Issue 2, No. 6 – Oct. 11, 2007

Posted on October 11, 2007 by Heath Meriwether

Shout Outs

The greatest gift for a writer, author Tom Wolfe says, is reporting. The reporter gets to use all of the senses to give the reader the sights, sounds and smells of a scene. When writing leaves you feeling as if you were there, that’s good writing.

Listen as Danny Massey, who covered a memorial for the former slaves and freed blacks who were buried and forgotten in the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, captures the call and response of a church audience:

“Forgive us, please,’’ shouted the senior minister emeritus of The Riverside Church in Manhattan. “Forgive us for disregarding your precious gifts to this world, for the desecration of your hallowed ground where you laid your loved ones to rest. And forgive us for almost forgetting you. Say again, ‘Forgive us, please.’ ’’ The hundreds who gathered in Lower Manhattan called back, “Forgive us, please.’’

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How to fight panic on deadline.

Posted on September 27, 2007 by Heath Meriwether

There isn’t a journalist alive who hasn’t panicked on deadline. The idea that you’re not alone may be small comfort to those who’ve experienced that sweaty-palms feeling. But Write Stuff is here to help, along with suggestions from your Craft professors. Here are our collective thoughts on how to calm down, stay focused and produce strong stuff on deadline:

  • Be prepared. Use the time after you get an assignment to find out everything you can about the people or organizations you’ll be covering. Based on your advance reporting, imagine what the story’s headline might be before you even report on it. You’ll feel like you’ve got a head start even if the facts get in the way.

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Issue 3, No. 10 – Sept. 20, 2007

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Heath Meriwether

Shout Outs

Nothing enlivens and empowers writing more than specific detail. When you’re out on the street reporting, create a special place in your notebook for every imaginable detail your senses can take in. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many of these nuggets you’ll use to power your story.

Watch how Barry Paddock creates a delicious image as he observes New York Knick Nate Robinson bite into a new Domino’s dessert pizza (the emphasis is mine):

There was a mild crush of cameras as Robinson took his first bite of the Oreo pizza, the crowd waiting in some suspense for his reaction. “Oh my goodness, I have to have another bite; I’m sorry,” he said, a dot of vanilla icing sticking to the upper left corner of his lip.

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Issue 2, No. 10 – Sept. 11, 2007

Posted on September 11, 2007 by Heath Meriwether

Shout Outs

When sentences run the same length throughout a story, it gets monotonous. Readers drop off. The solution: Vary sentence length. Read and listen to Kenyon Farrow’s lead on an international AIDS conference this summer to see how he varies sentence length and punctuation to great effect (the emphasis is mine):

HIV experts gathering at the International AIDS Society conference in Sydney next week are sure to champion the need for greater treatment access in the developing world—and to point out that in the United States, by contrast, drugs have made HIV a manageable disease. But that is only partly true: Many HIV-positive people in this country confront financial barriers and a labyrinth of rules that keep life-saving medications beyond their reach. For them, HIV is not manageable at all.

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Issue 2, No. 9 – Sept. 7, 2007

Posted on September 7, 2007 by Heath Meriwether

Shout Outs

It all starts with the reporting. After a summer of internships, we’ve got some real-world proof of that maxim.

Tim Catts’s reporting for BusinessWeek.com literally helped an Ohio waitress win $1 million. Presented on his second day on the job with nothing more than a tip that a CNBC stock-picking contest might be rigged, Tim spent half his summer investigating every angle on the story. He showed how the contest could be manipulated, showed how the top four finishers probably gamed the system, how another had a long record of stock manipulation complaints. His reporting prompted CNBC to investigate its own contest and disqualify the top four finishers. That led Tim to Ohio and the “fifth-place’’ finisher, a waitress who had never owned a stock in her life (This story appeared three weeks before the winner was announced, showing just how fully Tim owned this story):

It’s Friday afternoon in the tiny Appalachia town of St. Clairsville, Ohio, and Mary Sue Williams is about to begin her shift as a waitress at Undo’s, a spacious Italian restaurant that overlooks Interstate 70. She enjoys taking care of her regulars, she says, and after nine years in her job, she has accumulated plenty of them. Even with dozens of the restaurant’s tables empty, she cuts quickly across the floor to the bar to refill an empty water glass. “I’m going to do this until I can’t walk,” Williams says, insisting that she wouldn’t quit for a million dollars.
That conviction may soon be put to the test.

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