logans portfolio

logan's Portfolio

SELF EVALUATIONt This semester I learned how to write. After writing two front pages stories and a couple other stories I gained a lot of great tools. I learned all the rules to follow for writing for newspaper. Like never use contractions or the words you, I, me, and my. Newspaper also taught me how to write a good English paper. I’ve never been able to write an organized paper with clear thoughts. But with the organization that is required by this class to be able to write a good story, you’ll learn a thing or two. All the skills I learned transferred over to English. I will be earning A’s in English both semester for the first time in my life. I would like to thank that to newspaper. Not even just in English but in all my classes I have really stepped it since I joined newspaper.

I just taught me so much discipline on getting stuff done even if you don’t want to do it. An important skill I learned for next year is how to use InDesign. Being a step ahead on that will help me focus on having great ideas for the paper for next year.

Not only did Newspaper teach me how to write a good paper and to use InDesign but it also taught me how to balance out all my work from all of my classes with my busy life to make sure I always meet the deadlines.

Every issue for newspaper you don’t get all the time in the world to get your stuff done. So time is precious and you have to figure out a way to map out your available hours so you can get everything done on time.

Why I struggled with grades so much my freshman year was because of poor time management. The most important thing you can learn from school is how you can use your time. Deadlines are very important in the real world and if stuff isn’t done by the deadline then that’s too bad. In the future I will make sure to have a more detailed plan for each issue so everything gets done quickly and smoothly.

Getting things done alone can be hard. Especially in newspaper it’s important to get help anyway you can.

If you have a question on who you should interview or how to phrase your sentence. Teamwork can really make all of that easier. If a friendly environment is created and everyone can work together and share their ideas then that is the most effective work environment. I feel like I worked really well with everyone this year.

I always made sure that people knew I was available to help them with taking pictures or if they even needed some ideas for their story. This next year i’m going to try to help even more by checking up on everyone making sure that they have all their work covered and taken care off. I want to make sure everyone knows what they are going to do for their story or picture so that it gets done on time.

What I learned about journalism ethics is that you have to do the research. No matter the story you have to do it. You can’t be putting stuff out there that is wrong. You also can’t steal from that research. Learn the information and combine it with all the other stuff you learned and make it into your own. The most effective way to do research is take notes on everything you learn and also save all the sources you use.

I’m dedicated to this staff as much as possible. I treat this class like it’s a job. I love coming into this class everyday and I want to make sure that this class stays as valuable as it is. I will do anything to make sure that the paper gets done on time and that it’s the best it can be. I’m not even an editor yet and all year I came to production day early and would leave late. I wanted to make sure that everything was done. I wanted to help out anyway I could. Maybe by writing a quick sidebar, getting a missing interview or taking a picture. A couple times this year I have gone and taken other peoples pictures because they weren’t going to get done. I also even went back to a place because I wasn’t satisfied with the pictures I took. At production day I wrote a story for someone that didn’t even get started on. I finished it and got interviews. Because I finished it, that page was able to have enough stories when the time came to publish it.

This semester I faced a lot of stress. I started a new job and also took on twice the amount of work in newspaper then last semester. I learned that you can’t procrastinate at all. In the real world there is no free time until you get everything done. It’s free time because you have everything done. I now really value tackling things as soon as you face them. Next year i’m going to always get everything done right away so I have more time to improve it and to also work on other stuff. My greatness weakness could still be writing. With writing two front page stories I got a lot better but I could easily get better with writing a more clean paper.

No silly mistakes and also following the rules of writing for journalism. If i just look over the rules and practice them, I’ll get there quick. Next year I’m going to try to edit and write a lot more stories. t

SIGNIFICANT PIECE My most significant piece this year was my front page story about the Arizona Water Shortage. I have never put so much time and research into anything i’ve written before. I learned so much from it. Before I wrote that story I had no idea about the water shortage. I also had no idea on how to write a big paper. When I first sat down to do it I had no idea what do. I didn’t know what to look up. I asked around and got some help and I finally had an idea on how to write the story and what to look up. I looked up so many different sources. It was hard to find good ones. Some of the sources didn’t even match others so I had to find which one was better. I spent over a week researching before I even wrote a word on the document I had to do the front page story on. I had written so much research down so I was in a good place before I actually started to write the paper.

Writing the paper was really hard. Even with all the research I had, I still had no idea where to start. With every paragraph I wrote, it got harder. Once I wrote it all out I felt good. I knew the story had potential.

The first draft was rough but it had all the information it needed. I just needed help figuring out how to phrase it all. Kass was super helpful. He made sure my paper was as clear as possible for such a confusing topic. My first version was also pretty rough grammatically. I was fine with that tho because I was more worried on the information I was writing at first. As soon as I had everything written out I made sure to edit the paper as best as I could. Once I edited it, I passed it off to Kass and Mrs. Hart and they had a good amount of adjustments and advice for me. They both showed me the mistakes I made and what I should do in the future so it doesn’t happen again. I didn’t site more sources that well and my lead was not that strong but they guided me to make sure I learned from my mistakes and that everything was fixed.

My favorite part about the finish product was that I felt like everyone could learn something from my story. It covered the confusing problem from a clear point of view that really discussed all the problems. I will never forget the process it took to write this story.

PROUD PIECES 1. Two front page stories- Writing a front page 2. Les mis pictures Knowing that I was

story about any topic isn’t easy. I believe I had two really difficult ones to write about. Arizona Water Shortage and The Homeless Crisis. There is just so much information jam packed into these problems. Finding a way to explain everything as clear as possible was very difficult.

Also before these I had never really written so it was a hard process.

going have to see the show many other times other then going to the rehearsals to take pictures was definitely not an easy thing to wrap my mind around. It was a great show and I loved seeing Kayla in it.

But it is so long. I spent like over 12 hours seeing the show. I wasn’t just proud of my willpower to see the show numerous times but I also feel like I really stepped it up with the pictures I took. I really focused on these ones and tried something new.

3. Hockey picTURES- During the time of these pictures I

had been sick with strep for over a week and hadn’t been going to school. The morning of, I woke up with a fever and feeling worse then I did the day before. I asked Blake if he could cover for me and take the pictures. He told me he probably could. Sadly he was unable to cover so I took some tylenol and headed to the ice rink. Once I got there I discovered that we were put in the old tink ice rink. The glasses was all scuffed up and dirty. Taking pictures through the glass was nearly impossible. I was worried I got no good shots. With great timing and a little bit of luck I got a good clear shot.

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