"If you never hit the word limit assigned to you by a teacher or editor; if anyone has ever called your prose "flabby"; if a critic condemned your first novel as being twice the desired length"...

...you need to read this superlative column by Roy Peter Clark of Poynter. (Poynter Online claims it has "everything you need to be a better journalist". I believe it.) And you will get even more helpful advice on writing tight by reading the transcript of the chat Clark conducted on Poynter — "How can I tighten up my writing?" is fascinating reading for both novice writers and experienced ones.

Descriptive writing at its best

Ryan Murphy is the man behind television's smash-hit musical, Glee. He has also directed Eat Pray Love, the just-released movie starring Julia Roberts. What is Murphy like? And how did he get to direct one of the world's biggest stars?

Look at how Brooks Barnes, reporting from Los Angeles, sets up the story for us in this New York Times feature (reproduced by arrangement in today's DNA):

How had a man with almost no film experience wormed his way into directing a big, juicy movie? Curious, she [Julia Roberts] agreed to meet Mr. Murphy at a Malibu restaurant and realized the answer before the first Arnold Palmers arrived. “I fell totally under his spell,” Ms. Roberts said. “We’re sort of like best girlfriends now.”

Mr. Murphy is nothing if not seductive. Self-assured to the point of cockiness, a wicked sense of humor, scary-ambitious yet charmingly eager to please, fashion-forward: it’s an intoxicating brew. Not to mention the literal light-headedness you feel standing near him. This is not a man who is bashful about his Yves Saint Laurent cologne.

“Ah, my famous cologne,” he said over a dinner at the Chateau Marmont here. “It’s because when I was growing up, I could only afford that cheap Halston stuff.”

Don't you feel like reading on?

And then, a point of style: The film is an adaptation of the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert. The book is called Eat, Pray, Love. The movie is called Eat Pray Love. Notice the subtle difference?

Now here is the intro:

WHEN Julia Roberts got word that Ryan Murphy planned to turn the best-selling memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” into a movie, she had a fast response: “Who?” You know, her agent explained, the guy who created “Nip/Tuck,” that sick and twisted plastic surgery show. “Oh, the ‘Nip/Tuck’ guy, that pricked up my ears a little,” Ms. Roberts recalled.

And here's the fifth paragraph:

He’s plenty rich now. Mr. Murphy, who followed up “Nip/Tuck” with “Glee,” the smash Fox musical about a high school choir, has become one of the most sought-after talents in Hollywood. His name is swirling as a candidate to direct a big-screen version of “Wicked” for Universal Pictures. Sony Pictures Entertainment, which will release “Eat Pray Love”  (without commas) on Friday, just paid him $2.5 million to write a romantic comedy — with Ms. Roberts — and another $2.5 million to direct it. “I’ll do anything Ryan wants,” said Amy Pascal, Sony’s co-chairwoman.

Did you notice those two words in parentheses? For the NYT, the devil is in the details. And it is for this attention to detail, among many, many other attributes, that the NYT is acknowledged as one of the world's great newspapers.

Now here's how Mary Pols dealt with those commas in Time:

[The book's] fairy-tale quality, the one by which a woman's quest ends with a man, seemed less like real life and more like a Julia Roberts movie.

Which is why I found myself rather happily anticipating Eat Pray Love, the big-screen version of Gilbert's book directed by Glee and Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy. (He shares a screenplay credit for the movie with Jennifer Salt.) Now that Eat, Pray, Love had lost its commas and become a movie actually starring Julia Roberts, I was no longer annoyed by how much it seemed like one; it had assumed its rightful place in the entertainment universe.

Once again, that attention to detail. Once again, a "problem" tackled with style.

When house style is no longer sacrosanct...

...you will find boo-boos like the ones in today's Sunday Times (Bangalore edition):

1. Headline on Page 1: "After merchandize, catering may be the next casualty"

2. Intro to the story below that headline: "Even as the merchandizing deal fell through on Friday..."

Merchandize? Merchandizing? This is what happens when "-ise" endings are routinely — and without thinking — changed to "-ize" endings "to conform with house style".

