DAPHNE, Ala. — Jessica Jones, the Daphne Bulletin reporter, on Tuesday will speak on three writing styles, as guest speaker at the Daphne Public Library’s Teen Advisory Board meeting.

 “I’m gonna talk about three different types of writing: the newspaper end of it, and the academic essays for college, and poetry,” she said.

Jones — who’s worked at the Bulletin since last October — joined the newspaper to become a professional writer and explore journalism, she said.

 “I had a handle on the creative genre, for the most part, and I wanted to try something in non-fiction and just broaden my horizons,” she said.

Though fact-based newspaper writing seldom offers the luxury of creativity for the general assignments reporter, it has its perks, she said.

 “I like the fact that you have to think under pressure,” she said. ‘It pushes you to be the best writer you can (be) in a timely fashion.”

 “Feature writing is my favorite because … you have more flexibility. You get to delve into people’s lives and find out all about them,” she added. “I think the hardest is the political pieces because you always have that fear of misunderstanding someone or misinterpreting them, and these are very serious issues.”

Journalism, unlike poetry, forces the writer to think outside oneself, she said.

“Trustworthiness is a factor, and you always have to find so many sources to check yourself and check again, but I also think the research part of it makes you a stronger writer,” she said. “You have to put yourself aside, which is kind of hard to do … in this genre, you have to realize you’re there, and then move yourself out of the way.”

Jones — a University of South Alabama graduate student and an accomplished poet — won the Shelley Memorial Scholarship for her poetry, a favorite hobby she developed in high school.

“It began as just self-expression when I was a teenager and I wanted to understand my life and understand my environment,” she said. “My 10th-grade English teacher started giving us journal assignments; we would read poetry and write a journal about it. I read a poem (‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’) by Langston Hughes that led me to write a poem (‘The Woman Speaks of Sound’) in response to it. My teacher was really amazed by it and that gave me the encouragement I needed to start writing on my own.”

Hughes’ poem dealt with blacks’ struggles, in a manner that celebrated their heritage and perseverance; Jones’ poem focused on women — such as the late Princess Diana of Wales — whose contributions reverberate today.

 Having poetry as a mode of self-expression helped Jones celebrate the world and cope with teen issues.

Poetry “helped me realize that worrying about things like that is not gonna help; you have to look at all the possibilities and you have to trust yourself,” she said.

The Chickasaw resident — who equally enjoys writing in sonnet and free verse — during Tuesday’s meeting will facilitate an exercise that she hopes will awaken teens’ inner poet. Using George Ella Lyon’s poem, “Where I’m From” — a piece that explores Lyon’s childhood and experiences — Jones will have teens write their own poems.

“Hopefully they’ll reach into the recesses of their memory and remember the smells and surroundings, and be able to create their own masterpiece,” she said.

Whether aspiring journalists or poets will be present Tuesday is uncertain, but teens can count on needing academic writing skills, another meeting topic, Jones said.

“I’m sure most of them are planning to go to college and I want to give them a heads up about the difference between high school and college writing, what to expect, and how to write a college essay that professors will find intriguing,” she said.

 Jones — who’s written academic papers on why English should remain a core subject, along with research projects on poets and their styles — said she’ll share the importance of a good thesis statement and an essay’s order of presentation.

“If you want to have a career in writing, you definitely need to master college first because many writing jobs do take a degree,” she said. “If you wanted to become an English professor in college you’d have to have a master’s at the very least …. If you don’t know how to write, you’re never going to get to that point.”

Louise Youngblood, Daphne’s young adult librarian, cited several reasons for booking guest speaker Jones, who’s covered several library events for the newspaper.

“First, her personality is just awesome. When she comes to our events, she’s so excited about them,” Youngblood said. “She gets right in there and participates.”

“I thought she could really give my teens a broad view of what they need to be thinking about,” Youngblood added. “If journalism is on their minds, for maybe a career choice, she could give them a road map.”

Youngblood said she’s looking forward to Tuesday’s meeting, and particularly anticipates the writing exercise.

“I love anything that’s hands-on, that they can actually do and then walk away and say, ‘You know, I experienced this on a personal level and I didn’t just listen to what somebody told me.’ ”

The meeting may provide a crash course in the skills colleges value, she said.

“Education now really sees the importance of the writing element — so now that it’s included in many of these standardized tests that these students have to take,” she said. “The student that is comfortable, has had some practice with this, can be so much more prepared to take these tests and feel confident while they’re taking them.

“Whether it is in a real formal, structured essay assignment or research assignment, or a fun, creative writing, or in just technical writing, Jessica’s going to bring all that into that one workshop.”

The Teen Advisory Board meets at 3:45 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the library's Community Room. Free refreshments will be provided; all area teens may come.