Brion Gregerson Mr.

Ludlow- Mattson English 114 September 13, 2013 When writing this literacy essay, the one main thing I wanted to accomplish was stating and proving that academic writing is not always the best form of writing. Academic essay writing is often acclaimed as the best, but in writing this essay, I expressed that journalistic writing can be every bit as educational as academic writing for an English course. I accomplished what I set out to do since I think I did well in expressing my argument that journalistic writing is on the same level as academic writings in many facets. I would say that one thing that I learned from writing this literary essay was that as I continued to write the essay I really bought into what I was trying to convey. Even at first I may have not believed that journalistic writing was on the level of academic writing, but as I wrote and finished this essay, I convinced myself that it was indeed as educational and on the same level as academic writing. I found that convincing yourself first is the best way for authors to show readers that their argument is valid. The author has to whole-heartedly believe in what they write or their audience wont believe their points either. I never really thought about comparing journalistic writing to academic writing before I wrote this literary narrative, and I found writing this essay enlightening to the different forms of writing that can be considered great. Reflecting on this journalism class has reinforced my thinking that writing can be great in several different forms, and it made me realize how truly difficult writing for my school newspaper actually was.

Writing In a New Way The journalism classes that I took in high school showed me a new way of writing and reading that I was very unaccustomed to, as I had to adapt to an entirely different form of writing. This was the first form of writing that I undertook that relied solely on my own creativity, rather than being given tasks to write by an instructor. Writing for the school newspaper gave me the opportunity to express my ideas and style of writing in a way that is simply impossible to do in an ordinary academic English course. I enrolled in a journalism class when I was a junior in high school, and I was assigned to write in the sports section of my school newspaper; I did not know what to expect out of this class but I soon found out that it would be one of the most challenging and complex writing courses that I have ever taken. It would also turn out to be possibly the most enlightening form of writing that I have incurred in my entire life. Through my experiences of writing for the school newspaper, I learned that great writing can truly come in several different forms, and that the most honest form of writing and reading comes from the creativity that is sparked by the author of a journalistic story. In relation to my acquisition of literacy, the one most significant thing that stood out for me from taking two years of journalism was that I learned that an exquisite piece of writing can truly come from anywhere and anyone; it can range from a high school student writing for their humble newspaper, to the most highly praised authors and philosophers such as John Steinbeck and Socrates. On my first day writing for the school newspaper, I immediately realized that I was going to undertake a form of writing that I had virtually no experience writing. To add further difficulty, I had not generally paid close attention to newspapers throughout

my life, based on the generation that I grew up with, where newspapers are becoming less and less significant throughout the entire world. The one glaring difference that I soon noted between journalistic writing and regular academic writing was that newspapers rely more heavily on outside sources than almost any other form of academic writing. Obtaining and using quotes throughout a newspaper article is the single biggest criteria that turns an average story to a great one, as compared to academic writing, where quotes from interviews are rarely needed in order to make for a great piece of writing. The one other standout difference that I incurred taking this class was that my writing was completely dependent on the events and happenings that occurred around my school, which would never be consistent year to year, as compared to academic writing, where an instructor can give the same writing assignment over and over, year after year, the only difference being the students who write the assignment. I ended up taking this class for two consecutive years, with my first year spent as a staff writer, and then the editor of the sports section as a senior. These two years allowed me to view the full spectrum of the journalism experience, as I spent one year writing in a way that was new to me, and in the next year, I was tasked to read and edit the writers' stories in my section. Through this, I was able to witness two ways of seeing the same way of writing, both as a student, and as an instructor. As the editor, I was able to be in a position that I had never been before- I was now showing new writers the way of writing that I had learned only one year ago. This created a very interesting and challenging dynamic, given I had to be critical and meticulous in correcting the writers in the sports section since their knowledge of journalistic writing was generally minimal at the start of the year. I had to guide them and enlighten them to write in a way that was not

only difficult, but also new and unfamiliar. So due to these facts, this perhaps became a more rigorous and detail oriented class than even my honors English class that I was also taking in those years. The students that worked on my high school newspaper generally take the class for only one year, as juniors and seniors are the only ones that can write for the paper, with the majority being seniors working on the paper for their first time. As a junior, I was assigned to be a staff writer, with responsibilities such as finding interesting topics, getting quotes from key figures, and writing the entire story under the tutelage of the course instructor, who happened to also be my basketball coach. Having my basketball coach be my instructor, particularly because I was writing in the sports section was a key factor in my development of my journalistic writing ability since his knowledge of sports combined with his instructing experience guided me to writing in a new way that was very unnatural and foreign when I started the class. The first assignment that I did for the school newspaper seemed at first to be a relatively simple assignment about football since I was pretty well versed on this subject, but it turned out to be one of the most difficult writing assignments that I have had in my entire life. I had read the school newspaper several times in the few years prior to my Junior year and thought that it would be an easy subject and much easier to write a story compared to an English essay, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. Writing this one assignment took me more than two weeks to write, with more drafts than I had ever wrote for one assignment in any writing course; it took me more than ten drafts to finally be ready for publication, and due to these time consuming, tedious corrections, this was also the most frustrating piece of writing that I ever wrote. However, when my first story was published, I felt a different joy than

compared to when I finish an English essay. My work was presented before the entire school, not just one teacher. This joy led me to keep seeking that same feeling when I published my first story, and launched my career as a high school journalist. After my junior year spent as a writer for my school newspaper, I decided to take journalism again as a senior, and this year, I was assigned to be the sports editor, a huge step up from being only a writer as I was in the previous year; being the editor gave me a lot of control of the sports section, as I had the final say in many stories, but it also came with the most responsibilities, including writing stories myself, as well as overseeing all the other writes in my section. Editing my peers stories was a great challenge to me, but I was determined to lead my sports section to have great stories that were both very interesting and well written. This was the main difference between my two years in that class- one year I was relying on the instructor to be my editor since we had no student editors that year, and the next year, I was the one that was in control of overseeing an entire section of the school newspaper. The main problem that I incurred as an editor was when correcting my staff writer's articles; they were generally spot on if they were to be read as English essays, but rather, they had to be read as sports columns that were written with numerous intricacies, which I had to remind them of over and over. They were so set on a certain way of writing just like I was only a year ago, and it was very difficult for them, as it was for me, to adjust to this new way of writing that was going to be required of them. Through my two years of writing for my high school newspaper, I was shown a form of writing that is not generally seen as academic writing, but from what I experienced, journalistic writing is every bit as fulfilling as any academic essay writing,

as it stresses the unparalleled need for creativity and self expression, which are two key concepts in essay writing that makes those writings great in my opinion; essays generally limit the level of self expression, so in a way, journalistic writing is a very true to the writer and their own style as they don't need to conform to a set of instructions that comes with academic essay writing.