My 201MC placement with iCov was a twofold placement. Once the first year students had completed their news days and had written enough articles, I was set a new task. For this, I had to write news features on events in Coventry or major national issues. I also had to work to a deadline of one article every other day.

Even though I had a deadline of one article every two days, I largely worked ahead of this deadline and produced in-depth features on a daily basis. These features covered a wide range of topics; from a local Coventry musician launching her new album to a review on the latest ‘Hunger Games’ film. I also decided to cover more topical issues, one of which was the 2014 Budget announcement made by George Osborne MP. This particular feature was very challenging as I had very little knowledge about what the Budget would mean for Britain, however I researched the topic thoroughly and produced an informative article on the main points of the Budget. To show how the Budget worked, I found a YouTube video of Mr Osborne making the announcement as this would clearly explain the Budget statement to any audience members who may be unclear about it.

Another feature that I covered centred on the use of technology in the reading industry. I asked the question ‘is technology killing the book?’ and asked my friends on Facebook what they thought. I received a variety of answers, but to further balance out the issue, I sent some questions to an author who has had work published in both paper and electronic format. His answers provided me with a balanced view of his industry and how technology (for instance, Kindles and iPads) had affected it. Due to my ambition to become an author, I felt that this would be a topic that I could provide a lot of information about.

Writing features for iCov has developed my ability as a writer and has also given me a lot more belief in my ability as I now feel confident enough to write any story regardless of its context.