Thinking about going back to school to learn journalist skills to help your freelance career?
You could…if you want to waste time and money. Don’t get me wrong, learning is good. But do you really need to spend a couple years in the classroom and a pile of money on tuition to develop journalist skills? No.
In case you’re wondering, I’m one of those people with a master’s degree in journalism. That’s the route I took to develop journalist skills to write for newspapers and magazines, and ultimately carve out a career as a freelance writer. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
You don’t need a degree to be a freelancer. After all, The Carol Tice is a college dropout.
But you do need journalist skills to do things like dig up information, generate ideas, interview sources, find fresh angles, craft headlines, and write great content.
So how do you develop journalist skills to get more writing jobs? Skip the college route, and learn by doing. Here’s what you need to know: