J417 class review

Well, I ended up taking this class more as an alternative than choosing it specifically.

The overall class was enjoyable and had a good amount of new information that I found very interesting. However, there are a few things I would change in order to make the class more effective.

Choosing a single story to work on the entire sememster, for me at least, didn't seem to work very well. More in class review and peer editing would have been useful not only to help create a stronger sotry, but also as a means of making sure students are actually progressing throughout the semester. Grant it this is a 400 level class and at this point students need to be taking initiative, there still needs to be a way of checking the work periodically.

Also, as Jimmy stated, there were days during which I was nodding off, I'm sure it wasn't hard to miss, in class. Attendance was pretty much mandatory but the material discussed certain days seemed a bit more trivial than others.

More editing advice from the professor in class would be helpful. I have to say that I enjoyed researching biodiesel in Washington State, but the story itself was not very strong. I felt as though the entire piece was forced and unorganized. Not to mention that it very quickly turned from a climate theme into a piece about the biodiesel market and the struggles of major manufacturers. Again, I feel as though more peer and professor editing throughout the semester would have been useful.

This is a useful and interesting class and I've done more in terms of actuall reporting during this course than I have at any other time in my life. It allowed me to experience some of the work that journalists must do day in and day out. Although, I'm sure I would have benefited much more had I not procrastinated so much.