Live from July camp: Day 9

Day nine of Journalism camp began in the best way possible: with a cookie. I sat down at my computer and was immediately offered a chocolate chip cookie by David, who sits next to me. The day only got better from there.

Today we transitioned from interviewing to writing. The morning was mostly comprised of lessons about how to write a news article. Aisha taught us how to write leads, the first few sentences of the article that are meant to draw the reader in. Miles taught us about the structure of a news article and the different ways the information can be presented. And Annie taught us about the amusingly named nut graph, the part of the article that states what the main idea of the story is. I got lots of advice on how to write a good article. By the time we went to lunch, my brain was filled to the brim with new information.

After a nutritious lunch of a hamburger and fries, we returned to the classroom to try our hand at some writing. We were given 30 minutes to write three different leads for our stories. When we had all more or less accomplished that, we critiqued everybody’s leads as a group. I was a little apprehensive about having my work picked apart by everyone in the room, but they were all quite nice about it and I got some really good constructive criticism. I’m confident that I’ll have a great lead for my story now.

As it got closer to dismissal, our focus began to deteriorate. The caffeine from the soda we drank at lunch started to kick in, and the whole class got a little giggly. Since we had ten extra minutes at the end of camp, we finished the day with a hilarious YouTube video. I was sent home at 2:30 p.m. with a spring in my step and a mission to finish the last of my nine interviews. I look forward to really starting the writing process tomorrow!

— Allison Jones, July 2010 Introduction to Journalism camp

Post script from Annie — Here’s the video Allison mentions: Victor Borge and Dean Martin singing “Phonetic Punctuation,” a journalism-themed diversion at least.