So you think you're ready for J-school

Zeke, there's a copy in my house. Parents bought it for me at X-mas. Thanks.

 

Couple of points ...

1. High school graduate who still struggles with sentence structure ... aye me, education is abysmal today.

2. Not a self-motivator? My dear, you are barking up the wrong tree. Either kick yourself in the ass or go find a profession where you can sit at a desk all day.

 

Blunt but to the point. Don't count on being in J-school to instill newfound motivation in you. If you are indeed passionate about the craft, then get motivated and get a job where you can practice it regularly. J-school helps give you the skills and knowledge you need to do the job, but not the passion for the job. As has been said on the thread, being a sportswriter is more about being a WRITER than about sports. If the only time you feel excited/motivated enough to write is when you are out at a sporting event, you might want to consider whether it's the writing part that you're passionate about or the sports part. If it's the latter, there're plenty of other sports-related jobs that'd allow you to be close to the action without the writing/reporting. If you're truly passionate about the writing and reporting, then push yourself to do it as much as you can.

 

Zulu,
We recently interviewed for a student intern position. One of the two candidates admitted to not having much confidence and lacked motivation.
I'm still blown away that anyone would admit that in an interview process.
The successful candidate accepted another position. So instead of falling to No. 2, we reposted the position.
Frightening.

 

Aren't you supposed to say your biggest weakness is working too hard or being too persistant?

 

You'd think ... always worked for me ...

 

This career won't start well.

 

It seems like the reading you are doing will take care of a lot of what J-schools do. J-school shows you the nuts and bolts, how to correctly structure things, how to do this or that. For me, the motivation came when working for the student paper or stringing for a paper. When I covered the football and basketball teams I would wake up and immediately check the competition's Web sites. I wanted to see what angle those reporters took and how mine compared. My motivation was competing with the major metros that also covered State U and the other paper in town. We all saw the same game, but who wrote about it the best? I'd like to say that sometimes I had better articles than the competition. Other times I didn't, but I'd learn from their coverage and that motivated me to want to write better than them. Sometimes I got a quote that no one else got and that was my motivation.

Going to J-school allowed me to work for the student paper, but it didn't motivate me. Learning about journalism was boring. It was the discussions and application of what I learned is what was fun and motivational.

 

Who are you referring to, Drifter. I'm not writing myself off just yet.
Great advice, Jeremy. My competitiveness is one of my assets, IMO. Hopefully it will serve me well.

 

i think you read it right.

 

I bet one of your biggest weakness is that you're too much of a perfectionist.

 

OK, Drifter and others can have their opinions. I'll learn from this thread, damnit.