The strange thing here is that ToI style, going by what I have read, seems to be to use "-ise" endings. So what's up with "merchandize"? What next? Advertize? Advertizing?

3. A Page 1 story talks about the government wanting Dow to pay up Rs.1,500 crore to the Bhopal gas victims and both in the headline and in the story the newspaper uses the new rupee symbol (which I am not able to use yet on my blogs). But on Page 4 in the resident editor's column, "To The Point", the paper goes back to using the old rupee symbol. And this seems to be the pattern on every other page but Page 1.

What is the house style here? What gives, Mr Editor?

Fresh ideas, fresh writing

Has anyone noticed the vibrant quality of writing in the incomparable Tehelka? And also in the newish Open and in the relaunched Caravan?

The latest issue (August 14) of TEHELKA is full of gems waiting to be discovered. Take the cover story on Omar Abdullah (Page 28). Begin with the headline:

A man. A mess. A map. Omar Abdullah plots a way out for Kashmir

That incisive headline leads us to an intro that makes us want to read the whole article:

HALF A glance, and Omar Abdullah knows what he needs to fix. He is on the banks of the Sindhu, 40 km from Srinagar, about to begin a mass contact campaign. There’s no way a stone hurled by a human can reach him here from Srinagar. A stone from God, maybe. For the moment, God does nothing like that. But Omar still doesn’t like what he sees. There are 300 people waiting for him under a canvas tent. They are barricaded by a concertina wire. Omar’s sofa is on a dais 30 feet from the nearest listener. It creates an ‘us and them’ scene. This is terrible; it’s the very heart of the matter in Kashmir. Instantly, Omar knows he has to do something. The wire is dragged away and Omar’s sofa is brought closer to the crowd. When he settles down, Omar is six feet away. He has sort of closed the gap. There’s a murmur of approval from the gathering.

And here's a description of Omar Abdullah from later in the article:

Omar, the son, is the opposite. He isn’t spontaneous at all. It would appear that he lacks emotion. This makes it difficult for him to connect with people. He seems to have difficulty reaching out and warming people up. Only with his closest circle of friends, is he known to have let go and had a good time. Omar’s life outside Jammu and Kashmir also makes it tough for him to trust people he doesn’t know. His style of administration thus gets impersonal. While the best governors need to be impersonal to do a good job, Kashmir makes it complex for Omar. He is modern and secular, and is good at giving directions, which he expects to be implemented. He is appropriate and correct. These are his assets.

Now for the conclusion:

What we are seeing of Omar is just the first stage of what he thinks will be a long time in Jammu and Kashmir. It took a series of meetings, not always pleasant, in the Abdullah household before Omar’s career was moved from hotel management to politics. It was a Rajiv Gandhi moment, the difference being that Omar’s wife agreed to his career shift. This is the youngest chief minister of India’s most sensitive state. He might make more mistakes, like anyone else. It could also mean he is chipping away at his weaknesses. In today’s Kashmir, that is one story worth following.

Vijay Simha, deputy editor of Tehelka, spent four days with Abdullah in order to write this profile. Think about the questions he must have asked, the meticulous notes he must have made, the relationships he must have forged with all his interviewees before he could sit down to file his story. Please note that this is not a "feel-good" profile; Simha gives us both the positives and negatives of the Kashmir chief minister's personality. At the same time he also makes us think about the Kashmir imbroglio. It's first-class reporting all the way.

There is also an illuminating profile by Zahid Rafiq of Masarat Alam, the man seen by many as the face of the current protests in Srinagar. You don't have to agree with Alam's views, but you will have to agree that this is a fine piece of reporting and writing by Rafiq. (First Year Commitscions: The phrase nom de guerre is used in the seventh paragraph — meaning?)

