Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Journalism student stunned by his own ignorance

After his first six days of graduate classes at the Medill School of Journalism, Jason Hahn, 26, was embarrassed by how much he didn't know about writing properly.

***

I just wrote a horrible headline and a lame lede.

I'm only seven days into this quarter, but I have already come to realize that I did not know a damn thing about proper writing. I have full confidence that every blog post I've ever published to the Web was riddled with flagrant errors.

Here are a few things lingering in my mind (in no particular order):

1) I know nothing about commas.
2) Obituary writing is actually a noble, significant craft.
3) I hate AP style.
4) It's amazing how everyone in a classroom can write different headlines and ledes for the same exact story. They're like snowflakes.
5) In college, liberal arts professors hated on Christianity; in graduate school, journalism professors (and 97% of the class) hate on McCain/Palin.
6) It's nice to be in the majority this time.
7) I never thought about journalism as a crucial part of the democratic process.
8) Journalism is a vilified profession, but it has so much potential to be a sublime one.
9) Maybe being an editor wouldn't be such a bad idea.
10) I still don't know what I specifically want to do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

haha at least you're learning.