Discusses how weekly supermarket tabloids report and write their stories, the relationship tabloid writing has to "straight" journalistic practice, and how tabloid writers relate to such journalistic tenets as objectivity and credibility. Finds that tabloid journalism belongs on the same storytelling continuum as daily newspaper…

Remarks on the "odd" headlines relating to sex in Connecticut, noted as being the only state having a law that bans the use of contraceptives. Cites many incidences of false headlines, in which the body of the article invalidates the headline. States that examples include "92% of young men have AIDS virus"--a gross distortion…

According to recent statistics from the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, Blacks hold just 6.2 percent of newspaper sports department jobs--a startling disparity when considering that 78 percent of NBA players and 66 percent of NFL players are Black. How does this disparity affect the coverage of top…

Journalists' knowledge of news is finally reducible to their commonsensical understanding of it, which is to say that common sense is not still another way of dealing with how journalists know news but instead the very foundation on which that knowledge rests. Common sense does not simply entail some shared cognitive facility that enables people…

Journalist discusses why he became interested in journalism and how the writing of Ernie Pyle and Ernest Hemingway may serve as models for beginning writers. (DF)

Reports that the position in a news story of biasing information about a robbery suspect had little effect on judgments of the suspect's innocence or guilt. (GT)

A count of the characters in two combined groups of local and United Press International news stories suggests that the frequency ranking of the letters used most in typesetting is ETAOIN RSHLDCU, rather than the traditional ETAOIN SRHLDCU or the order reported by I. E. Fang in 1966. (GT)

Provides copyreading guidelines for the reporter, the typist, the section editor, and the copy editor; includes a chart of copyreading symbols. (GT)

Discusses how to use sidebar stories to cut down very long stories. Presents several examples of effective sidebars from school newspapers. (RS)

Finds that readers of a news report featuring extreme exemplar distortion considered carjacking a more serious problem than those who read reports featuring minimally, mildly, or substantially distorted exemplars. Finds that subjects overestimated the incidence of extreme outcome but did not differ in evaluations of newsworthiness, importance, or…

Argues for exposing journalism students to a standard stylebook like the "AP Stylebook." Notes that, besides covering aspects of style, the stylebook is a source of useful information and may stimulate worthwhile discussion as it addresses issues of "political correctness." (SR)

Notes that writing compelling news stories about abstract topics is always challenging, especially for student journalists. Suggests showing the impact of an abstract concept, giving the story a human face, providing an understandable scale, and "drawing a picture." (RS)

Juliette Goldman and Christine Collier have recently proposed that the editor of "Sex Education" should adopt a policy of replacing the phrase "opposite sex" with "other sex" in all published articles, on the grounds that the word "opposite" has connotations of hostility or adversity. In this brief reply I…

To determine how journalists at two metropolitan newspapers view good writing and writing coaches, questionnaires were distributed to all full-time newsroom personnel (including journalists and editors) involved in preparation of news at two large dailies under the same ownership in the same city, in July, 1986. The total number of respondents was…

Interviews rookie reporter Rob Karwath, recent graduate of the University of Kansas journalism school, concerning his education, school newspaper experience, internships, and current job at the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. (SR)