It all depends on the telling, sure. But surely who does the telling matters?

Last month, at a sale in Landmark, I picked up a delightful book: Viva La Repartee, subtitled "Clever comebacks and witty retorts from history's great wits and wordsmiths". As you can imagine, it's packed with funny and, often, sarcastic rejoinders so it's a great read. Also, this is a good reference book to have at hand when you're being insulted and want to hit back with a zinger of a remark.

But as a journalist I can't help wonder if ALL the one-liners here were actually uttered by the people to whom they're credited. Sometimes, in an exercise of this sort — collecting ripostes from around the world — mistakes may be made, embellishments may be ignored, exaggerations may go unnoticed.

Take for example this episode involving author Truman Capote and quoted in Viva La Repartee:

Truman Capote was fond of regaling people with an anecdote about one of his finer moments. At the height of his popularity, he was drinking one evening with friends in a crowded Key West [Florida] bar. Nearby sat a couple, both inebriated. The woman recognized Capote, walked over to his table, and gushingly asked him to autograph a paper napkin. The woman's husband, angry at his wife's display of interest in another man, staggered over to Capote's table and assumed an intimidating position directly in front of the diminutive writer. He then proceeded to unzip his trousers and, in Capote's own words, "hauled out his equipment". As he did this, he bellowed in a drunken slur, "Since you're autographing things, why don't you autograph this?" It was a tense moment, and a hush fell over the room. The silence was a blessing, for it allowed all those within earshot to hear Capote's soft, high-pitched voice deliver the perfect emasculating reply:

"I don't know if I can autograph it, but perhaps I can initial it."

Those who are familiar with Capote's way with words will not find it difficult to believe that he came up with this crack on the spur of the moment.

The only problem is Capote did not make this remark.

Let Capote tell it in his own words in this excerpt from "Remembering Tennessee" in Portraits And Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote (another book that I picked up at the same Landmark sale):

My funniest memory... is of four or five years ago, when I was staying with Tennessee [Williams] in Key West. We were in a terrifically crowded bar — there were probably three hundred people in it, both gays and straights. A husband and wife were sitting at a table in the corner, and they were both quite drunk. She had on a pair of slacks and a halter top, and she approached our table and held out an eyebrow pencil. She wanted me to autograph her belly button.

I just laughed and said, "Oh no. Leave me alone."

"How can you be so cruel?" Tennessee said to me, and as everyone in the place watched, he took the eyebrow pencil and wrote my name around her navel. When she got back to her table, her husband was furious. Before we knew it, he had grabbed the eyebrow pencil out of her hand and walked over to where we were sitting, whereupon he unzipped his pants and pulled out his c*** [I am the one doing the censoring here.] and said — to me — "Since you're autographing everything today, would you mind autographing mine?"

I had never heard a place with three hundred people in it get that quiet. I didn't know what to say — I just looked at him.

Then Tennessee reached up and took the eyebrow pencil out of the stranger's hand. "I don't know that there's room for Truman to autograph it," he said, giving me a wink, "but I'll initial it."

It brought down the house.

The essence of the quip is the same but so much else changed when the episode was included in Viva La Repartee. How could this have happened? Since I can only speculate, I thought it best to ask the author himself and, so, I have posted a comment on Dr Mardy Grothe's website. I am expecting a reply soon.

***

UPDATE (April 29): Dr Grothe's email was waiting for me when I got to work today:

Thanks for your note, Ramesh. Very interesting, indeed. Check out the following link, in which Capote clearly describes making the remark: Truman Capote: Conversations.

So tell me, my friend, what do you make of this? I have one theory, but I'd like to get your thoughts first. Perhaps your students might want to get in on the act as well.

Mardy

Dr. Mardy Grothe
1921 Bowling Green Trail
Raleigh, NC 27613
919-327-1971

Well, I can think of only two explanations.

One, Capote, by the time of this interview, had forgotten the essentials of the episode; perhaps, in his telling and re-telling, he came to believe he had made that crack.

Second, Capote was apparently "unabashed in his pursuit of fame and fortune". So it is likely that, years later, he took Tennessee Williams's crowd-pleasing line and conveniently made it his own.

I am going to forward my theories to Dr Grothe now. I am sure by tomorrow we'll find out what his theory is.

***

I sent another email to Dr Grothe later in the evening yesterday:

Hello Mardy,

This gets curiouser and curiouser. The link you have provided here is for an interview with Capote that was published in 1980.

When I got home today I looked up my copy of Portraits and Observations, in which Capote's essay on Tennessee has been published. And the year Capote wrote this? 1983. Go figure!

