It’s hard to write a book about article writing—and more generally journalism—at this juncture in time. You may expect this book to amount to a survey. But how do you survey a field that’s in flux? Newspapers are folding, journalists are losing their jobs, and news that once cost money is “freely” available on the Internet.
It’s clear that what worked in the past won’t work in the future. Old journalism is not only old but dated, too. In order to survive, the journalist of today must understand and champion new media. The Internet, blogs, social media, and smartphone journalism is the vocabulary of our new Lingua Franca. The journalist of today must be just as concerned with learning style and structure as he is with learning to design websites and build a strong Twitter following. Even if you “just want to write articles,” you must cultivate various other skills in order to make this dream a reality.
But for those who have the stomach, skills, integrity, and ingenuity, these are wondrous times. The august institutions of yesteryear have been replaced by a frontier mentality typical of the Wild West. There’s a need for entrepreneurs and iconoclasts. Ideas that grab the attention of readers and generate digital-ad revenue will breed success.
With this book, I hope to teach you everything I’ve learned about article writing. Of course, I’ll teach you about style, structure, interviewing, narrative, ethics, query letters, platforms, and publication. But I’ll also help you understand the history of journalism, its status quo, and its possible future. Anybody who masters the concepts in this book will have a strong understanding of the field. I truly believe this understanding will make you a better writer and help you succeed and see your name in a print or virtual byline.
Please don’t skim this book; read it in its entirety, and then use it as a reference.
I want you to know that I consider it a privilege to host you with my words. I strived to ensure that the information in this book is attributable to some great mind. Feel free to regale your friends and classmates with knowledge gathered from this book, and know that it has all been verified. I spent years researching this book and months speaking with experts from national consumer magazines, association magazines, newspapers, universities, and more. I drew on dozens of texts, including the works of Jon Franklin, Roy Peter Clark, William Zinsser, and William E. Blundell. I read many journal articles and studies. I even exploited my own understanding of popular culture, finance, psychology, medicine, and science to make the work more entertaining.
I am also privileged to be a custodian of the more general study of journalism. Journalism is an old profession—even older than prostitution. Early prophets believed they were reporting on God.
I think that most people who write books like this one have spent their lives scaling some professional mountain and preach while perched on the summit. The book becomes an extension of some larger ego. I can’t pretend to be so weathered. This realization dawned on me early, and I redoubled my efforts to turn out the best product.
I was originally trained as a science (medical) writer, and, at times, this book tends to evaluate and analyze the craft of article writing with an eye toward science and research. Moreover, I believe that every type of writer can benefit from this scientific purview. It should be noted, however, that some fantastic journalism scholars approach the craft of article writing from a humanities or creative-writing perspective. For completeness, I do my best to introduce the reader to some of this thinking.
With respect to word usage, you’ll see words like writer and journalist or article and story used interchangeably. (If you’re reading this book and interested in becoming a writer of articles, feel free to call yourself a journalist—as I discuss later, there’s no license to practice journalism.) In the realm of journalism, many words lack clear-cut operational or functional definitions. Other words such as source have broad definitions and can refer to people (interviewees) or written sources. Moreover, the word coherent has shades of meaning, too. A coherent explanation can mean a consistent explanation, a clear explanation, or an explanation that offers options. (It can also mean all three.) When writing about the practice of journalism in more theoretical terms, this last meaning is key.
With professional opportunities for budding writers to garner real-world experience dwindling, it’s important to acclimate readers to variations in newsroom lingo and jargon. That’s why I sometimes refer to documents or ideas in various fashions. For example, although I may write features, features piece, feature article, and so forth, all of these terms refer to one type of story. Developing an ear for the lingo will help anybody, including the freelancer who may never work in a brick-and-mortar setting or the writer of articles who ends up in a newsroom.
Although I do my best to maintain consistency and practice what I preach in terms of style and structure, I acknowledge that this book may suffer occasional lapses—either conscious or unconscious. Please remember that style and structure take a lifetime to learn and are, above all, coherent guides and not dogma. Furthermore, the astute reader will notice that some of my advice on style differs from that of Writer’s Digest Books, the publisher of this book, including suggestions on number usage and the use of generic singular pronouns. And this is absolutely fine … publications and individuals have their own preferences!
When I asked my former graduate school advisor and mentor, Dr. Barbara Gastel, what it was like to write a book, she told me that it felt like writing several feature articles. This book felt like writing twenty feature articles, each on its own deadline. (I definitely approached this book with a journalist’s mentality.) I spent much time gathering excellent information for this book; it was absolutely necessary to get this information sourced and make sure that it was verified, transparent, and coherent. Fortunately, the world abounds with good information on journalism, style, and writing, and new information and research comes out every day.
I hope the information in this book and input from editors help you find your own voice. And I hope this voice informs and entertains countless others.
Enjoy this book in good health, and feel free to e-mail me with any comments or insights.
Naveed Saleh
4/8/2013