I took a grand total of two English courses in college: advanced composition and comparative romantic literature. Nothing against English majors and profs, but I'm proud of my alternative path. I am a proud journalism major (go COM!). For good and for bad, my days of j-school shaped me into the writer I am today. Here are five unique offerings that journalism majors bring to writing YA novels:

1. Every single word counts. No florid descriptions or waffling dialog here. We get to the point!

2. We know headlines and lead grafs. Our first chapters are gonna grab you, because we've been trained to make that reader flip to the jump.

3. Two common and successful elements in YA lit: snark and anxiety about the future. Nobody knows that stuff better than a journalist who's had to face down the newspaper job market in the last ten years.

4. If there's swearing to be done, nobody does it better than us. We were trained by the old salty dogs of the newsroom. I'm not ^&%&^ kidding you. Don't even %^&% try to &*^&* with me, you *&(*()%^!

5. Copyeditors love our stuff: it's ^&*( clean. Unless we're too busy being snarky and anxious to give it a good read.

Fellow j-school grads, got anything to add?