Christopher the Reporter
When Christopher Lee was a young man, he had a dream to become an English professor. He worked hard at this by first going to a community college after high school before transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles. At UCLA, Chris earned his bachelor’s degree in English, but he still needed his Master’s degree to teach at college. Chris met George while taking a class at his old community college. George was a news reporter, who told Chris how much he enjoyed his job. Chris became very interested in his story.
It turned out George was also an English major, but he turned to journalism because he wanted to be published. George said to Chris one day, “Chris, I’ve known lots of English majors who want to be published, but never got that chance. In journalism, you can get published, and get published often.” Chris thought about his words and asked him how he became a journalist. George laughed and said, “Start with Journalism 101.”
Chris took his advice, and soon he fell in love with writing in journalism style. Its short, precise method of writing appealed to Chris. Journalists deal only in facts. It is not like English writing. You don’t paint pictures in journalism; you report facts. There is a measure of creativity involved with writing in a journalistic style, but it is unlike English.
Soon, Chris earned his certificate, and went on to earn his Master’s degree in journalism. He now works for a large, daily newspaper. He is very grateful to his old friend George, who introduced him to journalism. He has now been published more than 200 times. George changed the course of Christopher’s life.
