Bob Levey of the Washington Post emphasized the importance of column writing. The place was packed. Due to an overflow of students, many were forced to find a spot on the floor. Levey spoke with enthusiasm and passion about the "funnest job in the newsroom." He gave tips to overcome writer's block when writing columns, and also discussed the role of the editor and what contitutes a good one.
Chris
Showing posts with label column writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label column writing. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Bob Levey, the self-declared legend
This session was by far the most entertaining and was also very informative. I went into this session having entertained the notion of someday undertaking some column writing and left sure that I would soon be a part of it.
Mr. Levey was a journalist at The Washington Post for 35 years -- he covered hard news including sports for 15 of those -- and has also written three books. He has a really booming radio voice and also worked in broadcast for eight years. Mr. Levey addressed the responsibility all columnists have and he also praised the opportunity of being a voice to a community. He boasted about having raised $13 million through fundraising for charities in his time and said this demonstrates how a columnist can have an impact.
He went through the daily rigors of coming up with a topic and compared and contrasted column writing to news and feature writing, emphasizing the importance of having first done the latter. He reminded us that -- while the stylistic rules still apply for the most -- columnists are free to address matters that are too unprofessional to appear in a news story and mockingly pointed out that you don't have to have "a nutgraph" as in feature writing where you tie everything together.
Levey joked about his age and told us a few times that none of us should be writing sex columns because we are inexperienced. His l0ve for journalism is still palpable and he claims to read six or seven newspapers each day.
I loved this session.
Jim Mustian
Mr. Levey was a journalist at The Washington Post for 35 years -- he covered hard news including sports for 15 of those -- and has also written three books. He has a really booming radio voice and also worked in broadcast for eight years. Mr. Levey addressed the responsibility all columnists have and he also praised the opportunity of being a voice to a community. He boasted about having raised $13 million through fundraising for charities in his time and said this demonstrates how a columnist can have an impact.
He went through the daily rigors of coming up with a topic and compared and contrasted column writing to news and feature writing, emphasizing the importance of having first done the latter. He reminded us that -- while the stylistic rules still apply for the most -- columnists are free to address matters that are too unprofessional to appear in a news story and mockingly pointed out that you don't have to have "a nutgraph" as in feature writing where you tie everything together.
Levey joked about his age and told us a few times that none of us should be writing sex columns because we are inexperienced. His l0ve for journalism is still palpable and he claims to read six or seven newspapers each day.
I loved this session.
Jim Mustian
Friday, October 26, 2007
Writing Sports Columns and Blogs
Writing Sports Columns and Blogs
Joe Gisondi, Eastern Illinois University
I know sports aren’t usually my favorite section of journalism, but as the editor I thought it wouldn’t hurt me to be well rounded. Plus, Lauren and Brittany said such great things about Gisondi from a section the day before, I thought I would give it a try. I should have gone to a general sports writing session and not one about sports columns, but there were still a few things that can be applied to our yearbook sports writers.
• Go to the team’s practices, not just their home games
• Build a relationship with the coaches.
Sports Columns hints:
• Have a clear voice
• Read other respected sports columns
• Have a different point of view
• Don’t use “I” to much, readers will know it is your column
• Don’t focus on yourself
• Make sure you column is newsworthy
• Avoid clichés
• Pose a question
• Try to get people to think
• Put links in your blog. It makes it more transparent.
Lela Coker
Joe Gisondi, Eastern Illinois University
I know sports aren’t usually my favorite section of journalism, but as the editor I thought it wouldn’t hurt me to be well rounded. Plus, Lauren and Brittany said such great things about Gisondi from a section the day before, I thought I would give it a try. I should have gone to a general sports writing session and not one about sports columns, but there were still a few things that can be applied to our yearbook sports writers.
• Go to the team’s practices, not just their home games
• Build a relationship with the coaches.
Sports Columns hints:
• Have a clear voice
• Read other respected sports columns
• Have a different point of view
• Don’t use “I” to much, readers will know it is your column
• Don’t focus on yourself
• Make sure you column is newsworthy
• Avoid clichés
• Pose a question
• Try to get people to think
• Put links in your blog. It makes it more transparent.
Lela Coker
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
