Early in my career I learned that one of the best ways to improve one’s writing and reporting was to study the work of others. One book I treasured was “How I Wrote the Story,” a collection of essays by Providence Journal writers about how they gathered and wrote their articles. Another was “America’s Best Newspaper Writing,
Now, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has produced a similar set of interviews with award-winning writers, and has made them freely available online.
In the series, “How I Got That Story,” you’ll find 33 accounts of how the winners of the 2005 AltWeekly Awards created their first-place articles, photography, cartoons and design.
Among them you’ll find a wonderful Q&A with my friend Nigel Jaquiss, who won both the 2005 AltWeekly Award in Investigative Reporting and the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for his articles for Willamette Week exposing a sexual relationship between former Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt and a 14-year-old girl.
Nigel, by the way, broke his story online, the first time a story broken online won a Pulitzer Prize (you can read more about his feat on CyberJournalist.net).
For those who are interested, you can still get copies of the Providence Journal’s “How I wrote the story” (which was edited by Chip Scanlan, long before he joined Poynter) from a number of used book dealers who sell on Amazon.com.
WHAT SITES DO YOU RECOMMEND?
Please send them to poynter (at) jondube.com and I may run your suggestions.
JON’S LINKS:
- More tips & news on CyberJournalist.net
- CyberJournalist.net Newsgathering SuperSearch
- Get CyberJournalist.net by e-mail
