Unlearning bad habits in six short months!

With about seven years of journalism under my belt, I felt that I knew it all. I have been writing for the Nation newspaper for all these years without much criticism from my editors and without so many demands for corrections on my articles. I have also written a couple of reports for the Christian Science Monitor, so I felt that I was doing just fine. That is, until I joined the fellowship where I met a group of extraordinary women.

I was initially sceptical about the corrections, the insistence of having evidence to back my statements. I felt like I was being treated like an intern or overly criticized on write-ups that I considered good enough. But this insistence on high editorial  standards, fact- based reporting finally opened my mind to learn and accept corrections has been life-changing. I have come to realize that my mentors have a wealth of experience, sufficient connections and my interest at heart.

My writing has improved so much, I am getting more familiar with the right questions to ask and things to look out for when conducting interviews to enable me to write better stories, my stories are more professional than it had ever been and recently, I sent in a story for an international website and there was no back and forth, in terms of corrections from the editor which is really encouraging.

I believe that I still have a lot to learn and look forward to utilizing all the opportunities that I can get from the fellowship. With the experience gotten from the fellowship, I look forward to working with other network members. The fellowship is just the first step in this journey l have been making towards excellence.