Gangrey.com is a blog dedicated to writing. Good writing. Its mission? To help "bail water out of a sinking ship" -- newspapers, that is. The blog specializes in narrative journalism, featuring the best stories from newspapers around the country. One after the other, they are a waterfall of inspiration.

The blog doesn't just link to stories, however. Blog entries encourage dialogue about the pieces. Comment threads debate stylistic choices, wording and the like and are useful in learning to critically analyze the writing process.

For example, one November entry, "'Burying' the Lede," linked to a story about a girl who suffocated after falling behind a bookshelf. The blog entry pointed out that the story "delays its gruesome punchline till the fourteenth paragraph." "The question before you today is whether it should have given readers the gold up front, or whether its timing was just right, or whether, as my colleague Michael Kruse has suggested, the punchline came too soon." The ensuing discussion was a fascinating case study in writing decision-making.

Gangrey was created by Ben Montgomery, 28, a staff writer for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. It is maintained with the help of several other young journalists, also from the Times, including Michael Kruse, 29, and Thomas Lake, 26.

The name, gangrey, is a play off of gangrene, Montgomery explained in an interview with Poynter Online (scroll to the Nov. 21 entry). It refers to the infection of bad writing in newspapers today.

This is a blog geared toward professionals, but high school journalists might find it lifts the calibre of their work. Reading good journalism is the first step to practicing good journalism. Gangrey is the perfect place to start.