Becoming an Interpretive Journalist (On Interpretation‪)‬

I am a journalist who hated my journalism classes. Anyone else out there with me? I loved to write, to tell stories, and get people to think. In college, I used to hang out in our campus newspaper office long after hours "just because." I started volunteering as a writer at a nonprofit organization to get more chances to put words to paper. But I could not stand my writing classes. Don't get me wrong--I learned some valuable information from my coursework. Proper punctuation, when to use digits and when to spell out numbers, and the difference between ensure and insure, entitled and titled (look them up--you probably misuse them yourself!). What I couldn't stomach was the formulaic approach some of my teachers took to writing. From the lede (journalist talk for the first sentence of your article, pronounced "leed") to the closing 'graph, my writing was consistently marked up in the name of making sure I was clear and concise, and that my product met the needs of my audience.