TIME OUT: Pimp My Writing

"Ninety percent of being a journalist is showing up."
- Mitch Gelman, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, CNN.com

Here are a few of the topics from my presentation "Pimp My Writing" at The Campus Ledger's spring orientation.

The session covered:

• Can I ax you something? - Developing questions that are both word and hatchets
• Journalistic Bling - Style and Voice vs a hot mess
• That's tight -- literally - Writing tight and with a focus

I'll add a few notes from the discussion and the Q&A.

Below are some of the web links I mentioned in the presentation.

Websites:

• Ask the AP Style Editor
• Edit Teach
• News College
• Poynter
• News U
• No Train, No Gain

Handouts:

• Make Every Word Count
• Helping Reporters Improve Stories
• Covering Meetings
• Ten Tips for Better Cutlines
• Writing Must-Read Columns

Freedom of Information:

• Student Press Law Center letter generator
• JCCC Open Records policies

TIME OUT: Online Freebie

Here's a freebie from Poynter's News University that will help new advisers, editors and editorial board members. Like many of NewsU's courses, it's free!

COACHING TOMORROW'S JOURNALISTS

Now that you're in charge of a youth staff for your newspaper, how do you turn your inexperienced team into a savvy journalistic machine?

This course will help you become a better youth editor by becoming a better trainer. You'll explore different methods for training youth journalists. Or start with our Coach's Challenge simulation, picking up your clipboard and whistle to give feedback to a virtual staffer. Along the way, you'll get pointers from colleagues and a library of resources to help you and your staff.

How long will it take? "Coaching Tomorrow's Journalists" takes about one to two hours to complete. You can access the course on your own schedule, starting and stopping at your convenience. And you can come back anytime once you enroll.

Cost? This course is available at no cost to registered users of News University.

Time Out: Journalism 101

Start off a new semester by reviewing some of the basics:

• 'Says' vs. 'Said' - Remember this advice comes from professionals at Poynter who've learned the rules first and now challenge thier skill and loyal readers by experimenting.
• Ask the AP Stylebook Editor - Ask a question or use the search tool for AP style answers from -- you guessed it -- the AP Stylebook Editor.
• Accuracy First - One of my favorite sites, No Train - No Gain, offers these tips for reporters.
• Spot news basics - News College out of Canada -- yes it's still applicable -- offers tips on how to cover breaking news.
• 799 Tips Every Editor Should Know Before Setting Foot in a Newsroom - This is a great booklet posted on Edit Teach.org. It's geared towards professionals but it has valuable lessions for new student editors.

TIME OUT: Pimp'd

Don't expect Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar of Poynter Institute, to bust in your dorm room looking like Flava Flav.

But his latest entry in his Writing Tools, column makes me wish he would.

Clark begins by examining archetypes using reality TV. He examines "American Idol"and "Extreme Makeover." Clark also mentions "The Antiques Road Show," which isn't very pimpy of him but I guess that's his demographic.

Most writing coaches name their bag of tricks "toolbox," "notebook," or something fitting but not terribly clever.

Full disclosure: I call mine "Time Out," to play off the concept of being a coach. Yeah, I know -- lame.

I like the title "Pimp my Writing" because it speaks to an entirely new generation of journalists.

Illustration: Jeremy Gilbert/The Poynter Institute

TIME OUT: Tragedies & Journalists

Watching the media frenzy on the VT shootings, I'm disgusted on how many "professional" journalists bullied victims and their families into crying on camera. Not only that, but in the rush to be the first to report any bit of news, these "professionals" reported one-source stories from anonymous sources that ended up being false.

Anyway, here are a few resources for reporting tragedy.

Security on Campus offers resources like "Covering Crime on College Campuses," Campus Police Websites, and Campus Crime Research.

The National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder offers a series of tipsheets on how to report on trauma and PTSD related issues including: PTSD in Children and Adolescents, Community Violence, and What every good interview should know about PTSD.

The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma offers several guides on covering tragedy, children and trauma, school shootings and interviewing victims.

Coincidentally, News University, a program sponsored by Poynter, is partnering with the Dart Center for an online class called "Journalism and Trauma." The online course is free to registered users of NewsU.

No Train, No Gain offers tips for interviewing victims of tragedy and a practical guide to covering disasters.

TIME OUT: Questions?

I've discovered another way journalism helps me outside the newsroom.

