Author Archives: Heath Meriwether

Shed your assumptions about what's expected.

After a two-month immersion into grading admissions tests for the Class of 2011, your humble Write Stuff scribe is ready to think and talk about writing again. Shed your assumptions:  That’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever … Continue reading

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The magic of mystery in your writing.

Here at the Write Stuff, we see a lot of leads that try to do too much. But as the weeks go by, we’re noticing more students who’ve discovered the magic of mystery. Rather than cramming every theme and angle … Continue reading

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An excellent adventure in reporting, Part II

Valerie Lapinski fell in love with Studs Terkel’s work a few years ago when she was preparing a radio series about jobs in a small southeast Alaska town. Little did she dream then that the death last year of the … Continue reading

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An excellent adventure in reporting.

It started with an e-mail just past midnight Nov. 3 and ended with a Nov. 12 story on the Metro front of the New York Times. But what happened in between for Damiano Beltrami was a classic case of a … Continue reading

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What's different about blog writing, and what's not.

Space. Time. Shape.  Interactive professor Jeremy Caplan used those three words to explain the differences in how we write for online or for print.  In a follow-up to Trudy Lieberman’s discussion last week, we found Caplan’s descriptions quite useful in … Continue reading

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A long-time print journalist finds her voice in blog.

When Trudy Lieberman started a blog on health care coverage two years ago for the Columbia Journalism Review, she felt like she’d been let out of prison.  Suddenly, after four decades confined to the strictures of print journalism — 5W’s, … Continue reading

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How to get A-hed in feature writing.

His Wall Street Journal editors call Barry Newman the dean of A-heds, the elegantly crafted feature stories that for years occupied the middle column of Page One. Now ensconced in a box at the bottom of the page, the A-heds … Continue reading

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Get active to improve your writing.

“Reduced to its essence, a good English sentence is a statement that an agent (the subject of the sentence) performed an action (the verb) upon something (the object).” — John Ciardi, American poet and writing teacher “Those of us lucky … Continue reading

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The secret to getting published.

Mike Reicher followed up on a tip to the Times’ Metro desk. Eleanor Miller used a cold-call e-mail to pitch the Brooklyn Rail. Emily Johnson walked in the door of the Canarsie Courier and talked to two of their editors. … Continue reading

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Make sure your quotes help tell the story.

It’s important to be selective about the quotes you use in stories. Too many stories get larded with quotes that don’t advance the story, quotes that provide information rather than insight into a character, a cause or a theme. Our … Continue reading

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