Don't sweat it when it comes to sports writing

Lauren's nerves had her sweating profusely as she turned the corner into the gym at San Diego Mesa College and saw the basketball team warming up. With little knowledge outside of the basic mechanics and rules of the sport, her nightmare of covering an athletic activity for the first time gnawed at her core. She sat on the hard wooden bench, feeling as if she had just sat down to wait for execution. She watched as the two teams ran from one end of the court to the next. The constant drib-le, drib-le, drib-le of the basketball pounding in rhythm on the ground, counting down to the moment where she would need to sit down in front of her laptop to write the story. Butterflies mangled her insides as she thought "Why did I agree to cover this?"

Opinionated people don't always write the best opinion articles

"I'm angry about 'such-and-such event' and I absolutely intend to tell to you why you should be be angry too through this rant I am trying to pass off as journalism."

There are some common mistakes that those who are new to opinion writing, and especially young journalists, make when it comes time to write an opinion article or column. All too often when the writer is attempting to present an insightful view of what they see as a better solution to a problem, the product ends up seeming like an ill-informed rant or temper tantrum.

Let's go to the movies, let's go write a review

Anyone can go to a movie and regurgitate the plot and their opinion about the film quality afterward, but what sets apart an OK movie review from a well-written one is poise and structure of the latter.

Photo by Allison M. Seward

Flakey staff members common, but easy to combat

It’s 9 p.m. on production night and the issue is still a few hours away from being sent to the printers after hours of layout design, proofreading and writing articles at the last minute to fill space. Exhausted and frustrated, you continue to stare at a backlit computer screen, hunched over the keyboard, wondering what you did so wrong that you ended up in this predicament.

Every college editor's nightmare on production day
by: Laurenjmapp

Time management difficult, but doable

When you're a student, time management is always an issue, but a student journalist feels this crunch even more. Newspaper deadlines, homework, work, commuting to and from campus, your social life and sleep are all swirling around each other in a ridiculous frenzy of radioactive waste, so without properly balancing your schedule you can get exhausted, burnt out, sick, or - even worse - miss out on the college experience.

How to fight off evil [interview] butterflies

As you sit there, across the table from your interviewee, it may be difficult to combat the massive flock of butterflies that suddenly decided to inhabit the inner pit of your stomach, but don’t worry, you’re not alone.

It is natural to be a little nervous the first time that you conduct an interview for an article: you’re sitting there, talking to a complete stranger about a subject that you’re not all that familiar with, and trying to sound both intelligent and interested. Gosh, that’s a mouth full!

Photographing food best done in natural lighting

In today’s digital age, especially with news organizations downsizing, it is important to have more than one skill-set within the field of journalism. As such, if you’re looking to become a food writer, it is not only necessary that you be able to write about food in an informed and entertaining fashion, but depending on the news organization that you’re working for, you may also be required to take photographs to go alongside your articles or blog posts.