Clik here to view.
What 8-year-olds can remind us about good writing
By Katharine Gammon Small-moment stories. That’s what the writers were laboring over the day I stepped onto the rainbow rug in my son’s third-grade classroom. I was there to share some of my work as a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How curiosity about cats inspired practical science stories
By Philip Kiefer In the last several weeks, Katherine J. Wu, a science writer at the Atlantic, has written a lot about cats. Her run started in late August with a profile of vet dentists and the fact...
View Article”… a slab of muscle with Olympic speed.”
Physical descriptions are challenging to write. More accurately, they are challenging to write well. And yet they are standard fare in much of our journalism, especially if we’re writing profiles or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peeling back bureaucracy one document, source and interview at a time
By Trevor Pyle To guide readers through a thicket of bureaucracy and a shocking policy that had been born there, Caitlin Dickerson first had to slash through it herself. Once she had, the reporter for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your next book club list: National Book Award winners and finalists
The 2022 National Book Awards were announced this week. I expect I am not alone in adding the winners in fiction and nonfiction to my wish list and handing it, not very discreetly, to my...
View ArticleWhat empathy is, and isn’t, in journalism
By Lauren Kessler I have chronicled the road to prison traveled by a 16-year-old Black kid involved in a double murder. I have shadowed a 22-year-old dancer struggling to find her place in a...
View ArticleReading and redefining the “classics”
By Jacqui Banaszynski A long-time aspiration of mine has been to read more of the classics. My formal dip into that kind of literature was in high school, reading and discussing the usual suspects. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two Native American journalists talk turkey about Thanksgiving
EDITOR’S NOTE: From the archives, an essay by an Indigenous journalist, inspired by a story by another, about the myths of Thanksgiving and its white-bread centerpiece: turkey. By Jason Begay It...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A journalist’s journey into her family story leads to a history of American pie
EDITOR’S NOTE: With apologies for how very American — actually, how the American of these dis-United States — this is, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, however you celebrate it, and have some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The mastery of Supreme Court reporting, Part I: authoritative, clear and fast
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of four interviews with reporters who specialize in covering the U.S. Supreme Court during a crucial time. Other interviews will follow each day this week, with links...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The mastery of Supreme Court reporting, Part II: The intersection of law and...
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of four interviews with reporters who have made a specialty of covering the U.S. Supreme Court at a crucible time in the history of the Court and the press. By Trevor Pyle...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The mastery of Supreme Court reporting, Part III: Analysis and meaning over...
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of four interviews with reporters who have made a specialty of covering the U.S. Supreme Court at a crucible time in the history of the Court and the press. By Trevor Pyle A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The mastery of Supreme Court reporting, Part IV: Pre-reporting possibilities
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of four interviews with reporters who have made a specialty of covering the U.S. Supreme Court at a crucible time in the history of the Court and the press. By Trevor Pyle...
View ArticleA supreme beat education: The U.S. Supreme Court
By Jacqui Banaszynski Honorable readers, the writer stipulate: I once dreamed of attending law school. I took a few pre-law courses in college before reality, aka economics, led me away from more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How narrative journalists can make “good trouble” for society
EDITOR’S NOTE: This post introduces readers to a rhetorical re-framing of narrative nonfiction that a Vanderbilt University professor argues can create partnerships between writers and readers in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making good journalistic trouble, Part III: Stories of empowerment and action
EDITOR’S NOTE: In making “good trouble” through journalism, Paul A. Kramer of Vanderbilt University argues for seven approaches that create partnerships between writers and readers to address shared...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making good journalistic trouble, Part I: Exposing overlooked problems
EDITOR’S NOTE: In a series on making “good trouble” through journalism, Paul A. Kramer of Vanderbilt University argues for seven approaches that can help create partnerships between writers and readers...
View ArticleReading and redefining the “classics”
By Jacqui Banaszynski A long-time aspiration of mine has been to read more of the classics. My formal dip into that kind of literature was in high school, reading and discussing the usual suspects. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making good journalistic trouble, Part II: Highlighting urgency and proximity
EDITOR’S NOTE: In making “good trouble” through journalism, Paul A. Kramer of Vanderbilt University argues for seven approaches that can help create partnerships between writers and readers to address...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making good journalistic trouble, Part III: Stories of empowerment and action
EDITOR’S NOTE: In making “good trouble” through journalism, Paul A. Kramer of Vanderbilt University argues for seven approaches that create partnerships between writers and readers to address shared...
View Article