An interesting piece of feature writing

Yes, I know that we haven't yet got there in class, but I came across a very interesting, pretty old piece from Esquire Magazine entitled Frank Sinatra Has A Cold and I thought I'd share it.

It's particularly ingenious because the writer was never allowed an actual interview with Sinatra. The piece was written entirely from observation and by talking to the people around the man. It was written in the 1960s so it's much longer than our profiles typically are today and of course much longer than the pieces you are expected to write! But the writer has got an excellent grasp on descriptive storytelling without losing journalistic integrity. Read, enjoy and I hope it helps you in your own writing.

"Be sure to punctuate and attribute properly," he said.

I've highlighted the need for solid punctuation skills when quoting sources. Unfortunately, many students persist in using incorrect quotation punctuation. The following resources should be the final word on this issue.

Start off with the basics. Check out the Purdue Writing Lab for a guide on how to use quotation marks and quote indirectly.

The WAW School of Journalism outlines a few more details on attribution and quotations, including this very important note on the word "said" that I've mentioned repeatedly in class:

Some final thoughts on the word “said”: Readers like — dare I say love? — the word because they don't see it. It's simple and direct, and can't be misinterpreted. So use it often or, perhaps, all the time. If you find a need to use other words, like exclaimed, gushed, etc., it likely means the writer hasn't set up the quote in a way that the reader knows what's coming. It's often a sign of bad writing (and bad writers) when such words apprear in copy.

"Said" says it all.

Finally, veteran editor and educator Gregg McLachlan comments on failure to attribute in this short column.

Hope those pages help. As always, take a look around the wider sites after you're done with the specific items I've lined to.

Hunting for stories

We used our first field exercise to scour Woodbrook, the deeply historical neighborhood in which the campus is located.

The walkabout/drive served primarily as a story-hunting exercise. We developed the reporter's skill for finding the profound in the seemingly mundane, and seeing the interesting, curious things in the world around us. We questioned a lot of what we would usually overlook and take for granted, and we returned to class with enough story ideas to keep an entire department of reporters busy for months.



You'll now have to apply that skill to your own community (those of you who actually live in Woodbrook got a free pass!). Find something beyond the cliched and the overdone. Find something new and exciting, something thought-provoking and fresh. Adhere to the guidelines that we've learned over the last few weeks, and copping a distinction should be easy.

The response to this exercise was heartening, and I'm going to try to figure out other ways for us to hit the road, constructively, later on in the semester.

Our next field assignment will be will be similarly devoid of PowerPoints and my droning voice. You'll hear more about it in the near future.


(I borrowed the photos in this post from former student Norman Chuckaree's Woodbrook Facebook group.)