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A journalism student recently asked by email: How do you become a columnist? Do you have any advice? Here is the answer: 1/n
The most important thing is never to forget that reporting is the core of all journalism. That includes column writing. Everybody has an opinion; nobody cares about yours or mine unless that opinion is anchored in knowledge, which means reading and talking to people. 2/n
When I was starting out, cub reporters did a lot of night work, along with covering cops and courts. You learn things on the night shift, and in crime reporting. It's the best possible preparation for any beat, including column writing. 3/n
I spent a decade before going into journalism as a box office office clerk, filing clerk, receptionist, secretary. Best thing that could have happened. Know the people you write for, before you start declaring what government should do with their taxes. 4/n
From Day One I was interested in politics, which meant covering city hall, regional council, school boards. To cover politics, it's vital to be well read in history and philosophy. Politics is politics, whether current or past, municipal or national. 5/n
Politicians are fascinating people. They enjoy power, but want to make things better. You can spend a lifetime exploring the contradiction between those two impulses without ever getting bored. 6/n
Mine is usually a reported column, which means I talk to people and put down what they say. Some talk on the record, and I quote them. Some prefer to stay off the record, so I steal their wisdom and pass it off as my own. They're fine with this, which still amazes me. 7/n
It’s good to be unpredictable. Some columnists have a very fixed world view. Take Issue A, filter through World View, write column. But life is way messier than that. Circumstances alter cases. Situations change. 8/n
Be fair. Don’t hide contradictory evidence. Never make it personal. Never impute motive. (How can you know what they were thinking?) You’ll sometimes fail at this. Keep trying. The first law is that people of goodwill can disagree on questions of public policy. 9/n
Have a good, strong thesis right up at the top. (Nobody wants to read you; you have to make them.) Write to deadline and length, always. Use the Anglo-Saxon side of the language; avoid the Latinate side as much as you can. Cadence is everything. Master parallel construction.10/n
Every now and then, while researching a column, you’ll realize that you just stumbled onto a news story. When that happens, ditch the column and write it as a newser. Remember what I said about reporting? (And congratulations: You’re still in the game.) 11/n
The path today is narrower than when I was starting out. City newspapers have been forced to drastically cut back. Many jobs have disappeared. Night cops, where just about everything a journalist needs to learn gets learned, isn’t an available beat in some newsrooms anymore.12/n
But this is how some in my generation did it. So: Read and read and read. Talk to people and talk to people and talk to people. See the world through the eyes of your readers. Don’t let yourself get into a rut as a writer or a thinker. And never, ever stop being a reporter. -30-
