My students often loathe their current news/feature writing assignment, but their negative reaction is actually a good teaching moment.

Novice journalists often fail to realize that people don’t care whether or not reporters like their assignments. A reporter’s job is to report – accurately and compellingly – on a topic. If they like doing so, it’s gravy. If not, too bad.

Am I sending students to a war zone? Making them sit through a planning and zoning commission meeting? Having them write a feature sympathetic to drug dealers?