America’s best newspaper writing: 5 picks, 10 tips

You must read good writing to become a good writer. Journalistic writing is a world of its own, but no matter how arcane it may appear, there are rules and techniques that can be learned through mere observation. In the following post, I will look at 5 different types of newspaper writing from “America’s Best Newspaper Writing” and discuss some of the following aspects and how they play a role in making that particular news piece great:

• Structure: how stories begin and end
• Creation process: from concept to revision
• Language: including rhetoric and sentence structure
• Voice: creating illusion of speaking to you
• Writing as an experience: rather than just conveying information
• Role: what role did the journalist play

Deadline writing

Leonara LaPeter – Jury Sends Santa Claus Killer to Electric Chair

Leonara LaPeter

Writing on a deadline is familiar to every reporter, but LaPeter didn’t let herself be thrown off by the ticking clock. While covering the court case of Jerry Scott Heidler, who murdered the Daniels family, she took note of every small detail. A vivid image pops into the mind of the reader when Heidler “didn’t say anything but wiped his nose on his blue and green polo shirt and folded his hands in his lap.”

LaPeter also does an excellent job at forging character by diving into the backstory of Heidler, uncovering further details and anecdotes such as a small mouse that Heidler would carry with him when he was 11. He would always say “come on lil’ mouse, come on lil’ mouse”. He feared the dark and dreaded the curious scenario of a knife coming through the ceiling and cutting him.

Through characters, scenes, dialogues and short transitions, LaPeter is able to turn the court case into a captivating narrative, one that explores both sides of the story and creates sympathy for both the perpetrator and the victims. We feel sorry for Heidler’s sister, who said “I don’t want them to kill my brother.”

By uncovering the troubled past of Heidler, we gain a better understanding of the situation. At times, we might even side with Heidler, thus contrasting the emotions that accompany the beginning of the article, where the death of the Daniels family is outlined. LaPeter achieves a more emotion-evoking tone through variations in the length of her sentences. The resulting rhythm counters the monotonous stereotype of court cases.

Business Reporting an Explanatory Journalism

Peter Rinearson – Making It Fly: Designing the 757

Peter Rinearson

One of many roles that journalists fulfill is translating technical language into something that is more easily understood by the general public. Rinearson’s article on how the Boeing 757 was designed is an excellent example of such a piece. Right off the bat, he anthropomorphizes the jet plane as a celebrity that turns heads, thereby easing the reader into the article with a familiar picture, while also emphasizing the importance of the aircraft without resorting to technical specifications.

Despite the topic, Rinearson doesn’t skip quotes and puts real people at the center of his story. As such, he introduces the airline’s president in the second paragraph and uses narrative techniques to turn his article into a story with human-interest aspects. For example, he describes a gate agent’s struggle with the door. “Grasping the door firmly, while the top brass of Boeing and Eastern looked on, she pushed and pulled”.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Rinearson’s article is how he interweaves technical specifications with storytelling. Tech specs and facts regarding the 757 are being carried by the the words, becoming second to the storytelling while not losing their informative nature. “The 323-pound door moved only a few inches. It wouldn’t budge beyond that.”

Throughout the article, details of the effort and consideration that went into the aircraft’s design are sprinkled across sentences, playing a seemingly secondary role to the quotes of people and the narrative, but still informing the reader about technical aspects in a non-threatening manner that is easily understood. At the core of the article still lies the skeleton of journalistic writing, focusing on the struggles that the engineers faced while designing the aircraft and lending a critical tone to the voice, as is expected in journalism.

As Rinearson states himself, “the engineering details of the 757 far exceed the grasp of any single human mind”. He instead resorts to exemplifying problems by focusing on the smaller parts, such as the door. Using metaphors, like comparing the door to a bathtub stopper, is a further example of how to convey a more complex topic to the reader, without losing the nuances of the story.

Crime and Courts

Cathy Frye – Caught in the Web: Evil at the Door

Cathy Frye

Instead of cutting to the chase, Frye decided to build a narrative style introduction. Despite being longer than a typical lead, it still works because of the suspense that is built in the first few paragraphs.