And here's the good doctor's response:

Thanks for both your notes, Ramesh.  Your first one propounded theories similar to my own.  The plot thickens, however, after your second one.  The game's afoot, my friend.  We'll have to continue our sleuthing!

Mardy

***

The plot thickens, indeed.

One thing is clear, though: no blame attaches to Dr Mardy Grothe for including in Viva La Repartee this particular Capote version. It's there for all to read in Truman Capote: Conversations.

***

AN UPDATE (May 1): After reading this blog post Dr Grothe was kind enough to write in appreciation:

Very interesting, Ramesh. You have shared our recent encounter in an intriguing and interesting way with your students and other readers. I will do the same in my weekly e-newsletter ("Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week"), which I usually send out late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

I've taken the liberty of adding you to my mailing list, so you can see it for yourself tomorrow. If you decide my weekly mailing is not for you, it's very easy to unsubscribe.

My best,

Mardy

And Dr Grothe's weekly newsletter carried this little item:

WHY AUTHORS WRITE BOOKS

Authors write books for many reasons, but an important one is to connect with readers.  I made a most interesting connection this past week with Ramesh Prabhu, a professor of journalism from Bangalore, India. To hear about it from his perspective, check out his recent blog on the subject: goo.gl/NBavA.

Well said, Dr Grothe. Truly, writing is all about making connections.

An incredible lesson in portrait photography

What must it be like to take photographs of some of the individuals named by Time magazine as "The world's most influential people"?

What should the photographer keep in mind when asked to take, sorry, make a picture of, for instance, Amy Chua, the widely reviled and grudgingly admired author of a tough-love parenting memoir? Chua's book is titled Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Well, Martin Schoeller decided to take the tiger metaphor literally:

AMY CHUA AT HOME. PHOTO-MONTAGE BY MARTIN SCHOELLER FOR TIME.

Schoeller explains, in a video on the Time website, how he dealt with the challenge of shooting with live tigers. "It was quite intimidating to be sitting in front of a tiger three feet away from you, looking at you," he says.

The video includes details of two other shoots: in Cairo with Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who "launched" the Egyptian revolution, and in Chicago with Grant Achatz, a chef who's revolutionising the restaurant trade.

For some fascinating insights into portrait photography, watch the Martin Schoeller video here: "Photographer Martin Schoeller's TIME 100 Journey".

PS: Any guesses why Time labelled the photograph a "photo-montage"?

Also read:

• A profile of Amy Chua and an analysis of the issues raised in her book: Tiger Moms: Is Tough Parenting Really the Answer?
• Street artist extraordinaire
• Photography buffs will go nuts
• Shutterbugs will lurve this one
• How does an editor take the decision to publish pictures that can upset readers?
• The BEST blog on photojournalism

Blast from the past: Travels in Malaysia

Many years ago, I had visited Malaysia as the Features Editor of Dubai's Khaleej Times. On my return I wrote these articles, which are reproduced here from the newspaper's issue of January 30, 1997:

Kuala Lumpur is a popular stopover for package-tour tourists, who might then go on to Singapore, Bangkok and even Hong Kong. Very few travellers, especially from this part of the world, fly across to the island of Borneo, which is shared by three countries — Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. RAMESH PRABHU, who was in KL earlier this month in connection with the ASEAN Tourism Forum, spent four days in Sabah, on Borneo’s northern tip, and came back enthralled. Here, he explains why…

YOU HAVE heard of the Wild West. Fancy a trip to the Wild East?

Picture this: It’s late in the evening as we approach the eight wooded steps leading up to the porch of a traditional tribal longhouse built by the Kadazan people. When we reach the porch we are asked to take off our shoes. It is pitch dark as we troop into the house and gather around whispering inanities to each other for comfort. None of us in this group of 15 foreign journalists knows what to expect. All we have been told is that this house was once the abode of Monsopiad, Sabah’s legendary headhunter of the 18th century. It has been raining so there’s a chill in the air adding to the suspense.

And then the lights come on. There’s a hush as we look around.

Wenidy Moujing

Yuriko Watanabe spots them first: 42 human skulls grinning at us from the rafters. It’s an awesome sight rooting us where we stand. That is the cue for Wenidy (“It rhymes with Kennedy”) Moujing to begin his spiel. Wenidy, a direct descendant of Monsopiad, is in charge of research at this cultural village located on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah. He is pleased at our reaction and more than pleased to narrate the story of his feared ancestor.

