Story Annotations

Exposing what the police and courts wouldn't — and what society owes in return

Exposing what the police and courts wouldn’t — and what society owes in return

It’s difficult to find a writer who isn’t haunted by a story. It could have been the quest that couldn’t catch a glint in an editor’s eye. Maybe one that…
September 11, 2019
Chip Scanlan
Chasing ghosts that will forever haunt

Chasing ghosts that will forever haunt

"Ghosts of Highway 20:" Through serendipity, creativity and care, a newspaper in Oregon finds answers 40 years after police and courts failed
August 27, 2019
Chip Scanlan
A "book report" on The Mueller Report

A “book report” on The Mueller Report

Alexandra Petri EDITOR’S NOTE: The Mueller Report (capitalized by most news organizations, which is interesting unto itself) was released April 18, 2019 — almost two months ago. Also on April…
June 12, 2019
Jennifer Hager
A sex worker plunges to her death and a reporter demands to know: Who was she?

A sex worker plunges to her death and a reporter demands to know: Who was she?

Dan Barry led a team at The New York Times to uncover a name, a life history, and the sinister world of power and exploitation on 40th Road
June 4, 2019
Chip Scanlan
On trial for the Ghost Ship warehouse fire: Was an accused villain miscast as the bad guy?

On trial for the Ghost Ship warehouse fire: Was an accused villain miscast as the bad guy?

When Elizabeth Weil thought of profiling Max Harris, one of two people facing criminal charges for Oakland’s deadly Ghost Ship fire, she figured another reporter must already be on the…
May 14, 2019
Katia Savchuk
From a caress of love to a fist of fear

From a caress of love to a fist of fear

 In her 20 years traveling the world as a freelance writer, Rachel Louise Snyder has covered a hurricane in Honduras, a tsunami in Indonesia, and the forced sterilization of women…
May 7, 2019
Ricki Morell
Learning to look up, down, sideways, backwards and beyond while storytelling

Learning to look up, down, sideways, backwards and beyond while storytelling

Storytellers in any medium can learn from those in others. Writers must know how to paint mental images through the hieroglyphics of text, apply (and break) rules of grammar to…
March 13, 2019
Jacqui Banaszynski
Wired's executive editor seeks stories that reveal all faces of technology

Wired’s executive editor seeks stories that reveal all faces of technology

Rejections aren't personal: “70 percent of why pitches don't work has nothing to do with the writer”
March 5, 2019
Katia Savchuk
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

Editor’s note: All photos are courtesy of LaToya Ruby Frazier and Gavin Brown’s enterprise for the New Yorker. The images cannot be reused without consent or permission. New Yorker writer Rachel…
January 22, 2019
Linda Shaw
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