Week 2.5

Week 2.5

Because I'm in on a Saturday Night 

These weekly updates have taken a hiatus in favour of a mid week (ish) feature that is an update on what has happened in terms of my essay and generally the updates on my portfolio that I'm creating for the end of semester. This is a bit of an unorthodox update, Saturday night as it is, and nothing going on.

Essay Results 

Considering I was overall not very happy with the finished essay which i submitted i feel that the grade which i was given was a generous reflection of what was written on the paper. A 65% 2:1 on my first assignment is not the end of the world in terms of results, and when sitting down and studying the frailties of it, the apparent need for some final finesse in terms of not only the referencing, but also some of the repetitive nature of what my overall argument was, in terms of paragraph structure.

Randall comments that Newpapers 'comment on things that are already known', and although even not in the same context as what it is intended for, i feel that that is what has happened with parts of my essay, and that overall at times i have waffled far too much, reguritating old points which have already been made in order to fill in my word count, instead of the obvious need to be succinct in my analysis of 'Why Journalism Matters'. It is the same waffling that has now taken over this paragraph, and where I am going to end it!

Portfolio Progression

Since Wednesday I have gone through the pieces that i have been writing throughout the year and decided that two of them are of a standard that i would be happy to see in my final portfolio for the Practices and Principles module. Although they may not have been my favourite pieces to write i feel that i have demonstrated the necessary skills that show that i have an aptitude towards a style of journalistic writing. 

Furthermore I have also completed 4 NIBS (News In Briefs) for my portfolio. These 4 short snippets of news between 25-25 words are an accompaniment to the rest of my articles and create the portfolio. However, due to the fact that we have not actually worked on NIBS in any of our letures so far, if I decide that further work could allow me to improve them, i will not hesitate to scrap them and start again with newer topics, written in a better format. 

When Smith in his book 'Essential Reporting' asks the question 'Where do you get all that news' I had to think long and hard about where to get the topics not only for my NIBS but also for new articles. In terms of NIBS i decided to go for something local, something international, something to do with sport and finally something that i enjoy. I will not reveal what they are as they are to be posted with my assignment, but i feel that the research into finding them was eventful enough to highlight that i have thought critically about how i went about my research and my eventual writing of the 'snippets' of news.

Closing Out .5

Apart from this i don't think that there is too much else to say. With the first assignment out of the way, corrections heeded and noted for future reference, and the portfolio coming along as far as content is concerned, there is nothing else to do but to see what the new (Christmassy week seeing as its December now) brings. With an assignment due for Robert Charters on Monday morning, i will have to check tomorrow if it is as good as I remembered when i completed it at the time.

Onwards and upwards and thanks for reading guys.

See you on the next one,

Jon