Good writing is made up of many elements. Writers must display natural curiosity, passion and a drive to undertake the hard work of writing. Writers must write a great deal, writing and revising, practicing consistently to hone their craft.

Learning to write is much like learning to play an instrument. Good writers put in the hours to improve their craft, yet there are those who do not truly understand the process of learning to be a good writer. If one chooses to undertake media writing, that person must put in the effort to learn exactly how that area is unique.

There are those budding writers who become confused about writing, and they might best benefit from media education. These individuals initially think to themselves, “I’m literate; I can read. Surely, I can put letters together, form words, and then make sentences that will form paragraphs.” While it is true that this is a form of writing, that does not necessarily make good writing.

Good writing is something that many in online media education are attempting to explain and teach. However, many teachers are still learning the craft themselves! They need a professor to challenge them in writing essays and other media.

I once had a professor that challenged my classmates and I to an essay contest. During my freshman year, the professor gave the assignment, and my first thought was, “I’m a smart kid; I know how to write an essay.”

However, when the professor returned our essays, he explained that most of the essays had earned “F’s” with a few earning a “D.” There were two essays that had been awarded a “C” – an average grade – and the professor explained that those two writers had “fought for” that grade.

Many years passed before I understood why he gave the class such an assignment. The essay was not about explaining what good writing is; he taught us that we needed to “show” rather than “tell” in our essays. The assignment was not truly to explain good writing, but to demonstrate to the professor good writing techniques in my own work.

What is good writing? Good writing exhibits concrete details that paint a picture for the writer’s audience. Good writing expresses points of view, and it utilizes words in specific ways. Good writing should be structured to a point so that readers can follow the passage. It is not vague. Readers should be able to not only access what the writer is trying to say, but to understand the details and supports for a specific point of view.

Good writers are able to express themselves in a meaningful way throughout the media industry. People must be able to grasp what writers are intending to express. It should be accessible, using vocabulary that is appropriate but not so challenging to readers that they can’t understand the concepts behind the essay. Writers should work to lessen any “speed bumps” for readers – wordiness, unfamiliar words, lack of context clues or jargon in one’s writing. Good writing grabs the reader’s attention and holds it for the duration. It stimulates the mind and leaves the reader understanding the writer’s point of view and perhaps inquisitive to learn more.

This module is really an overview of media writing. It will help you understand the professional landscape of becoming a writer in today’s media industry, which is always in flux. Be prepared to change, and be prepared to pivot. The following information will help you understand how to become a media writer in the Digital Era and beyond. In this first module, you’ll understand what it takes to become a professional writer in today’s digital, print, and broadcast industries. Journalism has history, and this module will introduce you to that history. You’ll learn about the landscape of media education and all the skills that it takes to become successful, especially in this Digital Era where everything is in flux as it has changed so much over time. Online media education offers you the ability to navigate this exciting and complex landscape as a dynamic career opportunity.

When it comes to entertainment stories, the people who really excel at media writing are people who become super fans and want to be in this business to take a peek behind the curtain and see how things operate, get a media education. When I was very young, I was obsessed with watching as many movies as I could and watching as much TV as I could. My mom picked up a letter from me when I was 5 years old, and it said “I just want to eat popcorn and watch movies all day for a living.” I got about as close to that as I could, having a real job.

People are putting their hearts and souls into these productions, and when a movie bombs opening weekend and everybody’s making fun of it on Twitter, years of people’s lives and their livelihoods have banked on the movie’s success. There are a lot of different parts of the making-a-movie stew that can screw up, and the movie goes from an Academy Award winner to total dust. There are so many parts that go into making a movie, and people work so hard to put their all into it. It’s such a tight rope of putting yourself out there. If you really are passionate about learning those stories from people, that makes a great entertainment writer, and that makes a great entertainment story.

Alongside that, you want to be able to pull yourself out and be professional enough to know that there is a business element about the media industry. Like at “Variety,” we’ve been known for more than 100 years as the business of entertainment. That’s our slogan because we want to break down the deals in the deal-making. It’s the intersection of loving art and then understanding the commerce behind it.

Entertainment and media journalists have a bit of a luxury. They tend to be a little bit more adventurous and curious than other journalists and other fields I’ve met with, wanting to understand what’s new. The music journalists at our publication, they’re all musicians in their spare time, and they’re not stuck in whatever decade they came of age listening to music. They’re wanting to hear what’s fresh, what’s new, and really act upon that. One of the things about my job that makes me the happiest is finding that small movie or that small record that you really think deserves a bigger platform and then telling people how great it is.

If you want to keep that content fresh, you’re gonna want to keep the site refreshed, updated, and current. You’re gonna want to be on all social media platforms and integrate yourself in a way that is natural while not trying too hard to fit in. We at “Variety” always know that we are a business publication. So when we go on Tik Tok, for example, we’re teaching people how to make it in the entertainment industry or how to be an entertainment journalist. It’s a type of online media education. We’re trying to comment on these platforms from our vantage of knowledgeability plus trying to remain current and keep ahead of things.