Writing about writing
I met René van der Meer last year when I was in Amsterdam. He writes Aanhetwoord.com, a website about journalists, the working methods and ambitions. It’s a great resource for Dutch writers and I was very pleased when he published the interview he did with me. Of course, we mostly spoke in English during the [...]
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I ran a computer games company for more than ten years. I read thousands of CVs and did hundreds of interviews. Now, I’m writer-in-chief at a technology marketing company, Articulate Marketing. This article is based on first-hand experience as a hirer and as a professional writer. I hope it will help readers maximise their chances [...]
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I’m starting a new feature on Bad Language – an agony column. This is inspired by guilty pleasure Dear Prudence on Slate. If you have any pressing problems, please send them to me and I’ll do my best to answer them. Feel free to add your own advice and comments to this post. (And Digg [...]
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The most popular search term on Google for this site is “How to interview.” I thought it would be fun to subvert the usual ‘how to…’ post with some some top tips for really screwing up an interview. Arrive late. Shows disrespect and/or incompetence. Also it irritates the other person. (See How I trained myself [...]
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When I do an interview I tend to write near-verbatim notes. This is an old habit from my days as a journalist. However, it gets me into some interesting problems when I do it for corporate clients. For example (and without naming any names!): One client who, on hearing that I did this, tried to [...]
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Since I’m being mean to PR companies this week, I had to mention something that happened to me in April. I was writing a supplement for The Independent about eBay. I had put out a request on ResponseSource to find companies who used eBay in their business and a certain PR firm got in touch [...]
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Interviews matter. Interviews are the foundation of good reporting. They are the best way of understanding a complicated situation and seeing it from someone else’s perspective. A wise, old editor of mine used to say “report it out.” She meant ‘go talk to people, don’t rely on your own opinions and judgment.’ It’s a good [...]
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In my fulltime journalist days, I was only asked once to treat a whole interview as ‘off the record.’ When my article came out, the interviewee rang me and complained bitterly that he wasn’t quoted in it at all. This story popped into my mind when I saw this cartoon on the super iScatterlings blog. [...]
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I‘m watching a fantastic program on Channel 4. Tony Benn, the left-wing politician, interviews four of Britain’s top TV and radio journalists. He talks to Jon Humphrys about interrupting interviewees. “I do sometimes get a bit irritated, and a little bit annoyed, and then, if I interrupt unfairly, and I do sometimes, I overdo it [...]
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Iwas talking to the marketing manager of a technology firm last week. She asked me about interviews that go wrong. My experience is (perhaps surprisingly) that very few interviews are wasted. Generally people are interesting. I like talking to experts in any field and I’m pretty curious about things. The best interviews are like really [...]
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Matthew Stibbe is Writer in chief at Articulate Marketing and editor of Golf Hotel Whiskey, the free online magazine for pilots.
Check out my new, free eBook, 30 Days to Better Business Writing, 116 pages of expert tips, advice and help to make you a better writer.
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