Monsopiad was born and raised in a village where his maternal grandfather was the headman. Though he received special training as a warrior, Monsopiad was a peaceable farmer to begin with. While he was tilling his rice field one day, a group of women came up and started criticising him for working so hard, saying it was a waste of time as the harvest would soon be plundered by robbers who frequently attacked the village. The women also ridiculed the men of the village and called them weaklings for not being able to defend their homes. Monsopiad, angered by such mockery, vowed to eliminate the bandits and also promised to cut off the head of their leader and bring it back to his village as a trophy to be hung from the roof of his house. As the cliché goes, he kept his head while all around him were losing theirs and, as the years passed, Monsopiad collected the heads of 42 powerful warriors, all enemies of the village.

As we now contemplated those heads, it was easy to transport ourselves back through time into an era of animistic rituals conducted by the bobohizan (priestesses) amid munificent jungles brimming with exotic life.

Having set the mood, Wenidy then led us to the main building for a traditional tribal dinner followed by some splendid dance performances by a cultural troupe. Tourists are encouraged to join in the dances and are also given a chance to use the famed Kadazan blowpipe to pop… balloons.

A traditional dance performance for the guests from abroad.

It was Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed who once called Sabah “the Wild East” and as Joshua Eliot notes in his Malaysia and Singapore Handbook, Sabah, in the popular imagination of West Malaysians, is the land of the Bajau cowboys, gun-toting pirates and one-horse towns. It could well be the setting for an oriental version of For A Few Dollars More. The state does indeed have a frontier feel to it; Jeeps and Toyota Landcruisers, as we discovered, are the only practical way of travelling long distances overland.

With its many and varied natural charms, Sabah is a dream destination for producers of holiday brochures: they all speak of an excitingly fresh and unspoilt land that has something for everyone — from lazing on pristine white beaches to exploring the jungles in search of some of the world’s rarest plants and animals, from white-water rafting to a soothing bath in the hot springs — and for once they are spot on.

One of the five tropical islands that form the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park.

Then there are the five tropical islands, off Kota Kinabalu, just 20 minutes away by speedboat. The waters around these islands, which make up the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, are clear, clean and calm. Sapi, the most naturally picturesque, is also the most alluring for snorkellers. Even first-timers, once they get the hang of breathing through the mouthpiece, and tube of the underwater mask, will revel in the sight of schools of multicoloured fish making their way leisurely across the coral reef or through an algal field. Giant clams, too, can be spotted on the seabed. Those who prefer not to venture into the water can join a tour of the coral reefs by glass-bottom boats.

The world's largest flower

For the traveller wishing to commune with nature, Sabah has another major attraction: Kinabalu Park, the centrepiece of which is Mount Kinabalu, at 13,455 feet one of the highest mountains in south-east Asia. The park is a two-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu through some spectacular country scenery, and if the rafflesia is in bloom the trip becomes even more rewarding because the tour bus will stop in the forest reserve to enable you to get a close look at the world’s largest flower.

The hardy and the energetic will find the climb up Mount Kinabalu a worthy endeavour. This granite massif, which the Kadazan people named Aki Nabalu or “home of the dead”, dominates the landscape and a trek to the summit to watch the sun rise is on the must-do list of a substantial proportion of the 200,000 tourists who visit Sabah every year.

And why not? When it comes to a holiday that combines culture, nature and adventure, Sabah is definitely hard to beat.

***
BOOM TIME IN KUALA LUMPUR
SAIFUDDIN ISMAIL is a bumiputra (son of the soil). Hailing from Malay stock he is representative of the young men and women Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammed is banking on to help realise his dream of transforming Malaysia into an industrialised nation with a home for every citizen within the next two decades, part of a grand scheme aptly named Vision 2020.

At 33, Saifuddin is the correspondent of a women’s magazine in Kuala Lumpur, the capital. He also freelances for a Hong Kong travel publication and that is how he came to be at the Putra World Trade Centre where the ASEAN Travel Forum was being held.

That is not all: he is also associated with a cable TV company to be launched next month and he is actively assisting in the start-up operations.

And that is not all either: as a ‘hobby’, he runs a chain of 14 jewellery shops, with plans to open six more by the end of the year.

“I like to keep busy,” he says modestly by way of explanation when wonder is expressed at his energy-sapping schedules.

Saifuddin, who writes under the pen name of Bill Bora, is a lawyer by qualification — he completed a three-year course in London, he says, so that his parents could “save face”, a very significant concept in the East — but his interests lay elsewhere. He couldn’t see himself pushing briefs or arguing cases — “that was my parents’ dream, not mine” — and eager to take advantage of the booming economy of a thrusting and confident nation plunged wholeheartedly into as many careers as he could manage.

