You might have noticed that our staff are students. “How does a group of high schoolers put this all together?”
- Behind every article, there is a detailed process that must be followed meticulously. Every news story begins with a brainstorming session where we are informed about media outlets such as The New York Times, Reuters, and CTV News. Sometimes, we also create our story ideas based on what’s happening around us or what we’re passionate about.
- Then, it’s the writing process. As student journalists, we must be mindful of our tone and language. Sometimes, this can be challenging as we are still learning how to master the style of journalism. We constantly review drafts and strive to minimize mistakes.
- Thereafter, we get to the editing procedure, where writers submit their articles to editors. The step can take a considerable amount of time, as it involves ten steps. Editors need to first read the whole article from beginning to end. Then they need to check if the paragraph order makes sense. They check the lead, invite the author for feedback, take away repetitions and unnecessary information, develop information, validate statistics, names, and roles, correct mistakes, cut down statements that are too long, check the headline, and scan the article for plagiarism. Finally, they grade journalists’ work, which, according to editors, can be a hard time depending on the people.” Sometimes it’s tough to give a bad grade to friends, but they need to be impartial and be fair to everyone,” an editor declared.
- Then we get to the last part: the publishing. After editors finish their work, they give it to the publishers. Their job is to ensure that everything is perfect and ready for publication. They do just that by checking if the article is in the correct category and adjusting some technical aspects, such as the picture and tags.
This entire process, from brainstorming to publishing, can take anywhere from two days to over a week. This is why, as student journalists, providing news daily can be challenging, but we continue to do so because we’d rather have good-quality news over botched daily news.
It is a valuable learning experience as it teaches us teamwork, responsibility, editing, and writing skills.
” Thanks to Mr Gagnon’s journal project, I learned to manage my time, work as a team, and follow a process.” Anthony N.- student.
So the next time you read one of our articles, keep in mind that behind each one are hours of dedication and hard work. We are proud to bring you the news.
Here’s some advice for the next generation of journalists: start strong. Please don’t make the same mistake we did. Many of us struggled with time management, which led to considerable stress and last-minute work. Stay on top of your assignments. We also advise you to work as a team and ask for help from your classmates. Don’t forget to work on the promotion. As a result, you’ll be chilling at the end of the year, and writing articles will be more fun.
