Wylie's Writing Tips archives

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One or 1,001? | March 2010

“[Good writers] tell not of a battle, but of a soldier, they talk not about governance, but about a deal, they discuss not a socioeconomic group, but a person and a life.”

— Donald M. Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, in Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work

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“[Good writers] tell not of a battle, but of a soldier, they talk not about governance, but about a deal, they discuss not a socioeconomic group, but a person and a life.”
— Donald M. Murray,
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist,
in Writing to Deadline: The Journalist at Work
One or 1,001?
Why ‘one individual trumps the masses’
“If I look at the mass, [...]

What’s the cost of ‘niggling’? | February 2010

“All that wasted motion of everybody putting in commas and taking out commas wasn’t necessary.”

— Art Weise,
vice president of Corporate Communications, Entergy Corp.,
after reengineering the company’s approval process

Snip your sentences | January 2010

— Jeff Giles, senior editor of Newsweek’s Arts & Entertainment section

Readers want less | December 2009

“Brevity is the sister of talent.”

— Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright

Streamline your sentences | November 2009

“No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place.”

— Isaac Babel, Russian journalist

Are readers skipping your paragraphs? | October 2009

“Long paragraphs are a visual predictor that a story won’t work.”

— Jon Ziomek,
associate professor at the medill School of Journalism

In your own words | September 2009

“All the fun’s in how you say a thing.”

— Robert Frost, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet