Author Archives: Mallary Tenore Tarpley

I’ve heard my friends spew off lots of deal breakers — one of my friends has a whole list of them — but I’ve never thought of deal breakers in terms of books. One of The New York Times‘ most e-mailed stories this week is a piece by Rachel Donadio about how books play intoContinue reading “Books: Deal Breakers or Deal Makers?”

I’ve been making paper cranes, turtles, flowers and hearts for 10 years now. I’ve got boxes of the paper creations all over my house back in Massachusetts. A couple of weeks ago, I got out my origami paper and started making dozens of cranes and turtles while watching TV. By the end of the night,Continue reading “Launching an Origami Paper Airplane — From Space”

A chart showing how many people have read my blog throughout the past month. Readership spiked significantly after I did some live blogging at the Nieman narrative journalism conference. This was in large part because my blog was linked to on Poynter Online. I’ve caught the blogging bug. This month, I live blogged at aContinue reading “Blogging Tips from a Budding Blogger”

Lots of news organizations have created Twitter pages, and some have created multiple pages for  for news about business, traffic, entertainment, etc. I just noticed that similar to The New York Times, The (Portland) Oregonian has quite a few Twitter pages: Oregonian news: http://twitter.com/oregonian Oregonian traffic: http://twitter.com/OregonianTraff Oregonian sports: http://twitter.com/OregonianSports Oregonian biz: http://twitter.com/OregonianBiz Oregonian entertainment:Continue reading “On Twitter: RSS-fed v. Manually Updated Posts”

(Excerpt from Poynter’s new diversity blog. Read more …) My editor, Bill Mitchell, asked me a few months ago to start thinking about how Poynter Online might improve its coverage of diversity. He knew I had written a four-part series about diversity for my college newspaper, The Cowl, last year and that the subject ofContinue reading “Poynter’s New Diversity Blog: Diversity at Work”

Sitting in on a workshop at the Nieman narrative journalism conference with St. Petersburg Times reporter Tom French and editor Mike Wilson. Good examples of narrative writing on deadline: St. Petersburg Times story, “Brazen Meets Kind in a Courtroom,” by Colleen Jenkins. Reporter saw this story in the courtroom. She didn’t name the characters. AsContinue reading “‘Narrative on Deadline’”

I just sat in on Roy Peter Clark‘s three-hour writing workshop at the Nieman narrative conference. I’ve heard Roy, my colleague at Poynter, talk about his “Writing Tools” book a dozen or more times, but I still learned something new today. Here are some of the tools I found most helpful: — “Get the nameContinue reading “’50 Writing Tools in Three Hours’”

I’m here at the Nieman narrative journalism conference, blogging during some of the sessions I attend. I’m sitting in on Jacqui Banaszynski‘s tips on interviewing. Here are some highlights: — When interviewing, know your purpose. — Interview people in their natural habitat as opposed to a coffee shop. — Turn every subject into a storyteller.Continue reading “‘Ten (Not So Secret) Tips for Effective Interviewing’”

I’m here at the Nieman narrative journalism conference in Boston, sitting in on this morning’s keynote speech, “Creating An Investigative Narrative,” with Washington Post writers Anne Hull and Dana Priest. They are explaining the story behind their award winning Walter Reed series. It’s my first time blogging live from a conference, so bear with me.Continue reading “‘Creating An Investigative Narrative’”