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| Preface | |
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| A Note to the Student | |
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| On the Path to Becoming a Freelance Writer | |
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| Why Seek the Path of a Freelance Writer? | |
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| What Distinguishes a Good Freelance Writer? | |
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| Where Are You Now? | |
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| So, You Want to Become a Columnist? | |
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| Basic Characteristics of Mass Communication Writing | |
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| Human Nature and Reality | |
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| Journalist and Scientist Methodology | |
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| Being Attentive to Your Audience | |
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| Tracking a Feature: Using Imagination and Reason | |
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| News Interpretations May Differ | |
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| Audiences Dictate Different Vocabularies | |
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| A Word on Ethics and Libel | |
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| Why Is All This Important to You? | |
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| Summary | |
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| Exercises | |
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| On Defining a Newspaper Feature: Dog Bites Man-Dog Dies | |
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| What Exactly Is a News Story? What Is a Feature? | |
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| Long News Stories-Long Feature Stories | |
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| A Follow-up Feature | |
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| Ideas for Features: Where Do They All Come From? | |
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| Episodes in Your Life | |
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| Summary | |
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| Features for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Writing the Newspaper Feature | |
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| Some Feature Story Characteristics: A Recap | |
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| Feature Leads and Analyses | |
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| Short Feature Analyses | |
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| Long Feature Analyses | |
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| Two "Coattail" Features | |
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| Summary | |
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| Features for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Writing Investigative and Survey Features | |
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| Features Based on Surveys | |
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| The Feature Assignment | |
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| About Those Feature Conclusions | |
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| Writing the Investigative Feature | |
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| Summary | |
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| Features for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Magazine Writing and the Reader Interest Plane | |
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| What Is a Magazine Article? | |
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| The Magazine Scene | |
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| Magazine Article Ideas | |
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| Magazine Article Leads | |
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| What's in a Title? | |
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| The Reader Interest Plane | |
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| Charting the Reader Interest Plane | |
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| Summary | |
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| Articles for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Commentary: Editorials, Columns, Essays, Reviews | |
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| Preparation for the Commentary | |
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| Ideas: Again, Where Do They All Come From? | |
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| Three Broad Editorial and Column Categories | |
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| The Essay | |
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| Reviews | |
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| Summary | |
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| Commentaries for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| The Art of Writing: The Echo of Words | |
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| Aspiring to the Level of Poetry | |
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| Discipline | |
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| Variations in Sentence Patterns | |
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| A Triad of Paragraph Patterns | |
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| Triads, Triads, Triads | |
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| Some Common Errors of Commission: Part I | |
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| Some Common Errors of Commission: Part II | |
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| Analogies | |
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| Language and Imagery | |
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| Weaving Figures in the Carpet | |
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| Show, Don't Tell | |
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| Wedding Sense to Sound: The Echoes of Words | |
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| The Importance of Revision | |
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| Putting "Proper Words in Proper Places" | |
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| The Mental Block: Plumbing the Deep Well | |
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| Summary | |
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| Articles for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| The Art of Interviewing: The Only Wheel in Town | |
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| Central to All Media Writing-Interviewing | |
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| Reality and Human Frailty | |
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| A Preliminary Interview | |
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| Preparation for the Interview | |
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| Conducting the Interview | |
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| Role Playing in the Interview | |
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| Still More Role Playing | |
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| The Reluctant Dragon: Part I | |
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| The Reluctant Dragon: Part II | |
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| Off the Record | |
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| Listen to the Answers | |
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| The Last Interview Question | |
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| Telephone Interviews | |
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| Celebrity Interviews | |
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| The Question-and-Answer Interview | |
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| The "Let Them Do the Talking" Interview | |
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| A No-no Interview | |
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| The Mini-profile Interview | |
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| Summary | |
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| Interview for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| The Search for Information | |
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| A Preliminary Primer on Research | |
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| Needed: An Inquiring Mind | |
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| Libraries | |
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| You Can Get Most Anything You Want ... | |
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| Government Offices | |
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| Political and Civic Groups | |
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| Professional Groups | |
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| Private Sources | |
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| Research Organizations | |
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| Summary | |
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| Features for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Focusing, Outlining: Pulling it all Together | |
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| An Introduction to Outlining | |
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| The Short Feature Structure | |
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| The Long Feature Structure | |
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| The Magazine Article Outline | |
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| Outlines for Commentary | |
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| The Value of Outlining | |
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| The Master of the Outline | |
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| Summary | |
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| Features for Discussion | |
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| Exercises | |
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| To Market, to Market: The Business Side of Freelancing, Part I | |
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| Selecting Markets | |
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| Take Five (Markets) | |
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| What Is a Query Letter? | |
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| To Query or Not to Query, That Is the Query | |
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| A Cover Letter Is Needed | |
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| Why Mention Articles in the Editor's Magazine? | |
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| Packaging Your Article: Manuscript Format | |
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| The Editor Accepts | |
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| What Have You Sold? Copyrights | |
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| Rejections: Surviving the Aftermath | |
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| A Wasteland of Literary Rejections | |
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| Multiple Submissions: To Do? Or Not to Do? | |
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| While You Are Waiting: The Editor at Work | |
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| Beware of Editors Bearing Ill Tidings | |
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| Expanding Your Publishing Horizon | |
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| A Final Word to Keep You Writing | |
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| Summary | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Home Again, Home Again: The Business Side of Freelancing, Part II | |
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| Failing to Itemize Costs Taxpayers Money | |
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| Does the IRS Play the Fear Factor? | |
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| Do You Have to Publish to Deduct Expenses? | |
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| Establishing Freelance Writer Status | |
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| What About an Audited Return? | |
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| Should You Employ an Income Tax Consultant? | |
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| A Taste of IRS Guidelines | |
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| Summary | |
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| Exercises | |
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| Common Sense Approach to Punctuation | |
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| Words Commonly Used and Abused: A List to Aid Spelling and Usage | |
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| The Associated Press Top Ten Myths About Rewriting Someone Else's News Reporting | |
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| The Associated Press Copyright Guidelines | |
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| Society of Professional Journalists: Code of Ethics | |
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| The Associated Press on Libel | |
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| Public Relations Society of America: Member Code of Ethics 2000 | |
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| Checklist for Revision/Grading | |
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| Symbol Sheet for Revision/Grading | |
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| Credits | |
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| Index | |