Saifuddin may be a wealthy young man but he is not overly ostentatious. His only concession to his status is a jade ring worth Dh 57,000. He does not even own a car but that is because he prefers not to spend life stuck in KL’s notorious traffic jams. If he has to go a short distance, he walks. For long journeys he does not mind taking his chances with that other embodiment of big city life — the uncooperative cabbie, to whom much newspaper space is devoted. The New Straits Times, one of the capital’s popular dailies, has a regular feedback column and readers are actively encouraged to write in with their complaints about recalcitrant taxi drivers.

But traffic jams and fussy cabbies notwithstanding, KL is very much a happening city, from the hustle and bustle of Central Market and Petaling Street’s Chinatown, where bargaining is an art form, to the frenetic nightlife of discos and karaoke lounges.

Tourists will have their plates full, and not just figuratively. There are museums and art galleries, parks and gardens. You can plan excursions to the Batu caves, a system of caverns set high in a massive limestone outcrop 13 km from KL, or Genting Highlands, 50 km from the capital, whose attractions include a theme park, an artificial lake and a horse ranch. KL also offers a culinary adventure that is difficult to surpass for value and variety.  There are countless Malay, Indian and Chinese restaurants to choose from and, as the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board asserts, you can have a different dish daily for a year and still not have tried them all.

No wonder, then, that 7.5 million tourists visited Malaysia in 1995 making tourism one of the top contributors to the economy.

***
MAKING A RUN FOR IT
NOT MANY will know that it was at a club in KL that the seeds of the Hash House Harriers were sown. The Hash, a cross-country chase, originated in 1938, informs Joshua Eliot in the Malaysia and Singapore Handbook, when the Royal Selangor Club was the watering hole of choice for colonials. It seems a G.S. Gilbert, having had one too many at the club, decided to jog around the Padang — the cricket pitch in front of the club — to clear his head. In no time, Gilbert’s Hash attracted new adherents. The run, named after the club’s dining room, the Hash House soon expanded into the countryside. The KL Hash, known as the “Mother Hash” to Hash House Harriers around the world (there are now more than 300 clubs in more than 60 countries, including the UAE) , involves runs of 3-8 km and they are usually jovial affairs. Most big Malaysian towns have a Hash and there are several branches in KL — men only, women only and mixed.

***
SHALL WE TAKE THE BAS OR TREN?
ONE OF THE few Malay words to have entered the English language is amok, as in “to run amok (or amuck)”. According to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, one of the earliest uses in English of amok, defined as “a murderous frenzy that occurred chiefly among Malays”, was in 1664.

On the other hand, English, which is widely spoken in Malaysia, has contributed many words to Bahasa Melayu, or the Malay language. To name a few: teksi, bas, tren, imigresen, mesin, doktor, klinik and restoran which are easily recognisable. Then you have exzos (exhaust), motosikal (motorcycle), kadfon (phone card) and kelab (club). Basic Malay grammar is simple: there are no tenses, genders or articles and the structure of sentences is straightforward. Plurals are also easy: one man, for example, is orang; men is orang-orang. One cat is kuching; cats is kuching-kuching.

“Can, la” is the Malaysian equivalent of “No problem”. When the guide aboard the tour bus was asked on the way back to KL from Genting Highlands if the media group would be able to make it to the hotel in time for the next appointment, “Can, la” was the confident answer. When some journalists in the party pointed to their watches and expressed serious doubt, the guide’s response was a very assertive “Can, can.” His confidence, one may add, was justified.

• Ramesh Prabhu travelled to Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, by Malaysia Airlines, courtesy Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (PR/Marketing Representative Office in AGCC Countries: Al Rais Travel & Shipping Agencies).

If you want to do well by doing good...

...then take a leaf out of Vikram Akula's book.

Akula, whose parents emigrated to the US in 1970 when he was two years old, worked in remote Indian villages as an idealistic graduate student before going on in 1998 to found SKS Microfinance, which provides small loans and other financial services to poor people in India. He tells his fascinating and inspirational story in A Fistful of Rice, published earlier this year.

REINVENTING THE WHEEL: Vikram Akula decided to go the for-profit way with SKS.

A Fistful of Rice is fascinating because in compelling language it introduces the lay reader to a subject that most would not have much interest in: development work. And it is inspirational because Akula shows how well-meaning — and driven — people can transform for the better the lives of those less fortunate than they are.

Akula says he knew as a teenager, after having made several visits to Hyderabad, his hometown, that this is what he wanted to do. He writes in A Fistful of Rice:

When I enrolled at Tufts University at seventeen, I began thinking in earnest about how to help India's poor. I devoured the works of the great philosophers, searching for clues on how to live my life and make a difference in the lives of others.

