Six Hours Hooked Up to an IV Drip

If being a fledgling reporter is like having the common cold, then I spent a chunk of my morning and afternoon soaking up that which will help me get better.

You've heard it said since you were young: the best treatment for the common cold is a combination of rest, fluids and waiting.

Somewhere in the mix, you heard something about vitamin C and how taking it might prevent - or even cure - your ailment.

However, studies show no real link between the nutrient and even shortening the duration of the common cold, let alone curing it. Read more about that in this Newsweek article.

According to that article, though, doctors don't mind that many people take vitamin C in hopes of improving their health, since "consumption of vitamin C is not considered a public threat. (In fact, some studies have associated vitamin C's antioxidant properties with a decreased incident of some cancers.)"

Plus, when the only real cure is to wait it out, don't you like to think you're doing something to help the process along? Taking vitamin C makes the waiting, resting and hydration a little easier.

So if being a fledgling reporter is like having the common cold and the real cure for that is time - or experience - then taking Vitamin C is like motivation.

Motivation alone won't better your reporting skills - just like vitamin C won't cure your cold - but it will help you through the process of improvement and learning.

Today I was hooked up to an IV drip of pure motivation in the form of Boyd Huppert. He's a reporter for Minnesota's KARE 11 TV and highly decorated, at that. Widely considered one of the nation's finest storytellers in television news, ~80 University of Missouri School of Journalism students sat, entranced, as he imparted his wisdom to us during a seminar. (Get a sample of his writing and delivery tips from these YouTube videos.)

One big lesson I took away was to let viewers discover the layers of a story. You can literally spell out for people what they're seeing on the TV screen or you can let them take in information by hearing and seeing it for themselves. Then your writing is free to be a little more nuanced.

He talked about his twelve tools of good writing techniques, which, used sparingly, can help bring a story to life. Those include using metaphors, alliteration, supposition (supposing that xxx, then yyy... see the opening line of my blog!) and the rule of three.

Motivated by his seminar, I am taking actions to improve my journalistic skills, starting with updating my blog and ending with who-knows-what.

What I do know is that I'll be putting his tips to use in my reporting from now on.

See more of Boyd's work in his series, Land of 10,000 Stories.