fellow students because you never know when that person could help you with a story or a job. Use social media, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, to stay connected to people. Talk to people you meet. For example, share small talk with people who are sitting at the same table as you are in a coffee shop, sharing your elevator, or waiting in the same line as you are. Say, “Is this your first time coming here?”
When you contact your idol, explain that you are pursuing journalism and use their work as an example of good journalism. You could say, “As a developing journalist, I consider your work to be a model of the work I aspire to produce. ” Tell your idol your purpose for contacting them so that they know that you aren’t just sending fanmail. You could say, “I hope that by following you and your work that I can reach the same levels of success that you have. ”
Don’t compare yourself to others; instead, focus on being who you are and sharing that with the world. When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts about yourself, turn the thought around and make it positive. It’s normal to think bad thoughts about yourself sometimes, so don’t feel bad about it. Tell yourself, “I have important and interesting things to share with the world,” or “I’m just as valuable as anyone else. ”
Make yourself more marketable by expanding your technical skills. Knowing how to use more programs, do basic coding, and use creative software will help you get your voice out there and will make you more marketable. If possible, beat your deadlines. While you don’t want to rush your work, you do want to provide your publisher with a speedy product so that your article will be timely.
When you’re faced with sacrifices, ask yourself what’s more important to you. Ask, “Where do I want to be in five years? How will this sacrifice impact my five-year goal?”
Consider getting a degree in something other than journalism to make you a more informed writer. If you want to cover world events, consider studying languages.
For example, if someone tells you that they knew the subject of your story when they were in college, make sure they were really in college together.
For example, don’t take payments from a source or a subject of an article. If you are writing an investigative article about a corporation, you’ll lose your independence if you allow them to hire you for freelance work during your investigation. If you have someone who gives you inside information about the local crime beat, keep a professional relationship with that person. If you start to get too personal, then you may unknowingly have a bias toward them. If you get too close to a source, you can always ask them to help you find a new one so that your information stays independent.
If you get turned down for an internship, contact the employer to ask if you can still submit a story or two for consideration.
