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	August 17, 2003

JOURNALISM 101 Every once in awhile I go back to school: I read up on the basics of writing a good story or essay. Here are some of the lessons I've recently learned, courtesy of the Columbia School of Journalism's site, journalism.org, and csmonitor.com: Organize your material: Put it in a rough sequence, in an order that will be sensible and engaging to the audience Write the first draft quickly, then go back and self-edit Ask 'who cares?' about every sentence, and be ruthless excising extraneous material Be original: A different spin, original research or investigation, an interview or first-hand account, a personal photo, a chart -- all of these can add enormous value and readibility Never make anything up, even if it's plausible If something from one source is suspicious, check another source Always credit your sources Don't let pressure to produce compromise the quality of your work Use the title, first sentence and (if the article is long or complex) a two to three sentence abstract up-front to both inform and draw in your audience Close with a memorable sentence Postscript: If you're ever researching Who Owns What in the media, The CSJ has a great site on just this subject, here. Oh, and the photo is Paul Krugman. Studying his work is also a great way to improve your writing skills. 11:21:09 PM  trackback []  comment []

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