moon child // Summer Update

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So, it’s not *technically* summer yet. But when it’s 30 degrees in Scotland, it is summer. My classes have come to an end and I (luckily) only had one exam which is all done and dusted, so I’m finished for third year and off until September.

Internship

Knowing I’d have a lot of time off this summer, I decided to apply for the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Vacation Scholarship, a scheme we were encouraged to apply to in one of my English classes this year. The vacation scholarship is a scheme that students studying in Scotland in their third year of an undergraduate degree can apply for to receive funding for a research project during their summer break. I applied to do a creative writing research project and proposed to write a collection of Scottish short stories written in a variety of Strathclyde urban dialects following a group of friends studying in Glasgow. Writing in Scots is something I’ve always been interested in but it’s an area I haven’t had as much opportunity as I would like to study or practise. I outlined the plots for each story along with many other details of my project, submitted my application, and I’ve been awarded the scholarship!

I have now began my project and I am currently working on one of my short stories called ‘Cake’ which I’m really excited with so far. As well as writing the collection, I also proposed to self publish the collection and it will become available on Lulu, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble for anyone who’d like to buy a copy in August when the project is complete. You can read more about my Carnegie Project on my LinkedIn page.

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Summer School

As well as my creative writing research project, I have also been allowed the amazing opportunity by my university (Strathclyde) to study abroad for a week-long summer school at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands! I will be in Nijmegen in August this summer to study ‘Dutch Culture and Language’ for a week as well as several excursions and activities. While in Nijmegen, I will post daily, if I can, with photographs and travel/study blog entries talking about my experience of exchange study.

Image courtesy of Ton Nolles via Flickr.

Are you doing any projects or studying abroad this summer? Let me know in the comment section below.

Intern Diary: News writing at The National

In April, I did my first ever work experience writing for Scotcampus for two weeks in their Glasgow office. This internship was great because the editors at Scotcampus really gave me the creative freedom to come up with my own ideas and write in my own style. I honed my writing skills, I learned a lot (including a few techy tricks and some surprising grammar revelations) and developed my ability in writing good quality articles to meet a deadline. I have been writing for Scotcampus since around January this year so I was fairly clued up on the style of articles, set up of the website, desired content etc. and I had a head start going into the internship. But this month, I stepped into unfamiliar territory by doing work experience in news writing for The National, the Scottish national newspaper that supports an independent Scotland.

At the start of my degree, I wanted to stay as far away from journalism as possible. I, like most people, had a preconceived idea of what I thought journalists did and how they did it but when I started learning more about it at university, I realised my perception of the field couldn’t have been further from the truth. As time went on, I became a little disenchanted with the areas of my course I was expecting to enjoy the most and ended up throwing myself into journalism, writing articles regularly for anyone who would publish me. Writing feature articles and opinion pieces comes quite easily to me and I love writing them but the area of journalism I was least comfortable with was definitely news stories. There’s a certain formula to news writing that can appear straightforward but in fact it is quite technical and almost mathematic in its structure and I’ve always lacked a bit of confidence in that area.

News writing at The National: Murder victim’s family petition for jail sentence to mean life

“THE family of a woman murdered in her own home by a violent re-offender has taken its campaign for whole of life sentences to Holyrood in a bid to protect other families from similar situations…”

My latest new story for The National is now live on the website and features in today’s edition of the newspaper. You can read the piece here >> Murder victim’s family petition for jail sentence to mean life.

Nicola Sturgeon feature published in The National!

Yesterday, I started work experience at The National, Scotland’s newest national newspaper/the newspaper tha supports an independent Scotland.

I’ll be posting my articles throughout the week but here is my first little feature on Nicola Sturgeon’s visit to America. Unfortunately, it’s not available to view on the website and can only been read in today’s copy of the paper. Quick, nip to the shop and get it while you still have time!

My Scotcampus Intern Diary!

My Scotcampus Intern Diary is now live on the website! It’s been a great two weeks working hard and writing every day and I’m really proud of the body of work I’ve managed create. If you want to find out what an internship for a magazine is really like, then have a read!

“Trying to make your way in the world of journalism is hard these days. For a long time, an idea for an article would pop into my head and I’d write down about two sentences before doubting myself, scrapping it and giving up completely. But when – during an online search for magazines that might publish my work and, y’know, tell me how to actually write an article – I stumbled across Scotcampus.

After emailing back and forth with Editor-in-Chief Laura and the rest of the editorial team about my ideas, I submitted my first piece Scots Slang: are we ‘Bi-Dialectal’ or just ‘Glaikit’? which was soon followed by my second tongue-and-cheek article, and one of my personal faves, Are you Catching a Glasgow Uni Accent? Before I knew it, with the help and advice of the team at Scotcampus, I was churning out articles faster than I thought possible and developing my own style and voice. With my new found love for writing opinion, comedy and feature articles, I was eager to get more experience and soon managed to bag an internship at the Scotcampus office in Glasgow!

I did my internship with my lovely and very talented colleague a.k.a. my best pally Rachael (go read her articles too, they’re cracking!) and when we sheepishly stepped into the office building at St Enoch Square, we were met with the delightful elevator attendants, or ‘lift guys’, George and Robert! Because the building has an old style lift (like the ones in Titanic *fangirl*), either George or Robert are always on hand to open the doors for you, take you from floor to floor and have a good ol’ natter!

As soon as we found the Scotcampus office, we were welcomed in with open arms by Laura and the team and immediately shown to our own little desks and computers. We met content executive, videographer and all round good guy Mike, and, graphic design whiz kid and ’60s fashion guru Louise, who helped show us the ropes.

If you’re looking for a magazine internship this summer, I can’t recommend Scotcampus enough. The whole team are such lovely, thoroughly decent people who encourage and nurture your ideas and support your creativity every step of the way. You won’t be running about making cups of tea, taking the bins out or being the office skivvy for a fortnight – instead, you’ll be able to experience a wide spectrum of different styles of writing and gain invaluable skills. Interning at Scotcampus has been brilliant and has helped me build up a great portfolio of work to show off and for that I can’t thank them enough. I don’t want to leave. Can I come back and get a job please?

Fancy an internship like Sophie’s? Get in touch!”