On Page 51, Assistant Editor Nisha Susan has written a thoughtful commentary on the ugly Rahul-Mahajan-beating-up-his-wife-again episode. Here's an excerpt:

Television commentators (still tingling from Rakhi Ka Swayamvar) marvelled at how the Swayamvar franchise gave Mahajan the trappings of an eligible bachelor. At how 16,000 women applied. At the millions who watched the show. Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayega managed the proverbial making of a silk purse out of a pig’s snout. But the analysts seemed to have missed the point. Rahul with the porcine cast to his face was watched by the country because he reeked of ineligibility. The producers showed remarkable shrewdness in retaining the sham of mehendi, shiny tassels and genda phool while catering to our desire for schadenfreude — our pleasure in other’s suffering. Rahul made girls jump through hoops because he could. We watch because we can. We wallow in the many colours of humiliation that reality television offers us — as happily as we gawk at car crashes, as intently as we would watch public hangings.

This is clearly the work of a superior writer. And don't we just love it? (First Year Commitscions: See how Susan uses schadenfreude, the word we discussed in class last week.)

Aastha Atray Banan gives us another enjoyable piece: a profile of Rani Mukherjee on Page 49. Banan goes to meet the star at her home in Mumbai to find out if she has turned into a recluse, as rumour would have it. Here's an excerpt:

At 32, she looks better than she ever has. Yoga has made her slender. Dressed in a short skirt and minimal makeup, she retains a regal air. Lauren Bacall once said, “I am not a has-been. I am a will-be.” Rani would approve of Bacall’s style. It is unlikely she has read the quote though. She doesn’t read, she says. Unlike several young ladies who manufacture reputations as frenetic readers and think that Jane Austen was a Victorian and Omair Ahmed is a medieval poet, Rani says flatly that she does not read. "I don’t read much — I have an allergy to the smell of books. Really."

This is an interview you want to read from beginning to end, not only because of the subject but also because the writing is so sharp. And knowledgeable.

Then there is this acerbic review by Gaurav Jain of Tishani Doshi's new book, The Pleasure Seekers. Jain is harsh in his critiquing, and the headline ("So this is where poetry goes to die") and the standfirst ("Tishani Doshi has sunk a basic family saga in her kingdom of twee, says GAURAV JAIN. That leaves the blurbs") make that clear to us. But it's Jain's writing skills that help us to understand why reading this book would be a waste of time: He has strong opinions and articulates them well. Here's an excerpt:

Everywhere else ... Doshi seems mainly interested in being cute. Her precious narrator sounds like PG Wodehouse’s mushy Madeline Bassett, who believed that stars are God’s daisy chain and that every time a wee fairy blows its nose, a baby is born. Doshi writes like a phoren ma’m delighted at her grasp of exotic India: a young girl on the back of her father’s bicycle is “a princess being guided by a troubadour”....

(First Year Commitscions: Look at the unusual words in this review: twee; overweening; pedantic curlicues; sylvan; fey. Going by this evidence, not only is Jain frighteningly well-read [the term used by Tarun Tejpal to describe his staff in the interview we watched in class recently], but so, apparently, are the Tehelka readers. Your thoughts?)

And finally, in the "Personal Histories" section, there's a heart-rending piece by Tehelka's 24-year-old correspondent Nishita Jha about the night she "lost" her father. If you have shared a special bond with your parent you are sure to be moved by this first-person account.

The Tehelka website is also home to a fascinating and inspirational and touching story — "Irom And The Iron In India’s Soul", the saga of one Manipuri woman's epic fast for justice in her home state. Managing Editor Shoma Chaudhury pulls out all stops to tell you why "Irom Sharmila's story should be part of universal folklore". Read it and weep.

