Jacob's Portfolio

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”

Leonardo DaVinci

Jacob Emnett Opinion Editor Newspaper; 2014-2015

1

Self-Analytical Reflection Well, this semester was my first as a fully-fledged editor, so I had that going for me, which was nice. It was a lot of fun, and I relished in the power I was given. Of course, as Spiderman tried to warn me, all of the extra power came with commensurate responsibility, and I can’t say I was wholly prepared for all of it.

Editing writing? Sure, that I can do. But to me, each piece of writing is its own project, and deserves at least thirty minutes of my time per edit. With all of the new articles I had to edit, plus the deadlines (and inexperienced writers), I found myself devoting less and less time to each article, which resulted in the publishing of some admittedly sub-par material. By now, and that would be December, I’d say for the most part I’ve got it figured out. I still regret, however, how absolutely god-awful some of my earlier spreads turned out. I either underassigned, and had to make up for it last-minute, or over-assigned and suffocated myself.

Nowadays, I’ve reached the perfect balance. I select a few articles I know I want on the page, and devote my full time to those. Then, I kind-of half edit some other ones, and keep them in reserve, where they can be quickly whipped into shape if need be. It’s not perfect, but it works, and makes the best, most efficient, use of my time. I’ve always been, I thought, a good editor. I realize now that being a good newspaper editor isn’t only about what’s on the page, but how you manage time, and communicate with your writers.

As for the design portion, I guess you could say that I’ve never felt more lost. Even for the Opinion page, which is more a template than something to design, I have a helluva’ lot of trouble getting things done. It’s just so foreign to me. I’m out of my element completely. I’ve gotten a little better with the mechanics of the program, but I’m still just as bad at designing. I just don’t have whatever it takes to make something visually appealing, to design a beautiful page. I guess that doesn’t really make a difference, because it is the Opinion page, but it’s something I’d like to work on anyways. I mean, we had to make a brand-new page for JT’s ‘Gonzo’ article, and, suffice to say, the paper would have been better served by literal crap on a page than what I came up with. Adamson had to re-do the whole thing. While I take pride in the actual words of the Opinion page, and think quietly that it’s the best written section of the paper, I wish I wasn’t such a liability with design. I don’t need to be a master, but I do need to have a serviceable set of skills.

As for my writing, I suppose you could say I’ve run into a wall. I thought with only one article that my writing quality would improve drastically, but I don’t believe it has. See, though I only have one article to write, I still leave it till’ the last minute when I have to edit the rest of the articles. In that way, I suppose I’ve given myself less time than before. So, in short, procrastination is still an issue. Additionally, the Group Editorials I have to write propagate viewpoints I may not necessarily believe with. It’s hard to reconcile personal beliefs with the good of the whole, but I know I have a job to do.

So, in summary, I’ve learned a lot about teamwork (the editor-writer relationship), deadlines (and how to manage them), and design (and how little I truly know). In the future, I can’t see InDesign helping me too much, seeing as how I never want to get anywhere near it again, but I can see my recently nurtured people skills netting me some great personal gains. The Group Editorials, though sometimes frustrating, have helped me to put aside personal bias.

2

First reflection My favorite piece of mine would have to be the recent “group” editorial on GoMyAccess.

For starters, I liked it because it went against the grain. As you’ll read in some of my later reflections, I hate it when I get to something late, or when I write about an opinion that’s already widely accepted. There’s nothing exciting about that. Nothing challenging. With this, it was. There is literally no one at the school, besides myself, who seems to understand the positive effects behind the MyAccess prompts. Heck, I’ve never heard anyone say anything positive about it period, and no one had ever mentioned it whenever we had met for the group editorial in the past. It seemed like the perfect time.

I loved it because, basically, I got to verbally slap the whole student body across the mouth.

They deserved it, they were being a bunch of whiners, and it was honestly a lot of fun. It’s one of the few projects this year that I felt truly excited about. Truly inspired by. It sounds really dumb, but that article was the essence of the Opinion section. It was a well-written piece that helped to go against popular opinion, and it was backed up with facts. Unfortunately, I wasn’t at school on Friday to see the reaction, but I’ll definitely interview people about it Monday, because I want to see how the student body feels having read a group editorial that finally challenges a view they hold dear. It’s not a super impressive topic, but it’s an awesome first step, and I’m really happy about it.

