Lessons Learned while Researching and Reporting Political Research

Where I have always found writing to flow pretty easily for me, the act of reporting was a completely foreign concept to me.  With only two classes remaining after this semester, political science has become quite easy for me to talk about.  Because I had never written a news story, this whole concept was somewhat intimidating.  My first mistake came quickly.  Me, being a control freak, looked to control the emergence of a newsworthy story.  Through this process, I learned that in the field of researching and reporting, patience and quick wits are key.  Also, I learned how one must be able to "roll with the punches" as most things in life do not always go according to our initial plans.  So I guess we could label my first lesson as understanding that things most often do not go according to plan, and in order to be successful at researching and/or reporting, one must be able to improv quickly.

Im going to be honest for a moment.  No one likes group work.  Theres always the possibility of a partner not pulling their weight, there are multiple schedules that must align enough to put together a good assignment, and there is also the possibility that you may not be tasked with a desired job.  This is where my second lesson was seen.  It always has seemed awkward for me when tasking out jobs within a group project.   There has been many of times where I received a diminished role, or times where my role was way too large in comparison to the role of my fellow group members.  What I learned from this is that group projects help us for what we will see more often in our future workplaces.  Not many people in the world have the luxury or convenience of working strictly unilaterally. It is important to have to hold others accountable.  It is important to speak up if you feel you are not being treated fairly.  It is also important to become used to working around the schedule of others.  Where I have and will continue to do group work in this class and other classes alike, it was not till this specific assignment that I actually had to think of why we participate in group activities.