Writing experiences

For talking about the writing piece I have chosen to this Rhetorical analysis, we have to go back
to my last year major. I was in University of Girona (Spain) studying a major called Cultural
communication. I had chosen this major for different facts: the first one was due to the lack of
major opportunities that Girona have; the second, was because in the description of the course I
read during high school mentioned that some courses of journalism were done. The last year of
high school, the options of study I had were between advertising and journalism. My father has
been doing the job of journalist for years, and my dream is to follow his steps, and being as a
great columnist as he is. In my third semester of University in Spain I had my first (and unique)
contact with the world of journalism. The lessons were so interesting to me, and our teacher
Narcs taught us a wide range of aspects related with the Spanish journalism. What I liked about
him is that he made us write one mandatory article about a speech or event in where we should
attend. So, our tasks were taking notes, and then transform our quick and horrible handwriting
in a decent column. For this reason I have chosen the first article I wrote during this course,
because it made me ensure that what I really wanted to be was a columnist.
The speech I attended to was one organized by the own University the 21st of November. It was
held by the director of the cultural website nvol (cloud in English), Bernat Puigtobella. The
conference was about the history and the functioning of the website, as well as his actual
situation in the Catalan Journalism. Puigtobella stated that his main objective was to give voice
to the cultural news, which have an unimportant participation on the journalistic world. Nvol
was only a website when the speech was presented; currently, it has also a printed edition. Its
director talked about the possibility of expanding his areas to the printed journalism in order to
prevent the decadency of newspapers and magazines. Finally, other facts commented were the
different opportunities that Nuvol gave to novice journalists as interns, and how the social
networks were influencing his website content day per day.

Almost one year after, journalism has become my major in Sacramento State. Writing has an
important role in journalism world: society knows what is going on around the world thanks to
journalists work. The most common job as a writing journalist is the one that involves writing
columns on papers or websites. Moreover, a journalist can also prepare the notes that will be
said during the news on TV, for example. Whatever the job is, the journalist has to be aware that
the basic elements of journalism have to be respected, and accomplished in every task. As Bill
Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel state in the book Elements of journalism, some of these elements
are: Journalisms first obligation is to the truth; its first loyalty is to citizens; its essence is a
discipline of verification; its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they
cover; It must serve as an independent monitor of power; or it must provide a forum for public
criticism and compromise (Page of the book).
Following the criteria of the CSUS Handbook: writing and researching in arts and humanities,
the characteristics are more general for this area, in which journalism is included. Firstly, the
main focuses of writing are the human experiences; writing about it is used to explore and
answer questions about them. Secondly, the writers of this area defense their arguments with
theories and discussions about the experiences. As a consequence, an idea has to be defended or
argued. Other sources are needed to complement the experiences, like researching information
from secondary sources, and gathering this to strengthen the argument. Finally, the way of
writing is so important too; in comparison with scientific writings, humanities and arts focus on
connecting with their audience through an engaging style. This would mean that creativity can
be a good resource when it is time to develop the essay.
What has to be avoided is the use of yellow journalism, gossip, and using rumors for creating
fake news. This type of writing goes against all the elements of journalism.
Comparing the writing created during my course, and the points of the previous part, the
conclusion could be that it would be accepted for a professor from journalism or/and arts and
humanities. The task done has tried to accomplish the elements of journalism (and the most
important, the principle of truth). Reporters have to gather their own information for achieving
the final report: most of the writing is built on the collection of the facts done by the journalist.
Comparing my writing with these statements, the paper would be considered good because I
completed each step prior to writing the final article: I took notes, and reflected, as concrete as
possible, what the director of Nuvol explained to the audience during his speech. About my style
of writing, I tried to make the writing as entertaining as possible.
Nevertheless, the fact that journalism can be understood in a different way in here or in
Catalonia has to be considered. The fact is that journalism is my current major now, so I will be
able to improve my writing skills in the near future. In my opinion, it is not only important to
defend an argument; the originality of the writing is crucial to being a good journalist.