This might help clear up your writing

In searching across cyberspace for good advice on bringing clarity to writing, I found this excellent site. Does a great job of analyzing writing samples to show what brings the fog into some sentences and what keeps it out of others.

I highly recommend it to your attention.

Many scenarios seen for journalism's future

Jeff Jarvis rolls out some possible scenarios for the future of journalism in his Buzz Machine blog. Be sure to read the comments as well.

Wonder what's in the picture at the top of his blog? That's a printing press.

Looking for great stories? Check out Esquire

I've had an on-again, off again love affair with Esquire magazines since the 1960s, captured first by the magazine's famous cover of Sonny Liston in a Santa's hat, enthralled by the writings of Jay Bruce Friedman, John Sacks, Terry Southern, Michael Herr and on and on. I was still a fan when the cover of Muhammed Ali pierced by arrows came out, but lost interest soon after that. I came around again some time in the early 1980s and subscribed for a short time, but gave up again. I still buy it off the newsstands once in awhile and have considered re-uppng the subscription.

But I may just download what the magazine picks as its seven best articles in its 75 years of existence and read those before shelling out the money for a subscription (Vanity Fair is the competitor for my subscription dollars as its stories right now seem top of the line to me). Take a look at those seven stories. They are all worth reading and learning from.

Three articles worth reading

I saw three articles on Romenesko this morning that I thought worth pointing out to people headed into the field of journalism.

Set aside plenty of time to read this article in the Columbia Journalism Review that argues, "To win the war for our attention, news organizations must make themselves indispensable by producing journalism that helps make sense of the flood of information that inundates us all."

Next up is from the Daily Skiff, The Texas Christian University newspaper, quoting Craig Flournoy, an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University, on how the turmoil in journalism today "benefits young people because it allows them to move up the ladder faster."

And finally, check out this article from the Knight Digital Media Center that quotes Jonathan Weber of New West right here in Missoula on the increasing interest in community news sites.

What if we said our punctuation out loud?

Despite my emphasis on how busy I would be this afternoon editing your beat stories, Laura decided to interrupt me. And am I glad she did.

I had the best laugh of the afternoon (not that I was laughing at your stories, of course) while watching this video of Victor Borge reading a story with phonetic punctuation.

Take a break from whatever you are doing and enjoy it.

Thank you, Laura

Saving the Web from becoming a "cesspool"

At the beginning of class today some of us were discussing this article on the state of affairs in the world of journalism today, which a student in another class refer to as "bad news for us journalism students..."

It certainly is a time of transition in the industry, and you will face challenges that my generation never did -- like figuring out a new structure for the whole business to pay for itself and ensure it has a future.

But I take heart from the last couple of paragraphs in the story, that someone very important realizes that without "the trusted news sources readers have relied on . . . the Web itself would quickly become a 'cesspool' of useless information." Some how, somewhere and sometime soon (I hope), someone is going to figure out how to prevent that from happening.

"Depressing . . . but some good stuff"

Laura brought the Steve Smith interview on NPR to my attention. I think her assessment of it is very accurate: "depressing interview for me but he says some good stuff." Worth listening to.