January 21, 2015

To whom it may concern:

I am pleased to write this letter of recommendation for Kayla Hughes.
Kayla was a student in a class I co-teach through Florida State Universitys Department of English. The class is
devoted to teaching students how to write and design newsletter articles about the people of the department or
news within the department. The skills students learn include researching and then pitching their topic,
interviewing the appropriate sources for the article, writing the story in a journalistic style, and producing their
own design for publication.
Students come to these classes with varying degrees of experience. Some of them quickly learn the concepts
and grasp the techniques needed to write an article for a news-oriented publication, while others struggle to figure
out what we expect of them. From the beginning, Kayla showed keen interest in the subject matter and a solid
understanding of the course objectives.
Kaylas enthusiasm for journalism as a whole showed throughout the semester. She had ideas right away about
the focus for her article, which would examine the updates and continuing progress of our department's Digital
Studio and Reading-Writing Center. We brainstormed a couple of possible angles with her, but Kayla worked
mainly on her own, developing a solid outline and generating great questions for the sources she would interview.
We cover Associated Press Style during our class lectures, and we expect the students not only to educate
themselves on the style as much as they can but also to self-edit their articles. Of course, all articles need some
editing, but Kayla was very open to our feedback and suggestions that we offered during one-on-one meetings.
She turned in a well-researched and properly sourced final article, and she complemented the piece with an
interesting and eye-catching final design.
Beyond teaching students about the reporting and writing aspect of journalism, we also have classroom
discussions about what it means to be a journalist beyond the article, covering media ethics and the different roles
that journalists are taking on these days (photographer, social media user, etc.), among other topics. Kayla always
engaged in these discussions and I know other students learned from her insights. As instructors with many
combined years of newsroom experience, we like to create that atmosphere in the classroom, and Kayla's
participation was valuable in creating that environment for us.
I know that Kayla will be successful with whatever she chooses to do in life, and I hope that you give her the
opportunity to be a part of your team. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter of recommendation, and
please feel free to contact me with any questions or if you need further information.

Sincerely,

Jack Clifford
jclifford@fsu.edu