Blog Portfolio Essay
Prior to this class, I never knew that “The Associated Press Stylebook” and class assignments in AP style saved me from bad writing habits. One of the mistakes that I usually make is not following through with instruction and assignment rubric.
Creating leads is the most challenging writing style for me to learn in a short period. For the leads assignment, I got 75/100 because I struggled to select information from the Hodge Fire Fact Sheet and write two leads. Even though I shared my first draft after class, the assignment barely met the minimum requirements.
Next, I scored 60/100 for the inverted pyramid assignment, which is the lowest score for my writing so far. I spent hours working on the inverted pyramid story using the same fact sheet from the previous project and AP style format. I had the most difficulties dealing with factual accuracy, proper dateline, direct attribution, and identification.
The writing style that I enjoy the most is the interview assignment with my classmate. Thanks to the article’s submission checklist and factual accuracy, I got 95/100. Besides, I had a chance to meet and talk with Casuga, who majors in Public Relations.
I learned AP writing style from reading the assigned book for this class and learning materials from Canvas Module. Reading News from The Associated Press from my Twitter account and giving myself small writing examples are two techniques that I use to become proficient in AP style. In addition, I have a small collection of short AP style stories in a notebook.
Some of the writing skills that I have mastered are avoiding redundancies, writing direct and indirect attributions, capitalization, and numbers. For the Press Release assignment, I wrote 2–3 sentences in each paragraph and came up with a headline.
I have to work on the GSP structure, factual accuracy, and writing an inverted pyramid story with a strong lead. I feel that they are the writing skills that I need to practice more and more after this class.
My next plans will be taking notes, reading, and finding more information about AP style. I am getting my master’s degree in creative writing, so learning new writing skills every day is essential for a writer.
Self-reflection indicates my significant improvement in accepting mistakes and willingness to fix them for better writing skills. For example, after failing the first two assignments, I was scared at first. Still, I come to accept the writing challenges and take responsibility for my actions through self-reflecting practice.
