One Great Moment

“… it’s not terribly unusual to see grown men crying …”

Cynthia Barnes of Denver Westword in her obit of a local bartender

By Erik Ness • June 2, 2023

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Reconstructing a murky maze of blame

Lauren Smiley of Wired spent four years tracking the first pedestrian fatality involving a bicyclist, Uber and a self-driving car

By Chip Scanlan • June 1, 2023

Story Craft

Climbing the “ladder of abstraction” to evoke empathy and elevate your message

A concept adapted from theories of rhetoric can help writers choose details that add both intimacy and universality to a story

By Korrina Duffy • May 31, 2023

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Reconstructing a murky maze of blame

By Chip Scanlan
June 1, 2023

Lauren Smiley of Wired spent four years tracking the first pedestrian fatality involving a bicyclist, Uber and a self-driving car

Story Annotations

When a reporter is slain, another picks up the story

By Chip Scanlan
May 24, 2023

The Washington Post sent Lizzie Johnson to Las Vegas to continue an investigation started by Review-Journal reporter Jeff German

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‘Good versus good’ stories that unravel complex societal problems

By Carly Stern
March 10, 2023

New Yorker writer Nathan Heller follows a year of change in one San Francisco high school in which there was no clear right or wrong

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Reconstructing a fractured life and broken system

By Chip Scanlan
March 2, 2023

L.A. Times reporter Thomas Curwen traced the life of one schizophrenia sufferer to tell a bigger story of society's challenges with mental health

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Jon Mooallem’s narrative on the Camp Fire: “The value is in the telling”

By Ania Hull
February 16, 2023

The experienced author and magazine writer takes on the aftermath of California's biggest wildfire with insecurity and empathy

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Spending time to report a meditation on the long tail of grief

By Chip Scanlan
January 26, 2023

A team from The New York Times immersed itself in Uvalde, Texas, after the "media horde" left and showed the fuller horror of a mass shooting

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A profile of a single mom trying to raise a “good man” balances transparency and privacy

By Trevor Pyle
January 19, 2023

Jose A. Del Real delivers a range of straightforward but sensitive stories in The Washington Post series about "Masculinity in America"

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Hearing stories from behind the burqa

By Chip Scanlan
September 30, 2022

New Yorker writer Anand Gopal worked through layers of sources to enter the veiled world of Afghan women under Taliban rule

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The Pitch: Landing a “definitive narrative” in The Atavist Magazine

By Carly Stern
August 18, 2022

Editor Seyward Darby: "I definitely want people who are willing to strip a story down to its basics and figure out how to build it back up." 

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How Rolling Stone revisited a mass tragedy to ‘humanize the horrendous’

By Chip Scanlan
July 26, 2022

After the Florida condo collapse, Matt Sullivan vowed not to forget a teen survivor. The year-later profile has credibility, empathy and a haunting ending

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Shaping a historic narrative: The Jan. 6 hearings as story craft

By Jacqui Banaszynski
July 21, 2022

The public hearings of the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol draw on core narrative elements

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A reporter explores the laws and emotion involved in helping her father die

By Chip Scanlan
June 8, 2022

Bloomberg investigative reporter Esmé Deprez researched a range of death-with-dignity issues after becoming her father's end-of-life partner

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