I conducted my first interview this week, with a local bakery owner. At the end, I found myself with a one-hour recording. I started to write it down, and man I was in trouble.
Three minutes of the interview took 1,000 words. I knew right away that I had made a mistake. Thanks to one of my colleagues, I got a tip to never go over 15 minutes. She said that would give me more than enough information at the end. Obviously, I am new to this and such mistakes are easy to learn from.
Part of my programme involves shadowing reporters who have experience and are used to the The National’s system. So far, I have shadowed two reporters, who have taught me a lot. My writing style has always been wordy. I am currently in the News department, though, which does not approve of this kind of writing. I am learning simple yet very important tricks of how to write the perfect news article.
I also learned that I need to be more persistent when it comes to contacting sources. Many people tell you that they will call you back, but they never do. As a reporter with deadlines, I should be more insistent and always have a substitute source I can turn to for my story.
ealdhaheri@thenational.ae
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
