Students across the country are starting their journalism degrees this month, learning the tricks of the trade of the industry.
One of the key tools in any journalist's arsenal is freedom of information (FOI) request, which helped expose stories from the phone hacking at the News of the World to the UK parliamentary expenses scandal.
Edd Church shares his best advice for student journalists and a guide to writing a FOI request in this article for the Student Publication Association.
"Before you even send any FOIs: please, for your own sanity, make an FOI spreadsheet. Keep this to track what FOIs you have, which ones need chasing up, and which ones have yielded data so far," he advises.
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