Story Pitch: How writers present an article idea to a busy editor
I hoped this slide would appeal to my students as I taught them about pitching a news story.
Family ( #StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 2) Picard Retreats to Family Vineyard
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Still recovering from his ordeal with the Borg, Picard visits his brother at the Picard family vineyard. In the village of his boyhood, Picard’s roadside encounter with his nephew Rene is just perfect, as are the domestic scenes with his warm sister-in-law Marie and his brittle, jealous older brother…
“Thank you for being kind.” —Friday afternoon email from a student who’d been a little salty this week.
Journalists prefer plain language.
Journalism: Muzzle your biases. Seek out diverse but credible sources. You’ll be criticized anyway, from multiple directions.
Took the whole day off and spent part of it making #greebles with #Blender3D because reasons.
Jane Elliott’s “National Brotherhood Week” Lesson
Imagine a world…
A Conversation with Dennis Jerz, Actor — WAOB Audio Theatre
In August, 2000 I was blogging about poetry, presidential wordplay, home-schooling, online learning, and a search engine you may have heard about.
In August 2000, I was blogging about Top 10 Tips for Writing Poetry (which I’ve updated over the years and is the most popular page on my site today) Richard Lederer’s presidential wordplay (“I predict that at the end of the campaign. Gore will be bushed and Bush will be gored. Then we’ll have either…
2020, In One Photo. (“Come join us!”)
Long-Haulers Are Redefining COVID-19
Our understanding of COVID-19 has accreted around the idea that it kills a few and is “mild” for the rest. That caricature was sketched before the new coronavirus even had a name; instead of shifting in the light of fresh data, it calcified. It affected the questions scientists sought to ask, the stories journalists sought…
Ready to teach another set of students what research is (and what it isn’t).
Another very rough day. Students are cheerful and patient, obviously happy to be here.
Another very rough day. Students are cheerful and patient, obviously happy to be here. I can barely understand what the students right in front of me are saying. (It’s not about volume… the problem is I can’t see their lips moving; I do have an appointment with an audiologist Friday.) I long for the days…
Ratified 100 years ago today, the 19th Amendment, proposed by Illinois Republican James R. Mann, granted women the right to vote.
I survived my first day teaching in a masked, hybrid classroom.
I survived the first day teaching in a masked classroom. As I expected, I had a very difficult time hearing my students. I felt awkward taking up the first class talking about myself, but I told them I’ve recently been diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder. My ears can pick up the sounds of their…
Death Comes for the Microbot — Flash Fiction by Aimee Picchi
Bee walked on six spindly legs to the spot where Spider had stopped moving. Bee, whose job was to record the doings of the lab, had been across the room, but its video feed had captured the moment. The tiny arachnid-shaped bot had been monitoring the bio-nanobot colonies when it teetered and fell, alone. “Can…
If you think I’m wrong that the media fairly covered the Cannon Hinnant murder, but you’re still reading, then I welcome you.
Plenty of news organizations have reported on the tragic case of a white boy who was murdered while riding his bicycle. One must ignore easily verifiable opposing evidence to claim that “the media” are universally ignoring this story. It’s even more unhinged to latch upon the conspiracy theory that the reason for this (non-existent) lack…
Name-calling and ad hominem attacks don’t provide anyone with reasons to change their mind.
