Hey Max,

"The last four years" indicates the most recent past four years. "The past four years" is ambiguous and would be wrong in this context because there are clearly more past years than just 4. But the word "the" would falsely indicate a presumption that the reader would know which four years he is talking about.

I'm sure there is plenty you could pick apart in my writing, but I'm not a journalism student. Nonetheless, on the above point, I think you were off base.

You're both wrong. The proper word is "latest."

Back in the 1970s, after Woodward and Bernstein and Watergat, I studied journalism, hoping to uncover the next big scandal. Instead I worked a couple of years in public relations and advertising, then moved to Germany, learned German and now make a good living as a translator. Just a suggestion...

seems a stint as a proofreader might have done me good

"previous"

They probably voted for democrats or republicans. We shipped all the jobs overseas and our money too.

Print Journalism is dead. You really need a cellphone, don't you?

With the exception of Greenwald, do you think any writer here actually practices the skills they learned in Journalism 101?

American jobs are dead and gone. You need to come up with a scam to glean some meat off of the carcass.

You could always parody Perez Hilton, TMZ or Broadsheet.

Just wait a few years until the feds completely take over the newspapers and force everyone to buy them through the newspaper restoration act of 2010. At that point, the need for journalists will return to the glory days, and so will your paycheck, if, that is, you can keep the party line.

If you feel comfortable with that...

'Prior'

Forget the death of print journalism. Forget your brilliant undergrad career. YOU GOT FIRED FOR A DUI.

Why? First of all, why were you drinking to the extent that you were legally drunk, and then DECIDED TO GET BEHIND THE WHEEL of a car? Was/is this a behavior that you engage in routinely? Both the getting drunk and the driving while that way? Because, frankly, Dear, I wouldn't hire you, either, if that recent DUI was staring at me. It IS a competitive market in journalism, print and otherwise, and there are plenty of new grads who have clean records.

So. If you are currently drinking, stop. I don't mean cut down, I mean stop. Alcohol is a depressant, and you are depressed enough without the alcohol. If you cannot stop, well, that tells you something about yourself, and you have more problems than just a crappy market for print journalism.

But, assuming that you can stop, your next step is to do things. Go places, see sights. It's summer. You can ride a bike, if you need to. But get out, so you can get out of your own head. Do it every day, even if it's just going to your parents' house after a day of making Funky Monkey, and take the dog for a walk.

This is life. This is adulthood. Things don't go as we plan, and the people who love us, help us out (your parents are not responsible for keeping your cell phone running, they're doing it because they love you). But, in the end, it's OUR job to get the help we need, whether it's sober companions, therapy or having a talk with the owner of an ice cream company about how much more valuable you would be to her if you were marketing her product instead of making it.

Okay! This is what you do.

1) Quit worrying about finding a journalism job. Work your current ice cream gig, as many hours as you can, and if you can get a second job, do that as well, until you get about ten grand or so banked. Then quit your job(s).

2) Do something interesting. I don't know what, that's for you to decide. Join the Hell's Angels, join the Peace Corp, hike the Appalacian Trail, infiltrate the Hari Krishnas, if they're still around, fly to Thailand and investigate those child brothels American perverts are always patronizing. The something really doesn't matter, as long as it's interesting.

3) You see where I'm going on this? Okay, I'll spell it out - write your book. Yeah, it's not exactly what you planned on, but it's writing, it's journalisn, and it made people like Hunter Thompson and Bill Bryson rich.

Why not? You're young, you're healthy, you have no dependents, and if doesn't work out you could always go back to school and be a plumber. But you'll always have that experience. I wish you all the best.

Oh, and quit drinking.

First, as some of the people here have said, get your head togetyer about the liquor. The hard-drinking newsman should be a thing of the past -- or if not, it should not be you, because, clearly, you can't take it.

You've got the skills. USE them while you're making enough money to get out of your parents' house. Get yourself some street cred writing online. Paylay that into a job in corporate communications or an electronic paper. Get yourself on LinkedIn and start networking for all you're worth.

The world is full of writers who need a home. The ones who get a home are the ones who work for it and don't wait for the world to recognize their talents.

Steele's being his usual bigoted self, but he has a good point. Develop some specializations that you can point to when you interview.

Seems Cary has no editor and needs one. It takes him roughly 2,000 words to say "suck it up."

As a print journalist of 25 years who's now working freelance myself, I can say journalism isn't dead. It's just changing. If you can understand where it's headed (online, multimedia, wireless, video, blogs, tweets, whatever) then you're eight steps ahead of everyone else. Thing is, journalism's up in the air at the moment. No one knows where it will land. It's obvious (and has been obvious in hindsight) that it's been done for quite a while.

Anyway, don't give up on it. It's not dead. Think about how you can adapt to different media--there's an art to writing short, intense, just as there's an art to writing long and windy...