Improving his writing skills (and golf game)

By D.J. Piehowski ‘10 - Journalism major

I won’t lie. A week before I decided to move 1,160 miles away into a house I found listed on Craigslist, in a town where I didn’t know how to find the nearest WalMart, just to take an unpaid internship, my brain was cluttered with a million different things that could go wrong. Surely my car would break down in the mountains of Tennessee or my new roommate would have a pet boa constrictor or the internship would test only my coffee and copy-making skills. Something.

However, eight weeks into the adventure, the only problem I can see is that the summer will be over in a month and a half.

The internship I have been lucky enough to land this summer is with Golfweek magazine, a weekly golf publication based in Orlando, Florida. I have been an avid golfer for as long as I can remember and read Golfweek while I was growing up.  So, an opportunity to talk about golf all day and have a hand in putting the magazine together is phenomenal.

I work in the editorial department, which is in charge of putting together the magazine as well as the website, Golfweek.com. Since the magazine is only a weekly, the website serves the important purpose of keeping readers up-to-date on breaking news as well as providing them with all the material that won’t fit in the book each week. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about golf until I started working in this department. Every one of the editors knows an unbelievable amount of information about every aspect of the game and every aspect of the journalism world. It has been indescribable to hear stories, opinions and advice from people that have been through every area of the industry in every part of the country.

The focus of my internship is the website, which is something very different from anything I’ve done before. Three assistant editors and I are in charge of writing and editing content for the web and posting it on the site. This has allowed me to learn so much about web site management and troubleshooting as well as a good deal about HTML, which should be handy because, well, it looks like the Internet is here to stay.

One of my pre-internship worries was that my summer would be spent doing mindless busy work.  I didn’t need to worry. From the first day, my co-workers have taken a genuine interest in helping me become integrated into their day-to-day tasks. They have also allowed me the opportunity to do much more writing than I expected.  I have covered small events and have had two stories published in the magazine and a number online.

The most interesting assignment has been writing weekly amateur golf notebooks for the website. I have written a feature on an amateur golfer’s road to the U.S. Open, and, this week, I will be talking to Utah Jazz guard Kyle Korver (This may sound unrelated, but he is actually a 6 handicap who played in the Utah State Amateur Championship last week).

Overall, I can’t say enough for this entire experience. The job and the people have been absolutely amazing and living down here has been a great way to see a different part of the country up close.