Why wonder when you can ask

Jeremy Verdusco

By Jeremy Verdusco
Spring 2003 Scholar

Posted: May 13, 2003

I constantly tell my friends who are not journalists about the value of asking questions.

This is the skills I took from journalism school and from my brief work as a reporter.

They are amazed at what I find ordinary. "Ho did you find that out?" they ask. "Oh, I just did a little calling around," I reply.

And that’s the truth. I picked up the telephone and made a call or two.

Most people cannot or will not do that. They prefer not to, regardless the reason. But they still wonder.

I don’t wonder. I ask.

That quality represents all I find intriguing about being a journalist.

I did not choose journalism to ask questions. I chose it to write.

But now that I know the value of asking questions, I never will forget it, and I always will seek to cultivate it.

Jeremy Verdusco, a Spring 2003 Scholar at the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner, is a copy editor and ASNE/APME Fellow at the newspaper. Reach him at buddhaofdisco@mindless.com.

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