Project Newspaper

     Our 6th project made us work in groups to make newspapers/magazines. These newspapers followed the layout out regular newspapers, including things such as bylines, deckers, mailing panels, and more. We also chose a topic for our newspaper. My group chose to write about politics. Next, we assigned roles and planned like in the previous project. This time we were more definitive about roles  and we had a rigid plan, so there was no role switching or time wasted. After the assignment of roles we each wrote an article about our topic. I chose to write about gerrymandering. We then had our peers review our article and revised them accordingly. The final article was transferred to InDesign with pull quotes and pictures. Our individual files were combined into one entire newspaper to be the skeleton of the newspaper.
     My role in my group was manager and head editor. As the manager of my group I made sure that my group members were on task as well as myself. If they got stuck my job was to help figure out their problem and find a solution. I oversaw the designer’s work and would point out if something didn’t work, something was missing, or what things worked that the designer should repeat. As head editor I revised my group’s article a second time and edited parts of their article for them to make them enjoyable to read. I also fixed grammar issues and spelling errors.
     Overall, this was a great way to apply what I learned from the last project in a new project in terms of working with teams. In the last project lack of good planning and undefined roles led to setbacks and delays, making it difficult to meet the deadline. In this project I feel I was able to correct that mistake and get work done efficiently. I also feel that I was able to use my organizational and management skills well. I was able to monitor the progress of my team as well as know when my teammates were having trouble. I was able to make sure my team stuck to the plan and got everything done on time.