Pull your next article ideas from today’s inauguration

By Terreece M. Clarke

The world’s eyes are on the United States today as we swear in our first African-American President. As I watched history and prayed morning sickness wouldn’t strike in the middle of it, I found myself thinking several things. One of which was: “That would make a good article.” What can I say, I’m a writer and I find inspiration where I can!

Let’s look at some of the themes and occurrences of today and shape them into article ideas using popular categories that you can further break down to fit your niche:

Responsibility

This was a big theme in President’s Obama address and responsibility can fall into many categories:

• Kids and Family – Responsibility and kids, Teaching responsibility, Role modeling responsibility
• Green – Using your home/office/school energy sources wisely
• Financial – Steps toward financial responsibility, What’s standing between you and financial responsibility?
• Work – Get your boss to give you more responsibility at work

Service

• Kids and Family – Ways to get your kids involved in volunteering, Finding volunteer opportunities in your area, Balancing volunteerism and career interests
• Green – Green volunteering opportunities
• Work – How to start a volunteer program at your company

Other themes:

• Health – Know what to do when someone has a seizure
• Fashion

Did today inspire any article ideas for you?

How Well Do You Fact Check?

by Terreece M. Clarke

The BEST writing “how-to” ever!.

Our first job as non-fiction content writers/journalists is to present the truth fairly and accurately. Whether it’s on the web, in glossies or newsprint we are obligated to uphold a certain standard. It is what makes people trust what we say and what makes them look to us when they need information.

Most of us do our jobs well. We seek out knowledgeable sources and we try to stay as objective as possible. But how well researched is that knowledgeable source?

You’re writing an article on clothes detergent – the best kind for a large household. You smartly bypass detergent companies because they obviously have a vested interest and instead set up a meeting with a textiles or hospitality service professor from a respected university. What they have to say will be gold right? Maybe not. Thoroughly check out your expert. Did they work for a detergent company before turning to academia? If they’ve completed research on cleaning agents, who sponsored the study? What’s their stance on environmentally safe cleaners? Depending on your experts ties to industries, you may get a less than objective viewpoint.

Does this mean you have to ax a source because they have certain leanings on a subject – no, but there are times when those leanings should be disclosed to the readers.

Before the election, when pundits weighed in on which candidate was telling the truth and what information was misrepresented, they would often relate to the audience “this person, a democratic strategist” or “commentator so-and-so, owner of conservative think tank blah, blah.”

When a study hits the newswire, always ask who sponsored the study, the information should be easy to find. When you look for sources foundations and associations always sound great, but investigate the opinions or industries the organization represents.

For example, owners of social networking web sites will say social networking is the future of all internet activity and the leader of the National Association for Seat Belt Liberation will likely say that seat belt laws are a sinister plot by the auto and insurance industry and is a violation of civil liberties.

So be a Max and not a Bloo and fact check!

Break the election tension & boost your productivity

By Terreece M. Clarke

If you have not voted yet do not start reading this column. You are to immediately get yourself to a polling location.

Tension, excitement and curiosity is high around the country today as Americans vote and wait to hear the news of who will be the next president of the United States. Some of you are trying in vain to stay on task, but your finger keeps taking you to news sites to get updates and you’re having a hard time not following the updates on Twitter. There’s two ways to get past this time until the results begin to roll in and stay productive – volunteer with a campaign or organize your writing space.

Volunteering

It’s never too late to drop by a local campaign office and offer up your services. You may find yourself given the task of calling people to remind them of their polling location, helping at polling precincts to make the wait in line easier by handing out water and chatting people up. So how does all of this increase your writing productivity?

Sources and ideas. Writers have always sought the masses when it’s time to come up with new ideas and angles on articles and getting in there with the election crowd is no different. Where else can you find people of vastly different biographical backgrounds standing together in one place with nothing else to do, but talk to you? Fellow volunteers can also be a source of article inspiration or a resource that could be utilized at a later date.

Get Organized

Can you see your desk? Maybe I should be specific, can you see something besides the legs of your desk? If not it’s time to get with it. Take a day away from the laptop and organize your paperwork. Go through your ideas folder and if you don’t have one, make some up and separate them according to category. Update and fill out your editorial calendar. Compile your invoices and stubs – tax time will be here before you realize it. Sort through the tons of reading materials – magazines, trade pubs, etc. and keep only what you know you’ll need for references. Locate and catalogue your clips and test all of your pens getting rid of those that don’t work. Gather, organize and label your notes from interviews and research. Read more