Writing for Odyssey has been an incredible experience for me.
Being an upcoming senior next semester at the University of Kentucky, I really wanted to become a little bit more involved in campus, but not involved in something that was going to completely take over my academics and job search process.
Odyssey was really able to provide for me an extracurricular activity at school that also continues to build upon my education. One of my favorite things about writing for Odyssey is being able to write about whatever you want. For the most part, there are no restrictions on what you decide to write about.
It really allows me to engage in my writing and talk about something that I am passionate about versus an individual choosing a topic for me that I may not be interested in and don't know much about. What is great is that no matter what career path you are deciding to go down, you will have to write at some point in your career. We all have been taking English classes since elementary school and continue to use those skills every single day.
With this being said, the more and more that I continue to write, the more my writing skills will improve, which is one of the main reasons I joined Odyssey. And the best thing about Odyssey is getting feedback and editing from certified professional editors. The editors of Odyssey continue to work every day assuring that they are able to give positive feedback to us writers so that each and every article that we write shows improvement.
One of the best pieces of feedback that I can say I received from one of the editors was about my title for my one article. We had chatted about how my title did not really give off enough information about what I was going to be talking about in my article and could be a lot stronger.
She was so right whenever I took the time to sit down and think about it. This is something that I struggle with now whenever I write papers. I have no idea what to make the title and it is always something I wanted to improve on to make readers glued into my paper. Having those extra set of eyes to go over your paper and to really provide you with the best constructive criticism is where improvement begins.
Not every article you write is going to be perfect and to this day, I can find small punctuation mistakes in my articles and that is totally okay. But, building those relationships with individuals is also how you are going to see improvement in yourself.
Communicating back and forth between other writers and editors within Odyssey opens your doors to so much more opportunity and helps you stay engaged with the community around you and that really is one of the best parts of Odyssey. The people!! Everyone is so encouraging, so welcoming from the start when I first began writing for Odyssey and that is why I would recommend it to everyone.
The amount of time that you put into an article is based on you and how much time you want to dedicate to that article to hit the fifteen-thousand plus views and that is one of the best things about it. The best of all is your hard work gets rewarded. You are now published on Odyssey!
This is a big deal and means a lot to employers when you are applying for your first job. So, if you are looking for a great way to become involved on campus and really be yourself, join the Odyssey community at your university. Go out there and go off the beaten path. Your article could make a difference in someone's life.