This article was extremely easy to write. The actual arguments were a little difficult to come up with, sure, because I’ve never been a huge fan of the program, but I enjoyed the writing of the article so much that it all became so easy. I honestly have never written an article that fast in my entire life. Additionally, I wrote double the expected word count, taking a simple group editorial to a thousand words.

So, yeah. I guess if I get really excited about something, I write my best. Definitely something to keep in mind.

3

Second reflection A piece of mine in need of further editing would be the ‘Food Fight’ group editorial. It was as bland and tasteless as the food it was trying to critique. Not to say that the topic was bad, I was just bored with it, and my writing suffered as a result. I love complaining, as should any Opinion editor, but complaining about things that everyone complains about is just so common. What an Opinion editor thinks should be on the cutting edge, or at least, that’s how I’d like it to be. I want the Group Editorial to make cogent, incisive points about issues many students didn’t even know existed, and the ‘Food Fight’ editorial, while it may have been a crowd pleaser, didn’t fulfill what I had in mind. It was weak, and I could have done better. That was absolutely my fault.

The other article that I’m not specifically proud of was my article on domestic violence in the NFL. If you don’t remember it, it’s because it was cut in favor of a sports column. I had a really hard time with that article because I had to reconcile my own views with that of the editorial board, and they differed pretty significantly. I think it came down to the fact that many of my peers believed that it was the responsibility of the owners to self-police, whereas I believed it was a job for the actual police. This became a bit of a problem, because though I was actually writing the piece, it wouldn’t have been fair to give my opinion sway over that of the others. ⅛ does not a majority make. This leaves little ol’ me writing the exact opposite of what I actually thought, and doing it on a topic I actually cared quite a lot about. I had some very choice words I wanted to say, but I wasn’t really allowed to say any of them. Though I didn’t mean for it to happen, my writing the opposition’s viewpoint may have left the paper with a rather lackluster article. In the future, I’ll endeavor to write for the good of the paper, rather than to satisfy my need to always have my opinion heard.

In summary, I have to work on two things: putting my ego aside and avoiding taking the low road. Sometimes, the easy way out doesn’t always leave you unmarked. It certainly didn’t let me go scot-free.

4

Third reflection If I had to pick my favorite photo (that I’ve taken) this year, it’d be a fifteen-way-tie between all of the Opinion mugshots. Now, I know that seems like a bit of a cop-out, given that I really haven’t taken any other pictures, but I’d like to reassure you now that I’d choose the Opinion mugs even if I had a portfolio the size of Sayge’s. Yep. That’s how much I like them.

The Opinion page, more than any other, is intensely personal. You don’t have to be objective. You can fight for what you specifically believe in. With that in mind, I believe its really important for the reader to be able to see who specifically is voicing the opinion they’re reading. It’s a connection I believe must be made. News articles are supposed to be very impersonal. If they’re written properly, you shouldn’t be able to tell if any specific person wrote any news article. Opinion articles are a whole different beast. With any luck, opinion articles make a difference, and I hope the mugshots make people’s points of view easier to empathize with. If someone writes a piece that one disagrees with, it’s mighty easy to just write it off. I hope these mugs force people to confront the fact that yes, there will be people in this world who disagree with you, and no, it does not mean they live in some insane asylum.

So yeah, those are my high-and-mighty reasons for why I like the simple mugshot. There are other reasons as well. For example: I think they’re really funny. It’s just another way people can infuse themselves into their article. Many papers require that people smile, but I give my writers free reign over how they present themselves, because I want them to be in charge of how they’re perceived. We have a bunch of really unique people who write for us, and I want to celebrate that by having them do all their favorite poses without restriction.

Wade Johnson always just glares at the camera, while Wyatt has a great time staring off into the distance majestically.

I also have some really attractive people write for me. That doesn’t hurt.

5

Fourth reflection I’m going to throw away all pretenses of humility here, Ms. Hart, because I think this is a piece where self-aggrandizing is warranted.

I believe I’ve been a good, solid asset to the staff. Sure, I might seem fairly lax, and probably combative, but I promise you that there’s no editor who cares more about the quality of writing on their page than me. I stay up all night on articles sometimes, reworking them entirely to make sure that they’re articles I’m proud to have on my page. I see a lot of articles on lots of pages, and when deadlines come around, they get thrown in no matter what. Not so for me. If I don’t like an article, writers know that I will edit it personally until I get what I want. Does this make me a dictator? Probably. I broker no argument, and I will force my writers to do what I say exactly when I need it done. If it’s on my page, it’s worked till’ I’m satisfied. However, I’ve NEVER had a writer complain about the edits I’ve made, or had any writer go to you, Ms. Hart. In fact, I’ve only ever heard the following words exit their mouths: “Yeah, this is better.”