We suspect what might have happened, but details of Kacie’s story are only revealed in later paragraphs, compelling the reader to continue reading and become more invested in the story. As it progresses, more and more details emerge, such as 13-year-old Kacie Woody’s affinity to online boyfriends, being home alone on the night she was kidnapped and the fight with her friend Sam.

Every snippet of information that is revealed paints a picture looking more and more bleak for little Kacie. In fact, it’s easy to forget that Caught in the Web: Evil at the Door is a news article. It reads more like an example of narrative writing. The inclusion of the chat history reminds the reader that it’s not just a story though. What happened was real.

Despite the sense that Kacie’s story will end badly, the reader is willing to experience the journey along with the characters. The narrative writing is able to transport the reader to Kacie’s home in the “chilling darkness” of that fateful night. Every time Frye paints a new a scene; the counselors office, the computer or the school bus, we feel like we are there, experiencing the story as it unfolds.

As such, Frye chose a chronological approach, rather than the usual inverted pyramid. This approach works for this story. It’s the first in a series of articles and after reaching the end, I wanted to know what exactly had happened to Kacie. I had to consult Google, but this demonstrates the power of narrative writing when the content is appropriate and the writing is superb.

The story is also an attestation to Frye’s persistence, as it took her a great deal of effort to convince the Woody family to disclose all the details necessary for such a holistic approach to the story. Warning of the dangers of online stalkers also gives the story a purpose, thus serving the public just as good journalism should.

Opinion and Persuasion

Donna Britt – A One-Word Assault on Women

Donna Britt

Britt’s article about the cultural phenomenon of frivolously calling women “bitch” reads like a trip through her mind. It’s very personal, resorting to “I” in the first sentence already, as she described her encounter with a teenage girl that wore necklace with the b-word written on it.

At this point, she asks herself why. Rhetorical questions such as this appear several times in her opinion piece. It makes use think. Think about an issue that might otherwise go unnoticed. They serve as a spark for us to contemplate how easily we throw around terms like “bitch”.

She is baffled while the rest of the world seemingly isn’t. And it’s this observation from the personal perspective of an African-American that makes us see something that we might not have considered otherwise. She denounces the brutality of “gangsta rap” and its violence towards women, while pointing out how popular it is.

Britt doesn’t tell us what to do or what to think. She plays through scenarios, fleshes them out and sometimes exaggerates to make a point. Despite her personal perspective, she keeps her distance, never attacking frontally but instead taking opposing arguments and disseminating them, thus revealing her thought process to the reader very clearly.

Britt compares those who say “they’re just dissing the women who deserve it” to white politicians being allowed to use the n-word because they would only be referencing “black people who kill others” or “criminals”. Could you call this hypocrisy? Britt also points out that some women actually like to be called degrading names. It’s these absurdities that speak with clarity, and help Britt to make her argument.

Terrorism, War and Disasters

Bryan Gruley – Nation Stands in Disbelief and Horror

Bryan Gruley

Unlike the other stories in this post, Nation Stands in Disbelief and Horror is a rewrite, drawing from information gathered by over 50 journalist and compressed into a 4.000 word article that was originally 30.000 words in length.

All this was done quickly enough to publish it a mere day the Sept. 11 attacks took place. What may seem like a daunting task wasn’t as difficult for Gruley as you might imagine. Getting the information, i.e. the reporting process, is what’s most challenging.

Despite how spectacular an aircraft crashing into World Trade Center may sound, Gruley did not lead with that. Nor did he mention it in the second paragraph. He only alludes to it in the third. Instead, he leads with people and tells the story from their perspective and how the chaos unfolded in their eyes.

Infographic by Oliver Fischer

In fact, it isn’t until the 5th paragraph that we find what we might consider as the nut graf, outlining that “three apparently hijacked jetliners, in less than an hour’s time, made kamikaze-like crashes into both towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon”.

Gruley paints a vivid picture of the chaos and gruesome scene that ensued downtown Manhattan with “strewn body parts, clothing, shoes and mangled flesh, including a severed head with long, dark hair”. Again, these telling details transform information into a scene that we can experience as though we were actually there.