I handed in my article on reporters and star quality quite some time ago now, and it was accepted, but - I was then encouraged to hand in another article to complement or supplement the first. Star quality in reporters and how it shows on the textual level, fine, but---
What about reporters with less of an attitude? When and how do the average reporter make good use of her first person singular? Might I supply good-old pieces of good advice? Answer the how to- question?
I would love to, and I've been given a very good occasion to do it. The request makes perfect sense, but the article has not yet found its form. I like to do textual analyses and show what can be accomplished by showing what has actually been accomplished by particular writers on particular occasions, but I find it hard to move to the general level and be prescriptive.
So input is welcome: How to design a how to-article? What are good ways of grounding writers' rules of thumb? Who has done this well in the past---what pieces of advice have any of you accepted, maybe even adopted in your writing practice, and why?
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3 comments:
Apologies for late commenting.
Although the ideal manual presented resembles a cook book more than good is, www.wikihow.com offers help on the how-to subject. Perhaps both the template (combining textual elements such as "Steps" and "Tips") and the Writers' Guide may be of use.
Manual writing instruction is a staple of many technical writing courses in the States, but a genre that we pay dismally little attention here.
Said the composition girl.
Wikihow sounds promising. (I haven't actually overcome this humbling case of writer's block yet, so, yes, it IS about time, but, no, NOT too late to leave a comment.)
That IS a great, level-headed guide (http://www.wikihow.com/Writer%27s-Guide) to writing a step-by-step guide.
About "Steps", for instance, it says:
"Begin each step with an active verb. For example, "Check the gutter for obstructions," not "You need to ensure that the gutter is unclogged.""
And about "Tips":
"The Tips field gives you a little more latitude to explain a step or to give further advice. For example, for a wikiHow about making a pie, you might add a tip that says, "If you are diabetic, you can leave the sugar out of the pie or use 5 tsp. artificial sweetener instead.""
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So there I go. Copy the template and tell the world how to use the first person in print. Could it be that simple? Might I just take a sober look at the task at hand (+ stop blogging about it in stead) and ignore all impulses to mystify the writing process.
http://firstpersoninprint.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-about-your-elf.html
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