By Mugumo Munene
Reporter, The Nation
Nairobi, Kenya
Hosted by The Kansas City Star

A. Professional journalistic skills which will be helpful to my newsroom

1. A closer rapport between copy editors and reporters
2. A higher involvement of photo and graphics editors in planning for stories

The two collaborative practices listed above, I have learned, lead to a better product as opposed to leaving it to a copy editor, say to edit and decide how to illustrate a story with little input from the reporter and photographers/graphic artists.

In my experience at The Kansas City Star, the photo editor/photographers and the graphics editor are a very important piece of the news/story planning process where they contribute thoughts on how best to illustrate stories. It saves editing time where an editor doesn’t have to say; “These are not the kind of pictures I expected.” They also bring picture and graphics offerings to the table and, as it sometimes turns out, there are pictures which can inspire great stories or, elevate a story’s usage to say, the day.

On one occasion, I co-authored a story with Kansas City Star Senior Writer and Editor Steve Paul. I had assumed that being the accomplished writer he is, Steve’s work would not be reviewed as vigorously if I had written it alone, an upcoming journalist in a foreign newsroom. I was wrong. The vigorous editing process, involving very helpful discussions with, and suggestions from our story editor, helped to elevate it from a features section lead to the front page. Paul also showed me how to make a story rich and riveting through multiple sources on the same subject while working on the Greg Carroll project. (http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/216838.html)

Discussions through the editing process are more meaningful apart from a situation where the editor is the “arresting officer”, the “prosecutor” and the “judge” as far as editing copy and illustrating a story goes. A gathering of editorial, photographic and graphic minds undoubtedly leads to a great newspaper.

B. What I learned for personal application

The first important skill I wanted to improve on more meaningful and more resourceful interviews. I was able to take off with that by shadowing and learning from the accomplished writers that I found here at The Star.

One of the important things I have learned since my first days of the Fellowship is to ask all manner of questions. At times, the most peripheral question in an interview could well source the story’s centerpiece. As University of Maryland School of Journalism Professor Rafael Lorente aptly put it during our commencement seminar in Washington D.C. in March: “There are no stupid questions, only stupid journalists.”

Asking all questions that come to mind related to the interview subject is even more important for a foreign journalist because, as I found out, there are general references that a society or a nation may understand that may carry tons of innocuous meaning and that whose deeper meaning could easily escape. It helps to ask and ask again. It is important to cultivate and keep the habit.

While at The Kansas City Star, I would, in my spare time, write some articles for my home newsroom at The Nation newspapers in Nairobi. On one occasion while interviewing a Kenyan living in the U.S. who had what I thought to be outstanding qualities for a profile, I stumbled on the golden moment in an after-the-interview question. I had completed the interview of this woman who had a chain of degrees in psychology and theology but decided to become a nurse at 53 years of age without asking her what really inspired her into starting all over and on a different path. She had told me of her love for nursing and the challenges that a 53-year-old has starting a new career and going to school with girls the age of her daughters. I had forgotten to ask one question and probably the most obvious: what made you love nursing so much that you decided to start all over? When I did, the question gave the story much more meaning. It had started the day she was born. It was a priceless piece of information I didn’t have when I first finished the interview. But I kept thinking through the story and I sure knew I had missed something.

The second important point that I wanted to improve on and have is the power of description. And what better teacher than Mr. Tom French, who took us for writing classes at Poynter Institute. I read and re-read the stories he had told about 13-year-olds and was amazed at how description retained the greatness of story-telling to the last drop. See: 4 UR Eyes Only http://www.sptimes.com/2003/webspecials03/13/day1/page1.shtml Mr. French’s teachings and writing are practical and inspiring and I have become an ardent reader of his writing since.

Along with Mr. French, the teachings and writings of Mr. Roy Clark (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78) and Mr. Chip Scanlan (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=125693) helped me to understand the value of thoughtful story constructions and different style of delivery. They added on to a priceless piece of writing gifted to me by one of The Kansas City Star’s editors Bill Luening titled: "The Rule of Thumb". It is a manual (not available in the market or online) developed by Mr Luening over the years he has written and edited.

Here is what Mr Luening’s introduction says in part (used with permission):
“I wish someone had given me a little book like this when I started writing newspaper copy. Instead, I spent two decades stumbling along by trial and error. Many trials, many errors (some quite breathtaking).

For guidance, I had editors, mostly former reporters, whose knowledge of the craft was as pathetic as mine. Writing critiques, when they occurred, were structured around two words: “sucks,” as in, “Geez, that sucks, kid” and “sound,” as in “It just doesn’t sound right, know what I mean?”

“We never talked about the rhythms of prose, or parallelism or verb choices or surprise or writing for the senses. We never talked about them, in fact, because we lacked the vocabulary to do so. Writing to us was something magical and mysterious, much as fire was to Neanderthals.

Today, older and enlightened, we realize that writing is not magic but an act of intellect. It has principles and rules and techniques that anyone—even the most dense among us—can learn and use.”

Out of listening to and reading these greats and making observations about what others write, I realize that the inverted pyramid style of writing has a major potential pitfall: numerous journalist stop thinking after the lead and first two or three paragraphs and simply churn out what else is left, without the effort of keeping the reader’s interest sustained through the story. In this day and age when Internet, TV and radio break the news, I have come to learn that it is incumbent on print journalists whose stories come hours later, usually the following morning, to learn how to attract and retain reader interest throughout a story.

There was nothing more satisfying than meeting with a couple of readers who said to me, “I read your story to the last line and was wishing for more.”

When readers begin to enjoy writing to the last word, when we can keep it good to the last drop, then writing acquires its true meaning.

C. How to share

The most important group of people I wish to share my experiences with is my bosses. I anticipate no problems here because they actively supported my Fellowship to start with. We have been in constant communication since and I’m sure they are eager to see the benefits of the support they gave.

The practice at the Nation Media Group is that journalists returning from a Fellowship or other similar experiences write reports to their seniors. That’s in addition to meetings at which the journalist is able to expound on his experiences.

As regards my peers, there is a three-way approach. I wish to share reading materials that I’m taking back with me so that they can have a glimpse of my experience. Secondly, I plan to conduct up to five workshops for writers with the support of my seniors and the three AFPF alumni in Nairobi. These workshops are especially designed to reach writers in provincial capitals.

I will study my work schedule when I return and fit in these sharing activities and hope to complete the formal part by the November 15 deadline given by the Fellowship. However, informal sharing continues long after the formal deadline.

The measures of success are done by endeavoring to improve the latest story I work on. I have plenty of reading materials and Internet resources I can look into to keep improving what I do.

The Fellowship has been a great and rewarding experience having interacted and worked with such accomplished writers both at The Kansas City Star and at the Poynter Institute whose works I can follow through the Internet as an inspiration.