Project #2

Our online publication The Grand River Gazette proved to be an interesting experience. Before the Gazette, I had never written in an online publication and didn't realize all of the work that  goes into making it happen.  The main fact that I realized is that everyone on the team has to be on the same page.  Through that assignment I truly learned about team work.  In order for the publication to turn out decent and enjoyable to read and look at, everyone has to do their part.  Some wrote stories, had multimedia and help make the website. Without Stephanie Defever, our publication would not have been possible.  I'm not even sure of all that she did to put it together to make it work, but I know that it involved long hours at her job working to produce The Grand River Gazette.  While I produced my stories, she made sure they made them on the Gazette.  All in all, everyone worked together to make our very own online publication for the first time in JRN 305.

GRG

Producing the Grand River Gazette for class was fun. I enjoy being on news staff's and turning the classroom into one was a good experience.

When comparing this class to another writing class JRN 200 or 300, this one was more relaxed and we worked together to put together something we can be proud of instead of having a bunch of stories that just get graded. The class was able to work together through ideas and reporting with a final product. The production of a publication although it was not physically tangible, was out there in cyberspace published for anyone to read.

The publication idea also was a way for us to apply our skills that we had learned over the semester. Editing each others work really allowed us to practice our editing skills and learn from our mistakes when we write.

Producing the website was a feat, but I enjoyed it and am glad that I could produce something the class liked. It also tested my design skills and now I have the website as an accomplishment, for my resume and as a skill set.

Graded Exercise

My feelings about the graded exercise for class where we created our own website to be mixed.  First the bad.  It was more stories that I had to write on top of my normal workload, which includes two other journalism classes, so needless to say I was swamped.  On top of all this I am an inherently lazy individual, so the prospect of any work generally fills me with a sense of loathing for the class, school, and life in general.

Before  get too morbid, let me also explain the good.  I did at the end of the day enjoy working on these articles.  I believe part of the reason I enjoyed working on them so much more than articles for my other classes is that I felt they would be graded and judged more by my own peers than by a professor.  This relieved some tension I normally feel when I turn in an article for, say Jane Briggs-Bunting.  I dread turning in those articles.  With regard to my first story about pets, it was an added bonus because I played with animals for the majority of the time I was working on the story.  The best was this cat named Bowie who is less than a year old and is so energetic I feel that the owner might be feeding it amphetamines.  The other writing was an article about thanksgiving which was genuinely fun to write.  For me, thats rare.  So there.  I enjoyed it.  And my drawing which should see the light of day soon. 

GRG Edition 2

In keeping with the theme of this week, I'd like to give thanks for having really good writers and editors to have my back in this class.  Everyone has so much more experience in print and I'm lucky that my stories can go through someone to clean it up.  I get really frustrated because I feel so out of touch with campus, but I think I found stories that worked, that I could relate to and apply to campus.  I don't like to be bad at things, so it's hard knowing that my stories are lacking, but focusing on the positive, I think that collectively a very good publication was produced.  If nothing else this project has affirmed that while I like writing and the English language in general, investigating and interviewing is just not my strong suit.

Grand River Gazette

I didn't know what to expect from our group projects, but I think they went well. It can be difficult to have a 10 person team working on the same project and I think we did a nice job writing our stories and making two professional-looking publications. 

The aspect of our project I was most proud of was the teamwork. A few people volunteered for big roles and that was important to our success. There weren't any fights and we got everything done on time that needed to be finished. 

The hardest part was coming up with stories ideas. If there were to be another issue of the Grand River Gazette, we would need to come up with better ideas and create a better flow within the publication.

Overall, I think it turned out great! 

Learning from group project

From working on the Grand River Gazette, I've learned to deal with a new set of deadlines. Although I've had deadlines for class articles before, I've focused on copy editing instead of reporting. To get things done on time so they can be put on the Web site, and include multimedia, which I've never done before, was a good experience. It was a project where we could all work together, and putting out a class news site is different than anything I've ever done. I also liked the group editing we did. To edit each other's articles and see what kind of editing others were doing helped me learn more about what to look for.

Class Project

For our project, the biggest thing I feel it gave us was the closest thing to a real world experience within the classroom, which is something that's valuable but difficult to achieve. It really forced accountability on our part because we weren't just writing for ourselves, and then giving it to a professor. We had to be accountable for our own work for the sake of one another, because we were all tied together by the nature of the project. Deadlines needed to be met so different members could do their part of the project, and work needed to be as polished as possible, aside from obvious reasons, but also for the sake of our editors. The whole idea of working together and people picking up slack where it was needed and helping in other places when possible was a rewarding experience, and the publication truly was something we could be proud of.

Exercise

I think a classroom is a tough environment to replicate a newsroom.

Even though we were only publishing "semi-weekly," even weekly newspapers meet every day to discuss stories, assign media, and brainstorm ideas. We only had a maximum of one-third (or so) of about four class periods to discuss ideas and assign stories.

I think it's also difficult to assign editor positions and reporter positions. Although Kelly may have been our "editor-in-chief," all that really meant was she had more responsibility. I don't think a lot of the stories made it in on the deadline she had assigned. 

In a real newsroom environment, if your stories don't make the deadline you're assigned and there's not a great excuse, you get fired or yelled at.

It's also harder to edit these stories, because I don't want to be too negative to my fellow classmates. I don't think it's my job to critique their stories in a classroom environment -- that's the professor's job. If another student gives you feedback it can come off as snobbish or rude.

Anyway, just my opinion. That being said, our paper came out well and I was pleased with the content.

Super Graded Exercise

This is the super quiz originally scheduled for Nov. 20.
You must complete it before our next regular session, Dec. 2.
Please email your answers to me at vrbjrmk@aol.com by midnight Dec. 1.
All of the questions are based entirely on what is in the textbook, "The Editorial Eye," second edition.
JRN 305 Graded Exercise, Fall 2008
Name: ____________________________
1. The textbook cites what it calls "Dirty Dozen: 12 areas where errors lurk." Name each of those areas, and briefly describe what you can do to avoid publishing errors in each of those areas.
2. Why should you not change words in direct quotes? Paraphrase what the textbook says. Also, why should you NOT put quote marks around indirect or paraphrased quotes?
3. Read the following sentence: "The person who is suing was identifiable in the statement." What is meant, according to the textbook, by this element in a libel case?
4. As an editor, you are expected to help direct writers to sources. The textbook suggests three questions that "can help you develop almost any story." What are those questions?
5. Using the textbook as a guide, describe what makes a good photo. Explain the parallels between writing and photography, as stated in the textbook.