"You've got to become an expert on everything"

Last week I was on work experience at The Yorkshire Post in Leeds after applying through my university placement scheme.

What I thought was going to be a fun way to pass a week of the Easter holidays, and get some more hands on experience in a busy regional newsroom actually turned out to be one of the best placements I've ever had.

For the first two days I was on the business desk- a new experience entirely for me as on previous work experience I have always been on the news desk. I'm not an expert on business, in fact, I know very little about it, so if I'm honest I was a bit worried about that.

That doesn't necessarily matter though, like any other placement, all you really need is the determination and willingness to put in the hard work, as cheesy as that sounds.

Everyone was lovely, and really made me feel welcome, which automatically puts you at ease. Straight away deputy business editor Greg White gave me the business appointments to write, and by the end of my two days on the business desk I had three by-lines.

Business was definitely a lot different to news, particularly in how they wanted me to write the articles, so it was really great experience to have a go at that, and something I really enjoyed.

I love writing features, so moving to the features desk for the following two days was something I was really excited about. I love the chance to be creative which my writing and choose how you want to intro a piece. I learnt an incredible amount in such a short space of time as well.

Nick Ahad took me under his wing so to speak and gave me various pieces and NIBS to write. He seemed to be pleased with what I was doing and asked if I fancied having a go at a bigger piece. Of course, I jumped at the chance.

The piece was to go on page 5, and be about 500-600 words on Harewood House latest art exhibition In Cloud Country. Artist and curator, Diane Howse, also the Countess of Harewood, had organised the exhibition so it was her who I needed to get an interview with.

Like business, I don't know much about art really. I know some big artists and could recognise their work, but apart from that I am definitely a novice. Nick assured me though that I didn't need to be an art expert to write the piece, so I made sure I researched everything thoroughly before interviewing Diane.

The result was what I hope was a good feature for the paper. The best part was that after I had written a first draft, Nick went through my piece with me and told me how to make it better.

Here are just a few pointers he gave me:

1) Make sure there's a thread throughout the whole piece. With a feature you still need to have a theme running through, like a news story; it still has to be clear.

2) You've got to become an expert on everything, even if you don't know what it is you're writing about. However, you need to strike the balance between being an expert and still enabling the reader to understand what you're saying.

His help was invaluable and it was definitely a worthwhile placement that I'd love to go back to, and hopefully I helped them out as well.