Training & Resources
Recommended Books
By David Spark and Geoffrey Harris (Fourth Edition)
Now in its fourth edition, this classic textbook has grown up alongside the newspaper industry. Today, as ever, it provides students of newspaper journalism with a toolkit for gathering news and filling ever-increasing space with first-rate copy for print and online.
Bryson, Bill
English, Kathy & Nick Russell
Evans, Rod & Irwin Berent
Hale, Constance
Kacirk, Jeffrey
LaRocque
McDonald, James
National Newspaper Awards
Richler, Howard
Thain, Chris
Truss, Lynne
Zinsser, William
Theodore Bernstein, Peter Bowler, Ivor Brown, Willard Espy, Ernest Gowers, Philip Howard, Lederer, Richard, Richard Mitchell, Robert MacNeil, Eric Partridge, William Safire.
Recommended Websites
Recommended Reading
An interesting view by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet on the role of journalists in an era of “citizen journalists”Read
By Roy Peter Clark, Poynter.org
At times it helps to think of writing as carpentry. That way, writers and editors can work from a plan and use tools stored on their workbench. A writer or coaching editor can borrow a writing tool at any time. And here’s a secret: Unlike hammers and chisels, writing tools never have to be returned. They can be passed on to another journalist without losing them.
Below is a list of 30 writing and revising tools. We have borrowed them from reporters and editors, from authors of books on writing, and from teachers and coaches. Many come from reading the work of storytellers we admire. The brief descriptions should be enough to help you build your own tool collection.
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By Steve Buttry
Reporters and editors everywhere battle and complain over length of stories. Even online, where newspaper space or tight broadcast schedules aren’t an issue, you need to write tightly to hold the reader’s attention and keep the story moving. You need to hone your ability to organize information and write tight stories that make every word count.
Write tight copy by reading your work aloud, replacing phrases with words, and focusing on what the story is about.
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