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Class Assignments vs. Real Life
I'm in journalism because I like to write and I love a good story. Good stories are all over the place -- too bad school makes it tough to get out and find them.
I mean, I'm learning great stuff in class. But if I spend lots of time on assignments, I feel like I'm missing out on the real stories -- the kind that happen in the real world. So I have to choose. And given the choice between real stories and class assignments, I'd choose...real stories.
Like Sean Blanda says in his post "Confessions of a Journalism Student," employers in the journalism trade seem not to care much about GPA. It's all about the work you've done. Of course, I'm not saying journalism students should simply ignore their assignments for real stories. Mostly, I just try to combine them.
However, it takes a lot of work and time-budgeting to kill these two birds with one stone. It's easy to write a story on some campus event and turn it in for class. It's more difficult to get out in the community, do research, and report real news -- even harder when you've waited until the last minute and you've got exams to study for. But man, it's worth it.
Can't wait till summer, when I can dig up some great stories without those pesky class assignments breathing down my neck.
I mean, I'm learning great stuff in class. But if I spend lots of time on assignments, I feel like I'm missing out on the real stories -- the kind that happen in the real world. So I have to choose. And given the choice between real stories and class assignments, I'd choose...real stories.
Like Sean Blanda says in his post "Confessions of a Journalism Student," employers in the journalism trade seem not to care much about GPA. It's all about the work you've done. Of course, I'm not saying journalism students should simply ignore their assignments for real stories. Mostly, I just try to combine them.
However, it takes a lot of work and time-budgeting to kill these two birds with one stone. It's easy to write a story on some campus event and turn it in for class. It's more difficult to get out in the community, do research, and report real news -- even harder when you've waited until the last minute and you've got exams to study for. But man, it's worth it.
Can't wait till summer, when I can dig up some great stories without those pesky class assignments breathing down my neck.
Tags: assignments, journalism, school, stories
3 Comments
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Comment by Paul Balcerak on April 22, 2008 at 12:26pm -
I did a lot of "double dipping" back when I was a journalism student, too, but it didn't always work out. I tried to look at classwork like any other office assignment, though. Fact is, you're gonna have to do stuff when you work at a "real" paper that isn't always fun, or isn't always a good story, so you might as well get used to it.
Besides that, journalism is — at least in my limited experience thus far — about 80 percent time-budgeting and sometimes you just have to decide what story (or assignment) is more important and watch the other one die.
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Comment by Christian Sheckler on April 22, 2008 at 12:50pm - So what do you do in that situation, Paul? Do you write the better story and take a bad grade, or do you sacrifice the good story for a grade?
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Comment by Paul Balcerak on April 22, 2008 at 2:58pm
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I don't want to tell you to not do your work or anything, but it's been my experience that what you said — "employers in the journalism trade seem not to care much about GPA" — is true. I came away from college with a respectable GPA, but what got me my first job (also my current job, incidentally) was my portfolio and my references.
Again, I don't want to tell you to not do your work, but more often than not, success in the real world depends on who you know, not what you know. (After all, President Bush (43) graduated with a 2.1 from Yale....)
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