Self-Evaluation/Reflection When I began my Editing, Writing, and Media major here at Florida State University, I had dreams of becoming

experienced in all three of these fields. I wanted to be a music journalist or a travel writer, to be able to express my opinions and my many passions through my use of the written word. I wanted to explore things that werent being covered in sensationalistic mainstream news. In this major, I became very well-versed in the various theories and ways of thinking that guide the Rhetorical tradition. However, I always craved more practical, more journalistic experience. In my time interning with The Last Word, I got just want I wanted. My initial experience with The Last Word was in my interactions with its original incarnation, The Yeti. The Yeti was an artsy, alternative magazine made by Florida State students. It was the antithesis of the FSView. It used over-the-top, tacky graphics and photos in its print editions, and was primarily promoted by a man in a smelly yeti costume. I attended one of the magazines meetings, but was unimpressed with the organizations dynamics and inconsistent leadership. Fast forward two years. As I searched for an internship in writing and editing to fufill the requirement imposed by major, I looked at many news outlets. I initially settled on a website that my friend had started up called Seminole Source, however, his ambitions for the website were too great and his time commitments with school and student government were too great to be an adequate internship supervisor or editor. It was around then that my friend and future editor, Rachel Cohen, urged me to write for The Yeti once more. At first I resisted, but upon her assurance that the magazine was much different now, I decided to give it a shot. To my surprise, the meeting was far more organized, the people much friendlier, and the publications image much more mature. The Last Words mission was different from its predecessors. As it reads in the magazines print edition: The Last Word serves the student body, faculty and staff of Florida State University by providing a progressive media outlet that focuses on issues that affect the campus, the Tallahassee community and society at large. We aim to fill the void left by commercial media outlets and provide a voice to the underrepresented. We are a venue for commentary and artistic expression. We strive to spark a dialogue between students and community members, in hopes that an educated exchange of information will motivate our readers to be informed, thinking members of society. This had been what I was searching for since I got to college; an outlet to write the stories that I wanted to write. The magazines structure facilitated my becoming accustomed to a journalistic way of life. I attended meetings every Tuesday night at 7pm in the Dunlap building. The various editors would pitch articles for their individual sections and the interns and volunteers were expected to contribute with their own pitches and story suggestions. This helped me become much more observant of the world around me. I started read more news stories, more books, and more internet articles. If I wanted to write about what was going on in the world I needed to first learn for myself. I became more

observant in my day-to-day life. I would notice things while I drove around Tallahassee, like the overwhelming influx of student housing, and I would ponder the reasons for what was happening. I desired to know more about these things that I found interesting or these things that I found wrong in life and learn more about them. And after I had researched these subjects I wrote about them not because I had to, but because I wanted to share my newfound knowledge. The magazine helped imbue in me a greater sense of curiosity. Upon being assigned individual topics we were to meet with the section editors and discuss what we both wanted from the article. In this respect, my internship helped me understand the relationship between an editor and a writer. I had to mediate my vision for a particular story with theirs. As afformentioned, my internship for The Last Word gave me unparalleled freedom and structure in my writing. That being said, it is important to have another impression imprinted on your work. Working together effectively with an editor is an absolute necessity in the field of journalism. With the topics and the directions from the editor in mind, I was given a week (sometimes longer) to effectively research and compose my stories. This was very constructive for me because I have found that I often lack the drive and discipline to write on my own on a personal or freelance level. Like I said, this was structured journalism. I was given assignments and deadlines. In this respect, my internship in editing was very much a class. It kept me organized and motivated. My editors at the internship were, as follows: Perry Petruccelli as Editor-in-Chief, Katie Avagliano as the Managing Editor, Jeanette Horowitz as the News Editor, Chelsea Daubar and Sam Levine as the Views Editors, Rachel Cohen as the Arts & Life Editor, Chris Melville as the Sports Editor, and Amanda Perez as the Literary Editor. In each of these individuals, I did not find lazy unorganized students or ultra-stern bosses. I found regular people that helped keep in prospective why we were writing in the first place; we loved to learn about and discuss matters of importance in the world around us. The internship helped me realize how passionate I was about investigative journalism and discovery. Perhaps my strongest article from my tenure with The Last Word was my Growing City in which I investigated and explained the various urban developments that have been occurring in Tallahassee over the past ten years. Writing this article required me to meet with several individuals and extensively research urban planning. I met with Florida State grad students, general and regional managers working for student housing companies and complexes, business owners, and even the head of a large-scale real estate development firm when researching this article. I found that through networking, persistence, and showing genuine interest that interviewing people for articles was one of the most rewarding aspects of the journalistic process. Not only that, but in writing my story, I realized just how important and substantial quotes from authority figures were in writing articles in the first place. Quoting experts not only gives a story a more grounded foundation; it gives it substance. My second favorite piece from my internship was my Bovine Legacy article. In it, I profiled The Cow Haus, a now-defunct bar that brought so much musical talent to the city of Tallahassee. The bars character and reputation was so captivating, and the fact that I would never had a chance to see it in its original glory made it so much more intriguing. This article proved to be more difficult to write than the first one. My

journalistic skills would be put to a test as I tracked down owners from two of the bars three iterations. In researching this article, I even put in my first public records request when I was trying to pinpoint the exact years that the business licenses for the Cow Haus-es were issued. With all of this in mind, I was able create a timeline and give a quirky local history lesson in my article. That being said, however, I wish I had been able to talk with more of the old bars patrons to truly be able to shed some more light on what it wouldve been like to truly experience the Cow Haus. The editing process also proved to be very gratifying despite it not necessarily being my area of interest. Reading through and editing all of the articles that appeared in the print magazine required me to utilize my knowledge of grammar rules. Fortunately, I took an introductory journalism class at FAMU last summer, so many of those rules were still relatively fresh in my memory. All in all, working as an intern for The Last Word proved to be a great learning experience for me. The magazines approach to alternative and indie stories allowed me to explore subjects off the beaten path from mainstream news. It required me to work with my editors and others to mediate and improve my creative vision. It forced me to work with deadlines, making me feel more comfortable writing on a regular basis. More importantly working as an intern for this publication helped instil in me a curiousity that I feel is required in all journalists. I thoroughly enjoyed researching and bringing life various subjects in the articles I wrote. If I had to go back and change anything about my experience, it wouldve been to investigate even more, to strive and discover things that nobody else knows about and bring that information out of the darkness and into the light.