33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Journalism is a succinct, authoritative and encouraging handbook of practical and inspiring tools, techniques and values that journalists, whether they're students or newsroom veterans, need more than ever in our fractured and fact-tossed democracy.
"Excellent for journalists of all ages and experience," says broadcast legend Dan Rather. Written by award-winning journalist and writing teacher and coach Chip Scanlan, former writing program director at The Poynter Institute, the book is a survival manual for journalists at a time when the news industry is in free fall and their profession is under assault.
Journalists are often thrown into their craft with the most rudimentary understanding of what it means to be a journalist in a democracy. Its short, fact-packed chapters remedy that. It can be consulted at your desk or slim enough to fit in a jacket pocket or purse, when you face a particularly thorny problem in the field. Its subjects range from treating sources with respect, being aware of your biases, plagiarism, fabrication, and ethical decision-making to letting fear stop you, combatting writer's block, and step-by-step guides to the writing process, interviewing and revision and the importance of multimedia and data journalism. Journalism is in trouble, but it's not too late to save it-or yourself-by mastering, sharing and implementing the most critical skills any reporter can have: the basics. Based on extensive research, personal experience and interviews with reporters, editors and publishers, 33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Journalism is the essential companion for journalists and their professors and coaches.