And after he graduated, Akula says, he was excited to get out into the world and test his theories. He writes:

At long last, it was time to go to India and start working with the poor! The only problem was, I had no idea what I might do there, or who would hire a fresh-faced college graduate like me. And in those pre-Internet days, these questions were far more difficult to answer.

But Akula did not let this "problem" deter him. His approach and the exercise he then embarked on will serve as an eyeopener — and encouragement — for many young people who get disappointed when they don't immediately get what they want and who often give up at the first hurdle:

I went to the women's center on campus, knowing that groups working specifically with women were more progressive. I began flipping through magazines in hopes of finding a nonprofit located in drought-prone Telangana, the impoverished region of my birth. Because I spoke rudimentary Telugu and had family there, I figured that would be the best place to start. Unfortunately, there weren't as many options there as in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, or Kolkata, but eventually I tracked down the contact information for a few nonprofits. I sent off a raft of letters and waited.

Only one organization, the Deccan Development Society [DDS], responded. And even their letter was decidedly lukewarm. The director, a man named Biksham Gujja, basically said, "Okay, if you come here we'll meet with you, but we're not promising anything."

But this was good enough for Akula:

Relieved to have gotten a reply, and determined to convince Biksham to hire me, I bought a one-way plane ticket to Hyderabad and packed a single gym bag with clothes. I wanted to travel like Mahatma Gandhi — no unnecessary attachments, no excess of material goods.

And so Akula comes to India, begins working with the poor as a volunteer, is hired by DDS, learns what it means to work in development, and finally, after a two-week training session in Bangladesh with Grameen, founded by the pioneer of microfinance, Muhammad Yunus, starts his own organisation, SKS, for Swayam Krishi Sangam, "a Sanskrit phrase meaning 'self-work society', or more loosely, 'self-help-society'."

In later chapters, Akula, who was named by Time magazine in 2006 as one of the world's 100 most influential people, describes in moving detail the challenges he and his inexperienced team face. Today SKS, which unlike most NGOs is a for-profit organisation (read the book to understand the reasons for this), has moved beyond giving microloans. "We're also able to offer our members social, educational, and health benefits," writes Akula.

Vikram Akula's tale proves that initiative, enterprise, and enthusiasm aligned with a desire to help underprivileged people can help to combat poverty. It also proves that you can do well by doing good.

• A copy of A Fistful of Rice has been placed in the Commits library. Commits students will find it useful to read the book before they go off on their NGO internships — it will help them to better understand the situation on the ground.
• Shloka Nath of Forbes India profiled Vikram Akula in the magazine in January last year. Read the profile here: "The TightRope Walker".

What kind of piece should you write to accompany your holiday slideshow?

When many of us come back from a wonderful holiday, almost the first thing we do is upload a few hundred pictures to Facebook and other similar sites. I am not sure what the point is of this exercise — how many are going to click on each thumbnail? And how many will go through the entire album — unless you hold a gun to their head?

Here is an approach that I think works better: After my wife and I spent two days at an unusual resort in the foothills of the Nilgiris earlier this month, I selected from dozens of pictures the ones that I thought would tell the audience a story. And I used the "Movie" feature in Picasa to create a video slideshow, with background music, which I then uploaded to YouTube.

The pictures, I think, speak for themselves but the video may not be informative enough for someone who would like to know a little more about the place. So I wrote a few paragraphs that give a hint of the many ways you can enjoy a weekend here.

Here is what I wrote and posted on YouTube:

R&R at Jungle Hut, Masinagudi

Two days of rustic luxe — April 8-10, 2011

My wife wanted to stay in a tent and that's what we did at Jungle Hut on April 8. It was maddeningly hot in the afternoon — this was summer after all — but as evening approached the temperature dipped and it was truly magical to slip into our tent and fall off to sleep to the accompaniment of the trilling of nightjars and other nocturnal birds.

We were woken by the Masinagudi Cicada Philharmonic Orchestra early the next morning and a good thing too — we had scheduled a two-hour trek up the mountains with the Jungle Hut guide.

The trek was fun — and we worked up a good appetite too so the sumptuous breakfast laid out for us afterwards went down smooth and easy.

After breakfast we shifted to a regular cottage room — my wife may like to rough it out but I want my conveniences. The room was just right: spacious, airy, clean.

I went for a swim later in the pool, took a brief nap, then we headed to the restaurant area for lunch. The meals are one of the highlights of the stay at Jungle Hut — we just couldn't help tucking in like there was no tomorrow.

