Writing | Building the J-Future

Lessons learned from a community engagement intern

Waitressing tables by day at a Greek restaurant in Virginia, I submitted my application for the UPIU internship posted on journalismjobs.com (a hot job/internship search site). Several days later, Harumi Gondo e-mailed me back with one line: “Please check the first and last paragraph of your cover letter.”

I checked my e-mail and saw with panic that although I wrote in my first paragraph that I wanted to intern at UPIU, I had failed to edit out the part about my wanting to “join the dynamic team at Village Voice Media” in my last paragraph.

Despite my embarrassment, I wrote back, apologizing for my oversight. Two days later, she emailed me asking, “Are you available for an interview?”

[Harumi: "While I normally would have taken Anna out of the running for the position for that slip, her courteous reply and her solid reporting experience (and a push from UPIU Senior Mentor Krista Kapralos, kept her on my list. Make sure you double-check your cover letters! When applying to journalism jobs you are e-mailing copy editors and grammar and spelling freaks!"]

I’ve been interning at UPIU for nearly two months as the community engagement manager. Although learning about inverted pyramids and nut grafs is helpful for every journalist, four years in James Madison University’s classrooms did not prepare me for my current job. I was an editor for several student-run publications, but still did not have much experience with Web journalism or social media.

Although I was hired to do traditional reporting, my job description very quickly changed and in addition to reporting I now help facilitate virtual conversation among UPIU staff, UPIU users and the rest of the online community. I correspond with j-students around the world, constantly update Facebook and twitter, read a million online articles and research ways for UPIU to become the best resource for aspiring journalists.

I’m tailoring myself to be the best journalist and community engagement manager and I’m committed to being flexible with my fluid job description.

[Harumi: I've worked with a lot of interns, but Anna is a keeper! She is remarkable because when obstacles come up she doesn't give up, but digs down her heels and keeps moving forward. Change is hard, but I've been impressed with Anna's strength and determination.]

I’m gaining skills I didn’t learn as an undergraduate. I encourage you to evolve your journalism skills to adapt to the changing industry.

Now, according to my job description, I’ll ask you to post, tweet, bookmark, stumble upon, digg, link and/or share this!

Writing for the Web

Click on the link below to go to SlideShare to see a UPIU’s lecture on Writing for the Web.

http://www.slideshare.net/hgondo/writing-for-the-web-4908812

Reading = Great Writing

Talk to strangers. Make freaky friends. Ignore important people. Give everyone your phone number. Work holidays.

Sound intimidating? Scary? Hard? That might be true. But those tips for finding great stories are among 20 offered by 2009 Pulitzer Prize feature winner Lane DeGregory, who reports for the St. Petersburg Times. (Read the rest here)

I’m going to add another tip: READ. A LOT.

The very best news stories can send chills down your spine, force laughter to bubble up through the deepest part of your gut, and send you for a box of tissues to mop up your tears. They’re as good as novels, and better than whatever is playing at the local movie theater. The best news stories burn images into your head – images that never go away.

The bad news: Writing is hard work.

The good news: Good writing is a skill that can be learned. And one of the most effective ways to learn is to study. If you’re an aspiring news writer, you should be on a constant look-out for the best stories. Notice similarities. How do writers develop characters? What do they quote? What do they paraphrase? How is the story structured?

Take notes. When you discover techniques that work, incorporate them into your own stories.

Here’s one of the best in recent memory to get you started. Lane DeGregory earned the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for this piece, a haunting tale of a forgotten little girl.

PLANT CITY — The family had lived in the rundown rental house for almost three years when someone first saw a child’s face in the window.

A little girl, pale, with dark eyes, lifted a dirty blanket above the broken glass and peered out, one neighbor remembered.

Everyone knew a woman lived in the house with her boyfriend and two adult sons. But they had never seen a child there, had never noticed anyone playing in the overgrown yard.

The girl looked young, 5 or 6, and thin. Too thin. Her cheeks seemed sunken; her eyes were lost.

The child stared into the square of sunlight, then slipped away.

Months went by. The face never reappeared. (Read more here)

News vs. opinion: What are you writing?

What makes a news story? What makes an opinion column? How can you tell the difference?

Before you turn on your computer, pick up your notebook and pen or even begin making calls to set up interviews, think for a moment about the type of story you’d like to write. Is it a news story? Is it a column? If you’re not sure, review this quick summary:

A news story:

A clearly-written lede that engages and compels the reader.
A nut graph that clearly explains what the news is, and why readers should care.
Sources: Minimum of two, and usually more, each with a full name and a clear explanation of why that source is relevant to the story.
Quotes: Statements from sources that help the reader understand what the story is, and why the story is important.
Objective, free from opinion.
Focused on relaying information, without a strong writer’s voice in most cases.

A column:

A clear topic, usually based on recent news.
Subjective, based on writer’s opinion.
Focused on persuasion, with a strong writer’s voice.
Can include quotes and sources, but they are not required.
Accurate. Columns should be fact-checked just as news stories are. A good column requires just as much research as a good news story.

A word of caution: If you’re struggling to find enough sources for a news story and you’re thinking about just writing a column instead, don’t. Most news writers only write news. Most columnists only write columns. If a news writer also writes columns, that writer’s credibility is questionable. Choose what you want to write, and do that – only that.

Most columnists spend years as news reporters before they make the switch. Why? Because a column can be much tougher to write than a news story. A column should be much more than one person’s rant. A columnist must choose topics of general concern, instead of personal pet issues. A columnist must write to engage the public and spark dialogue. A column should invite people to join a discussion, not exclude readers through anger, vitriol or unreasonable arguments.

