* Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click here to see previous installments.) Today’s question: How do you decide which meetings/conferences to attend?
Posts Tagged ‘Ask TON’
Ask TON: How do you juggle assignments?
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on April 2nd, 2013
* * Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click here to see previous installments.) Today’s question: How many stories are you working on at one time, and how do you manage your assignments so that you’re not over or under worked?
Ask TON: Why blog?
Posted by Christie Aschwanden on March 19th, 2013
* Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click here to see previous installments.) Today’s question: Why blog? It takes a lot of time and energy that you might otherwise spend on higher paid work. What do you get out of blogging? Jennifer Frazer, author of the blog The Artful Amoeba at Scientific American: [...]
Ask TON: What does a science writing master’s program get you?
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on December 3rd, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: What does one learn in a science writing master’s program? What are the main elements of a typical curriculum? What are the benefits of doing such a degree? The drawbacks? Is there any hope of graduating without [...]
Ask TON: Planning reporting
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on October 31st, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: I feel like I waste a lot of time when I’m reporting for feature articles — feeling hazy about what I’m aiming to learn, asking the wrong questions, having to go back and ask a lot [...]
Cramming for the Slam
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann on October 24th, 2012
Few tasks bring more stress and anxiety to freelancers than pitching a story, except coming face-to-face with an editor at a meeting and pitching a story on the spot — in front of an audience. With ScienceWriters2012 and the Pitch Slam in just a few days, we decided to help freelancers prepare by offering up [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft 
Tags: Ask TON, Elements-of-Craft, Erdmann, Ferber, Maher, McKenna, Pitches, Pitching, ScienceWriters 
2 Comments »Ask TON: How to fact-check
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on October 9th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: What is the appropriate way to go about fact-checking your own stories? Is there a specific method that a person should use? If so, what is it, exactly? Also, when in the process is the right [...]
Ask TON: Is this draft too long?
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on September 13th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: How strictly do editors expect writers to stick to the “10% rule”? How far over the assigned word count is acceptable? Do editors appreciate seeing some of that extraneous material and consider it part of their [...]
Ask TON: Repitching killed stories
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on August 29th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: I recently had a feature story killed just before publication. I retain the rights to it. However, I’m not sure of the etiquette and ethics of selling a killed story to a new editor. What’s the most [...]
Ask TON: Organizing notes
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on June 6th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Wondering what Ask TON is? See here for background information and our introductory post. Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: I have a confession. I don’t really know how to take good research notes. When I’m reporting feature stories, I end up with [...]
Ask TON: Using quotes
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on May 8th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Wondering what Ask TON is? See here for background information and our introductory post. Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: A recent NASW post quotes a Slate editor as saying, “We hate quotations at Slate. We almost never use quotes. They don’t do anything. [...]
Ask TON: Finding international stories
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on March 7th, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Wondering what Ask TON is? See here for background information and our introductory post. Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: I’d like to do more international travel as part of my work. I don’t really know how to begin finding stories in [...]
Posted in Ask TON Tags: Ask TON, Borrell, Field Reporting, Finding Ideas, Fox, Graber, International, Pitches, Rosner, Sohn, Stone 1 Comment »