Journalism V-plates lost with ELEVEN published articles!

Today's the day I've stamped by name down on the journalism industry, and how good it felt.

I've been undertaking work experience at my local(ish) Ilford Recorder, a weekly local newspaper that has a circulation of just under 100,000. In other words, it doesn't do too badly on the market, and for 55p who can complain.

I started last Monday, and got about as excited as a 5-year-old on Christmas Day when Thursday came along. Thursday, for those unaware, is the day a new issue is released. Going to work on a Thursday, I see tons of A-boards outside newsagents, with the title "In this weeks Recorder..." followed by one of the stories the news team has covered.

On a Thursday, this is different, and last week - my first week on the job - I was convinced one, maybe two, articles would be published in the paper. I got into work, flicked hurridly through the paper, and saw nothing off my own back. I leafed through it again, thinking the first time I must have skipped past something at the speed I was going - still nothing.

The next day, my editor had a brief word and said to leaf through the paper (bit late for that) and check what's mine that's been printed, since most articles were unnamed and so it's pretty hard to know who's is what. I replied down-trodden, and revealed none of my words made it to press. Even he was shocked.

This week however - Oh, this week has been good to me. Not only did I get something in the paper, but at last count I had managed eleven articles. ELEVEN.

For a regular journalist, this may not seem a big deal. However, for a journalism student that has just been given his NCTJ portfolio guidelines, including at least ten submissions to a professional newspaper by the end of our second year (next June), this is a huge deal.

Most of my uni crowd managed an article, some made two, others - the lucky ones - managed three or foud articles last time I asked. So to get 11, I couldn't quite believe my eyes. Sure, they're pretty whipper-snappery, but I don't care that much. They're all around 200 words, a few 150s, and together this makes up an easy 2,000 words in one of the most popular newspapers in Redbridge.

Not only this, but I attended a football match last night and this too made it onto the newspaper's website. Originally, the experience was purely personal - any matchday experience I can get at football matches I cherish, since this is probably what I'll fork off into in the coming years with any luck. Plus, I'm a Spurs fan, and purely concedentally of course, Spurs were the opposition for the night.

Last night I bashed out a 300 word report, and after a quick word earlier in the office with the sports editor for the Recorder, emailed it hoping way more than I was expecting to both him and the Leyton Orient press officer. Within a few hours, both had not only acknowledged it had been received but had also published it onto their websites.

So, long story short, this week I've managed 11 printed articles and another on the Ilford Recorder website, alongside an article on the Leyton Orient FC website.

Whilst interviewing someone for next week's front cover of the entertainment supplement (which I should also grab as my own), he said to me: "Work hard, because you'll only get back what you put in".

He was more than right.