Reilly's Ramblings

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/magazine/when-the-supreme-court-lurches-right.html

Reilly Mahon

Ross Fuglsang

Story #2 Reflection

26 October 2017

Socializing Story Reflection

This experience with writing this recent story was very well for me. As a future sports reporter, I need all of the experience that I can write quick stories. This story helped me with my interviewing problem of just going up to people, ask them if they want to be interviewed and ask them questions about the socializing problem in today’s society. This reflection is going to be a learning lesson on reporting and what I need to improve to be a better reporter.

The part of the assignment that concerned me the most was the interviews. Interviews worried me because I am not good with going up to people and asking them questions. The interviewing part of the assignment helped me get out of my shell and talk to strangers. This concern affected my writing process of trying to have all of the interviews done before the first draft was due. Scheduling interviews are hard to do because you’re making sure that your schedule and the interviewee’s schedule are available at the same time. I decided to go straight up to the interviewees’ and asked them if I can ask them questions about socializing, and they all said yes. So, I just asked them a couple of questions that were quick and then to questions that came from the interviewees’ responses to questions.

One revision that I made between the first draft and the final draft was the cutting out and reorganizing of the story. This change took a while because I had to figure out what goes where after cutting a couple of paragraphs from the story. I had to see how the story looked and figured out how to make the story better than the first draft. The revision made the story more efficient because I eliminated some paragraphs that had no importance to the story. I cut out the section “Social media helps people hide online. People also use technology as a way to talk to others more easily” from the story. This item makes no sense in the story, and it is also weak too. This section is one of four parts that were taken out of the first draft to make the final version better.

The part of the process for article number two that I put the most effort into is the interviews. The interviews were the tricky part because I had to find the people, interview them, and make sure that I have their answer written correctly. I wanted to be able to quote my interviewees accurately in the article. The part of the process that I wish I spent more time on is how to put the story together. It took me a while to figure out how to have the story the way that I want it to be. As a reporter, this is a hard part in the beginning but the more experience I get, the better I will be in news story organization.

The news writing strategy that I learned that I would intend to use in the future is to organize my stories better. Organization in writing is very significant because it helps the readers understand the story and have information in order. This strategy also helps me, as the reporter, to have things and events for a story. Stories need to be able to have information in order and correct for readers. I want to be able to improve on organizing, so in the future, my articles are better.

This recent story helped me see where I am at in my progress in journalism writing as a reporter. I need more improvement in organizing, but I will get better with more practice and time. I have learned a lot about myself as a reporter and how this story made me want to go out and interview people better. Practice makes perfect for anything that someone wants to be good. The story is a good stepping stone to improve and be better. This story, in my opinion, is better than my first story that I did earlier in the semester and the next story will be better than this one.

Engels Perez is an average college guy who sits in class and participates and is heavily involved with the Theater Department. He is also a guy who loves to listen to his music in his headphones.

He wasn’t always so involved and engaging. When he was a kid, he was quiet and to himself. He didn’t play outside with the other kids, just stayed inside and played video games.

At school, he was the kid that sat in the back of the class and didn’t talk at all. The evidence was prevalent when an end of the year party at school happened with all of the kids playing around, and he sat by himself, alone.

His mother got concerned about his weird behavior at school. A teacher of his even tried to hold him back a year because he didn’t talk that much. He didn’t talk to people for a long time.

It all changed at the age of 16 when he decided to join theater. He missed the first three, classes but when he finally showed up to class, it made Engels a different person. The theater class acted out a scene of a witch killed. Engels took some boxes, stacked them, and stood on them to yell at the others not to kill the witch.

He was finally able to talk to people. He hasn’t stopped the improvements since that day. He made small steps at the beginning that turned into more substantial steps like a flight of stairs.

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