Malecia El-Amin, DJNF/Temple 1998, can attest that learning the AP stylebook by osmosis pays off in the long run.

Malecia El-Amin was a DJNF/Temple editing intern in the summer of 1998. The Connecticut native’s internship took her fairly close to home to The Boston Globe. After that summer, she returned to grad school at the University of Missouri-Columbia for a semester before deciding she needed to get paid to learn instead of paying someone to teach her. Since then, she has been a copy editor/layout editor in news at The Kansas City Star, and a copy editor in news and features at The Dallas Morning News. Right now, she’s the assistant travel editor at the DMN, a job that requires editing and reporting (and some physical stamina to boot). She’s about to move to New York City and plans to use her editing skills in other media.

I still remember getting the phone call from Dr. Ed Trayes, offering me a spot in the Temple residency program. I was so excited! Then I missed my flight and got to Philly about 12 hours later than I was supposed to. Lack of transportation to the airport can do that to you. I thought I’d missed out on a golden opportunity, but it turned out I was just late for it.

I remember using the AP stylebook as bedtime reading rather than a novel and being warned not to go to the McDonald’s across the street from our residence hall. I also remember not wanting to be a copy editor till after that summer! I had planned on being a reporter till one of my professors at MU told me they were “a dime a dozen” and I had an aptitude for editing. (I was always pointing out errors in the daily that the j-school produced. I was also not amused when a student copy editor put a grammatical error in the lede of one of my stories.)

I appreciated learning the “old fashioned” way with pen and paper during my Dow Jones residency. Our tests sharpened my geographical skills and knowledge of AP style. I left Philly fully prepared for Boston and left Boston prepared for my subsequent jobs as a professional journalist. I also think that being a Dow Jones intern and being able to put that on my resume has opened doors. I have come across many of us along the way, and we’re all quite good, I must say. Especially the ones who trained with Trayes.