1. Improve your writing skills.
Practice makes perfect, don’t you know? As with any newspaper, Odyssey writers get to write a lot. Currently the average is at least one article a week. We get to write on virtually anything, be it current events, TV shows, the Bible, and controversial topics. All this writing gives us a lot of practice, and enhances our writing ability. This is a good skill for college students, especially when essay season comes around.
2. Understand your own opinions better.
When you have to explain your opinion to someone else, you can realize how dumb it sounds. Writing editorials for Odyssey is basically explaining your idea to someone else. In the process, you can see weak points in your thought process more clearly. This gives you the opportunity to reconsider those points and their validity. Then either you toss out the bad points, or now have a firmer understanding of the points in question. Both are good outcomes.
3. Broaden your knowledge.
Especially when it comes to current events and controversial topics, we rarely know the complete story. If you want to write about a topic, it gives you motivation to fully research the topic. Sometimes, you might even be surprised at what you learned. This even happened to me recently.
4. Your fellow staff.
Our staff here at Lipscomb’s branch of Odyssey is not the biggest in the world. But I wouldn’t trade them for anything. In times of creative drought, we suggest ideas for each other. When we have a technical problem with the website, we help each other out. It’s a blessing to have a group of people who you know have your back.
5. Opportunity for Creativity
