Live from July camp: Day 10

The day began like the others before it — we all met in room 303. After checking Facebook to make sure that we knew what was going on in everyone else’s lives, we started at 9:30 a.m.

The first thing on our agenda to complete was the revision of our leads for our articles. We also worked on writing nut graphs, which essentially is the thesis of an article. When our time for writing those was up, we met at the table and proceeded to critique each others work. It can be a bit nerve-wracking to have your ideas and works presented before everyone. But it is done in a very constructive manner; I think we all learned a lot.

One of the things we learned in critiquing was how to shorten paragraphs, how to say what you want with less words. It was fun to watch as Annie took Allison’s long “Lead” and shortened it dramatically but still kept the same content.

One thing that Annie told us was important to keep in mind was that we need to “show not tell” our readers. Then she went on to talk about her biased views on monkey races at county fairs, it was pretty funny to hear. After that we finished critiquing and it was time for lunch.

We went down to the grill and decided that since it was a beautiful day outside we should all go eat on the lawn. It was great until a bug decided that my mashed potatoes were the perfect landing spot. Oh, the great outdoors.

Back in the room, we had an impromptu lesson on how to write an outline for a story, which Annie summed up as “anticipating what your reader wants to know.” After that it was time to write, which is how we spent the last hour of class.

— Arielle Mathre, July 2010 Introduction to Journalism camp