We played Scrabble, we read — my wife even borrowed a book from the Jungle Hut collection to take to Ooty where we spent the rest of our 10-day vacation. We also watched the IPL matches live on the big screen, we went for long walks, and we took plenty of pictures.

Team Jungle Hut went out of their way to ensure we enjoyed every minute of our brief stay. Thank you, Vikram and Anushri Mathias, Malvika Bhandary, Aniket Gupta, and Falgun.

And here's the YouTube video:

PS: If you drive down from Bangalore via Mysore, you can do the 250-km trip to Masinagudi in five-and-a-half hours with a short break. Ooty is about 40 km — and 36 hairpin bends — from Masinagudi.

PPS: Masinagudi is at the same altitude as Bangalore, about 3,000 feet above sea level — it can be really warm during the day in April-May. But Ooty is 7,620 feet above sea level — so in summer even at 2 in the afternoon it's cool enough to enjoy a walk in the sun.

***

I did the same thing with our Ooty pictures. And because, compared with Masinagudi, Ooty is well-known, I restricted the write-up to a few tips:

When in Ooty you must...

...stay at Sterling Fern Hill

...pay a visit to Coonoor (18 km away) and check out Lamb's Rock and Dolphin's Nose

...have lunch at King's Cliff

...experience the warm hospitality of Commits alumna Poonam Parekh (Class of 2008) and her family at their lovely home

...treat yourself to some wood-fire delicacies at the Sidewalk Cafe on Commercial Road

...buy homemade fudge and chocolates at Jai's King Star; and Last Forest honey, Gray's Hill relishes, and Mackays Seedless Bramble Preserve from Modern Stores (if you want eucalyptus oil, Swastik is the best)

...and go boating on Ooty Lake, walk around the Botanical Garden, take some long drives. You MUST have your own car — in a gorgeous hill-station like Ooty, it will make your stay more memorable.

And here's the Ooty video:

Isn't this preferable to wading through hundreds of caption-less holiday snaps?

Turning dross (from a press release) into gold (news that readers will want to read)

What happens when a news report based on a press release and using sentences from the press release does not acknowledge the source? And, worse, the reporter actually takes a byline for it?

This was the subject of my Reading Room post yesterday: "Have you heard of 'churnalism'?"

That post was inspired by a press release (I have copied it below) that had a lot of useful information about IJNet, a website for journalists and would-be journalists but, as is the case with most press releases, it was not an interesting read. Nor was it an easy read.

How could I turn it into a news item? Or write about IJNet on The Reading Room? The thought process involved in the rewriting may give you an insight into how the dross from a press release can be turned into gold: news that readers will want to read.

Here is the press release:

International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), is a non-profit, professional organization headquartered in the U.S. ICFJ runs a website, the International Journalists’ Network -- http://ijnet.org/ which offers many resources of interest to young as well as mid-career journalists.

India is fortunate to have had good journalism institutes and outstanding journalists who have helped shape a media that’s largely independent of both government and business. Still, with new challenges like digital media, the definition and skills of journalism continue to evolve. This is where IJNet could help meet a need, helping young and mid-career journalists to continue their professional education by staying in touch with their peers worldwide and tracking new trends.

While you would want to explore this website yourself, we thought we should draw your attention to a few highlights announced on the site:
    *Innovative news projects in digital journalism funded by Google
    *Courses on mobile reporting from cellphones; also courses on development and diversity issues and journalism for social change.
    *Internship programs that enable journalists to work at US media organizations
    *Fellowships in investigative journalism at the University of California and Berkeley School of Journalism
    *Blogs and other competitions on global energy issues
    *Live chats with prize-winning journalists

More recently, the website offered a Census of India photography contest. Sometimes the site also offers travel grants to international seminars of special interest to journalists.

Other features of the website include:
    *Journalism resources and news: Where you can find information on everything from basic reporting to healthcare journalism to new media
    *Community content: Where you can easily upload your own valuable resources to share with the world
    *Specialized blogs written by IJNet editors
    *Discussion groups on hot topics: Where you can sound off on issues that matter to you!

Discussion posts cover topics like “Should news sites be held responsible for user comments?”, “Should journalists help investigate crimes?”, “To what degree should journalists protect privacy?” and the ethics and issues involving Wikileaks. These are issues being debated also in India and our journalists could share their own views and approaches with the rest of the world.

The site also has a bank of articles on multimedia and digital journalism and videos on disaster reporting, maintaining a healthy broadcast voice (for broadcast journalists), and using Google maps in online stories.