As a member of my college's diversity initiative, I'm on the selection committee hearing presentations by diversity consultant firms. Sitting through hours of presentations, I realized how journalism prepared me to ask questions -- real questions.

"Since you said the initiative may to take 3 - 10 years, what specific steps will you take to reach students currently enrolled in two-year programs?"

"Aside from targeting students on campus from 9 a.m. - 2 - p.m, how will you reach students in evening and weekend classes, attending our off-campus sites, and distance learners?"

Restating source-provided information in the question offers him or her a chance to clarify, provide a better understanding and -- answer the question.

People, which most journalists are, like to believe they ask good questions, but they don't. It takes skill and an understanding of human behavior. Some ask questions for many reasons having little to do with the search for knowledge including to show their cleverness, to make statements, to be adversarial or to show favor.

When a reporter repeatedly says he or she didn't get good quotes from the source, ask to hear the questions. Before the reporter heads out to the interview

• Ask what the story's focus and the source's relevance.
• Ask about an interesting item found when researching the source.
• Ask to brainstorm questions with you.
• Ask to hear follow-up questions.
• Ask how he or she will ask responsive questions like "Oh, really?" "What happened then?" "How does that work?"

Any questions?

TIME OUT: Falling Stars

Forget Jayson Blair, the real danger to the newsroom comes from seasoned journalists.

According to the Detroit Free Press, sports columnist and newsroom superstar, Mitch Albom, and other columnists for Free Press wrote several columns without properly attributing sources to other media, writing about events they never attended and fabricating events.

A few lessons from the latest journalism controversy:

• JOUR 122 - We know columns are not news or features but we should hold them to the same basic journalism standards as the rest of the paper. Also, sports gets away with a lot we don't tolerate in other sections of the paper. A sports round up is not a story. It is an extended sports brief. Sports uses clichés and inserts opinion. Yet, for some reason we make exceptions for this section based upon what we think readers want. Sports news should hold the same standard as a regular news. Sports features should be treated like a regular feature. And sports columns should meet the requirements of columns, commentaries and editorials on the opinon page.
• "Lifting" quotes is stealing - Just because they are words and not $20 bills doesn't mean we should excuse the practice.
• Attribute, attribute, attribute - I used to feel guilty about being an attribution tyrant by insisting reporters attribute information not commonly known fact by the reader. But this year I've come to embrace my inner tyrant and I'm glad we emphasize attributions.
• Be a skeptical editor - Ask the reporter where he or she found the information. If you don't see him or her working off notes or off a recorded interview, ask to see or hear the information. Newsroom superstars are not above the editing process or the copy desk. Experimenting with a new style is great. But a reporter must know the rules in order to creatively break them.
• Feed off feedback - The learning lab/newsroom allows us to examine ourselves (though we need to do a better job of soliciting reader feedback). Newsroom culture can help keep refocus renegade journalists while coaching reinforces good reporting. Our work with student journalists doesn't just produce a good product, it produces good reporters.
• Know and enforce ethics - A clear and enforceable code of ethics helps address these kinds of issues. My campus paper, The Campus Ledger, has an effective code of ethics as it is based on professional standards, and our college's personel policies and the student code of conduct.
• Codify unwritten rules - As our campus papers progress by incorporating professional standards, we need to evaluate, eliminate or codify unwritten rules and standing policies especially for situations like getting quotes from a televised press conference or quotes making the media roundtables that cannot be attributed to the original source (though who wants to use recycled quotes?).
• Peer review - Honor the integrity of the newsroom and respect the reporter in question by establish a formal process for reviewing situations like this. Don't wait until you have a kitchen fire to learn how to use a fire extinguisher.
• Newspapers aren't textbooks - We learn from reading and modeling good writers but when something doesn't sound right, go back to your journalism roots and verify. As we adapt good journalism from news media, learn how to spot and avoid bad journalism.
• As journalists our words are our currency - And thanks to some journalistic jackasses of late, the reader's trust costs more everyday.

I've come to the conclusion that the Free Press, a very well respected news organization, is screwed up. But they're screwed up in a way most news organizations are.

Fixated on the product and catering to newsroom superstars, managers ignore -- or worse, countermand-- procedures set in place to ensure quality.

As writing coach and an award-winning collgiate journalist including Journalist of the Year, I've had my ass kissed this year. But I've also had it kicked when I didn't produce to the minimum standard.

No one is above an edit.