Dear Horizon staff,

I don’t want to wait until the end of next year to offer my congratulations to you on all of your hard work because you’ve already done so much, so I shall offer them now: Congratulations! I commend your laudable efforts thus far and in advance for the work you will continue to do.

If I were to give you one piece of advice for writing articles, it would be to prioritize interviews. When you have an article to write, make interviews your first step. Ask around early and set up times to meet in person—most people will be very willing, even excited, to talk to you, and you get so much more information from them when you converse face-to-face. Do a little research beforehand to make sure you know what you’re talking about and prepare insightful questions in advance. With in-person interviews, you can get clarification and ask additional questions on the spot, too. The responses you get can provide a lot of content for your article and give you additional avenues and aspects of your topic to cover. There were so many times when I didn’t know what to write and wasn’t sure I could fill a whole page on my topic, but after I got interviews, I had everything I needed and more. Interviewing also helped me develop social skills and become much more confident talking to people. Journalism helped with that, too. It’s never too late to take journalism! It taught me even more about article writing, even though I’d already been in Horizon for two years before taking the class. It clarified and solidified for me a lot of aspects of working with a newspaper.

Also, vary the sections you write for, especially early on. Most people become particular for a certain section, but my suggestion is to try them all. I wrote for every section of Horizon except sports, and I feel like being a well-rounded writer provided lots of valuable experience for me. Don’t be afraid to try a new section or sign up for an article you don’t know much about yet. Everything you learn can be content.

And seriously, please write for online. There is so much going on that can always be covered for online if it doesn’t line up with the print deadlines. Keep that website award-winning! I promise to keep checking the site after I leave. I’m excited to see what I find there.

 Appreciate Mrs. Sanders, guys. She does way more for this club than we realize. Don’t forget to tell her thanks. And check your articles with the editing guide. Please. Do it for Mrs. Sanders.

Sell more ads! Eat more bagels! Write more articles! Edit those articles! Interview more people! Go to the meetings! Stop using exclamation points.

 See you on Friday 😉

 Maddy Malinka