This is a blog you can read.

So, the cold open of The Office this week (where Stanley drinks Jim’s orange juice and doesn’t notice) reminded me of my history. Back in the day, I hated coffee with a passion. Shocking, I know. Eventually I got over it, mostly because I found a place to get super cheap coffee that had more caffeine than soda. Being the thrifty college student I was, I overcame my aversion and forced myself to drink it. And now I can’t get enough of the stuff.

But that’s not the point of this blog post. The point of this post is that for years I pretended to like coffee. I’m not 100% sure why, but I think it’s because I’ve always been really picky about food, and it was really embarrassing to have yet another thing that I didn’t like. It might be dumb and dorky, but drinking coffee is almost a social norm. I mean, you don’t ask a date to go get a cola with you. (Well, theoretically. I actually might.) To combat this, I devised some methods of making it seem like I drank coffee without ever having to touch the stuff.

Get a coffee cup, preferably a reusable one with a lid. You can put whatever the heck you want in there. I used to come to work all the time with a mug filled with orange juice or some sort of tea. Just make sure you close the lid when you’re not drinking, and badaboom. Instant coffee cred.

Put soda/grape juice in a coffee mug. Actually any dark colored beverage will work. This one’s great after there’s been a party and there’s still three bottles of Coke in the fridge (did this happen at anyone else’s work?). No one, unless they’re some sort of psycho coffee-poser detective, is going to run around sniffing your drink to make sure it’s actually real coffee. And, once the foam goes away, cola does look an awful lot like coffee.

Order hot chocolate, just so you can come to work/class/wherever with a coffee cup from the local starbucks/gas station/laundromat that serves coffee.

Order a latte. This one’s more for people who are going out for coffee with someone. I know it involves coffee, but the taste is nowhere near as strong as straight coffee, and you can sip at it while you talk.

Never ever own up to disliking coffee. If you’re going out for coffee, order hot chocolate or tea and just say “I don’t really feel like coffee today.”

Granted, there’s really no reason other than minuscule (and occasional) social stigma to ever fake drinking coffee. But, that’s never stopped me from trying to be cool. (Yes. Coolness is relational to coffee consumption.)

Now that I’ve posted my writing tips, I thought I’d cover that important facet, the bane of the newspaper writer’s existence, that thing that copy editors have nightmares about. What I’m talking about, of course, is AP style. Of course, I can’t cover everything in a blog entry (that’s what the stylebook‘s for, silly), but after a semester as a copy editor, I can fill you in on some of the most basic mistakes.

Dates You don’t need to put in the day of the week and the date. Choose one or the other. I usually would put in the day of the week if it’s in the next three days, otherwise put the month. If you’re writing for the web, just stick with the date. Also, you don’t need to spell out the month unless it’s standing alone.

His birthday is Sept. 22.

His birthday is in September.

it’s/its This one’s an easy mistake to make. Just remember, you don’t need an apostrophe unless you’re contracting “it is”

It’s a shame we don’t know its name

Less/Fewer If you can count the thing, use fewer. If you can’t, use less.

I have less flour than you.

I have fewer flowers than you.

That Try not to use it. You can tighten up your writing a lot by just deleting it whenever possible.

Web site This is how you refer to a link on the Internet. Also, capitalize Internet.

Years You don’t need an apostrophe when referring to an era.

Yeah, it’s like she’s still in the 1960s

States This is one you need to check EVERY time you’re not sure. AP state abbreviations are not the same as the Post Office’s, so double check to make sure you’ve got it right.

Times Use a.m. and p.m. after numbers except for noon and midnight. You don’t need to write out the minutes if the time is on the hour.

They played our song at midnight.

They played our song at 12:10 a.m.

They played our song at 1 a.m.

Quotes Whenever you quote someone, you always format it “________ said.” Never use “said ___________,” “___________ stuttered,” “_________ rapped,” etc. Also, for the most part, punctuation goes within the quote marks. The exception is the question mark, but only when the article is asking the question and not the speaker. In that case, it’s usually better to reword it anyway.

“My Chemical Romance is not emo,” frontman Gerard Way said.

