As the Grambling State University students are getting settled down in their new dorms and adjusting to class schedules, The Gramblinite, in the Department of Mass Communication is already up and running with training staffers.A misconception about workshops is that they’re tedious and really not helpful. The mass communication workshop was anything but that. It was extremely informative, as participants’ comments revealed.
The workshop consisted of three units. The first segment was the laws of The Gramblinite, which is the code of ethics and the guiding principles, particularly fairness, accuracy and honesty.
The principles that are instilled by The Gramblinite code of ethics are strictly enforced.
“Ethics are not only for the newspaper but for broadcasting, and radio,” Austin Douglas said. “It sets a discipline, a level of professionalism.”
In addition to the guiding principles of The Gramblinite, the second workshop session covered grammar and speaking etiquette.
Melanie C. Thomas of the GSU English Department explained the most common grammatical errors.
Then students were given exercises geared toward recognizing and correcting grammatical errors.
The group was educated on parallelism, pronoun-antecedent agreement, ambiguous pronoun references and much more.
“Nothing ruins a good story like usage of incorrect grammar,” Thomas said.
When asked what he thought about the workshop, Ciley Carrington said, “The things that were covered were very helpful and are mistakes that most people make every day.”
The last segment in the workshop covered how to write basic news stories, focusing on the inverted pyramid writing structure.
This concept refers to prioritizing information so that the important information is leading the story.
The news writing session was led by Gramblinite director Wanda L. Peters.
“Even though there were some veteran reporters in the workshop, they got a refresher course while the newcomers learned the basics,” Peters said.
The group was educated on the variety of leads there are.
An example of a lead is a summary lead, in which more than one major fact is covered in the lead.
The importance of a good lead was emphasized, since the reader’s attention has to be caught early on to entice them to read further.
The most recent workshop was coordinated and led by Editor in Chief Imani Jackson.
Jackson invited recent graduate LaDasha Flournoy to share advice from her layout design, writing and photography experiences with the group.
Peters said such workshops are held regularly, usually at the beginning of every semester.
Future workshops planned include sessions on copy editing and writing editorials and commentary.
Anyone interested in joining The Gramblinite staff should come to Room 204 Washington-Johnson Complex. It is not exclusively for mass communication students. Meetings are held on Mondays at 2 p.m.