MY STORIES:

A day in the life of a Police Officer
Coming to America 

MY BLOG: 

For my stories, I develop my ideas based off of what I may want to read when I pick a newspaper or a magazine. Before interviewing someone, I plan out how I want my story to flow and I arrange the questions according to that. This helps me keep track of what I need to include in my story. When I start the actual writing, I introduce the person or the subject to my readers to give them an idea of what the subject or the person is all about.

On my story about coming to America, I knew that people would be interested in knowing the person’s background and their journey in the United States. When interviewing Fatoumata Batourou, I started with getting to know her, asking personal questions to make it not so obvious that it was an interview but a conversation between friends. For my second source, I reached out to Batourou’s friend; he was the closest person to her when she first came to the USA, so his comments were very valuable.

While writing my stories, I have come to find out that I work a lot faster when I have a deadline. When I had an article due, let’s say Thursday, I can start it the same day and finish it hours before my deadline. I wouldn’t have any train of thought on the same article if I started it a week ago. This really surprised me because writing regular essays for my other classes were much easier to do if I started them ahead of time, but writing about the specific topics on my site were much easier if I started them later.

ABOUT ME: My name is Tina Sissoko, and I am a junior at the University of Utah. I have been writing about news since the August 2015. With my months in writing, I have discovered that profiles are my forte. I am currently working toward a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communications; after obtaining my degree, I wish to work in the advertising field. I am also an employee at Ebay Inc. I reside in Salt Lake City, UT.

Filed under: Blogs & Bios, Student-Journalists |