NOW HERE are a couple of examples of the quality of writing in OPEN: "The World Cup of kabaddi" and a critique of the Harry Potter books. Also, there's this must-read by Gauri Dange in the issue of August 7. A must-read for two reasons. One, if you have aspirations to write and publish a book in India, Dange's article will come as an eye-opener. Two, the top-notch writing. Here's an excerpt:

And so I decided that I wouldn’t do joyless and sterile anymore. Friends advised me to show my new book to other publishing houses, where “things are different”. I did take a stab at that, but when I saw early signs of the same torpor laced with smugness, I decided to go it alone. I formed Omo Books with a partner, to publish and distribute this book and future work. At least I had signed myself out of another round of absurdity and non sequiturs.

(First Year Commitscions: Look at the use of the phrase non sequiturs. Didn't we discuss it in class this week?)

• THE CARAVAN has also published some brilliantly written articles. Sample them here: "All hail The Caravan..." 

• Photos courtesy: Tehelka, Open
  

How does an editor take the decision to publish pictures that can upset readers?

Time magazine, in its issue of August 9, put an Afghan teenager on the cover with the caption: "Aisha, 18, had her nose and ears cut off last year on orders from the Taliban because she had abusive in-laws".

How does a magazine editor decide that a picture that has the potential to upset readers can be published at all, let alone on the cover? The managing editor of Time, Richard Stengel, says he thought long and hard about putting Aisha on the cover. "First, I wanted to make sure of Aisha's safety and that she understood what it would mean to be on the cover," he writes in the "To Our Readers" column in the magazine. "She knows that she will become a symbol of the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban. We also confirmed that she is in a secret location protected by armed guards and sponsored by the NGO Women for Afghan Women."

He continues: "I apologize to readers who find the image too strong, and I invite you to comment on the image's impact."

And then he explains why it was important to feature Aisha on the cover: "But bad things do happen to people, and it is part of our job to confront and explain them. In the end, I felt that the image is a window into the reality of what is happening — and what can happen — in a war that affects and involves all of us. I would rather confront readers with the Taliban's treatment of women than ignore it. I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds about what the U.S. and its allies should do in Afghanistan."

Predictably, the publication of this picture has stoked a fiery debate, according to the New York Times Kabul correspondent Rod Nordland, with "critics of the American presence in Afghanistan calling it 'emotional blackmail' and even 'war porn', while those who fear the consequences of abandoning Afghanistan see it as a powerful appeal to conscience".

• In Bangalore, both DNA and The Times of India reproduced the NYT article (with permission), though DNA, which had a better layout, inexplicably and unforgivably deleted the last two paragraphs.

In the light of the Time cover story and the ensuing debate, here's a question: Would an Indian magazine have featured Aisha on the cover?

• Read the Time cover story: Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban.
• In class a few days ago, there were questions about how photographer Jodi Bieber managed to take those pictures of Aisha. Here, in a Time video, she talks about the experience: Photographing Aisha for the Cover of TIME.
• Read readers' letters to Time: Inbox. 
• Read my earlier post on publishing grisly photos here.
• Outlook editor Krishna Prasad's take on the Time cover: "Yet, they won't print pix of dead US soldiers"

UPDATE (October 14, 2010): Aisha now has a prosthetic nose, which, according to a report in The Hindu, she revealed proudly in Los Angeles this week. Read the report here.

THE BADAUN PHOTOGRAPH
On July 24, 2014, "Lens", the photography blog of The New York Times, reflected on the impact of the photo published around the world, which showed the bodies of two teenage cousins raped and then hanged from a tree in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh. Read the blog post here.

MH17 PHOTOS, GAZA PICTURES
And on July 23, 2014, the head of photography of the highly respected Guardian newspaper weighed in with his comments on the merits or otherwise of publishing graphic pictures in the wake of the MH17 crash and the strife in Gaza:

Two headline-grabbing and violent events — the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 in Ukraine and Israel's assault on Gaza — have generated some horrific photographs on a seemingly unprecedented scale. Of this flood of images, there are hundreds that we would not choose for publication because they are either deeply shocking, insensitive to human dignity, would be painful if seen by relatives or friends, or ultimately run the risk of forcing readers to turn away from the story, which would negate the purpose of photojournalism.

