In CreComm, we are taught to write. Now, I don’t mean that we aren’t able to write. We just don’t know how to write in specific formats until we are properly trained. Journalism news stories, public relations news releases, and advertising copy. These are just some of the things a first-year CreComm student becomes acquainted with, and we are worked hard to refine each medium. Out of every class and every style I have been introduced to this past year, I must admit that I found writing for journalism to be the most difficult.
I had just graduated with a history degree, and the four years preceding my entry into CreComm were spent writing essay after essay after essay. University professors are specific about what they want to see in university calibre essays, and what they really want are words. Lots and lots of words. Big words, little words, simple words, complex words. It doesn’t matter. Throw a 15,000 word essay at a professor and you’re good to go. Things are not so simple in CreComm, and I found myself struggling at the beginning of the year to adapt to the difference.
I have spent the past eight months in journalism class learning to cut out unnecessary adjectives, construct stories in inverted pyramid style, and refrain from editorializing. My first story of the year was a testament to my university days, and despite being quite embarrassed about the piece, I will share what I wrote. We were given an assignment in which we had to interview a classmate and write about them. I really wanted to impress my instructor, so the following was my lead:
It was with the early morning traffic and first shift change of the day that Thomas Shirtliffe entered the world peacefully on January 24, 1990, at 6:30 a.m.
Ouch. That’s pretty much as wordy and watered-down as imaginable, and there is unecessary stuff floating everywhere in that sentence. I’m not even going to touch the fact that the sentence itself is crap. The point I’m trying to make is that I was used to making sentences long, drawn out, and full of descriptive details. That seemed to be how one was supposed to write in university.
My instructors comment about the lead was as follows: Why is this significant or interesting?
U huh. He’s got a point. When writing a history essay, many of the details can be uninteresting or downright boring. But professors want those details, so students deliver.
When writing a journalism story, everything that is not necessary or relevant should be omitted. After that, the story should be edited, revised, and cut some more. If your best friend’s, sister’s, next door neighbour’s grandmother didn’t have anything interesting to say, don’t quote her in the story. Don’t use a phrase like “his achievement level blossomed and flourished by leaps and bounds” when “he improved” will suffice. Finally, don’t assume things and include them as fact. How do I know if there was traffic the morning Thom was born? What if the shift change was at five-thirty, and not six-thirty? Why did I think writing that was a good idea in the first place? Granted, you’re not supposed to make things up when writing most essays either, but whenwriting for journalism,a falsified detail is the best way to be shown the door.
I am glad that I had the opportunity to attend university, and learn to write essays. I am also glad that I started attending Red River College, and have now learned how to edit, chop, dissect, and otherwise mutilate a piece of writing until it contains only the most important words. It has made me a better writer, and has taught me that it isn’t always necessary for a sentence to be long and detailed for it to be interesting. Hopefully, by the end of my summer class, I will be the best editor I can possibly be, and I will be able to axe any piece of writing to perfection.
Before I end this post, I want to include another example of my own writing. Just before class ended for the year, we were given the same assignment as at the beginning of the year. We interviewed a classmate and wrote about them – again – and the point of the exercise was to see if our skills had improved. Here’s what I wrote for my lead the second time around:
Sports are an integral part of life for many men and women throughout the world, and for Keith McCullough, they are also a necessity.
At least I didn’t mention his birth date, time of birth, or circumstances surrounding his birth. I think that’s progress.
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