From cub reporter to "Clark Kent"
One afternoon, I was at Markle's Music shopping for a microphone when I started talking to Fred Markle about the different newsworthy events in the area. We talked about the upcoming elections, and since I see Fred at the Linton City Council every month, we talked about different ongoing projects in the community. During our conversation Fred said to me, "You know, we have a nickname for you?"
"Great, who did I upset this time?"
"No, its not that, actually it was Shad [Cox] who came up with it. We call you Clark Kent," Fred said with a laugh.
And yes Shad, I am calling you out, but I will have you know, you can be my Jimmy Olsen any day.
I much prefer being called Clark Kent than any number of colorful similes. So, I'll own it.
After leaving Markle's Music, I started thinking about my first year working at the Greene County Daily World. My journalistic career began on August 1, 2014, and my experience over the last year has been nothing short of an education.
My first shift was on a Friday, and the August heat was sweltering on the month's first day. Prior to entering the building, I was covered in sweat -- half from the heat, the rest was due to my nerves. I was both apprehensive and excited. I had no expectations, because I lacked any basis of comparison.
There was little introduction, before I was thrown into it.
Within an hour, I was interviewing someone on the phone and was writing my first story: Trial by fire.
I recently looked over my first piece, and the contrast in writing style between today and then is vast.
One item I noticed is the frequency of the word "that." As a rule, nine times out of 10, you can remove the word "that" from a sentence. In the beginning, it could be noted I used "that" at least 10 to 20 times per story.
Another difference is the lack of creativity in my leads.
During the first months working as a staff writer, my leads would generally adhere to the same format: At such and such time and date, at such and such place, such and such happened or is going to happen.
For example: On Friday at 11 a.m., the Greene County Daily World hired Grant Karazsia as a staff writer.
After reading the above sentence, I am metaphorically hitting the snooze button.
On certain occasions this type of lead is applicable but not for ever single story, especially a feature.
A better lead might be: After ten years away from his hometown, Grant Karazsia will once more return to Linton on Friday to begin his journalistic career at the Greene County Daily World.
During the first few months of employment, my writing was very self conscious. Knowing your work has the potential to be read by a large audience, caused me to write with trepidation.
Being a hypercritical person, initially, it took me a long time to finish a story.
The deadline was always this looming veil, which would drop over my eyes as the minutes passed. Subsequently, I would become anxious. But after the first three months, I learned how to relax and just write.
I think I had something to prove during the early months of my tenure. I would often use pedantic and esoteric words, such as "pedantic" and "esoteric" in my stories. Having your work published is intimidating, because once something is printed, it is present for all to see -- from the mistakes in grammar, to misspelled words, every aspect of the article may be scrutinized and commented on from the public.
By writing "big words," I guess I was hoping to somehow validate my writing.
Even though I have worked here for a year, my journalism education is far from over.
I look forward to reporting here for the years to come, but unfortunately, the lack of phone booths in this town make it excessively hard to aptly perform my job.
Grant is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 19. He can also be reached via email at gkarazsia@gmail.com.
- -- Posted by shadcox on Mon, Sep 28, 2015, at 10:05 AM
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