Teaching Writing VS Teachers' Writing

I'll start: my writing needs work. At least, that's what I learned during and after the Reporting Experience activity with Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan, as the tight and focused idea in my head stretched and shredded out onto the blank Word document.

As a teacher of English, thoughtful, organized, well-paced, and clear prose are the metrics by which success is measured. However, the bulk of my experience involves academic literary analysis - which is well and good, but it's certainly not, markedly not, and (from this exercise) stylistically not journalistic writing. At the latter, I'm a rookie at best.

However, looking at samples of leads and first paragraphs from several of the participants' coverage of the conversation we had with Dean Callahan yesterday shows me that a few major but doable stylistic tweaks can turn purpose prose into quality journalism.

Reynolds Institute Director Steve Elliot reviews
some quality examples of spot stories

Heftier leads, early attributions and identification of challenges (because "issues" is a squishy word, according to Steve Elliot - an adjective I agree with) will produce articles that are more muscular and direct, unlike more than a few articles in the academic journals.


I look forward to rethinking my own writing and gearing it towards a broader, journalistic audience.





David Andrew Tow
Terra Linda High School
San Rafael, Calif.