The Learning Curve

I learnt a lot following my experience at iCov. The experience has opened my eyes to what I could potentially do in my future professional life and the difficulties I could encounter along this path.

Firstly, iCov has given me the chance to put my editing skills into practise. I experienced what it was like to be the editor of a news site and how to manage the level of articles that were being uploaded. As several articles were being uploaded daily, I had a lot to work through and this provided a challenge. However, I felt that I was able to manage these effectively and I also learnt how to be more critical of the work in front of me. Even though I had to be critical of the blog posts from the first year students, I always ensured that I pointed out what they did well as I did not want them to become demoralised. Editing the posts for iCov also assisted me with my own journalism work; for a separate module, I had to write my own blog posts and so, as a result of my experience with iCov, I have become more aware of incorporating by-lines and featured images, as well as using these skills for my own personal Tumblr blog.

In addition to this, I feel that I have now developed my own style for writing articles. I believe that writing in the style of a magazine article, which is more informal than a newspaper article but just as informative, suits me very well. The features that I wrote for iCov were, at times, very analytical but I felt that my style was suitable for this sort of article. iCov has also taught me how to approach the more challenging articles, such as the one I wrote on the Budget, which has ultimately grown my confidence.

I have recognised that in the early stages of my professional life, I will possibly be writing on a freelance basis, potentially for a weekly magazine or news site. iCov has given me a taste of what this could entail and as a result, has prepared me for the beginning of my career. The articles that I wrote for iCov will also enhance my CV, and this will hopefully allow me to find an organisation that will suit me.

Finally, I have learnt how to cope when I start struggling to find stories to cover. This happened when I was writing the features for iCov and was a demoralising period of my placement. Despite losing confidence, I consulted Coventry City Council’s website and found a press release that I could use for a feature and also spoke to my mentor, who gave me some ideas. I also did some research on Coventry and whether there were any events coming up as I could do a preview of the event and possibly interview the people involved. Even when I was struggling on my placement, I persevered and still produced good quality articles.

My placement at iCov has taught me many skills that will be beneficial to me in both my professional career and my personal skills. I also feel more prepared for when I start my career as a journalist and author.

 

Decisions, decisions

There were many different factors that persuaded me to choose iCov as my placement. On the whole, I feel that I made the right choice with iCov and this post explains the reasons why.

I first became aware of the possibility of working with iCov after receiving high praise for a separate module. My mentor asked whether I would consider being an editor for iCov and I decided that this would suit me very well. Following a discussion about the role, in which I learnt that I would be working closely with the first year students, I began working on the draft posts on iCov. At the time of my placement, I was editing a novel I had written so I was already used to checking for grammatical errors and altering sentence structure.

Another key factor in my decision to choose iCov as my placement was the opportunity to educate the first year students. During my time at university, I have always attempted to assist others where possible and I enjoyed giving the students advice. My role meant that I would have to alter and improve a number of articles that were uploaded to iCov, however I felt that explaining to the students the reasons why I made the changes would benefit them in the future and they appeared to appreciate my input.

As mentioned above, I was writing a novel at the time of my 201MC placement. I decided to find a placement that would still allow me to continue and possibly assist me with this, and iCov fell into this bracket quite well. I was able to work on my novel during my spare time, while still working on the blog posts from the first years and the features that I wrote in the second part of my placement. Writing will ultimately be a huge part of my future profession and I felt that writing for iCov would give me a chance to improve my ability further as a writer.

The final key factor in my decision was the fact that iCov was based at my university and in a patch I knew well. I had previously applied to other organisations in the Coventry area as I felt uncomfortable moving to a new patch. iCov proved to be the ideal placement as I already had contacts that I could use for the features and I could work with my lecturers to build my ability, which is a key part of 201MC.

I believe I made the right decision to work with iCov. My time on placement has taught me a variety of skills as well as developing my existing abilities. Working with the first year students allowed me to refresh my editing skills as well as refreshing my knowledge of journalism law. The praise I received during my placement has given me more confidence and the belief that I can achieve the goals I want to.

What Does the Future Hold?

201MC was a module that was designed to make me consider my future professional life. I chose a placement that would suit me both personally and academically and I felt that I enjoyed this module as well.

My ultimate goal is to become a professional author; I have always had a passion for writing and, as I explained in my video presentation for 201MC, I feel that this is the area that I excel in the most. I have already realised and accepted that my career path will be long and difficult in the early years so I need to prepare for this. The placement at iCov allowed me to improve my writing ability still further and also assist the first year students who were looking to develop on their course in the same way I have.

iCov has also allowed me to see how far I have come during my time at university. I discovered that, in educating the first years with their work, I was able to see that I have developed quite rapidly in terms of my ability. For instance, I now feel that I am at a standard where I can help others improve and develop as journalists and this is one of the main parts I enjoyed about 201MC. Having the first years come to me requesting my help and advice made me a lot more confident in my skill as a journalist and also made me feel a sense of pride.

The feature writing that I undertook also made me realise that I have a talent for writing. I believe a career in online journalism would suit me very well, as I feel I could post articles regularly and bring a dynamic writing style to an organisation. A career in this industry would also still allow me to concentrate on my author career too, as I can build up my writing whilst reporting.

In conclusion, 201MC has given me a much clearer insight into the career I could potentially have in journalism. This career ultimately will assist me in my ambition to be an author but will also allow me to put the skills I have learnt during my journalism assignments into practise in a professional organisation.

The Thought Process

Writing features for iCov provided unique challenges. One of these was planning which features to write and whether or not they have a news angle to them. This was a key part of my placement, as I still needed to produce stories that were newsworthy.

The articles that I wrote all had a news angle to them. For instance, I covered a story about the 2014 Budget statement as this would be a challenging story to write for me personally but it also was a major national story. I decided to cover this story because I have never written a story of such an important issue and I also felt that I could write an analysis of the Budget in an effective way. As a large proportion of the audience that iCov targets might not have known about what the Budget means, I decided to include a short video of Chancellor George Osborne delivering the statement, which would clearly explain the key points of the Budget alongside my bullet points.

Many of the other stories were more like magazine articles than news articles, however I found that this suited my style of writing. The article ‘Within Temptation – Hydra on Tour’ was an article that I really enjoyed writing as it focused on a band I greatly admire. This meant that I already had good background knowledge of the band and so could provide details of their music. The angle that I chose for this particular article was the fact that Within Temptation had a new album out, called Hydra, and they would be performing in Birmingham to promote it. As I already owned a copy of Hydra I decided to write a review and highlight the upcoming performance. I also attempted to contact the band’s management for an interview, however I was unsuccessful in this.

Being a feature writer also gave me the freedom to cover stories that were important to me personally. This was true with the article entitled ‘Is Technology Killing the Book?’ which explained how tablet devices such as the Kindle Fire were impacting on the writing industry. As I am targeting being an author in my future career, I had a personal connection with this story and I also used my contacts (for example authors and readers) to get a balanced article.

I carefully thought about how I would write the features that I did. I considered the images that I would use, who I would interview and the information I would convey. The feedback that I received from my mentor during this phase of my placement with iCov suggests that I was largely successful at writing these features to a good, professional standard.