Want to know more? Check out the news vs. opinion section of this post from NewsTrust.net.

Small town news = big-time skills, and other tips for young reporters

Sharing a two-bedroom apartment with five other people. Taking a six-hour bus ride home for the holidays because you can’t afford a car (or a parking space, for that matter.) Typing up crime briefs and local swimming pool schedules.

Is this why you endured four years of journalism school?

If you’re a recent college grad who just wants to get a little experience, you might be in the wrong place. Sure, New York City and Washington, DC sound like dream locales for those of us who grew up reading about New York’s newspaper wars and watching “All the President’s Men,” but prime beats in those cities are hard to come by.

Don’t overlook smaller news organizations, says Mike Kilian, managing editor of the Observer-Dispatch newspaper in Utica, NY.

“Smaller newspapers are where you’re going to meet the cops and argue with the mayor who barely finished high school,” Mike says. “It’s where you’ll be bored to tears at some lunch function yet you’ll come back to the office with some great tips for future stories. And it’s where you can learn to sharpen your questions and your writing and win awards and get a heck of a lot of satisfaction.”

Utica is a small city in New York State’s heartland. It was once a luxe getaway destination for New York City’s mob bosses (the paper won a Pulitzer in 1959 for its mafia coverage) and has evolved to become home to thousands of refugees and immigrants from around the world. The city struggles with poverty and crime, but is also home to people who know how to transform abandoned blocks into warm neighborhoods.

There might not be much nightlife in Utica, but there are more stories than an eager reporter could dream of tackling. Mike has hired more than his share of new grads – they make up about half of all the reporters he’s hired, he says. He looks for young journalists who have a handle on time management and accuracy. Most of all, Mike says he looks for grads who can “see” a story.

“Far too often, a young journalist is pressing up against a deadline with a notebook full of quotes, but with little understanding of what the point of the story really is,” Mike says.

Whether you’re working for a tiny daily in Alaska or the New York Times, young journalists should determine one or two questions a story should answer BEFORE reporting and writing the story.

“If a county were hiring a new public health director, such a key question could be, ‘How will this person address the most pressing needs in the county?’” Mike says. “And that will force the reporter to both keep the story real by focusing on specific healthcare issues, and to keep the interview with the new person focused so that you don’t wind up with ‘I’m happy to be here’ lame quotes.”

Critical thinking is the real key to solid journalism, Mike says.

“Journalists are not stenographers, passively taking down details of what’s occurring,” he says. “Instead, they’re asking the ‘Why’ questions and trying to put events into a useful context for readers.”

When job-hunting, look for news organizations that value basic journalism skills. Find editors who, like Mike, encourage new reporters to focus most on reporting and writing. Social media is critical to the news industry, but real reporting and interviewing skills are the bedrock of journalism.

“Information is more critical to our society than ever, particularly because it moves rapidly through the world, nation or a single community,” Mike says. “Yet 10,000 Tweets don’t necessarily add up to accuracy. The people who do know how to conduct interviews, read documents and follow story leads will likely be more valuable than ever.”

Even in a fast-paced, social media world, Mike says, “there’s always enough time to get the story right, so don’t cut corners in your reporting.”

10 Ways to Write Well

Rob Curley spoke to students at the recent Associated Collegiate Press conference in Phoenix. He told students that the best way to prepare for the future of journalism is to write well. Here are a few ideas to help any journalist follow his advice.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The “Hyper-local hero” told his audience that they needed to be able to write copy in real-time. He predicted that reporters increasingly will be required to work without a net. If you can’t write well on your own and under stress than you will be in trouble.

Curley also noted that there is nothing more important than a willingness and ability to learn. Listen to his entire response on the Innovation in College Media blog.

We have a few tips on how to follow Curly’s advice. This list of was written by UPIU mentor Beth Potter for journalists interested in submitting to UPIU.com. However, these are great tips for any journalist.

Top Ten Elements of a Good Story

1. Your lead must be catchy.

If your friend’s eyes glaze over when she hears it, it’s not catchy enough. (TIP: Say the lead out loud to yourself. If it’s hard to say in one breath, it’s probably too long. In general, leads can be up to 35 words but remember,”Brevity is the source of wit.”)

2. Your story must be unique.

New studies, new decisions, new trends, are just a few of the things that can make for good hard news stories. Features and profiles should be about unusual and/or new information or people. Readers will not be interested if you write about things they know already.

3. All stories must have at least two sources.

A good story should have three or more sources. Quotes from your sources should say something more interesting than just factual information. (For example: “Michigan has cold winters,” is not a good quote because the information is something everyone already knows.)

Image by churl via Flickr

4. “Write tight, write bright.”

Brief stories are almost always more engaging than long stories. Many hard news stories are 350 words or less. Features and profiles can be 400-800 words. On the Internet, especially, shorter is better.

5. Attribute as much information as you can.

This makes your story more credible to readers and keeps their attention.

6. All sources must include both first and last names.

Ask your source to spell his or her name and title when you do the interview. If you do not include a source’s name in your story, you MUST explain why. Some examples could be: an underage child, a rape victim, etc. Your story is not credible and cannot be published if this basic rule is not followed.

7. Answer all questions!

If a quote might raise a question in a reader’s mind, you can either a.) not use it, or b.) explain it. Cut anything that seems ambiguous.

8. DO NOT, under any circumstance, give your own opinion in a story.

Factual background information is OK. Opinion words are not.

Continue reading 10 Ways to Write Well

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