New program will give you a writing coach for a day
Writing is a skill, and improving writing is like improving any other skill.
Do you suck at dancing? Nobody would suggest that you buy a book on dancing, or view videos on dancing, or do a Web search on dancing. Now those things might help a little - they certainly couldn't hurt — but if you want to become a better dancer you need to spend some time with someone who is a good dancer. You need to watch that person dance, and get some one-on-one instruction, and then you need to let that person make some suggestions on your dance moves.
That's the way you learn to dance, or to swim, or to cook or to drive.
And it's the way you learn to write, too.
Books and workshops and webinars are good, but there's no substitute for sitting down with a writing coach to talk writing. Not writing in the abstract, but the city council story you just wrote.
The Center wants to help, so we're launching a new contest: Win a Writing Coach for a Day.
The coach is Paul LaRocque, a veteran of more than four decades in writing, reporting, editing and teaching. He has worked at both community papers and metros, and he has written books on the editing process. He has spoken at our workshops, and perhaps most importantly, he's a really nice guy. The kind of guy you'd like to share a cup of coffee with and talk shop.
The contest is simple. You just give us a little information about your paper (your paper's name and address, circulation, and editor or publisher) and tell us why you think you need a writing coach in no more than 500 words.
Your explanation should answer these questions: Why does your newspaper need a writing coach? What are the problems/issues you would like for your coach to address? In what ways would you like to use your coach during his day in your newsroom?
Send that info to us at tccj@tcu.edu. The winner will be announced on Monday, Aug. 2.
If you win, your writing coach will contact you to set up a time to visit your newsroom. And you're not out a cent — except for that cup of coffee. We'll expect you to cover that.
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Bio
Tommy Thomason, the founding director of the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism, has left that position to become the founding director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism. Thomason began his career in journalism in the early 1970s with the Associated Press, working as a sportswriter in Arkadelphia and Little Rock, Ark. He has also worked in public relations in Dallas and as a copyeditor for several regional magazines.
Dr. Thomason has taught journalism at five universities and has been at TCU since 1984. In 1987, he was one of the winners of a national Teaching Award in Journalism Ethics from the Poynter Institute of Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla.
He has been one of the nation's most active researchers on the media's treatment of crime victims. His research has been presented at both regional and national symposia and has cited in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, Presstime and the Columbia Journalism Review.
Dr. Thomason was co-director of the first national symposium on crime victims and the news media, which was televised nationally on C-SPAN, and a symposium on coverage of sex crimes, Sex in the Media: The Public's Right to Know vs. the Victim's Right to Privacy.
He maintains an interest in writing at all academic levels, and frequently speaks to elementary school teachers about writing workshops for children. He is the author of More than a Writing Teacher: How to Become a Teacher Who Writes, Writer to Writer: How to Conference Young Authors, Write On Target: How to Prepare Young Writers for Success on Writing Achievement Tests, Absolutely Write: Teaching the Craft Elements of Writing and Writeaerobics: 40 Exercises to Improve Your Writing Teaching. A new book, Tools, not Rules: Teaching Grammar in the Writing Classroom, is scheduled for publication in 2009.
He is listed in Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in American Education, Men of Achievement, Who's Who in the World and Dictionary of International Biography.
