Story Craft

Nut grafs: Learning from literature, music, movie trailers and “the bones” of stories

How Pulitzer-winning writer Tom French coaxes summary nut grafs (or sentences) from students and pros: They talk, he listens

By Thomas French • October 21, 2021

A tile inset in Central Park in New York honors slain Beatle John Lennon. Writer Tom French uses Beatles music as one way to teach and coach nut grafs..

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Story Craft

Nut grafs (or graphs): How five sentences can help a writer focus

A freelancer who teaches college journalism leaned on friends, social media, and a simple template to help students find the center of a story

By Emily Sohn • October 20, 2021

Story Craft

Nut grafs: Getting to the heart of the story

Renowned editor and writing coach Jack Hart urges writers to build stories around a theme statement that establishes meaning and guides structure

By Jack Hart • October 19, 2021

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Strictly Q&A

How a top explanatory reporter does emotional interviews: With empathy

By Kim Cross
September 29, 2021

Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong of The Atlantic takes the same open approach with COVID scientists and frontline nurses

Strictly Q&A

Tracking shards of grief for 20 years, and daring to love your story subjects

By Trevor Pyle
September 10, 2021

Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic goes on a quest to find what a friend lost to 9/11 left behind, and delivers a meditation on love and grief

Strictly Q&A

How the loss of one Olympic story led to gold on another

By Trevor Pyle
August 27, 2021

Wall Street Journal sports reporter Ben Cohen found a surprising profile of an unlikely Olympian in previous notes, then used Zoom to bring it to life

Strictly Q&A

Foreign reporting: Peter Hessler on seeing China through a personal lens

By Simina Mistreanu
July 28, 2021

The author, New Yorker writer and China veteran talks about the benefits of ‘longitudinal research’ and the imperative of international reporting

Strictly Q&A

How the voices of five young women from remote, coastal Maine challenge stereotypes

By Monique Brouillette
June 16, 2021

A former educational policy advisor turned questions about raising her daughter outside the city into a surprising portrait of rural America

Strictly Q&A

Empathy as the prime directive in writing about displaced people

By Madeline Bodin
June 11, 2021

Award-winning author Jessica Goudeau says journalists must expand their toolbox to write about the growing issues of displacement

Strictly Q&A

What it takes to cover a foreign country as a woman and during a pandemic

By Cat Woods
March 10, 2021

Indonesia correspondent Anne Barker of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. delivers a mix of breaking news and more personal stories

Strictly Q&A

What narrative master Eli Saslow learned about intimacy interviewing by phone

By Matt Tullis
February 24, 2021

The Washington Post's year-long "Voices from the Pandemic" series took hours of pre-reporting, patient listening and letting go of writerly control

Story Craft

When writing news requires a distance from neutrality to “tell it like it is”

By Roy Peter Clark
January 14, 2021

Writing guru Roy Peter Clark analyzes an "astonishing lead," and unpacks the notions of objectivity and detachment in light of current events

Strictly Q&A

How a top LinkedIn journalist quit with no what’s-next ideas, then woke up to a big one

By Julia Shipley
December 9, 2020

The Pivot: Novice podcaster Isabelle Roughol on the love of journalism that "lets you enter infinite worlds"

Strictly Q&A

The keys to global journalism: curiosity, open-mindedness and a broad network

By Cat Woods
December 8, 2020

BBC news presenter Jackie Leonard talks about what it takes to create an engaging podcast out of global news

Strictly Q&A

How an editor guided coverage of racism in the life and death of George Floyd

By Carly Stern
December 2, 2020

Steven Ginsberg, national editor at The Washington Post, grounded a sensitive project with this question: "Are we qualified to do this story?"

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