Getting the little things right can lead to big things

When they said, “You’ll be challenged” prior to the start of the Bleacher Report Sports Media Internship, I took it with a grain of salt. Writing always came fairly easy to me. As it turns out, I’ve had to work extremely hard on a daily basis.

My challenge was to produce clean copy consistently. Early on, each article I submitted received edits galore. The same mistakes popped up again and again

The things I thought would be the easiest were giving me the most trouble: grammar-school mistakes like compound modifiers needing hyphens.

I relied on the guidance of my feedback editor, Adam Fromal, to clearly explain where my errors were occurring. The feedback got me to pay attention to my constant problems, and I’ve been working diligently to perfect my grammar.

I’ve always had the passion for sports and the passion for writing. I just needed that constructive criticism to guide me in the right direction.

That’s what you get at B/R: editors who truly care about your progression. They take the time to look over your submissions and give you in-depth, quality feedback, no matter your writer level.

Adam never fails to point out the aspects of my articles that were solid, yet always reiterates where I need to improve. His feedback has been invaluable.

I’m still learning with each new article, and that’s the beauty of it. In this industry, you’ll never stop learning. You’ll only get better.

You can write the most compelling story, but if you’re constantly making the same mistakes, you won’t be trusted. With the ability to reach thousands of readers, those mistakes won’t go unnoticed, especially simple grammar errors.

So strive for perfection, and remember: The small things count the most.

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Ryan Clutter is in the Winter class. Follow him on Twitter @rclutt07.

One Thing You Need to Know is a series in which we ask our interns to write about just that: One thing they’ve learned in the B/R Sports Media Internship that they would pass along to other aspiring writers.