Read the post in its entirety here: "Graphic content: when photographs of carnage are too upsetting to publish".

The problem of plagiarism

Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. Or copy-paste. It's that easy to pass off someone's work as your own. But plagiarism is not only unethical, it can also be a crime: you can be hauled off to court for stealing someone else's intellectual property, be it a paragraph from a newspaper article or a chapter from a book. If that's the case, why does plagiarism continue? And what can writers and editors do about it?

Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at The Poynter Institute, explains how, in the post-Jayson Blair era, plagiarism has "become a more mundane, run-of-the-mill crime". And, in her column, she also provides advice and simple tips to both writers and editors on how to avoid the plagiarism trap.

Here's one of her suggestions for writers:

Do not cut and paste information from other sources into your notes pages. Instead, create bullet points where you synthesize the information in your own words and note the original source. 

And a suggestion for editors:

Require your writers to attribute.

To read the column in its entirety, and you must if you are a media student, go to "Why Plagiarism Continues & What Writers, Editors Can Do About It".

• ALSO READ: "The plagiarism case that shook The New York Times to its foundations".

AP's professional and ethical standards

Associated Press (or AP) is one of the world's leading news agencies.

Since discussions on professional and ethical standards are a regular feature of my journalism classes, Commitscions will benefit from studying the guidelines — the code — followed by AP journalists.

Here is a sample:

In the 21st century ... news is transmitted in more ways than ever before — in print, on the air and on the Web, with words, images, graphics, sounds and video. But always and in all media, we insist on the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior when we gather and deliver the news.

That means we abhor inaccuracies, carelessness, bias or distortions. It means we will not knowingly introduce false information into material intended for publication or broadcast; nor will we alter photo or image content. Quotations must be accurate, and precise.

It means we always strive to identify all the sources of our information, shielding them with anonymity only when they insist upon it and when they provide vital information — not opinion or speculation; when there is no other way to obtain that information; and when we know the source is knowledgeable and reliable.

It means we don't plagiarize.

Let me know what you think.

When someone dies, we prefer to talk about only the good things they did

But when you are a journalist, it may be necessary to remove your blinkers, and also remove the blinkers from the eyes of the public.

Last year, in July, an icon of journalism, Walter Cronkite, died in the US. I had read only great things about him.

Now here's a wonderful columnist, Roy Peter Clark, pointing out, as a public service, Cronkite's flaws.

Do you agree with this approach? Do you like the writing?

Roy Peter Clark is the Poynter columnist whose Writing Tools blog provides intelligent and helpful advice to writers, both beginners and veterans. Read, for example, his column on the use of the semicolon, "Good semicolons make good neighbours". The article also gives you tips on the use of other punctuation marks. A must-read for Commitscions.

Tweeting can be hazardous to your job...

...as a CNN journalist found out after she posted a note on Twitter expressing admiration for a late Lebanese cleric considered an inspiration for the Hezbollah militant movement.

Two days after her tweet was published, she was sacked by CNN.

Read why here.

Getting into journalism after an MBA? Is it worth it?

Yes, says Sidin Vadukut, the managing editor of livemint.com in his witty "Cubiclenama" column in Mint. Here's an excerpt:

First I tried convincing them [management students] by declaring that the trade-offs are totally worth it. Sure, they would make much less money, forfeit expense accounts, give up swanky offices and never be able to buy palatial homes with infinity pools by the time they are 35.

But in return most journalists don’t have to wear suits, ties or closed footwear to work — “You guys can walk into a newsroom right now in those very same clothes and nobody would say a thing! Except you there in the bright orange shorts with yellow flowers. You should go into advertising.”

Also, I told them, journalists attend fewer meetings, freely access Twitter at work, and only use spreadsheets to calculate House Rent Allowance.

As an added bonus, I said, we sometimes go entire weeks without using phrases such as “touch base”, “boil the ocean” and my personal peeve: “let us revert from our end”.

Read the full column here. Make sure you read the concluding paragraph.