COMM 209 (in class): Good writing = good reporting

This month's issue of The Quill, trade magazine for members of the Society of Professional Journalists, includes a first-person story by Tom Hallman of The Portland Oregonian telling how he got a powerful story on a nightclub shooting. He begins:

I want to share the process of how I got the story — reported and written in a matter of hours — because it serves as a vivid reminder of the first lesson when it comes to narrative: Good writing depends on good reporting.

By reporting I mean using shoe leather and ingenuity, getting people to talk with you, listening — not simply for quotes, but for clues that let you into the soul of the story. Reporting means thinking on your feet, asking questions that grow out of your curiosity and ability to read your character and the moment.

My job was to see if I could get an interview with a nightclub employee. A witness had reported that this young man had performed CPR on a girl who died. I wandered down to the nightclub.

Let's read Hallman's account of how he got the story. Then we'll read the story itself as it ran Jan. 27 in The Oregonian.