From sj-approval@world.std.com Sun Feb 11 08:05:56 2001 Received: from sgi04-e.std.COM (sgi04-e.std.com [199.172.62.134]) by world.std.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id IAA12364 for ; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 08:05:52 -0500 (EST) Received: from europe.std.com (europe.std.com [199.172.62.20]) by sgi04-e.std.COM (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id IAA3931240 for ; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 08:03:24 -0500 (EST) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by europe.std.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id IAA29484 for sj-outgoing; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 08:05:43 -0500 (EST) Received: from sgi04-e.std.COM (sgi04-e.std.com [199.172.62.134]) by europe.std.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id IAA28222 for ; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 08:03:54 -0500 (EST) Received: from world.std.com (world-f.std.com [199.172.62.5]) by sgi04-e.std.COM (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id IAA3932819 for ; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 08:01:26 -0500 (EST) Received: from hotmail.com (f159.law4.hotmail.com [216.33.149.159]) by world.std.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id IAA11219 for ; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 08:03:53 -0500 (EST) Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 05:03:52 -0800 Received: from 152.163.195.194 by lw4fd.law4.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Sun, 11 Feb 2001 13:03:52 GMT X-Originating-IP: [152.163.195.194] From: "Jeremy Moore" To: sj@world.std.com Subject: Re: Covering the arts Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 13:03:52 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 11 Feb 2001 13:03:52.0558 (UTC) FILETIME=[152450E0:01C0942B] Sender: sj-approval@world.std.com Precedence: list Reply-To: sj@europe.std.com



Hi Jennifer,

Do you know anyone in the music department? You say you have a hard time finding writers to cover things, but I'm wondering if you've looked outside your circle of writer friends. I know when I worked student papers as an editor, and needed writers, the first place I looked was my journalism class. Often they were already over committed.

However, if you went to the music department--I imagine you have a friend there or at least an aquaintance, and said "hey you know about the Piano, how'd you like to write 400 words for the school paper on tonight's performance?" They would probably jump at the chance because they likely have opinions about the performance already, and would be thrilled if they could put a megaphone to their opinions for the rest of the school. Everyone likes to feel important, and if someone's opinions are important enough to be considered for the school paper, they must have some value.

Of course now we run into the problem of will their writing suck. It probably will. But it's your job as an editor to develop writers and edit. At the very least even if it's not gripping prose it will be technically accurate, which will solve your dilemma.

Hope that helps,

Jeremy Moore

P.S. While I have all your attention, I wanted to tell you about my website: www.for-god-and-country.com. It is a political commentary site devoted to covering national issues from a Biblical perspective. I hope you'll all make time to stop by and check it out, and maybe add your voice to the discussion in the reader's forum.

From: Jennifer B

Reply-To: sj@europe.std.com
To: sj@world.std.com
Subject: Covering the arts
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 12:07:35 -0800 (PST)
Hi everyone.
I am the arts and entertainment editor of my college
newspaper, and I am frequently faced with a shortage
of writers willing to cover on-campus events like
concerts, theatre and dance, so I do a lot of
reviewing myself.
I can easily cover dance (I've been doing it all my
life) and theatre doesn't bother me, but when it comes
to music I freak. Since I don't have any musical
background, I don't know any of the terms to describe
a musician's actions. I can listen to a beautiful
night of piano music but have NO IDEA how to write a
400 word review of the performance.
This said, I was just wondering if anyone else out
there has the same dilemma or writes about music
another way. I'm interested to hear how others
approach reviewing things they have no idea about!
--Jen
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