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48 Tips in 48 Hours

Home > Reporting, Writing & Editing > 48 Tips in 48 Hours
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Pat Walters
It's April 2007. I take on the National Writers Workshop in Hartford, Conn. My mission -- pull together as many practical reporting and writing ideas as I can in two days.
ABOUT

What is this blog?

Who is this blogger?



SCHEDULE

(subject to change radically)

7:00 p.m. >>> Back to St. Pete!



CONTACT ME

Pat Walters

610.334.5300

pwalters@poynter.org

www.patwalters.net

AIM: poynterpat


And the first tip is...

... an argument for the power of good writing in an age of multi-everything. If I could eat all the Blackberries I see in this place, I would probably be sick. Then again, the medium -- or the media -- isn't what matters.

What matters, according to Denis Horgan, is the writing.

1 When buzzwords like multimedia, community journalism and innovation hang thick like fog >>> "writing is the basic raw material of all storytelling, all communication and all journalism."

2 Good writing is >>> "the effective (affective) relay of information to an audience."

3 If you want to be a good writer >>> "write blogs, write letters, write on bathroom walls ... write more."

Click here to listen to Denis explain his advice. He's written news stories and he's written fiction. He's been in the business for a quarter of a century and he is one of the most ardent proponents of the blog, as a form, that I've ever met.

As promised, I'm off to the bar. Hope to see you there. Check back in the morning for more tips.

Coming soon >>> RSS instructions from Amy Gahran. Tips like crazy all day. See the schedule @ left.

Posted by Pat Walters 11:59 PM
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