Journalism

When you look at the Nimitz Newspaper you may think, “I could never write like that. They must think writing is so easy“, you are wrong. Although the Journalism’s group’s work may seem so fancy and polished, we have a lot to do. For some, the hardest part is writing their articles so that they make sense. For others, it’s actually choosing a topic to write about. So no, we are not the perfect writers you may think we are. No, writing is not as easy as it looks. Some of our articles go through the editing and revising stage two to three times. So today, I’ll open up the doors and give you a tour to Mrs. Niehoff’s Journalism class. Or in other words, our writing process.

For starters, let’s talk about just WALKING in, to the class. There’s no time for chit chat, no games, no jokes. The first thing almost everybody does is grab a chromebook. Everybody must be ready to write the moment they walk into class. Then, you can talk. The first step to completing your article is, of course, find a topic  to write about. Again, some people will just go with the flow and pick a random current event or school news item. Others, however, want to find something they want to write. Not just any old boring topic will do. They want something creative, something special, something…different. Although finding a special topic like that takes time and unfortunately, we don’t have very much of that. I’d say we have a week to complete an article and have it posted in the newspaper. At least. Once we have found that topic , we have to make it somewhat informative and at the same time, keep our readers’ attention. Our target audience is the whole community around us, not just the staff or students of Nimitz.

Our articles have a rough draft stage. In this stage, we write down our thoughts. Your grade is depending on how how many errors are found in your writing. Although it’s a rough draft, your writing must be nice, it must flow, and it must be comprehensible. When your errors are counted, you must turn in your article to Mrs. Niehoff. She will go through your writing and make any changes to make it more fluent. The article is then sent back to you, to make those changes and maybe switch or add somethings. Your article is then turned in a second time, and made sure that the changes were made. The last step is to then turn it into the newspaper, which later on, Mrs. Niehoff will publish. No, it’s not like writing. Writing is to tell a story or explain how things work. In journalism, we don’t take the time to write a full blown story. We get straight to the point of what is needed to be said.

Writing and Journalism are two different things. However, it’s not only the articles that make it stand out. It’s those who write them. They dedicate their time to write a common interest or problem just for you. If you don’t know, we inform you.  We share our stories with you. We put the fun into reading. We tell jokes, and notice the things others don’t. We talk about the problems that most kids are facing. We try to make sure that you know you’re not alone. We point out the problems with our society. We sometimes try to fix things. When we write, we write for you, the students, the teachers, the APs, the Nimitz staff, and our community. Journalism is a lot more than writing, but not many people can see that. Next year Journalism will be up. An elective it may be, but it’s one of the best ones out there. So I ask you, to join us.

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