EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts analyzing the stand-out profile of tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova by Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins. You can also read our Q&A with … Read more
By Chip Scanlan Samantha Michaels was reading The New York Times one day in 2019 when she read a story about a case where the punishment seemed vastly disproportionate to the crime. The situation involved Tondalo Hall, an Oklahoma … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski Everybody talks about the weather — more than ever these days. But not everybody gets death threats for their comments. Yet that’s what happened to Chris Gloninger, a chief meteorologist who had moved from his native … Read more
By Carly Stern Every reporter has one of those story ideas simmering on the back burner that they simply can’t let drop. For Raquel Rutledge, it started with a house fire. The fire, which damaged a two-story rental house … Read more
By Chip Scanlan It was the stuff of great narrative, a dramatic saga with conflicting storylines and no clear resolution: In October 2020, British authorities and the media reported that seven stowaways from Nigeria were aboard a mammoth oil … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski When the folks at Webster-Merriam embraced the use of “they/them” as singular pronouns, the reaction from those in the writing world ranged from relief to indignation to celebration. Relief: No more need to torture sentences to … Read more
By Trevor Pyle For state legislator Karen Berg of Kentucky, the fight against anti-trans legislation was entwined with the memory of her transgender son, Henry. For reporter Willian Wan of The Washington Post, telling both halves of that … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Full disclosure: I was the instructor at the writing workshop summarized below. The essay was pitched by the contributor — not assigned — after a discussion about the ethics of using intimate information. At my request, Page did … Read more
By Chip Scanlan Journalism, by its very nature, focuses on the now — the events and people making the news today. But powerful stories can be found by mining the past to add fresh material and context to what … Read more
By Chip Scanlan When one journalist falls, others rise to take up their cause. That’s the animating principle behind a long history of journalists completing untold stories left behind by murdered or jailed reporters. Such memorial work gained attention … Read more