Helen Grant - Challenges

The challenges I face in journalistic writing are that I have a hard time keeping track of the numerous AP style conventions while I try to remember the rules of good grammar and organize my information by order of importance. The AP style conventions are important, they are a benchmark of professionalism, this in turn gives credibility to the news source, but there are a lot of rules. This style of writing varies from academic writing because in academic reports there is the use of technical jargon in the analysis, analysis generally follows a chronological order, and there is usually a conclusion at the end of the report. Journalistic writing reorganizes the information in an inverted pyramid; information is not always given in chronological order. I understand why it is done, but coupled with AP style conventions, that can change year-to-year; it is difficult to write this way without a fair amount of practice.