Feb 16 2009
More on Sidebars
A few of you have had questions about the assignment. Here’s some answers:
1. Yes, it’s ok to run short, as long as the piece shows that you’ve got a good command of your subject — if you write a tight, well-researched 500 words, that’s fine. If you’ve clearly done only minimal research and the length of the story reflects that, then that’s another issue.
2. You can’t interview people, but you can quote from research, texts, web fourms, etc. Here’s an example with quotes from a survey.
3. Yes, it’s true that some sidebars contain interviews. But the exercise here is to try to write an engaging piece without one. Some of you are detailing a process, others are writing about the history of a place, explaining a court case, describing a medical condition…