It hasn’t always been this way. As we neared the midpoint of the semester, I can admit that I was a slacker. I let myself get by with minimal edits, and content suffered. Not so for the December issue. I put all I had into editing each one of those articles (save the gonzo), and I believe it paid off handsomely, with great articles making awesome points. I gave those articles the whole work up, and I’ll be damned if they aren’t some of the best opinion articles published, and the most coherent in the paper.

Say what you will about my design skills. Literally, say anything. You’ll probably always give me too much credit, even if you say Adamson did all of it. That’s how awful I am. However, if I give anything to this paper, anything at all, I believe I give us one really solid text editor, and for right now, I’m content with that. Not content, per se, I’m still working on becoming a better designer, but I know that with Opinion, an amazing new layout isn’t a necessity.

Writing has always been my strong suit, I was never much one for the visual arts, and I’m happy to contribute something to the paper I love.

Specifically? I guess we could look at the December issue. I went through and re-worked six different articles in that span of time, all of them requiring at least thirty minutes of work per-edit, while writing my own 1,000 word group editorial. Thirty minutes might not seem like a lot of time per article, but when you realize that the usual time allotted is three or so minutes, usually of scanning, then the time makes more sense.

This year, I’ve also been able to have the page cover a wide range of controversial topics. I don’t attribute this all to me, or all to my writers, or all to Bebee, (mostly to you) but I do think I’ve helped facilitate a great working partnership. In letting my writers know what is and isn’t appropriate, I’ve made it really easy for us to cover controversial topics with class.

Again, this was mostly you, but sometimes I like to think I have a little bit of a hand in it.

Finally, I think I’ve made the Opinion page a page people want to write for. People know I’m a hardass, but they also know I’ve got their back, and that I’m absolutely willing to accommodate them if need be. I also pride myself on always being open to new ideas.

In short, I’m a good editor, and I work well with people. I hope, in time, I can cultivate the Opinion page further. I realize it’s a huge responsibility, but it is one I am willing to bear. As always, thank you for having faith in me.

6

Final reflection Hardships. In Jacob Emnett’s book, there’s only one Newspaper thing that’s synonymous with hardships, and that’s InDesign.

Not really, but it has been quite a big problem.

When I was an Opinion editor freshly minted, I thought the bulk of my work would be editing, with only a little designing. Granted, that actually is what it turned out to be, but I sincerely misjudged how absolutely incompetent I would be. The Opinion section isn’t even a hard page to “design,” because Adamson has basically laid everything out for you, and yet I still proceed to leave my page unfinished at the end of production day. All I really have to do is place things, and change some colors around, and yet I find myself absolutely inept.

Additionally, if me being awful at design wasn’t enough, I suffer handily from a lack of motivation. There are times where I’ll neglect my duties in favor of a long, comfortable nap.

Together, those two things make it pretty hard to be an editor, whose only duties are literally editing the articles and designing the pages.

Honestly? There’s not much to do for the procrastination besides just pushing through it.

That’s what I’ve been doing, and I haven’t really screwed up yet. People say that you should wait for motivation to strike, but that’s bull-honkey. You have to discipline yourself, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do, discipline myself. This last issue has been my most successful yet, with all of the articles on my page edited to the best of my ability. As for the InDesign, I’ve slowly been teaching myself how to work the program, and while I’ll never be good, I think I have enough knowledge to stay above water.

Looking back, I think I handled both situations pretty well. I had problems, so I fixed them.

Easy as that. When I didn’t know how to do something, I asked for help. When I did, and didn’t want to, I ended up doing it anyways.

I guess my greatest weakness would be twofold: procrastination and online coverage. Sometimes, I just don’t feel like doing the work, and most of the times, in the case of online coverage, I simply don’t do the work. I can fix this, pretty easily, by following the schedule you set out for us. It’s pretty comprehensive, and honestly, if everyone followed it, no one would have any trouble getting articles in on time. I just, I don’t know, I just haven’t followed it.

There’s really no good reason I have for it. In the future, I will, and then everything will get done easily and on time. No sweat.

7

Designs

September

October

November

December