Jacqui Banaszynski retired as the endowed Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2017, is editor at Nieman Storyboard, and a faculty fellow at the Poynter Institute. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for “AIDS in the Heartland,” a series about a gay farm couple facing AIDS, and was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer in international reporting for her account of the sub-Saharan famine.
Writing, at its best, is a visual art. It makes readers see. It paints scenes and action and characters in their minds. Brain science studies indicate that people actually hear when they read, which means those old editor scolds … Read more
A few words on social media. I’m not going to get mired in the meta-mess that is Meta, the New&Never Improved Facebook. That’s well-trod territory. I admire and envy friends — known and cyber — who swear off. (Although … Read more
Throughout my newspaper career, some of the best writing I ever read could be found in contest entry letters. Those brag pages also could carry some wince-worthy writing, especially, it seemed, when they were written by the same reporter … Read more
Some book purists may cringe at this, but one test of a great book, to me, is how many pages are dogeared by the time I finish. Those are the ones I tuck on a shelf, reluctant to take … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week and this, we’re offering support to editors and educators for how to guide writers through an effective nut graf — however you spell it and whatever you call it. Go to the homepage for recent articles … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week and this, we’re offering support to editors and educators for how to guide writers through an effective nut graf — however you spell it and whatever you call it. Go to the homepage for recent articles … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week and this, we’re offering support to editors and educators for how to guide writers through an effective nut graf — however you spell it and whatever you call it. See earlier pieces from writing coach and … Read more
Here is a self-editing origin story: I was back from my first truly big reporting assignment, which was to cover the 1984-85 famine in the sub-Sahara. I was exhausted, emotional about what I had seen, and … Read more
A brief anecdote in a Denver Post story about Pulitzer Prize winner Jim Sheeler describes how a new reporter was seated next to him in the newsroom of the Rocky Mountain News. When he introduced himself, … Read more
Today is the 76th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. That’s not a notable number in the rather arbitrary realm of anniversary stories. But the event itself just seems to gain profundity as time goes on. Maybe that’s because … Read more
