Bits and Bytes

Thursday quote: “The written word endures, the spoken word disappears.” – Neil Postman –

If this is your first time here, welcome! I encourage you to check out my fellow bloggers and vloggers pages as well and I hope you have learned some useful tips and fun facts about the college and all the things that happen here. I myself have enjoyed learning about the campus and the activities happening here and this week I wanted to share with you a new discovery I made.

Being from another country, our school systems work differently and our social activities are different. One thing we don’t have in school is a school newspaper. We have a magazine that comes out quarterly but no online blogs, vlogs or newspapers. So when I found out that the college not only have blogs and vlogs but a newspaper as well, I wanted to find out more about it.

First fun fact:

Each campus has a newspaper and a funky name to go with it:

“The Advocate” by the Rockville campus

“The Globe” by the Germantown campus and

“The Excalibur” by the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus.

Second fun fact:

As a freshman you don’t publish your articles until your second semester. It is a great way to learn how to write articles and get feedback from editors before publishing pieces.

I went out and interviewed one of the students who work with the Rockville campus newspaper. Melody Baghdoust is a freshmen at MC and this is her first semester working with the newspaper.  She wants to major in public health and minor in journalism. I sat down with her and asked her a little bit more about the newspaper.

Q: How did you learn about this opportunity?

A: In school someone suggested that I join the school newspaper; there I met a wonderful man who encouraged me to be better and helped me realize that journalism is a job I like doing. HE was the one who told me about the college newspaper as well.

Q: What requirements are involved to be a part of the newspaper?

A: You need to write a paper to show the work you can do. An interview follows where they talk to you and learn more about you. After that, they do a fake interview about the piece you wrote to test your interview skills etc.

Q: Do you get paid to write for the newspaper?

A: (Laughs) No.

Q: What opportunities does this job give you?

A: It teaches you self-discipline, how to communicate with others, how to be professional and of course how to juggle your school life, personal life and work life.

Q: What can you write about?

A: Basically anything, you can write about public policies or anything that connects with the college and the community.

Q: How frequently do you publish a piece?

A: Once a month.

Q: How long does your piece have to be?

A: Depending on the topic or the person you’re interviewing, it can vary from 1-3 pages.

Q: Do you meet up with other writers?

A: Yes, every day we meet in the Humanities building for an hour or so.

Q: While writing a piece, do you have mentors who help you?

A: Yes, each us of gets a peer mentor who helps us. I’m one myself and then, of course, there are the editors who check your work multiple times.

Q: How does the editing process work?

A: After you write your article, you send your work to be peer reviewed. After it has been reviewed, you write it again and your article will go through 8 editors before it is published.

Wow, well after talking to her I feel more informed and I encourage you to go check out the college newspaper:

https://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/EDU/Department2.aspx?id=41239