Column Advice

[Cansportschick]

I am freaking out right now and need some solid adivce. I have to get a column ready for a job interview/application that is due today. I want to obviously make a good enough impression to get the freelance gig.

I have written columns before, but this one matters because it will make or break me getting a job. I know that some of you have written columns before. Is there any advice you can offer up asap for me?

Thank you ever so much!

 

[slappy4428]

Did you just learn of your homework assignment? Geez.
Be yourself. If you try to write something that isn't you, they'll figure it out soon enough.

 

[Cansportschick]

Did you just learn of your homework assignment? Geez.
Be yourself. If you try to write something that isn't you, they'll figure it out soon enough.

yeah, I did learn but I want to make sure I have all the do's and don'ts checked off.

 

[jgmacg]

1) Write about something you know. And for which you have some passion.

2) Write to support a single, strong idea or argument.

3) Write a clear, purposeful lede introducing that idea or argument.

4) Support that idea or argument with several pieces of evidence.

5) Write a clean, declarative ending that synthesizes your ideas and arguments, and echoes and recalls your lede.

 

[21]

Check your spelling 50 times, and have someone else check it as well.
Avoid using 'I' as if your life depends on it.
Don't try to be funny or clever unless you are really, REALLY funny and clever.

 

[Tom Petty]

1) Write about something you know. And for which you have some passion.

2) Write to support a single, strong idea or argument.

3) Write a clear, purposeful lede introducing that idea or argument.

4) Support that idea or argument with several pieces of evidence.

5) Write a clean, declarative ending that synthesizes your ideas and arguments, and echoes and recalls your lede.

dude, the more i read your stuff, the more solid you are. clutch post.

 

[BillyT]

Write on a local topic if at all possible.

And the five-point checklist was perfect. Avoiding "I" is critically important, as is prooofreading.

 

[Cansportschick]

Thanks all of you for the opinions. I am not freaking out anymore. I value all the advice given.

 

[jgmacg]

Good luck. And thanks, T_P.

 

[times38]

1) Write about something you know. And for which you have some passion.

2) Write to support a single, strong idea or argument.

3) Write a clear, purposeful lede introducing that idea or argument.

4) Support that idea or argument with several pieces of evidence.

5) Write a clean, declarative ending that synthesizes your ideas and arguments, and echoes and recalls your lede.

that pretty much sums it up, although I think even some of us who write columns don't follow it enough sometimes.

 

[Screwball]

Best advice I ever got in that regard: Make sure it's a column, not a feature posing as a column.

Good luck.

 

[Buckeye12]

Wow. I don't know about that one. Some of Rick Reilly's best "columns" are features. He had one recently about a father-son boxing trainer tandem working out of a building about to be taken over by eminent domain in San Diego. He took a stance, but it was more feature than column.

 

[fishwrapper]

OK, quick:

1) See how many time you can use "I".
2) Write your lede in the form of a question.
3) One-sentence, choppy paragraphs.
4) Inject random, peripheral thoughts to fill up the column.
5) Quotes are overrated.

That should about do it.

 

[Tom Petty]

Wow. I don't know about that one. Some of Rick Reilly's best "columns" are features. He had one recenttly about a father-son boxing trainer tandem working out of a building about to be taken over by eminent domain in San Diego. He took a stance, but it was more feature than column.

i have no issues with it, either, but it does have to be done right or it reads juvenile.

 

[Colton]

You could opine on what a wonderful sport cheerleading is

 

[Screwball]

Wow. I don't know about that one. Some of Rick Reilly's best "columns" are features. He had one recenttly about a father-son boxing trainer tandem working out of a building about to be taken over by eminent domain in San Diego. He took a stance, but it was more feature than column.

Didn't mean that you have to do a blowhard opinion piece a la Mariotti. Just means that a column is more than a feature -- you can write on the same subject, but you need to inject some perspective, opinion, personal reaction, analysis, etc. instead of relying on the subject to carry you. This could be as simple as making sure the last word belongs to you, not to the subject.

 

[times38]

Best advice I ever got in that regard: Make sure it's a column, not a feature posing as a column.

Good luck.

My editor could use this advice.

 

[ECrawford]

Funny thing. In the discussion of Jim Murray a couple of days ago on this board, among the columns linked to was his very first for the Los Angeles Times.

I did a count of the personal pronoun (I) in that column . . .

First paragraph: 7
Entire column: 60

Now, God knows I'm no Jim Murray. And neither is this original poster. And most of us are nowhere even close.

But you have to wonder, if Jim Murray weren't Jim Murray, what the critique of that column would've been in a place like this.

The hard thing about columns is that there are no rules.

They look freaking easy when you read them written by others. Some of the ones you like when you're writing them turn into dog food when you see them in the paper.

Sometimes, the job is such that you have to write from a brutally personal perspective. The prediction column. Weighing in on a major local issue.

But in my humble experience, the best ones come the same way that the best straight stories come -- when you situate yourself in the right place, a place where most people can't go, or wouldn't think to go, and bring something original to bear once you get there.

Red Smith said, "I like to get where the cabbage is cooking and catch the scents."

I can provide from my own experience plenty of examples of how not to do it, if you'd like me to email them! Thank goodness, you always get another try the day after tomorrow.

But I think the safest way in a one-shot deal is to physically get yourself to a compelling subject, and then relate what you find in such a way that the reader gets a sense of not just your subject, but of you, by the end of it.

 

[Buckeye12]

A metro columnist at one of the top 25 circs in the nation says he's "paid to swing the bat." I like that. But there's more than one way to skin a column.

 

[Cansportschick]

Thanks to every one for posting and giving me advice. I got my column in about one hour before it was due.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Greatly appreciated.