As I wrote above, there is a lot of useful information here but the sentence construction, the choice of words — the very structure of the press release — soon had my eyes glazing over. And I began feeling disconnected.

What to do?

I needed to study the website first in order to think of something interesting to replace that turgid intro, so I clicked on the link provided in the press release. Voila! I found my news peg right there on the website: a reference to "churnalism". And this is what I came up with for an opener in the post I published yesterday:

Sometimes newspapers base a news report on a press release. Nothing wrong with that when the newspaper makes the source clear to readers by including this line (or a variant) at the appropriate place in the report: "...according to a company press release."

But what happens when a news report based on a press release and using sentences from the press release does not acknowledge the source? And, worse, the reporter actually takes a byline for it? (This happened to me once — a press release I sent out to Bangalore newspapers on behalf of Commits was reproduced almost verbatim in The Hindu with the reporter attaching her name at the end.)

That is called "churnalism". Also known as "cut-and-paste journalism".

It's only in the fifth paragraph of my post that I introduced IJNet.

But I believe that Poynter is also an excellent website for journalism resources, so keeping my student audience in mind, I included this line at the end of that fifth paragraph:

Along with Poynter, IJNet is the go-to site for anyone serious about a career in journalism.

Then, having introduced "churnalism", I returned to it. I explained the term by quoting an example from IJNet and then concluded the post by expounding on the lessons to be learnt from this particular episode of "churnalism".

At the end, since I was writing a blog post and not a full-fledged news item, I attributed the "source" of this press release. (Let me make it clear here that Commitscion Shruti Upadhyay only forwarded it to me.)

I would like to believe that what I have written (read the post in its entirety here) is more interesting to read than the press release.

Also, if a PR professional had sent the press release to me with the intention of getting some publicity for IJNet, he or she would have no reason to quibble.

Now this is what I call a win-win situation. Do you agree?

Have you heard of "churnalism"?

Sometimes newspapers base a news report on a press release. Nothing wrong with that when the newspaper makes the source clear to readers by including this line (or a variant) at the appropriate place in the report: "...according to a company press release."

But what happens when a news report based on a press release and using sentences from the press release does not acknowledge the source? And, worse, the reporter actually takes a byline for it? (This happened to me once — a press release I sent out to Bangalore newspapers on behalf of Commits was reproduced almost verbatim in The Hindu with the reporter attaching her name at the end.)

That is called "churnalism". Also known as "cut-and-paste journalism".

Or, if you prefer a more refined phrase, you engage in "churnalism" when you rework news articles from press releases.

I first came across this term on the International Journalists' Network, or IJNet. The website offers a slew of resources for journalists, both newcomers and veterans, including tips on reporting and editing, and news of scholarships and job opportunities. Along with Poynter, IJNet is the go-to site for anyone serious about a career in journalism.

Now, back to "churnalism". In a recent post on IJNet, Dana Liebelson has profiled the website that exposes cases of "churnalism". Liebelson followed up by contacting a reporter whose story in The Guardian on a supermarket chain "had 1,479 characters overlapping with the press release".

Liebelson writes:

The circumstances under which she says it was written will sound familiar to many staff reporters.

“It was a company announcement, it was new and unexpected so we wrote a straight news story like everyone else,” [Julia] Kollewe told IJNet via email. “Also bear in mind that it was a Sunday for Monday story so there were fewer opportunities for original reporting. There was one reporter (me) who wrote everything that day. You can rest assured that not all stories are like that.”

So what are the lessons to be learnt from this particular episode of "churnalism"? One, do not pass off a press release as your own work. Two, there will be work pressure tempting you to pass off a press release as your own work — figure out how you are going to deal with it. It may not be easy but it's not that difficult, either.

• Thank you, Shruti Upadhyay (Class of 2005), account manager with Edelman India, for the IJNet tip-off.
• Also read: Turning dross (from a press release) into gold (news that readers will want to read)

This could be the most important writing tip of your life

WILLIAM TAPPLY

Often teachers at the school and undergrad level tell their students that they write so well they should think about a career in the media. This is what happened to William Tapply, the prolific writer of mysteries.

Tapply writes:

In the beginning, writing came easy to me. My teachers always loved my stories. They came back with comments such as "Wonderful descriptions," or "Excellent use of vocabulary words."

But when Tapply showed the stories to his father, a professional magazine writer, he would only get laconic comments: "Another A. Congratulations."

Then a tough teacher came into Tapply's life. This time, to make sure he could create a good impression, Tapply first showed his assignment to his father and pointedly asked for his opinion.

Here's what happened next:

He read it with a red pen in his hand. Fifteen minutes later he handed it back to me. Every page had eight or ten words circled in red.

