Page 51 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

How to Write Well

great deal of faith in convergence and those who thought it less crit-
ical on the media landscape. One thing both groups could agree on,
however, was that an emphasis on journalistic writing mechanics, jour-
nalistic style, and English grammar were key to all good journalism
programs (Bulla & Dodd, 2003). Additional work in this area (Bulla,
2002; Zoch & Collins, 2003) has approached this topic with a variety
of ideas and a variety of spins. In the end, however, the importance of
good writing has prevailed.

How to Write Well

Reporting comes first: To make your writing sing, you’ll need to do
some strong reporting before you do anything else. Far too often,
students (and many journalists) think, “I’ll write around that.” Unfor-
tunately, if you approach reporting that way, you severely limit your
ability to write. Reporting is at the core of all good stories. You must
learn as much about the topic as possible so that you are well versed
in what you are going to write about. You must do as much of this
research as possible in advance so that you know what questions to ask 41
and how to pursue the issue. You must be willing to ask questions of a
source more than once and feel free to follow up with fresh questions
as they arise in your writing. Here’s a simple set of guidelines for how
to best set up your writing:

• Background: Do as much research as you can about the person,
place, or thing you are going to be writing about. Look for
stories other people have done on this topic. Ask your col-
leagues what they know about this topic. If an editor assigned
you this story, ask why the editor thought this was important
and if he or she has any ideas on where you should look for
background. Do library research on a topic so that you can have
an intelligent conversation with your source about it. Some
journalists have immersed themselves in the activities they are
about to cover, which allows them to convey with more preci-
sion and clarity exactly what the subject is going through. You
don’t need to go that far, but you can if you feel it will help you.
It’s all up to you. It is OK not to know as much about the topic
as the person you are interviewing. It is inexcusable to know
almost nothing. Don’t think you can fake it. If you do, chances
are the source will sniff that out and be less helpful. No matter