Odyssey is viewed by many in a very negative light. They complain because it's unreliable, the articles are not well written, or there might be grammar mistakes. Here's the thing, though, Odyssey is a student-run organization. Of course, we have higher up management above us, operating all the ins and outs from afar, but for the most part, each team (or at least my team) is pretty self-sufficient. Here's the other thing people just don't understand: each team, and even each writer, exists on their own, apart from other teams and other writers.
I know this article will widely be dismissed by those who have already formed their opinions because I obviously write for Odyssey, but who better to hear about the truth from than an Editor-in-Chief herself?
As I said before, Odyssey is student-run. So, are there going to be spelling mistakes? Absolutely. All of these writers can't possibly be absolutely perfect and the editors can't catch every mistake in every article. Some things slip through the cracks, sure, but overall, with the right editors and the right amount of effort, teams can do pretty well. Furthermore, we aren't turning in graduate-level research papers to be graded by prestigious professors, we aren't having our articles edited in the sense that the sentence structure, flow, thesis statement, conclusion, etc will be clear, present, and/or well-developed. So, yeah, not every Odyssey writer is going to be a world-renowned author.
That leads us to the best parts about Odyssey. Students are given a voice. Students are given a chance to exercise their writing ability. Students are given a chance to voice their feelings or opinions in a way they've never been able to before. They're given the opportunity to reach a large audience and potentially make a difference in their community. Odyssey gives students a chance to create a portfolio of professional work. For those in English majors, and especially on writing tracks, Odyssey is an amazing glimpse into the field of work. Not to mention you can make amazing connections.
Finally, each Odyssey team is different. Even within the teams, each Odyssey writer is different. There are articles that circulate from Odyssey writers about anti-feminism that make me absolutely sick. There are both liberal and conservative writers on my team that write about politics. I am sure those two do not agree with each other's political articles. Some of us write news-related articles, and we always are careful to cite our sources if we do, but we are not asking anyone to pretend that we are a news source. We are glad to cover news stories, many of us see a future in journalism and would like to try our hand at it early on when we have this incredible opportunity, but please don't cite us as your end-all-be-all source for information.
Odyssey has put me under lucky circumstances to be able to voice opinions I would have kept locked up inside of me forever otherwise. Surprisingly, they were opinions that large amounts of people also agreed with. Odyssey has given me a chance to write more and create a portfolio of all of my articles, something that will be amazing to have when looking for a job in the writing field.
I understand if you don't want to write for Odyssey, that's fine, but Odyssey has provided so many students, myself included, with incredible opportunities that we are extremely grateful for. Trust me, some of us are just as sick of open letters as you are.
