By now, most of you will recognize that my primary interest is the
writing craft. What writing tools will help you accomplish your
best work? But I have another gear. I've come to believe
that craft detached from mission and purpose means little. In
other words, writers can use good strategies for bad effects. So, on
occasion, I turn to the field of literary ethics, to the tools of honest
and responsible prose.
So far, that has inspired me to write essays on
propaganda,
critical
thinking,
plagiarism,
fabrication,
controversies in the memoir. As I continue to
explore these tricky territories, for my own sake and yours, Poynter Online and this blog will organize these essays under the title of
The Honest Writer.
The latest installment is
this essay on truth and the memoir, in which
I answer the charges of one distinguished memoirist, that those of us
with journalistic standards are incapable of appreciating her and her
art form. Enjoy, and
join the
conversation.
