Articles

A nutcracker suite: How top journalists interpret the dance of the nut graf

A nutcracker suite: How top journalists interpret the dance of the nut graf

Perspectives from more than 20 top journalists on what the "nut graf" really means
February 1, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
A nut graf by any other name might taste sweeter ~ and be more digestible

A nut graf by any other name might taste sweeter ~ and be more digestible

A defense of the summary nut as it is used in variations by Ken Burns, the Beatles and Shakespeare
January 31, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
Nut grafs: Overused, misused — or merely misunderstood?

Nut grafs: Overused, misused — or merely misunderstood?

When a summary nut beeps like the back-up horn on a truck or blinds like a searchlight, it can ruin the magic of a narrative
January 30, 2019
Chip Scanlan
Newsroom Ode #4: Don't shoot the photographer

Newsroom Ode #4: Don’t shoot the photographer

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of odes that chronicle the legacy newsroom. Each is written from different first-person perspective. Together they create the mumbled narrative of a…
January 28, 2019
Don Nelson
From a Kickstarter about avocados to conviction as an American spy

From a Kickstarter about avocados to conviction as an American spy

How Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian turned 544 days in an Iranian prison into a story about love, journalism and a broken homeland
January 22, 2019
Jan Gardner
Shining light on a "shadow" special-ed program in the Georgia public schools

Shining light on a “shadow” special-ed program in the Georgia public schools

Rachel Aviv of The New Yorker uses the narrative of one child in one school to reveal the widespread costs of "separate and unequal"
January 22, 2019
Linda Shaw
Newsroom Ode #3: The last desk of defense

Newsroom Ode #3: The last desk of defense

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third of a series of odes that chronicle the legacy newsroom. Each is written from different first-person perspective. Together they create the mumbled narrative of a…
January 21, 2019
Don Nelson
Finding the brightest stars in a constellation of writing tips

Finding the brightest stars in a constellation of writing tips

Conference panels can be frustrating things. Several subject experts droning on, absorbed with the minutiae of their own work, sometimes failing to make bigger points, often repeating what other panelists…
January 18, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
"There's a story he's waiting for, long before he comes across it."

“There’s a story he’s waiting for, long before he comes across it.”

—From "The Overstory," by novelist Richard Powers
January 16, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
An annotated project that "breaks the 'rules' in all the right ways"

An annotated project that “breaks the ‘rules’ in all the right ways”

EDITOR’S NOTE: While we did not annotate this project by ProPublica Illinois, we are including it in “Annotation Tuesday” because the story itself, as published, was an innovative example of…
January 15, 2019
Chip Scanlan