Jerry D. Russell dot Com

No, it’s not the name of a law firm, it’s the fundamentals of good journalism.  If you plan on writing any thype of journalistic article, you’ll need these questions need to be answered.  It’s a simple formula that has worked in journalism for a very, very long time, but that some reporters, especially on the Internet, seem to have forgotten.

Let me break the “Five W’s and an H” down for you.

Who: Who is the article about?  Is it a person, an institution, a government body?

What: What event are you covering?  What makes this newsworthy? What is the point of this article?

When: When did this event take place, or when will it take place? (In the old days of news, this would have been the dateline.) Without this little piece of information, the story is useless to the reader.
Where: Where did the event take place, or where will it take place?  Obviously, if you are reporting something happening in Hoboken New Jersey, it probably won’t have a lot of impact on someone in San Diego California, but may have significant impact on someone in New York.

Why: Why did this happen, or why is it taking place?  Knowing that it is happening loses a lot if it’s importance if you don’t know why it is happening.

How:  How did this event or these events take place?  How did they play out?  How was a problem resolved?

As you can see, these are pretty straightforward guidelines.  In journalism all of these questions should be answered as close to the beginning of the article as possible and it is recommended that they are answered in the first two paragraphs.

I’ll let you mull this over for a bit and come back later today with an example of a short article written in this format.  Until then,

Happy Writing!

Jerry Helpful Resources, Tools of the Trade

Let’s face it, a lot of online book reviews are done by people who have absolutely no training in writing, let alone how to write a review.  If you’ve ever come across one of these reviews, you’ll know it.  I’ve personally seen reviews with a 4.5 star (out of five) rating, but to read the review you would think that the reviewer despised the story.

You really need to think these things through before you hit “publish”, don’t you?

I just had the responsibility of writing a review myself.  In doing so I stumbled on this article at Schoolastic by Rod Philbrick.  It is hands down the most informative I’ve ever read.  Give it a read, you’ll be glad you did!

Jerry Helpful Resources, Tools of the Trade, writing for the web

Getting writing jobs is a whole lot simpler to do if you are known for your work.  While there are no shortcuts to gaining a reputation, there are methods that you can employ to make the process a bit more predictable.

Maki, the enigmatic voice behind Dosh Dosh, a blog dedicated to helping you make money online, spells out these steps in his article How to use the Web to Build a Powerful Reputation In Any Industry. I’ve gone over this article several times, and as a 20 year veteran of the Internet game, I’m going to say that I agree with his insight on this one.  If you follow along with the steps he’s outlined, you’ll have little problem gaining name recognition within 12 months time, if not sooner, and let’s face it…  As a Writer, your name is everything!

If you’re looking to become a power writer for the web, Dosh Dosh is one of those sites you just must have in your RSS Reader or bookmarks.  He really will help you make oney online.  He’s helped me to do so already!

Jerry Blog Spotlight, Helpful Resources, Must Reads, writing for the web Blogging, Career building, social media

I’ve mentioned the need for frequent backups here before. If you don’t have your work backed up somewhere safely off of your computer, you stand the very real risk of losing all of it in some strange, one-in-a-million computer crash or hard disk failure. Even those of us using systems that aren’t Windows driven have the problem of hardware failure. Just running a Macintosh or Linux machine can’t save us from that.

Then of course there’s the issue of storage. Backing up to CD or DVD is nice, but if you’re like me and buy in bulk, there’s nothing to protect that fresh backup from scratches, dust buildup of loss. What’s the use of having all your work backed up to DVD if the DVD is lying on the desktop becoming damaged or unusable?

The simple solution is to go and get some attractive DVD storage cases that can be labeled neatly and placed near your office or workspace.  think of it as a filing system for your important data, and keep up with it!  weekly is best, but even once a month backups are better than nothing.

speaking of which, where’d I put those DVD’s?

Jerry Helpful Resources, other articles, thanks! backups, practices, workflow

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting some business cards for my different blogs. Up until now, that concept was on the back burner, but as of today, I think I’m going to go ahead and get some. Oorprint is offering 100 FREE business cards for bloggers, including their Web 2.0 series, which includes a tag cloud at the bottom. All you pay is shipping and handling for 100 cards you can passs out when discussing a topic that turns to your blog. (and don’t they all?)

My personal favorite is a shocking orange number, but since i don’t own a shocking orange blog, I suppose I’ll have to pick something else. Ah well.

Check them out!

Jerry Announcements, Helpful Resources, Just for Fun, other articles, thanks! Announcements, Site News