journalism in high school?

Question

My daughter is entering high school this fall.
She wants to take either journalism or orchestra in high school.
Her other elective is Spanish II.

She is already in an orchestra outside of school but she wants to join the school orchestra because they win many state wide competitions.

She doesn't know if journalism is too hard.
She says that she would rather take journalism but she says that she hears many stories from her older friends that journalism is very hard to get good grades in.

Do you know anything about journalism in high school?
Is it very hard to get an A in?
Is there a lot of homework?
Any comments will help.

Thanks so much!

Answer 1

I think I can help you because I am a staff writer for our high school newspaper. Jouralism isn't really hard if you know what your doing. It is just something you will have to pratice at.

For our stories, we are required to interview. Have her practice interviewing so she won't be so nervous. Have her write a practice story with the notes she gets from the interview.

If she has a male figure in here life that played sports in high school, have her interview him. Have her ask the following questions:

What did you play?
What do you find most enjoyable being on the team?
What were your goals for the team?
Did you ever make it to play offs?

Etc.

ALWAYS ask alot of how and why questions. The key to getting great interview notes it to have the person talk alot and go into detail.

Our editors are in charge of part of our grades. Our grades depend on our story revision grades and how we act. It's an easy A if you do what your expected to.

Our newspaper period is during 5h period so we have 2 hours to get interviews and start on our stories. We have revisions do twice a week for 2-3 weeks then we are on deadline.

On deadline, we stay at school make headlines, editing papers, helping editors. Etc. It last one week (Mon - Mon) Tuesday if we still aren't done.

The only "homework" I could think about would be editing your story. It usually only takes me 20-30 minutes to finish.

I've already written stories for big name newspapers (my school and Dallas Morning News)

It's not as difficult as it sounds... you just have to stick to it.

My personal tips:

-Take a freind to an interview until she feels she can do it alone.
-Try not to act nervous.
-Make a joke or say something you can both probably laugh at.
-Research or ask someone about your story topic.
-Find out all info before you interview. (Like if you write a sports story, know about the coaches and how the season is)
-Ask for people to refer you to someone who knows or is involved with the organization.

Answer 2

Journalism depends upon writing and research. Before interviewing anyone the journalist does his or her homework and reads up on the subject, so they can ask intelligent questions and so they can recognize important facts in the statements they are given. Also so they can tell when they are getting a snow job.
Given that, yes, there will be some homework. But probably not more than what she would spend practising her instrument for band, or practising her vocabulary for Spanish.
Is it hard to get an A? Letter grades are given out on a bell curve. Where you rate on the bell curve depends entirely on where everyone else rates. If you get 60% and everyone else gets 45%, you are going to get an A. If you get 80% and the class average is 95%, you will not get an A. So what her mark will be depends on where she places in the class.
The other thing to remember is that journalism is a fascinating topic. It sharpens the mind and certainly helps bring the world into focus. Even if she never seeks a career in journalism, the training she gets will help make her a more aware citizen and a better consumer, because she will know why you need to look behind the claims of politicians and advertisers (who have more in common than most people suspect)

Answer 3

To tell the truth I took journalism in high school and it was so very long ago I had forgotten about it until I saw some notes my fellow students wrote in my yearbook. I must have had a great time in that class. They wrote things like " you are a very good writer" and "that was so very fun doing such and such." It sounded like I had some very good friends I made in that class (and now I can't even remember who they were). Oh well, guess my brain has been filled up with so much since those days. I do remember that I did not write articles for the school newspaper though. I think some others did. And, I probably got a good grade because I am a good student and it so happens I am a good writer too.

Answer 4

I took a journalism class in high school last year. We had to write for the school paper so it was really time consuming. My advice for your daughter is talk to the teacher whose teaches it and ask what the class is about and what it in-tails. If she decides to take it good luck. If she wants to be a writer this class is good preparation. My class was not at all hard just time consuming.

Answer 5

It really depends on the teacher. At my school the kids in journalism write for our school newspaper. It should be easy to get an A if your daughter is really interested in journalism and if she has enough self discipline to get out there and write.

Answer 6

I took journalism in high school, and was in the high school band, and took Spanish II, too! lol. No, I did not find journalism challenging - it was actually one of my easiest grades, truth to be told...but dependin on where your daughter goes to school, there are obviously going to be variations in difficulty and extent of information in the course. Have fun!