Recently, Pittsburgh Post Gazette Columnist and book editor Tony Norman visited California University of Pennsylvania and spoke to a group of students in various majors including journalism. Norman spoke about his job at the Post Gazette, the rise of social media in journalism, and some of his specific columns. One thing that Norman spoke about that stuck out to me is the lack of people who read the print edition of a newspaper on a daily basis. He asked the room of spectators if they indeed do this everyday and most hands were down at the question including mine. I'll be honest, I don't read print editions of papers every single day, but I do believe that print is still a huge part of journalism even though it seems as if it is quickly fading behind online editions. Though Norman said that this is not particularly great for democracy, I think that the world is changing and journalists have to adapt to this change. The world of journalism is becoming strictly based on this idea that everything must be online for readers to be completely interested in it. I still believe that there are readers out there who still love the feeling of picking up a newspaper and staying informed the old fashioned way.
When writing an essay, the first important step is to determine the type of essay that you are writing. There are different types of essays and ways of writing including opinion pieces, narratives, and magazine stories. It's also easy to determine what work must be done to make each piece successful and what problems may occur. In an example of talking about the lack of instant replay in Major League Baseball, an opinion piece would likely include your own thoughts on the subject, however, you don't want to get carried away with it. You would want to look deep into the problems that this lack of replay has cost the sport in the past and you may want to get some feedback from people who play the game of baseball or even coach. For a narrative piece on the same subject, you would want to tell a story about a certain experience that you had in which you were playing baseball and a lack of instant replay cost your team the game. You are your own character and there must be a climax and resolution to the problem. Finally, in a magazine piece about the topic, you would want to dig deep into the history of baseball and talk to people who also feel passionate about the subject. This piece would dig deeper into the subject than the other two types of essays. In order to write a well written essay, a writer must determine which essay would fit in well with the subject that they are writing about.
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AuthorJose Negron is a sophomore at California University of Pennsylvania and Sports Editor of the Cal Times Newspaper Archives
May 2014
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