AT first glance, being a columnist may just be yakking and yakking. But take a closer look and you will see that columnists are professionals. They speak with authority. For that, this profession is no joke at all. In fact, it pays well. Examples of popular movie reviewers/columnists are the late Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, Peter Travers of the Rolling Stone, the various columnists at Variety and of course online movie reviewer James Berardinelli.

I use movie columnists as an example because I’m a movie buff myself. But actually, the world of investigative reporting can be exciting. One of the more popular investigative writers this decade was Daniel Pearl. Of course, he was killed in Pakistan but during his stint there, he was a very brilliant reporter. The last piece that he had with the Wall Street Journal talks about the success of a loans provider in India giving out very low interest rates.

Daniel Pearl was the subject of a 2007 movie A Mighty Heart and here comes my innate desire to review a movie. Actually, I have studied an online crash course in movie reviewing for only one semester which is roughly equal to six months. Every day, I had to retrieve the lesson and answer the daily quiz by logging in to my student’s account. At the end of the semester, I received a certificate. This is what I’m telling you about. Column writing let alone movie reviewing isn’t just about yakking and yakking. There are methods to follow and you can only learn this by taking an online crash course.

If not for me taking up the online course, I wouldn’t have the ability right now to do movie reviews. To do movie reviews or to do any form of investigative reporting, one’s perspective must be holistic. In reviewing A Mighty Heart which was all about the life of Daniel Pearl, I can see in Angelina Jolie’s performance that she has never immersed herself with her character as Daniel Pearl’s widow. And she’s supposed to be the one referred as having a mighty heart. She would have won an Oscar nomination if she only did her part well. Her acting was perfect but that’s just acting.

There was no internalization of her character in her…which brings me to mind the recent play about Anastasia that I saw here in Laredo. Even though the actress playing Anastasia was Mexican, I can see in her demeanor that she has immersed herself with the Russian character of Anastasia. Even while viewing the movie stills of the late Heath Ledger’s last film Dark Knight, I can see in Heath’s performance that he has successfully internalized himself as really Joker, the dark villain in the film. And that’s how it is to review a movie. You must relate what you are reviewing in real life. And I only learned that by taking an online crash course in movie reviewing for about six months.

IF you have a great income this year yet you want to continue schooling but don’t have time to do so, then invest your time and financial resources in online schooling. In online schooling, the tuition is not that high though because there are no logistics the school needs to maintain except their computer servers of course. There are two types of online courses. There are online offerings leading to a bachelor’s and even a master’s degree and a doctorate. But there are also online courses which are short term in nature ranging from three days to three years. Online courses are practical for people who already have daytime jobs such as those working in fast food joints and they are usually people who have just graduated from high school.

Let’s explore all the programs offered first leading to a bachelor’s degree. In some countries like the United States, popular universities like Georgetown and Johns Hopkins have their online extensions. You can’t just enroll yourself in these online extensions and by the way, online extensions do not accept scholarships whether academic or athletic in nature. The tuition is very affordable though because of the reasons stated earlier. So online schools let you take entrance exams and these are held online of course. Questions arising from these online exams are usually the same ones that emanate from the written tests.

If you are a farmer from Ciudad Juarez, it would be good for you to enroll in an agricultural course at a university extension in Texas. This is one advantage of online colleges that are distinct from the conventional ones. They accept foreign students. And if you are a Mexican farmer, you can zoom your farm to progress over your competitors because the lessons that you will learn online in an American university are world-class in quality. The same is true if you are a food technologist working in Nestle in Switzerland. If you want to be promoted, then slowly inch your way to a master’s degree by enrolling at a reputable university in the United States. If you are working at a regional station of Philippine broadcast giant ABS-CBN and you want to be promoted as news director, you may as well take up a master’s degree in broadcasting online in a United States university. If you are an electronics and communications engineer working for Orange in France, then all you need to do is take a master’s degree in electronics and communications engineering at MIT. If you are working at Foggy Bottom, then you may take up a master’s degree in international relations at the online extension of Georgetown University so your work won’t be hampered. Who knows, you’ll become an ambassador someday. If you are working as an English teacher in Thailand, then you may take up the advanced stage of TOEFL or Teaching of English as a Foreign Language so you can become a Hollywood English dialogue coach someday.