One of the most important things you need to learn before becoming a video game journalist is how to read and write. True, there are a select few who manage to skate by without knowing how to do either of these things, but the vast majority aren't so lucky. Simply put, if you want to succeed as a game journalist, you're probably going to have to become literate. And the sooner you learn the better.
It may be comforting to know that many of today's most respected journalists were once in the same boat you are. Very few game journalists know how to read or write in the weeks leading up to their hiring. Some of them don't even know how to speak. Fortunately, these valuable skills can be easily acquired with some basic guidance and about a week of semi-daily practice. You don't need to know everything--just enough to be a game journalist.
Before we begin, it's important to acknowledge that as an illiterate, there's no way you'll be able to read this article. In fact, you have no idea what we're saying right now. That's why it's important that you get in touch with someone who is able to read and have them read this article to you out loud. Now, since you can't read what we just said, you can't be expected to know this. Hopefully what will happen is that you'll have this page open on your computer screen and one of your literate friends or family members will glance at it as they walk by. They'll see that this is an instructional article on how to read and write and offer to help you through it.
All set? Good! Let's begin.
Words in the English language are made up of a standardized set of symbols called the alphabet. If you went to kindergarten, you probably saw the alphabet posted on a long sheet of paper somewhere near the chalk board. Each symbol (or "letter," as they're more commonly known) has both a lowercase and uppercase/capital form to be used depending on the context. The vast majority of the letters you use will be in lowercase, but there are circumstances that call for capitalization, such as the first letter of a sentence or the first letter of someone's name. Some people, such as the late poet e.e. cummings, occasionally write their entire names in lowercase to make a philosophical point about identity, but most people don't put that much thought into it. You also might notice that many people on the internet use acronyms like "lol," "omg," or "wtf" to communicate certain emotions or phrases without typing them out in their entirety. These people are retarded and should be ignored. Do not let their writing habits influence your own. As a game journalist, you'll be expected to maintain slightly higher grammatical standards than your mentally deficient readers.
With that said, now is probably a good time to actually show you the alphabet. Here is each letter in both their upper and lowercase forms (the dashes are simply there to separate the letters. They are not letters themselves):
A a - B b - C c - D d - E e - F f - G g - H h - I i - J j - K k - L l - M m - N n - O o - P p - Q q - R r - S s - T t - U u - V v - W w - X x - Y y - Z z
Note the order that the letters appear in. This is not random. They are arranged in what is usually referred to as alphabetical order. It is very important that you memorize this particular sequence because documents, names, and many other things are frequently organized in this way. For example, when your teacher takes roll at the beginning of a class, he or she will almost always call a student's name according to the alphabetical placement of the first letter of the student's last name. If more than one student has a last name beginning with the same letter, as is often the case, then the second letter is checked. If the second letter is the same then the third is checked, and so on.
Now, one of the most important things to learn about these letters is how they are pronounced. We are assuming that you already know how to speak, so you probably already know what these letters sound like when spoken, even if you don't know specifically which letter makes what sound. To make this a bit easier we're going to list the letters again, this time with some nonsense words designed to demonstrate typical pronunciations of each letter. Your literate friend should help you with this part.
A a: "ay" "ah"
B b: "bee" "buh"
C c: "cee" "cuh"
D d: "dee" "duh"
E e: "eee" "eh"
F f: "ef" "fff"
G g: "gee" "guh"
H h: "aych" "huh"
I i: "eye" "ih"
J j: "jay" "juh"
K k: "kay" "kuh"
L l: "el" "lll"
M m: "em" "mmm"
N n: "en" "nnn"
O o: "oh" "ah"
P p: "pee" "puh"
Q q: "cue" "cwuh" (note that in English, Q is always followed by U)
R r: "ar" "rrr"
S s: "ess" "sss"
T t: "tee" "tuh"
U u: "you" "uh"
V v: "vee" "vvv"
W w: "dubleyou" "www"
X x: "ex" "css"
Y y: "why" "yyy"
Z z: "zee" "zzz"
To read, simply look at a word and do your best to sound it out using the above guide. The resulting sound will likely be familiar to you. Have your friend help and practice with you until you're ready to do it yourself. To write, place the above letters in the order necessary to make the sound of the word you're trying to write. If it's a word that you've read before, simply spell it out the way you saw it. It's also a good idea to keep a dictionary handy, as many words aren't spelled exactly how they sound. "One," for example, is spelled o-n-e, not w-u-n. Similarly, "your" is spelled y-o-u-r, not u-r. There are also many combinations of two or more letters that come together to form a unique sound. Some of the more common examples are Sh (shhh), Ch (Cht), and Th (thhh).
That should be enough to get you into game journalism. Obviously, it's unrealistic to expect that you'll memorize all of this after one read through, so you'll want to practice what we've shown you for at least a week before moving on. As we've said before, have your friend or family member help you for the first few days. Literate people can be valuable assistants to illiterate ones. They might even be able to show you some of the specific techniques that helped them learn to read and write.
Good luck. In the next part we'll be talking more about the actual profession of a video game journalist, so be sure to come back once you're ready.