Did David really say “You are the most depressing person I’ve ever met”?

I know I’ve missed lots, but these are the ones that I remember seeing a lot. If you can think of more, comment, and I’ll see if I can eventually do another blog on this. Please forgive any mistakes I’ve made. I seem to only find motivation to blog when I’m dead tired and should be sleeping instead.

So, I’ve been writing for my school paper for the past year and a half, and I thought I’d share some things I have learned about writing to any others out there who are looking for help. These mostly apply to writing news/feature-type articles and are mostly based on my observations and things I’ve found to help me.

1. Determine early who you want to interview and make appointments. I will admit it, I hate just calling people up to ask them for an interview. When I first started writing for the paper, I was terrified of talking to people for interviews, but I found that it was a lot easier if I made an appointment and was expected. I’ve found that people tend to give much better interviews if they have a chance to prepare and think about what they want to say in their interview. This is especially true if you’re interviewing students who maybe don’t have as much practice talking to reporters as a professor or public relations person. For me, I used to get my stories on Monday, send out an email that night to whoever I was supposed to contact. I would usually hear back from them by Tuesday or Wednesday, set up an interview for Thursday or Friday, and have my story written by Saturday morning. I realize this wouldn’t work for a breaking news story, but I mostly wrote feature-type stories. It also gave me time to research the topic, which brings me to:
2. Make sure you know what your story is about. Stories turn out much better if you have at least a working knowledge of what’s going on in them beforehand. You don’t have to become an expert on the subject, but if you’re writing about an upcoming play, at least google it before your interview. If you have no clue what’s going on, a lot of times your interviewee will get really annoyed with you.
3. Write down your questions ahead of time, but be willing to go with the flow. This is also where knowing your topic pays off. If you know what’s going on, you are definitely more able to ask relevant questions. This does not mean that you should only ask the questions on your list. Listen to what the person you’re interviewing is saying, and you might get something unexpected or even an idea for another story.
4. Bring a recorder. If you can get your hands on one, a recorder is very helpful, especially if you are handling a touchy issue or something you’re not familiar with. Taking notes is definitely a good skill to learn, but it’s a lot easier to glean quotes from a recording. Also, notes are subjective, because it’s what you, the reporter, hears. With a recording, you can verify that what you took away from the interview was what the interviewee intended.
5. Be as polite as possible. While this might seem obvious, it’s just very important to remember that the people you are talking to are taking time out of their schedule when they could be doing something much more interesting. Also, I’ve found that people are much more willing to help you out and open up if you are polite.
6. Make sure you get enough information for the article. This one takes some practice. Depending on who you’re writing for, you will most likely have a word count that you have to reach. Make sure that the people you talk to are giving you enough information, quotes and content to make your story long enough. Listen throughout the interview for things that sound quotable in the article. If you don’t think you have enough, then try to find someone else to interview or dig up some more background information. Nothing’s worse than having a 450 word article due in an hour, and only having 200 words.
7. Start with the most compelling aspect of the story. This is the classic inverted-pyramid style story, but it’s the industry standard for a reason. You want to hook readers with the most important information first.
8. Read your article out loud to make sure there are no easy mistakes. I’m just as guilty as the next person at this, but if a semester of copy editing taught me anything, it’s this. Make sure to check for homonyms and tricky words like your/you’re and they’re/their/there.

If you have any other things that you’ve found, I’d love to hear them in the comments.

Okay, I know that to some RSS may sound like generic computer mumbo-jumbo, although it does stand for “Really Simple Syndication.” What RSS does is takes the content from sites and puts them in one convenient place for everyone to view.

So, I figured I’d do a quick tutorial of Google Reader. I use Google Reader because I can access it from any computer. If you’ve got a Google account, you’ve already got a ready-made RSS reader just waiting.

Step 1:

Go to http://reader.google.com and log in.

Step 2.

Go to a site you’d like to receive feed from (I picked English Fail Blog), and find the RSS button. Most blogs have either a button (like the one pictured) or a text link to a RSS page. Best places to look are in the content bar and on the bottom of the page. (Yes, sometimes they can be a little bit tricky to find.)

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