Articles

How to wed personal experience and journalistic discipline

How to wed personal experience and journalistic discipline

Some journalistic tenets are almost sacred, among them: The story is not about us.But sometimes, the story is. Or at least the journalist is living the same story as his…
April 3, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
Six core questions to spark fresh ideas

Six core questions to spark fresh ideas

Shop class: What we can learn about finding and focusing original enterprise stories from watching the early days of coronavirus coverage
April 1, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
A writer channels her own life of fear to report about science and psychology

A writer channels her own life of fear to report about science and psychology

Award-winning freelancer and outdoorswoman Eva Holland weaves memoir and research in her debut book "Nerve"
March 31, 2020
Kim Cross
"... America was postoned."

“… America was postoned.”

—Zachary T. Sampson of the Tampa Bay Times, with a crucial assist from colleague Jay Cridlin, in a story about coronavirus closures
March 27, 2020
Lane DeGregory
What we can learn about writing and life in a graduation speech sent from a distance

What we can learn about writing and life in a graduation speech sent from a distance

Do you remember your college commencement speaker, or anything s/he said? I had it in my head that a state legislator spoke at my high school graduation in 1970, but…
March 26, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
Writing the character, contradictions and soul of a place

Writing the character, contradictions and soul of a place

Dan Zak of the Washington Post toured 800 miles of Iowa in five days to explore the real place behind the political headlines and cultural cliches
March 24, 2020
Tom Warhover
Calling out Olympic officials' past failures as coronavirus threatens the 2020 Games

Calling out Olympic officials’ past failures as coronavirus threatens the 2020 Games

Sally Jenkins has been writing for the sports section of the Washington Post going on 20 years. The Associated Press and the Society for Professional Journalists have named her the…
March 18, 2020
Dale Keiger
A war correspondent and mom faces new fears in the early days of coronavirus

A war correspondent and mom faces new fears in the early days of coronavirus

Coronavirus is no longer something happening somewhere else — no matter where you are — or something that will soon become yesterday’s news. As of this week, cases have been…
March 17, 2020
Katharine Gammon
When a profile is also about art is also about climate change is also about grief

When a profile is also about art is also about climate change is also about grief

Julia Rosen has probed the myths of America’s deepest lake, looked down on Prince William Sound from a floatplane and joined a quest to scour the Bronx for jumping worms.…
March 12, 2020
Trevor Pyle
Stories are read twice in readers' minds: Once for information, then for meaning

Stories are read twice in readers’ minds: Once for information, then for meaning

EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece is published in partnership with the Poynter Institute.I have come to believe that all readers read all stories twice — all the time.The first reading comes…
March 11, 2020
Roy Peter Clark