"Verbs," said Dad.

"Huh?"

"You depend too much on the verb to be. Use active verbs. Put them to work. Find the right verb, and you can eliminate all these flabby adverbs and fancy adjectives." He pointed with the tip of his pen at those excellent vocabulary words I had strung together to make my wonderfully descriptive passages.

I nodded. "Okay," I said. "Verbs. Otherwise, how is it?"

"There are some other things," he said. "But first, the verbs."

This conversation will be familiar to Commits students who have heard me talk (ad nauseam?) about the importance of verbs. And the necessity of keeping adverbs and adjectives to a minimum.

Tapply's story does not end there. He shows his father the draft of his next story and gets another lesson from the veteran writer:

When he finished, he looked up at me. "You've certainly attended to your verbs," he said. He jabbed at the paper. "Where'd you get this one?"

"Nicitate? I learned that last year."

"Good word," said Dad. "What's it mean?"

"Wink."

"That's a better word," he said. "Who're you trying to impress?"

And then his father gives Tapply perhaps the most important tip of his writing life:

Dad handed my story to me. "Invisible writing," he said. "Understand?"

"No."

"Don't try to impress your reader with how cleverly you write. These fancy words, all these adjectives and adverbs and vocabulary words" — he pronounced the word vocabulary as if it meant "disgusting human waste product" — "all they do is call attention to you. You don't want your reader aware of your writing at all. If you do your job, you'll have them thinking about your ideas, your arguments, your characters, or whatever it is you're trying to communicate. If someone tells you, 'Wow, that's great writing,' you know you've failed."

"You mean all my other teachers over the years. . ."

He shrugged. "You've been getting bad advice."

If you're really serious about improving your writing skills, you will want to read the full story (excerpted from William Tapply's book, Sportsman's Legacy). Go here: "Invisible Writing".

"Want to develop story ideas? Try Facebook"

That's a very helpful tip by the guru of journalism teachers, Roy Peter Clark of Poynter. (One more tip: The most powerful tool for getting reader feedback and generating civil conversation, he says, is the open-ended question. More about that later.)

Clark writes in his column (published on the Poynter website last month) that he had taken part recently in a discussion on how social networks can help journalists. Afterwards, thinking back to a conversation at the discussion about the risks women take by wearing high heels, Clark thought of a story idea:

I decided to ask my Facebook friends about their experiences and opinions on high heels and women’s health. “Has the recent popularity of stiletto heels led to more accidents or foot problems for women?"

Then Clark posted more questions on Facebook about women’s experiences with heels. "Within a couple of hours," he writes, "I received 36 messages highlighting a number of possible story angles."

Clark then explains how — with the help of a good question — topics encountered on Facebook could grow into something more.

But how you frame that "good question" is going to be critical to the success of your plan. Concludes Clark:

To generate the most revealing and productive answers, the questions must avoid Yes/No choices. It is the open-ended question that most often provides what writers most need: details, anecdotes, stories, scenes, along with rich and interesting language.

Read the column in its entirety here: "The case of high heels: How open-ended questions on Facebook can spark story leads".

• ALSO READ: How Roy Peter Clark helped to turn a classified ad into a hearwarming newspaper story.

If you want to be a versatile writer, here's some practical advice

FRANK BRUNI

Frank Bruni has been a reporter with the New York Times, one of the world's great newspapers, for many years now. Apparently, he does not have a set beat; instead he writes about a wide variety of topics. As his interviewer notes in this insightful Q&A with him on the Poynter website, Bruni has written about "food, politics, culture, and more".

What are the challenges he has faced in writing about so many topics? That is the question posed to Bruni by Mallary Jean Tenore.

Bruni's reply:

I wouldn’t say that writing about different topics is a challenge. More an opportunity — or a sign of a short and fickle attention span. I think journalists who write well and with great depth about one genre or topic face a greater challenge than those like me who wander and mix it up, because they’re expected to convey a higher degree of authority, and they have to keep breathing fresh life into a subject with certain parameters. The fact that my bosses have let me explore different areas is a privilege, not a challenge.

Bruni also expounds on how reporters can step outside their beat and become more versatile writers:

Journalistic training and preparedness are what they are, whether one is trying to be versatile or narrow. Read, read, read. Keep your eyes peeled for what’s interesting in the world. Pay close attention to the people you’re interviewing. Try to write up the results in a careful and lively fashion.

Aspiring journalists can pick up some handy tips by reading the full interview and going to the links provided on this page: "New York Times’ Frank Bruni shares his tools for versatile writing".