journalism merged

I'm taking Journalism for the first time this year, and my teacher told me I'm one of the best writers in the entire grade, but I suck at handing stuff in on time. I've been getting better though. Anyway, we're writing a humor article that's due Friday. I have four ideas, but any others would be gladly accepted. It can be anything that you could write a decent amount on in a humorous way. My ideas are:
1. How weird holidays have become (St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc.)
2. Write in a tour form, guiding a person around my high school and pointing out the various places that each clique is at (for instance, the hallway by the gym is full of the ghetto kids, which I obviously wouldn't say like that...)
3. How ridiculous commercials are (If you eat Skittles but don't believe in rainbows, you'll fall thousands of feet; if you drink Capri Sun you'll turn into a silvery plasma type material that can travel around the world at light speed, etc.)
4. Being a white violinist (Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Because I'm usually one of the 4 non-Asians, if there's even that many, to make it into the All-State Orchestra...but it's all around the world too. I could write this in a nonracist fashion too. Not that I'm racist, but people are very easily offended and could take something the wrong way.)

Sorry if that was strange and rambly and disjointed, but I'm exhausted and not being the smartest person right now...if you have any more suggestions, or have an opinion on which of my ideas is the best to do, please tell me? Thanks so much

 

Just some advice...don't make up your article based on your opinions, get general opinions from classmates and teachers this way it appeals to everyone- and doesn't insult anyone. I would skip the white vs asian violin piece...it's much too bias no matter how you write it.


oh yeah, when i majored in journalism in college for a year and wrote an article on how the holidays have become pure nonsense, and it was published in the paper. oh yeah. i feel smart.

 

I'd choose number one. It's the easiest. Number two has potential but if you're sharing it you'll have to be brave. Good luck!

 

i'm with lucyinthesky. you are there to observe and record. then funk it up with your own style.

 

Yup, I agree: don't state that something is ridiculous, objectively document instances if ridiculousness. Let the reader draw their own conclusions. Don't tell, show.

I like idea 3, btw.

Would you post your final article here when you are done? I'd love to see it.

 

Normally, that's what we're supposed to do for articles. We go around for quotes, find research to back our ideas up, etc. But this is simply a humor piece. It's supposed to be biased, it's supposed to be fake, it's there to have a laugh. For this article, I'm supposed to make up names and quotes. So there's no hard news tone at all. I'm not sure I explained that very well...

 

Have you ever read The Onion? What you just wrote made me think of them. They write in strict, hard news fashion. For me, that's part of what makes them so hilarious. They let the circumstances of the joke create the humor.

 

Yes, I HAVE read the Onion. Those are the kinds of stories I'm talking about. Except I don't think I'm writing mine as a hard news feature, only because I'm better at writing in something sounding like fiction. I think I'm doing the "Being a Blonde Caucasian Violinist." I'm starting it off with what a regional orchestra audition is like. Then I'm going to launch into the whole Caucasian vs. Asian idea. But it's not going to be racist at all. I won't make general statements about the whole race or anything. I'm basically going to tell specific personal anecdotes. And I will have people read over it to make sure that it doesn't contain any racism. This is what I have so far (about the regional audition):

Holding my head up high, I walked staunchly into the cacophonous auditorium. Teenagers were everywhere, frantically preparing for the trials and tribulations they were about to face. I knew what I needed to find: the piece of paper taped somewhere on the wall describing my mission. Scanning above the gaggle of heads, I desperately tried to locate the paper. Finally, I found it by a small cluster of viola players. I walked past a contrabassoonist pitifully shaking his head at his performance. After receiving my directions, I chose a superlative spot to begin preparation. After removing my instrument from its state-of-the-art protection capsule, I began to go over every minute detail that was on the instruction sheet.

And that's it. I'm going to turn that into a really funny thing that happened with a group of Asian parents there. But once again, it's PERSONAL STORIES, not RACIST OR GENERALIZING STATEMENTS.
I know I'm going to be yelled at by someone anyway, though

 

So it's a feature story?
If that's the case, I don't think there would be any problem with you reporting on all the cliques, what they do for fun, where they hang out, etc. But make sure if you're going to be biased, then report on the positive or neutral humorous aspects of them. If you don't, you might get into some big trouble with your school/the people in those aforementioned cliques/your Journalism teacher. Maybe your school is different, but we have a lot of censorship crap to deal with concerning "community standards." It's like a loophole in the Tinker decision. And it SUCKS.

 

It's not exactly a feature either. Our school paper has a section called "Lighter Side" which can be anything. It's a funny view on anything the writer for that week wants to write about. If anything, it's the most like an op-ed/editorial because it has an opinion in it. It's not being published, and to keep away from racism in my article, I'm sticking to personal anecdotes rather than making general comments.
I completely changed the flow of my article too. I'll post it, I should be done pretty soon.

 

Defense for my DRAFT (notice that it's a DRAFT, and not the final copy...)
1. why NOT staunchly?
2. It's not about the setting of the auditorium, which is why I cut down anyway.
3. The trials/tribulations is SUPPOSED to be a cliche, that's the whole point...and if you knew these kids, you would say that every single one of them faces a tribulation.
4. the contrabasoonist part...it doesn't sound like I sat through his performance, it sounds like he knows he messed up and won't get in and that's kind of obvious...
5. the case: it's a violin case. the whole point is that i'm making it seem a lot more serious than it is because that's how a lot of the kids see it.

Remember the concept of an early draft? That's why you revise them...
I realized it was too drawn out. Which is why my last post was, "I changed the whole flow of my article, it was too long, misleading, and kind of boring." So either you completely ignored me, or you're just kind of stupid.
Oh yeah, and have you ever heard of "constructive criticism?" Just the concept of not being a complete jerk to a person asking for your advice.

 

There's a difference between constructive criticism and completely ripping apart the whole thing in nasty ways...
And that one phrase "trials and tribulations" is the only cliche in it.
I read it today and my journalism teacher was laughing hysterically saying, "It's a hilarious, clever article, but we could probably never publish it. It's not because it's racist, but we have to stay away from all things anywhere like that at all. But it's extraordinarily written and funny, so I can tell you now that you have an A."

 

If drumminmama's critique got to you that much, you may want to consider whether you want to continue in writing past the highschool level.

Workshopping is brutal. Every word you write that isn't doing its job will be questioned. You either grow to love what the process does for you, or you move onto something else.

Before you say that she's insulted you, reread... did she say you are a bad writer? Did she say anything about you at all? Nothing said was personal.

What she gave you was constructive criticism. You are free to take or leave any piece of advice - in the end, a critic's advice could even be wrong - but, don't get insulted.

 

i was just wondering how i could get into the field of journalism, and what type of schooling i would have to do

 

actuly i have no idea what kind of writing i want to do,for free lance stuff i guess, and as i stands i probly wont finsh high school, im switching school to try and change that, the school im going to doesnt have a paper so i dont know where to start realy