Johnathan Geare Portfolio

JOHNATHAN GEARE | THE 2021 PORTFOLIO

2021

My Self Analytical Evalutation This semester was my first real experience with journalistic writing.

Importantly, I got a lot of practice with sequencing a story, which I think is crucial in journalism because it impacts how well the reader can digest the scattered bits and pieces of info you pick up on throughout your research. Soon, I want to apply that skill to opinion articles.

Working in a group setting helped me to overcome a lot of my procrastination habits. I learned that these deadlines are set for a reason and that if that I ignore them it only leaves more work and less time for me and whoever is editing my story.

I plan to get myself into a daily routine to prevent myself from becoming unmotivated and unconcerned.

The problems I have with working on a team come from my inconsistency with meeting deadlines.

Otherwise, I think I work well on a team in terms of flexibility. There have been a few cases where I’ve had to completely rewrite articles due to circumstance, eg. the christmas cookie story from December.

I’ve had to learn to think carefully about how I write and who I’m writing for. In December, I wrote too many stories using the tone and word choice of a satire - that is, not very journalistic. It wasn’t the right time or place. Those stories had to be stripped down, and I want to avoid that in the future so I can keep writing things I’m proud of.

I wrote 2,200 words for the November issue, and 3,000 words for the December issue.

I struggled to get an adult interview for my district budget story. I ended up pulling a quote off the internet, but I would rather schedule adult interviews further in advance in the future. My greatest weakness is my shaky motivation, which I plan to address first by establishing a routine to get into the habit of working at the same time each day.

I was excited to write this article in October because I knew the topic itself was mostly about parents stigmatizing pop culture through trying to protect their children.

So, when I wrote the article, I made sure to touch on that, because I believe it to be the root of the issue. I found it to be difficult to write because I lingered a lot on word choice, however I am quite happy

with how it came out because of that. At first, I thought the two student quotes were required, so I put them in, but they were removed. I remember thinking that they did a good job of breaking up the article with a more casual voice, but in hindsight I was clearly not sure of how I was supposed to write an opinion article. My opinion hardly even shows up until the end.

I am proud of these nachos more than most things in the paper, because their existence is a miracle. I cannot cook, nor can I take pictures, but somehow this exists.

The Lit Mag story was the first story I wrote, and I think I did a good job taking my time and trying to just write like I would for any English class.

I think this story is important because it shows the lengths the school is going to in order to maintain the same programs among budget issues.

September

November

December