Good Reporting: Still Making His Pitch, originally uploaded by Utter East. In his final year, he was the spot starter and long reliever on the team that won the AAA World Series, competing for starts with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito and Kevin Gregg. All four went on to become top-tier MLB players. An [...]
Associated Press released its 2010 Stylebook today. Good news: AP acknowledges 21st-century usage. Bad news: We gotta learn the new rules. Mashable reports: The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from “Web site” to “website” (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases [...]
Cheryl Rodewig of The Bayonnet, Fort Benning, Ga., did more than justice to one of the first African-American WACs in her profile, ‘Pioneer’ for women in military shares story. The piece might have written itself, based on the subject’s life story. But Rodewig used pace and variety to drive the reader from lede to conclusion. She [...]
The Army’s Keith L. Ware communications competition once was judged by boards of distinguished eminences in the Public Affairs world. They’d pore over entries in a sealed conference room, then emerge like cardinals or members of the Fed to award, reward and mention honorably aspirants to the plaques. In the last two competitions, however, the [...]
For a lesson in exactly how to make a story relevant and readable read this article by Dijon Rolle of U.S. Army Garrison Baden-Wuerttemburg. In researching “Breaking the silence: Soldier conquers suicidal thoughts,” Rolle did more than get her subject to talk about her feelings – Capt. Stehr was looking for a platform – she [...]
One great reference: Poewar.com: Solutions For Writers. Tip of the hat to past colleague Gary St.Lawrence. Link found on his site.
Folio: magazine reports on the passing of a milestone in the reorganization of the news industry. Yesterday, Nielsen Business Media reported that Editor & Publisher was shutting down.Clearly, Nielsen concluded that the supplier community serving the newspaper industry can no longer sustain a media business that reports on the newspaper industry. When you get to [...]
Environmental cleanup happens on practically every installation, but its tricky to write about, in part because the technology involved has its own language. “Media” ain’t what you think it is, and you’ll never hear the word “sparge” in polite company unless you’re talking to someone in cleanup. I’ve spent a good part of the last [...]
Portability, readability and browsability: these attributes of print give hope to publishers in the face of the rapid conversion of our text and image media to electrons. In portability – the ability to engage media anywhere – books, newspapers and magazines are giving way to electronic readers and smart phones. But in that, electronics has a [...]
Two days of hell, nine men of valor, originally uploaded by Army.mil. This looked like a weak photo to include in a photo set — then I realized the photo was not the point. Technically, it’s almost perfect – pleasing outdoor sun, well-exposed shadows*, no one caught with a goofy expression, nice telephoto compression. I [...]
