"THE READING ROOM" SPECIALS

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Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Friday, January 6, 2017

Can you write a three-word intro? Do three-word intros work?

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Here is the three-word intro Sam Borden wrote for a golf story in The New York Times : It was in. To understand why it is a great i...
Thursday, October 13, 2016

Can you imagine a Reuters copy editor not knowing the difference between "it's" and "its"?

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Last evening I spotted a typo in a caption for a picture accompanying a story on the Reuters website. So I scrolled down to the "Correc...
Saturday, July 30, 2016

How marvellous it would be if you could edit your own writing...

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...but there are not many people out there who are capable of doing so. Lisa Lepki of Ragan Communications understands that and she wants to...
Friday, June 24, 2016

YOU ARE A WRITER

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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: "You may say you’re not a writer. But if you have a job that requires communicating with others, you are. ...
Friday, June 17, 2016

GREAT WRITING CAN BE LEARNT

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"Shakespeare got better because he learnt. Now some people will tell you great writing cannot be learnt. Such people should be hit rep...
Thursday, June 9, 2016

When subs fall asleep on the job

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From today's  Times of India a. In an interview with labour minister Parameshwara Naik by Sandeep Moudgal on Page 4: " Th...
Friday, November 20, 2015

This media student's answer to a question about "burglary, robbery, and theft" gives a whole new meaning to the word "misappropriate"

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What is the difference between ‘burglary’, ‘robbery’, and ‘theft’? (a) Burglary means forcible entry with intent to commit a crime. (b) Ro...
Friday, November 13, 2015

How to use chat to initiate a refund from Amazon for an undelivered item

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Message From Customer Service ​ Hello, Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested: ...
Thursday, November 12, 2015

Surely "etc." has no place in a news report?

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Here is a portion of a badly written press release (something I made up for a news-writing exercise at Commits): The ten categories at th...

Give me full names (at first reference), please

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It is important to give full names (at first reference) in a news story. Or isn't it? I have some difficulty in persuading a few of my...
Tuesday, November 3, 2015

You can learn so much from listening to these fascinating podcasts

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If you're an aspiring media student or a young journalist or a writer-in-the making, there are few better ways of learning the cra...
Saturday, April 25, 2015

10 interesting — and relevant — articles to inspire media professionals, especially young journalists and journalism aspirants

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1. "The best farewell address by a journalist": ‘At The [NY] Times, you can imagine yourself making journalism that changes the...
Tuesday, September 23, 2014

"The key to all good writing is understanding your audience"

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This is something I have been telling my students at Commits since I began teaching journalism in April 2003. Good writers understand this. ...
Monday, June 9, 2014

Meet the 93-year-old journalist who still goes to work almost every day

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For more than five decades now, Roger Angell has worked at the hallowed New Yorker magazine . And during that time, as Sridhar Pappu point...
Saturday, June 7, 2014

What you need to know about amateur writing vs professional writing

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I am indebted to Maeve Maddox for explaining, in a highly relevant post on the Daily Writing Tips blog, the difference between amateur writi...
Sunday, May 11, 2014

For only Rs.154, enhance your reporting and writing skills

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This past week I have been reading Everything You Wanted To Know about Freelance Journalism (But Didn't Know Whom To Ask) . And as I cam...
Saturday, May 3, 2014

What's special about this sentence? (A Facebook conversation)

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Ramesh Prabhu about an hour ago What's special about this sentence? "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs." ...