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When I was on a work experience placement at a local newspaper, I was asked to visit a charity event over the weekend and to write an article reporting on it. The event was a money raising fete for an organisation dedicated to helping children suffering from terminal illness. I had a good day at the fete, browsing the stalls, speaking to people and, of course, taking detailed notes from which to write up my report later. In particular, I spoke to two families who were benefitting from the organisation. I noted down their names and what the child in question was suffering from. Although I can suffer from shyness at times, I was confident while speaking to people and was pleased with myself for what I had accomplished overall.
That night, I wrote up an article ready to take into the newspaper the following Monday. I focussed the article on the families that I met at the event, and used the actual fete as a backdrop. After a couple of rewrites I was happy with the result and looked forward to showing my work to my superiors.
On Monday, I took my article in to work. Every morning we had a team meeting in order to catch up with each other and to plan the day’s work. As I was on a work experience placement, the fete article was the first that I had written from scratch without supervision. As a result of this, the editor asked me to read the piece out to him and the rest of the team. In hindsight, I can see that he was trying to be supportive to me in asking me to read out my piece; he was helping me to feel included and as a part of the team. However, at the time, I was instantly nervous. I did not feel comfortable reading out in front of everyone, especially as I am a shy person by nature and I didn’t know the team well at this point. Nevertheless, I read out the article as requested.
The team listened politely while I read and, once I had finished, the editor asked everyone for their feedback and suggestions. Most of the journalists were very kind and said nice things about the piece. The editor, however, was less positive. He told me that he felt it was wrong that I had placed such a focus on the families of the poorly children. He felt that, instead, I should have used my word count to report on the event, with only a few sentences dedicated to explaining the nature of the organisation at the heart of it.
Initially, I disagreed with what the editor was saying. Furthermore, I felt a little embarrassed that he had questioned my creative decision in front of the whole newspaper team. However, I nodded and thanked the editor for his feedback.
Back at my desk, I was torn between doing exactly as the editor had suggested, or staying with my idea for the direction of the article. After a great deal of thought, I decided to follow the editor’s advice in reporting on more details of the fete. However, I still retained mention of the individual families by name, though spoke about them in a small section near the end.
Creativity is about making positive changes were possible, while staying true to your original vision of the project. I feel that in the case of the charity fete article, I achieved this,.
That night, I wrote up an article ready to take into the newspaper the following Monday. I focussed the article on the families that I met at the event, and used the actual fete as a backdrop. After a couple of rewrites I was happy with the result and looked forward to showing my work to my superiors.
On Monday, I took my article in to work. Every morning we had a team meeting in order to catch up with each other and to plan the day’s work. As I was on a work experience placement, the fete article was the first that I had written from scratch without supervision. As a result of this, the editor asked me to read the piece out to him and the rest of the team. In hindsight, I can see that he was trying to be supportive to me in asking me to read out my piece; he was helping me to feel included and as a part of the team. However, at the time, I was instantly nervous. I did not feel comfortable reading out in front of everyone, especially as I am a shy person by nature and I didn’t know the team well at this point. Nevertheless, I read out the article as requested.
The team listened politely while I read and, once I had finished, the editor asked everyone for their feedback and suggestions. Most of the journalists were very kind and said nice things about the piece. The editor, however, was less positive. He told me that he felt it was wrong that I had placed such a focus on the families of the poorly children. He felt that, instead, I should have used my word count to report on the event, with only a few sentences dedicated to explaining the nature of the organisation at the heart of it.
Initially, I disagreed with what the editor was saying. Furthermore, I felt a little embarrassed that he had questioned my creative decision in front of the whole newspaper team. However, I nodded and thanked the editor for his feedback.
Back at my desk, I was torn between doing exactly as the editor had suggested, or staying with my idea for the direction of the article. After a great deal of thought, I decided to follow the editor’s advice in reporting on more details of the fete. However, I still retained mention of the individual families by name, though spoke about them in a small section near the end.
Creativity is about making positive changes were possible, while staying true to your original vision of the project. I feel that in the case of the charity fete article, I achieved this,.