How do you become a better reporter and writer? Well, first you have to practice... a lot. That means reporting and writing stories (for The Collegian, preferably). The more you interview people, the better you will get. The more stories you write, the more easily the words will come to you.
Of course, you also have to read great newspaper stories. That way, you'll know what is going on (writing-wise) in the industry. You'll see things you might want to try someday. You'll be inspired.
So, if you would like to be inspired, read one or two of these stories:
• Pearls Before Breakfast, by Gene Weingarten (Pulitzer Prize winner in feature writing in 2008): This is a very long piece, but it is so worth reading. Weingarten set up this elaborate plan that included having the world's most prominent violin player dressing like a semi-homeless man and playing classical pieces in a Washington, D.C. Metro station during rush hour. Who stopped to listen? Did anyone recognize him?
• The lives — and remnants — of others, by Inara Verzemnieks: This piece starts out being about a store that collects old possessions and sells them to the needy. It ends up telling the love story of two young people during World War II, through their letters, which ended up in the warehouse.
• Kennel trash, by Kelley Benham: This piece tells the story of the animal control people who had to put to sleep more than 100 dogs, which were abandoned in an old puppy mill. You will cry. Trust me.
• Zoo story, by Thomas French: This one will take some time, but if you love animals and zoos, it's worth it. It's broken up into nine chapters (it ran over the course of nine days in the St. Petersburg Times), so it's easier to digest by reading one chapter a day.
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9 comments:
I read the series of articles about the love letters found in the crate at the warehouse. This series definitely showed evidence of advanced reporting just based on the number of details and the reporter being able to track down where all of the furniture from the warehouse went. There is an extreme amount of small details in here that the reporter had to go to probably long lengths to find out.
I read the series about the love letters also, and I really enjoyed it. I loved how the writer not only focused the letters, but the importance of "stuff" in our lives as well. He didn't just explain the purpose of the warehouse, but he described the emotional attachment we all have to our things and how sometimes we reach a point where we're ready to let them go and mean something for someone else.
I read Kennel Trash and it did make me cry. This was such a sad story. Each dog was described in detail and had its own personality. I could feel how the rescuers in the kennel were feeling. This story took a lot of time to write because they spent the 2 months at the kennel with the rescuers and the dogs and they went to the court hearings for the owner of the dogs. I felt like I had been at that kennel too. I liked how the story followed the dogs instead of the owner, Hewitt Grant. The pictuers of the rescuers and the dogs made the story seem even more real.
I liked the one about the violin player as it displayed on how people can just ignore someone even though they are talented. The Post also did a good job on the reporting part along with the videos. This was also a story that you can tell was well planned out.
I read the articles about the love letters as well guys...guess some of us are in agreement there...This type of reporting took a really long time to gather all that information and it was extremely well done. I loved it and couldn't stop reading. The breaks it took to go back to the other things inside the warehouse made me want to keep reading even more because I wanted to read more about the letters themselves, but was still intrigued about all the other little details he had in there about all the other things like the dresser or the table.
I read the love letters one, and the violin one, contrary to the fact that I have a huge spanish test tomorrow. The Love Letters one I found ridiculously confusing. I kept thinking the tangent about the dresser was going to fit in some way as having some of the letters in it or something, but it did not even tie in. I felt teased, and confused. I wanted it to tie in because it seemed like everything was matching up. I understand the context was to show how other peoples trash are another's treasure, yada yada ya, but I just didn't think it worked. I liked the ending and was happy to see the couple together, and I thought the writer did a great job of tying it in to what people want out of life. But I was also sad that Ted, was that his name? Just gave up his letters. Maybe his wife wanted them.
I thought the violin piece was fascinating. It had a mix of history, humor, sadness, humility, frustration, irony, and just plain entertainment. The background on the musician was great, the way they tied in the audience members who watched him was interesting. I also enjoyed reading about how they did the experiment by getting people's phone numbers. Its sad no one cares that the greatest classical musician in the world got ignored for playing some of the most difficult pieces in history, but if Britney Spears stood there with her bald head screeching out baby one more time in a I heart Kevin Federline t-shirt then the masses would flock. OOOh America. I only say America because of what the woman from Brazil had to say. That was an excellent touch to interview her.
I read the story about the love letters as well. The details in the piece really struck me. Knowing that the author had to track down all the information on the furniture and who it went to adds so much more to the piece. These tiny pieces of information, which others may find entirely insignificant, really make the piece. Which just goes along with the idea that something forgotten by one person can be used and treasured by another. The language and style that he used really kept me interested in the piece as well. The way he described things made you want to know more about them. This is also a great example of taking something that could have simply been a story about some old letters that were found and turning it into something so much more than that. By including the details about the various pieces of furniture and about the warehouse itself it adds so much more life to the piece. It really kept me wanting to read more.
I guess the love letters story was popular, because I read it too. This story definitely tugged on my heartstrings. Verzemnieks is a skilled writer. Her use of imagery to placed the reader in the story. At times, I felt like I was traveling alongside the men in the truck picking up the various pieces of people's lives. I also liked the way the story of the letters flowed throughout the entire piece, while still having various other small stories, such as the dresser. This story really got me thinking about how small the world can be.
I read the story about the violinist. I really liked the narrative style that it was written in. I also like how the beginning graph was descriptive of the violinist's actions and how he started out the day. It was a longer story, and one that when looking at a glance, a ready may not care to read, but it has a good underlying message. It represents how our culture has become so fast paced that we are not able to enjoy the small things... like listening to someone play.
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