How to write with honesty in the plain style It’s a middle ground between an ornate high style and a low style that gravitates toward slang. Write in it when you want your audience to comprehend. July 27, 2021 Roy Peter Clark
What makes a story good? Lessons for all public writers The question becomes increasingly important in an age of pandemic, social unrest, economic decline, insurrection and disinformation. June 29, 2021 Roy Peter Clark
There’s no such thing as a former journalist Journalists who change professions are met with judgment and half-jokes about joining the Dark Side. How sad, how narrow, how counterproductive. June 4, 2021 Roy Peter Clark
What buzzards on a branch can teach us about not being timid writers A look back at the best anecdote ever in memory of great storyteller Larry McMurtry April 6, 2021 Roy Peter Clark
When the topic is tough, frame it as a ‘mystery’ to be solved It’s a ‘secret’ that all good public writers know. Call it clickbait for nerds. March 9, 2021 Roy Peter Clark
How and why writers should avoid ‘the curse of knowledge’ As writers, we know what we know, but often find it difficult to imagine what it’s like not to know what we know — to the detriment of the reader. March 5, 2021 Roy Peter Clark
20 questions toward achieving civic clarity in your writing As the pandemic progresses with no end in sight, the goal for journalists and all public writers should be to lead the reader toward understanding. September 10, 2020 Roy Peter Clark
This is the story we need right now. And it’s written by a college freshman. Read and learn from this powerful piece about a bloodstain — and so much more — written by a 19-year-old Indiana University student. June 8, 2020 Roy Peter Clark
If reading a newspaper is a ritual, Sunday’s New York Times front page was a journalistic ritual of mourning Nothing much on that front page looked like news as we know it. It felt like a graphic representation of the tolling of bells. A litany of the dead. May 28, 2020 Roy Peter Clark
‘It’s OK to not be OK right now.’ TV anchors are setting aside the stoicism and getting personal. Anchors like CNN’s Brian Stelter and WFLA-TV’s Keith Cates have offered deeply personal essays and, with them, hope and human connection. May 13, 2020 Roy Peter Clark
Explanatory journalism is entering a golden age in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic Journalists — and experts from science, business and government — are using explanatory journalism to communicate in the public interest May 8, 2020 Roy Peter Clark
How writers give us new ways of understanding numbers A Bloomberg News column about President Trump’s ‘very good job’ preventing coronavirus deaths teaches us how to achieve civic clarity April 27, 2020 Roy Peter Clark
What civic clarity looks like in reporting the coronavirus pandemic 11 lessons from Surgeon General Jerome Adams April 15, 2020 Roy Peter Clark
