20 tips for writing great journalism

Tips, tricks and gold standards.

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As I’ve been teaching graduate students in journalism, I’ve been noticing certain common writing issues across the board. I teach feature-writing, so this post is specifically about that, although many of these points may work for news and other writing.

Here is some of the advice I’ve given to my students, in no particular order:

Show us where events happen. It may sound weird, but I want my readers to smell where I’ve been. Oftentimes, you can use photos to recall things you may not have remembered — was the wall made of bricks or cement? Or you can look up the weather for any day to describe the temperature — was it sticky hot? Storming?

Don’t make readers do the work: The more transparent you are, the more readers trust you. How did you get this information? And, if you introduce an idea but never explain it, readers are left scratching their heads.

Don’t be overly formal: Avoid words like “whilst” and “amidst.” We’re not in the 18th century. Also, say your sentences out loud (or have Siri or whatever read it to you). You’ll hear what’s stilted.