My National adventure begins

It was my first day as a trainee at The National and I was eager to hit the ground running. My first day was dedicated to finding story ideas and pitching them to the editors. Pitching a story means getting the attention of the editors so that they hold space in the next day's edition. When you've got their attention, you need to decide on how to get your readers hooked.

The story I was most interested in covering was about a 20-year-old student whose hobby is to swim with sharks. It certainly got my editors interested, but sadly he decided he wasn’t comfortable talking to me.

That meant I was left on briefs duty. A brief is a short news story, about 100-150 words long, and editors seem to love them. At The National the briefs feature at the top of some news pages – known as the page's 'crown'. With such a small word count, the key is getting as much information across as briefly as possible. One of my first was about Abu Dhabi police using Segway vehicles to rescue injured people in crowded places, such as malls or on the Corniche.

Along with the obligatory admin tasks – such as signing up for the MacBook all National reporters receive as the tool of their trade – that pretty much completed day one. It was great to start working immediately, and I'm hopeful this will be a good experience. Later this week, I'll be in court, where The National's veteran justice reporter Haneen Al Dajani will show me the tricks of the trade.

Ayesha Al Khoori is the first Emirati to take part in The National’s one-year training programme. She graduated from Zayed University in June in Converged Media.