Writing Chats: Chat bi-weekly with Roy Peter Clark about writing. Supported by CCI.
During this week’s writing chat, we talked with Boston Globe reporter Eric Moskowitz about his story that describes the experience of a young man who was carjacked by the Boston bombing suspects.
Poynter’s Roy Peter Clark praised Moskowitz earlier this … Read more
The events of recent days — from the bombing of the Boston marathon to the explosion of the fertilizer plant in Texas — should remind us of the power of stories. In a daily sense and over the course of … Read more
All writers learn that it is not possible or desirable to control how a reader responds to story, or even a sentence. But you can influence reader response, and you should.
How your reader responds is a crucial consequence of … Read more
Today is National Grammar Day, a special holiday for someone — namely me — who has written a book titled “The Glamour of Grammar.”
That title still puzzles some people who think of grammar as a creaky old … Read more
Every writer faces problems. In the most recent I’ll help you figure out solutions.
Much of the advice I’ll give will derive from my book, “Help! For Writers: 210 Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces,” which just … Read more
The recent passing of former New York mayor Ed Koch reminded me of one of my favorite feature leads of all time, written in 1980 by one of the AP’s all-time greats, Saul Pett:
“NEW YORK — He is the
… Read more
In a recent essay, I described how Tom French and I wrote our books using what I called “the buddy system.” In response, one writer tweeted: “Wish I had a buddy.”
So where do you find a buddy? And … Read more
Every journalist I know has faced the dreaded annual assignment: holidays, anniversaries, recurring events. These come down to writers not as sharp story ideas, but as topics: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, the annual … Read more
Poynter’s most recent Eyetrack study reveals some interesting findings about how readers consume news on tablet devices. During a live chat, Poynter’s Sara Quinn and Northwestern University’s Jeremy Gilbert talked about the findings and their implications for journalists.
Here are … Read more
When I look back on the history of The New York Times, it rarely appears to be what some might call a “writer’s paper.” While there has always been great reporting and editing talent at the newspaper, one senses the … Read more