January Academy

Session 4

“I’m not a very good writer, but I am an excellent rewriter.” -James Michener

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on the broken glass.” -Anton Chekhov (Quotes on board for today’s session)

The night prior, the class covered the John Jay vs. the College of Staten Island men’s basketball game. Some of the students found it interesting that the Staten Island coach, who lost by 22 points, looked and sounded completely drained during the press conference after the game, almost as though he played in the game himself.

“The best stuff often comes from the losing side,” Wayne Coffey said.

Coffey again stressed the necessity of observing as much as possible during the game and keeping your eye out for things that symbolize the action.

“You never know where the good little things will come from,” he said.

“A lot of times, the best material comes from the people who are least heard from.” Coffey said it could be the 10th man on the team or a trainer–people who do plenty of observing themselves.

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Session 2

“My most important piece of advice to tell you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts that people skip.” -Elmore Leonard (Quote on board for today’s session. “It really speaks to the essence of any piece of quality writing,” Coffey said)

“For me, what we do as journalists is all about reacting on the fly,” Coffey said. He was referring to the plane that crashed in the Hudson just hours prior, but it could just have easily been something sports related. He shared the story about the time he came into the office at the Daily News and was told that Magic Johnson had announced he had AIDS. Coffey’s editor told him that he would be writing the story.

“Everything, my whole professional life, got scrambled on spot,” he said.

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Session 1

“Writing is easy. I just open a vein and bleed.” -Red Smith (quote, written on the board at the start of the session, that Coffey keeps on the screen of his computer)

After a brief conversation, Coffey played an episode from a series released on Bravo a couple years ago called “Tabloid Wars.” The show traced some writers at the New York Daily News as they battled deadline and editorial decisions as well as the paper’s fierce competition with the New York Post (be sure to keep your eye out for a recognizable J School staff member). Featured in the show was then Daily News sports intern Ian Begley as he went out on his first deadline assignment: reporting a New York Liberty game at Madison Square Garden.

Once the episode was finished, Coffey led a surprise visitor into the room. From the screen to right before our eyes, Ian Begley walked through the door and took a seat at the front of the room.

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Jennifer Johnson Hicks is an assistant news editor at the Wall Street Journal Online.  At the end of the two-day copy editing workshop she led this week, she told students that she was willing to continue helping them to keep errors out of their work.  

“No one ever takes me up on this stuff, but send me your copy.  I would love to read it over for you,” Hicks  said.

Hicks came to class armed with a series of exercises and quizzes designed to test and hone students’ copy editing abilities.  

Here are some of the students’ favorite exercises:

Name that Face:  Copy editors have to be able to catch incorrect captions.  Can you name these public figures?

Headlines:  Hicks said that writing a headline is one of the most difficult tasks in copy editing.  Write a headline for this piece that is two lines of between 18 and 22 characters each including spaces.  Compare your headline with those on Newseum.  

Acronyms:  Knowing what acronyms stand for is crucial to avoiding mistakes like “ATM machines.”  What do these acronyms stand for?

Click here for more of the material Hicks covered in class.

By Kristen Joy Watts

SELF magazine’s articles director and editor of the Self Expression column gave a three-hour workshop on writing personally.  

Here is her website, which she says focuses on her new anthology, a collection of personal essays by women about sex in real life.  Behind the Bedroom Door came out as of last week, and includes pieces by Susan Cheever, Hope Edelman and Lauren Slater.  It also includes some excellent examples of personal essay writing.

By Kristen Joy Watts

Photographer James Estrin and reporter Jane Gross of The New York Times were trying not to invoke the “old married couple” schtick.  After years of close collaboration, however, these journalists finish each other’s sentences and interrupt each other frequently, so the comparison is hard to avoid.

Gross and Estrin presented the following stories during the afternoon class:

At Life’s End: Oregon’s Suicide Option (05/31/04)

Alzheimer’s in the Living Room: How One Family Rallies to Cope (10/16/04)

Learning to Savor a Full Life, Love Life Included (04/20/06)

For the Families of the Dying, Coaching as the Hours Wane (05/20/06)

Safe From Persecution, Still Bearing Its Scars (08/05/07)

Gross and Estrin used the pieces they collaborated on to explain how to find the perfect subject and how to get them to participate.

“You’re not asking them to play a one-sided game of strip-poker,” Gross said.  ”You have to be willing to take off some clothes, too.”  Be personal – find similarities between you and the subject.  And open up.

Gross said that she does most of her interviewing by observation.  She tries to disappear into the woodwork as much as possible.

Finally, Gross distributed an example of the outlines she uses to organize her reporting and stories.

Tips:

• Have the entire story in your head from the very beginning.
• Anything in your notes that might appear in the story should be in the outline.

Process:

1. Read through your notes twice, without a pen in hand.
2. Go for a third read, this time with a pen to underline what might make the story.
3. Read through it again and highlight any consistent and/or significant themes.
4. Categorize your notes by themes; big quotes; what will be in nut graf; data/stats – facts, numbers, etc.; people – names, ages, and titles of sources; etc.
5. Figure out your story’s order.

Gross promised that if you use her outline method you will never be left staring at a blank computer screen.

By Rachel Geizhals and Kristen Joy Watts