Last week, I wrote an article for The Daily Telegraph about my experience of university. My piece followed on from a recent article by Tibor Fischer, a novelist and former lecturer at the Christ Church Canterbury.
My article – the second I’ve written for The Telegraph – represented a steep learning curve for me. First of all, writers never write their own headlines; or at least not lowly student freelancers like me. The headline my piece was given, ‘Tibor Fischer is right, students are a bunch of snowflakes’, represented exactly the message that I had originally been keen to avoid. Secondly, sub-editors will edit your finished draft and not inform you that they’ve done so. I did ultimately know both truths from my experience of student journalism, but nonetheless, this experience drove it home further.
Overall though, I can’t complain. I have to respect the fact that, when pitching to a national publication, my piece needs to be tailored so that it will reach the largest possible audience. As such, it may be altered to have more of an impact.