Take a look at Twitter feeds, emails, faxes and even letters. The best written forms are the ones that take the most effort. Whip off a missive via electronic means and you’re disinclined to connect with it the way you would when snagging a $4 card from the shelf at CVS and writing down some thoughts about birth, death, injury, layoffs, marriages or moves.

So I was thrilled when my friend Steve asked me today – in an electronic missive – to let him borrow a book.

Not because I like lending my stuff, but because the book he was asking for is the definitive guide to proper writing…The Chicago Manual of Style.

It’s ironic (look up what that means) that a book that shows/tells/instructs how to write well – and has been a newspaper journalist’s reference guide for decades – is in such demand now that newspapers are going under. But it’s also heartening.

I want people to write well. Not because I’m a stickler for who’s and whose and whom’s, but because if people communicate more clearly we’re likely going to avoid misunderstandings, expand our horizons, learn more about each other and generally be happier.

Steve, please be happy with the lease of my book. I know you’ll respect and learn from it. And best of luck on your foray into the world of publishing.

Keep reading!

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Post tags: @stevegarfield, chicago manual of style, Jeff Cutler, lending, newspapers, twitter, writing

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Today is an exception. Aside from the myriad scooter articles appearing EVERYWHERE and my repeated queries that fall on deaf editors’ ears (only to see similar stories executed in a less skillful manner by staff writers), this is one time that I really would have liked to have written a column.

This one on zombies qualifies. Just read the headline -

The Hard Question

Why don’t zombies just eat one another?

It’s funny. It’s timely. It’s introspective. It’s brilliant.

Maybe next time.

Keep reading!

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Post tags: article, brilliance, magazines, newspapers, Query, scooter, scooters, story, Writers, zombies

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While there are some topics that are fascinating, I’m there also trying to ferret out a story for a column or article. Seth and Amar have been kind enough to make room for me as a freelancer at the last minute and I have to give them proper thanks.

It’s too often that organizations don’t understand the reach and influence and power of writers when they bar access to us. The most significant recent event I can recall that was undercovered because of this policy was IFFBoston.

The film festival is packed with outstanding content and vibrant, young talent from all over the world. I’ve attended once as a member of the audience and once as a member of the media. This year I asked again for media access and was denied.

I’m not supposing that even had I attended that the April event would have been featured more prominently in local and regional press, but it couldn’t have hurt.

Regardless, I kept my eyes open for stories featuring the show and saw nothing. And I’m a professional journalist who reads all the publications religiously.

Maybe it’s just another indicator of how the value of good writing and perceptive reporting is being discounted. Keep your fingers crossed that we bounce back.

Otherwise readers might never find out about anything unless they’re at the event.

Keep reading…I mean it.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: access, Berkman@10, Boston, Harvard Law School, IFFBoston, journalists, media, misstep, newspapers, Somerville

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But if you were to get me started on this topic, I would point you to an outstanding overview of the influence that social media is now playing in our society.

The only trouble with the piece and Chris Brogan’s perspective is that he’s coming from it as a proponent of the good that social media can do for companies, brands and messages.

As a professional journalist, I am loathe to share my space with people who think a blog is the same as a newspaper or media outlet. The lines are blurring, but that only means that consumers (anyone who reads news or wants to devour information about the world around them) should be ever more vigilant about where they get their information.

We’ve all seen and received the emails about Bill Gates giving people money for sending emails. We’ve all gotten the notes from people on missing children who don’t exist. We’ve all seen Robin Williams’ supposed diatribe on Iraq and oil.

For the most part, those items are perpetuated because the majority of people don’t have the training to check facts and verify information. My fear—substantiated by the tsunami of misinformation that’s present on the Web—is that media outlets will start to look only at the beans and decide that Joe and Josephine Six-Pack are as good at typing out the news or sharing opinions as those of us with years of training.

Then we all lose because the citizen ‘journalist’ who replaces a trained reporter is dragging down the standard by which we all take for granted. And when that standard vanishes, then our best source of news is going to be what we can see and hear for ourselves.

That might be easier with cameras and audio coming in from everywhere, but it’s also akin to the Old West when prospectors were oblivious to events that happened outside of there immediate vicinity.

Are we headed there? I don’t know. People are still paying me to write while bloggers are still scraping adsense and other avenues to make a dime.

I just think that the thought leaders (is that still being used as a term?) should take a breath before trumpeting the benefits of the untrained troops—I should call them troupes because it’s mostly performance art—and give some credit to the established and trained journalists.

Seriously. This needs to happen before everything we learn is categorized as ‘news’.

Keep reading.

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 4th Estate, Chris Brogan, citizen 'journalists', innacuracy, Jeff Cutler, media, newspapers, training

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