Reporting Process
For me, the reporting process has five distinct steps that occur before I consider a work for publication -- my work wouldn't be complete without them.
01.
Story Selection
What's the right story?
02.
Background Research
What should I know?
03.
Interviews
Who should I talk to?
04.
Drafting
What is the story?
05.
Editing
​
What does the reader need?
Story Selection
Before I even think about writing a story, I think about what the right story is. What are the important issues facing the school? What will interest readers? What can I do as a writer to pull this off? I consider all of these in class pitch assignments and well as brainstorming activities, while as a member of the ODYSSEY's Leadership Team, I've vetted pitches and assigned stories to staffers as well.
Above: The upper left and bottom right photos show examples of work I've done pitching and brainstorming stories, while the bottom left and top right photos show me assigning stories to staffers.
Background Research
My next step is figuring out what I need to know to accurately write the story. I will often use the internet to research any people or issues that will be featured, while I also conduct internal research with my classmates to determine viable stakeholders and acquire contact information. I will often use this to generate a rough outline of things I want to include in the story.
Above: The top, left, and right photos show research I've done for potential stories -- one a profile of my own, one for a panel discussion of journalists, one a feature story for another editor. The bottom image shows how I apply this research into transition-size questions for me to answer in the story.
Interviews
When I feel I understand the story I'm writing, then I dive into interviewing. I always try to interview more people than I strictly need for the story so as to get all sides of the story and remain objective. This means drafting lots of email requests, building relationships with frequent stakeholders, generating interview questions, and transcribing on the back end.
Above: The upper left photo shows an email request sent to a rival school's football coach. The upper right photo shows a text from an Associate Athletic Director with whom I have a close relationship alerting me to a coverage opportunity. The bottom left photo shows questions I wrote for an interview with a district employee. The bottom right photo shows one of my transcriptions.
Drafting
I'll usually start drafting the story when I've done my main interview and can visualize the story in my mind. Crucially, at this stage, I challenge my preconceived notions about what I believed the story to be -- is it still the same? Do I need to change my angle? When I've decided, I begin to write a long, rambling draft, paying no attention to word count, simply trying to get all the information conveyed in a logical order. I then input the necessary quotes to fill in the gaps.
Above: The top photo shows my initial draft of an editorial with a thesis to guide me. The bottom left photo shows my drafting process in half-hour bursts. The bottom right photo shows an outline I used to write a draft of a feature story on cell phones.
Editing
Before I pass on my draft to an editor, I self-edit. This is where I go back and cut words myself, focusing on the essence of the story and cutting unnecessary information, making the draft more presentable. I'll also highlight sections that I want future editors to look at. From there, I will receive edits and look to accept them with an open mind. If the edits are small-scale, I will often make minor tweaks and proceed to publication. If the edits are bigger, I don't like to keep the same format -- I'll start the drafting process over until I get it right.
