Jennifer Moodys' Feature Writing Visit

During a recent visit to LBCC’s Feature Writing class, journalist Jennifer Moody (reporter for the Democrat Herald) spoke to students about some of the important facets of being a journalist. She regaled the students with some of the stories of her own experience as a journalist and some of the key tools she has learned during her professional career.

One of the main facts she made clear was important for a writer was writing conventions. It’s these conventions that help the reader decide how good the writer is and whether the story is worth reading. The reader will judge the story based on how well the article is written and not necessarily what the subject matter is about.

She used a story about her daughter to help illustrate this point. Jennifer talked about how her daughter read an article and talked about how full of errors it was; her daughter judged the writers intelligence based soley on convention errors. Simple spelling mistakes or improper punctuation can help the reader decide on whether or not an article will be worth reading.

Jennifer also told the students to be ready to write about anything, even if it’s outside of their normal comfort zone. She mentioned how she disliked writing about sports but how when the time came for her to write a story about sports she was ready to do it. It’s this versatility to be ready to write about anything that really prepares a writer to become successful in a journalism career. If something comes across the writers’ desk, they should be able and willing to write about it.


One student asked Jennifer how to narrow a story down when there is so much to write about, how can you isolate a topic to just one small article? Jennifer replied with an analogy about a bakery, “You don’t write about the bakery, you write about the piece of pie. The pie will tell you about the bakery.”

In essence it is not necessarily the budget cut, or the escalating costs of tuition. It’s the small business that’s affected by the budget cut or the student that can’t afford books because of rising tuition. These small parts of the story help to illuminate the bigger picture for the reader and writer.

Jennifer cast an illuminating light on some of the key problems and issues the future journalist would have to contend with. She gave the students her own tools and trick on how to deal with these issues when they arrive. The class session with Jennifer was helpful for any writer hoping to find a future in the journalism career.