Good Writing for Journalists

Front Cover
SAGE, Dec 28, 2006 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 224 pages
′The ultimate book on the creative skills of journalism′
- Writing Magazine

′Useful and timely... it is refreshing to discover a book so overtly designed to inspire students to think about what can make writing good - or even great.′
- Media International Australia

This is a book about the art of writing for newspapers and magazine, but doesn′t look at punctuation, spelling and the stylistic conventions of ′everyday′ journalism. Instead, Good Writing For Journalists presents extended examples of writing which are powerful, memorable, colourful or funny. Each piece will be contextualised and analysed encouraging readers to learn from the best practitioners.

This book will inspire those who want to make their writing individual and memorable. Along the way the major elements of non-fiction writing will be introduced, in chapters organised by genre - profile writing, reportage, news analysis, investigation, sports writing, personal and opinion columns and ′lifestyle′ among them.

Phillip′s book sees itself as a natural successor to Wolfe & Johnson′s seminal The New Journalism (1975). By adopting a larger sweeping and tailoring itself for the contemporary journalistic arena, this book will be an essential purchase for the discerning journalist and journalism student.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
Thinking about writing
5
Chapter 1 Lets hear it for storytellers
7
Chapter 2 Constructing stories
25
Examples of great writing
55
Chapter 3 Reportage
57
Chapter 4 General news features
74
Chapter 5 Topical features
90
Chapter 6 Investigative features
131
Chapter 7 Profiles and celebrity interviews
155
Chapter 8 Arts sports and music
185
Chapter 9 Personal and comment columns
196
References
213
Index
216
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Angela Phillips runs all the print journalism programmes and the journalism MA. She launched EastLondonLines.co.uk a local, multi-media, news website that is run by Goldsmiths students and has a significant local audience. She has been a journalist for over thirty years, starting in the alternative press of the 1970s and moving on to work for national newspapers, magazines, television and radio (the BBC and independents). She trained initially as a photographer and worked for several years as a photojournalist before moving into print and online media. More recently, she has moved into the arena of journalism research, working with the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre. She is also the chair of the Ethics Committee of the Coordinating Committee for Media Reform and gave evidence to the Leveson enquiry into the press.

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