I've never had any journalism classes either, P-C, but I did consciously study journalistic style. My college didn't offer journalism. It considers journalism a trade. So I spent four years at what was at the time one of the nation's best student newspapers and learned a trade. I majored in English and minored in biology.

IMO, versatility of style is a wonderful thing to develop. While I hope I'm someday a popular enough author to write nothing but fiction, I think it only makes me a better writer to be able to write everything from fundraising brochures to formal business correspondence to magazine articles, all in their appropriate styles. It'll increase your awareness of voice, and help you make your own a carefully honed tool rather than a blunt instinctive weapon.

Oh. Yeah. I don't think I thought of it like that before. Thanks. You're very right.

Well, if this is what you want to do, then now would be the time to take one.

This is my last semester, and registration has passed. I wonder if I could sneak into lectures.

( not just cause DH was on Bextra for a while and my BIL now has no medications for when his feet will get really bad)

I think Dr. Fendrick's suggestion of taking an NSAID with a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) to protect the stomach seems pretty sound.

What Noise Said.Well, you know, I also said. :) Interviewing is a special skill, in particular. (And I don't just say that because in school, they thought I had a gift. Really, death is my gift, but it took me years to find that out. You should get a book and read about the libel laws and stuff just in case, if you don't have time for Comm Law, too.(I loved Comm Law...for about five seconds I wanted to go into it, but I wasn't serious enough for, like, law school, so nsm)

This is my last semester, and registration has passed. I wonder if I could sneak into lectures.

Local community colleges, summer session after you are done, etc. etc. If this is really where you want to be headed, then anything you can do to help prepare for it is time very well spent.

I still attend professional lectures, classes, seminars and all sorts of other things and I hold two degrees in my field.

from the sphere page Betsy linked to:

A sphere reflects energy waves from a source within to a spot directly opposite the geographic centre of the sphere. This can be seen from sound. If I rub my fingers together on one side of the centre and have my ears on the opposite side, the same distance away, it sounds like the sound is happening inside my head. When your head is centred in the sphere every sound you make comes back to you. From a healing point of view this is beneficial. All true healing involves getting in touch with yourself. Having every emanation reflected back to you helps

Sounds way too noisy to me.

I still attend professional lectures, classes, seminars and all sorts of other things and I hold two degrees in my field.

Yup. Well, I only have the one degree, but yup.

(Can't afford the Master's yet. Need to not run a theater company before can afford next degree. Also, U of MN Drama Dept. doesn't offer a MFA anymore. Asshats.)

Good article, though. I learned stuff.

WooHoo! (Joins in dance. Ignores sidestep for the moment)

IMO, versatility of style is a wonderful thing to develop. While I hope I'm someday a popular enough author to write nothing but fiction, I think it only makes me a better writer to be able to write everything from fundraising brochures to formal business correspondence to magazine articles, all in their appropriate styles. It'll increase your awareness of voice, and help you make your own a carefully honed tool rather than a blunt instinctive weapon.

Hmmm. The best example I can think of is C.J. Cherryh's fiction. Read The Tree of Swords and Jewels, dense and lyrically written, lots of words, lots of images, compound, even run-on sentences, layer on layer of words embroidering this incredible tapestry of a fable. Then read Merchanter's Luck. Same author, still fiction. But one is fable, the other is terse, spare, hardscrabble tech. There are as many fragments as sentences, the prose is almost telepathic. Stylistically they are poles apart. Still, from the same mind. And I'm sure that were she to write nonfiction (she may have done, I'm just unaware of it), it would be as different again. Versatility is a great thing, intrinsically. But it can also help a lot with the bill paying.

which refers to 1989 as "recent studies"

Yeah, that caught my eye, but only because of what I do for a living. We very emphatically refer to things published only in the current year and 1 year prior as "recent."

My college didn't offer journalism. It considers journalism a trade.

Actually -- and I say this as someone with a B.A. in journalism -- I've always thought that in a lot of ways it IS a trade.