THE QUOTE DIET

Chip Scanlan comes through -- again -- with valuable advice for writers: put your quotes on a diet to write better stories.

Getting quotes is one thing. Using them effectively is another. Many reporters use quotations as a crutch. They forget that they, not their sources, are writing the story.

By all means, fill your stories with voices, but just as you'd steer clear of a windbag at a party, spare your readers those bloated quotes that deaden a piece of writing.

There's a lot more to the column, including half-a-dozen tips for using quotes effectively. Read and learn.

11:11:14 PM    

FOR PHOTOSHOPPERS

Yearning to learn more about Photoshop? There are a ton of sites on the Web offering tutorials. including the online version of the magazine Mac Design. Most useful is the Photoshop Tip of the Day: a daily, short and to-the-point tip that'll add to your knowledge of what is probably the most powerful and complex piece of software ever developed.

10:37:29 PM    

STUDENT PRIORITIES

Scottish students seem to have their priorities right, which has The Literary Journal up in arms.

According to a post at the Journal, a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) study found that Scottish university students spent more on beer and cigarettes than on textbooks. According to the figures, spending on textbooks was 330 million English pounds, while students plopped down 950 million pounds for booze and 480 million pounds for cigs.

What has the Literary Journal particularly upset is that the RBS is recommending ways for students to further save on textbooks by buying used, borrowing, etc.

Makes sense to me. You can only "borrow" cigarettes for so long before people cut you off, and you always have to buy at least one round. So spending goes up.

Meanwhile, fellow students are always glad to lend you textbooks, unless they happen to be in use. Leveling the wobbly legs on your coffee table, for instance.

9:46:24 PM    

MORE JARGON BASHING

John Rains returns to a favourite topic of some editors, journalism instructors and bloggers: the need to cut through jargon to better serve readers. Rains cites a couple of items from an unidentified newspaper's business pages as examples of how to thoroughly confuse the reader.

He writes:

You find the same problem in other pages of the average newspaper, not just the business pages. All too often, sports stories are quagmires of numbers and cliches and insider jargon. It's the same in other categories. Education, government, the military--whatever the field, we get rivers of sludge. And we wonder why we have trouble attracting and keeping readers.

If all these people are railing against jargon, why does it still mar the pages of newspapers? Laziness? Smugness? Too close an association with the people we cover? Fear of appearing less than smart by not using big words? Desire to be seen as hip/cool/rad/wack/whatever?

Or could it be simply a matter of not wanting to admit that we don't understand what people are telling us well enough to be able put it into words that the reader will understand?

7:02:05 PM    

OUTING 'OBJECTIVITY'

Someone who is obviously smarter than I am transcribed a very funny bit from last night's The Daily Show, an exchange between host Jon Stewart and Rob Corddry. Thankfully, Atrios posted the wickedly funny swipe at media.

STEWART: Here's what puzzles me most, Rob. John Kerry's record in Vietnam is pretty much right there in the official records of the US military, and haven't been disputed for 35 years?

CORDDRY: That's right, Jon, and that's certainly the spin you'll be hearing coming from the Kerry campaign over the next few days.

STEWART: Th-that's not a spin thing, that's a fact. That's established.

CORDDRY: Exactly, Jon, and that established, incontravertible fact is one side of the story.

STEWART: But that should be -- isn't that the end of the story? I mean, you've seen the records, haven't you? What's your opinion?

CORDDRY: I'm sorry, my *opinion*? No, I don't have 'o-pin-i-ons'. I'm a reporter, Jon, and my job is to spend half the time repeating what one side says, and half the time repeating the other. Little thing called 'objectivity' -- might wanna look it up some day.

STEWART: Doesn't objectivity mean objectively weighing the evidence, and calling out what's credible and what isn't?

CORDDRY: Whoa-ho! Well, well, well -- sounds like someone wants the media to act as a filter! [high-pitched, effeminate] 'Ooh, this allegation is spurious! Upon investigation this claim lacks any basis in reality! Mmm, mmm, mmm.' Listen buddy: not my job to stand between the people talking to me and the people listening to me.

Emphasis added at this end.

It's funny because it's true.

6:32:43 PM    

GLOBE & MAIL GETS IT

David Akin points with approval to a Globe & Mail decision to free up more pages in its daily Business Section by moving some of its market reports from the printed page to the Internet.

Akin reports:

Today, The Globe and Mail takes a relatively risky gamble but one, I suspect, that more and more papers are likely to take over the next few years. The Globe will reduce the amount of market data it publishes in its business section by as much as three full pages. Instead, it has beefed up its Internet-based investment tracking and market data tools.

He has a link to editor Giles Gherson's explanation to readers at the Globe & Mail site (free registration required).

Over the past several months, we've contacted nearly 2,000 of our readers to find out how much they use the pages of stock and financial listings we print. What we learned was what we already suspected: More and more of our readers are now relying on Globeinvestor.com and other websites for up-to-the-minute market price information. Our readers turn to ROB for authoritative, in-depth business and financial news, analysis and insight.

As well as recognizing reality it's a nice move: opening up space for more journalism.

6:01:03 PM    

CANOE NATIONS IN PIX

Elaine Brière has a nice photo-essay on "Resurgence of the Canoe Nations" at tyee.ca.

Brière writes:

As drumming and chants fill the air, older women sing the greeting song with their hands uplifted, palms forward, in the graceful welcoming gesture of the coastal tribes.  I feel tears welling up in my eyes. The beauty of the ceremony strikes a chord of strong emotion in my white heart.  I gather my wits and continue photographing.

The 13 black-and-white photos accompanying the article (click to view the photo gallery) are striking and show what a photographer can achieve when she approaches a subject with respect. The photos are not only "graphically" strong, they say much about the event.

5:43:28 PM