I was a journalist for six months. Here’s why you should try to be one, too.
When The Post enlisted me to write Post Grad as an intern in June, it wasn’t looking for a traditionally trained journalist. And I certainly wasn’t one. But along the way, I discovered that the ability to distill insights, opinions, arguments and wisdom from life experiences the way that journalists do is an extremely useful skill.
In my final Post Grad dispatch to you all, I want to pull back the curtain and explain why you should act like a journalist in your post-grad years, even if it’s not your career.
The task of the Post Grad column was a bit of a paradox from the beginning. Columnists for newspapers often have considerable subject matter expertise from years of reporting, formal study or professional work. I wasn’t really an expert in anything yet except my own life, so I wrote about that — relying on my own limited experiences, those of my peers and the advice of experts and mentors.
I found pretty quickly that, for me, the writing part is easy — it’s forming opinions that was a challenge. In my writing, I tagged my own mundane life experiences with lessons. Looking back, it has helped me to feel more confident in my beliefs and reasons behind my decision-making.
For example, in the column about post-grad sobriety, I reflected on a conversation I had with my dad about feeling embarrassed about being a nondrinker in college. Through the process of writing that column, I was able to reaffirm my reasons for not drinking to myself and be honest about how I had struggled with feeling embarrassed about my sobriety in the past.
The process of turning anecdotes into written lessons is sort of like journaling about your day: taking time after the fact to privately dissect a mundane conversation or event to coax out an opinion, conclusion or argument. You don’t have to put your diary entries in The Post, but I think it can be quite helpful to keep a journal for regular reflection. Only about 17 percent of Americans do, but the benefits — such as reduced anxiety, better decision-making and improved physical health — are well documented.
It’s not just the act of writing that makes a journalist, though. An article is only as good as a journalist’s questions (and their follow-ups). In your own post-grad life, arriving at the right questions through introspection and conversation with your peers is as important as finding answers during this turbulent and uncertain phase of life.
This is an excerpt of Renee Yaseen’s Post Grad column. Read the rest for free on washingtonpost.com.?
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Visual Communication Manager at CDG Développement - Groupe CDG
1 年#wewontbesilenced Thousands of Palestinians, most children are systematically k*dnapped, imprisoned and k*lled by the Isr@eli army of shame.. and this does not date from October 7. it has been going on since 1948. Unfortunately Western media failures say more about the West than Gaza! The remarkable bias in Western media coverage of this GENOC*DE reflects the cultural perception that Palestinian and Isr@eli lives are not equal. Observing the media coverage of these bomb*ngs and mass k*llings of Palestinian children, I was struck by the marked difference between how the murd ers of the vict*ms were covered on both sides. Many Western media outlets insist on highlighting the immorality of attacking and brutalising Isr@eli civilians, as Palestinian Resistance has undoubtedly done, while soft-pedalling the immorality of the Isr@eli military’s indiscriminate k*lling of Palestinian civilians by carpet bombing Gaza!! & this is So PATHET*C Z*onists are unmasked and that is perfect.. The World sees the true face of Zion*sm, the cr*minal one. FREE PALESTINE ???????????????????? https://lnkd.in/evMXAPrd https://lnkd.in/eQzxtFH9 https://lnkd.in/eKKHUFy4 https://lnkd.in/eX_5ztUF https://lnkd.in/eAigFBqU https://lnkd.in/e2wxmX6x
CXO Relationship Manager
1 年thank u so much for sharing. congratulations
Amateur Journalist - Holistic Wellness Sustainability & Indigenous Culture
1 年Congratulations Renee! And I couldn't agree with you more on several of the points you made. I started my online journal at the beginning of this year, after only a few short months of blogging, never had written anything professional in my life, had no clue what I was doing other than sharing what I thought other people would be interested in knowing, and actually in attempt to organize thoughts and ideas for books I wanted to write. But almost to the year, I've gained a loyal following of subscribers/readers and met really wonderful people along the way. I think of the best journaling -be it stories I read, or ones I write, as good conversation starters, one-sided conversations people will finish in their own little circles or internally. A lot of journalism focuses on factual data and supportive evidence, and while I include that, my focus is on telling stories from a flawed, short-sighted, human point of view that I hope is challenged by someone somewhere out there, even as much as I'd like everyone to just agree with me, I'd rather inspire ideas that lead people to think more, talk more and change more. I've also journaled in my personal life and found it to be one of the best forms of therapy. Highly recommend to all!
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1 年Thank for sharing ??
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1 年??