03 December 2014
Intro to Journalism
One of my favorite online writers is Anne Helen Petersen. She used to write for The Hairpin and on her own blog while working as a professor, but recently she was hired full-time at Buzzfeed. This essay is about her first six months on the job, and the transition from academia to journalism:
"I came back with 10,000 words of copy, because why wouldn’t the reported version be as lengthy as the first? My editors told me to cut 2,000 because people only read 10,000 words when the name Ta-Nehisi Coates is on the byline. I hemmed and hawed and stared at the screen and did it. They asked for a better lede. I googled 'lede.' I made a better lede."
"I came back with 10,000 words of copy, because why wouldn’t the reported version be as lengthy as the first? My editors told me to cut 2,000 because people only read 10,000 words when the name Ta-Nehisi Coates is on the byline. I hemmed and hawed and stared at the screen and did it. They asked for a better lede. I googled 'lede.' I made a better lede."
Labels: Anne Helen Petersen
29 May 2014
Quote of the Day: Anne Helen Petersen
From Angelina Jolie’s Perfect Game: Angelina Jolie has the best publicity game in Hollywood; here’s how she does it:
"The birth of Shiloh and the adoption of Pax strengthened the sentiment [of a beautiful, multicultural family], but it was the birth of twins Vivienne and Knox in 2008 that transformed a family into a phenomenon. Lots of celebrities had kids; others had adopted kids; some even had twins. But none had all of the above."
"The birth of Shiloh and the adoption of Pax strengthened the sentiment [of a beautiful, multicultural family], but it was the birth of twins Vivienne and Knox in 2008 that transformed a family into a phenomenon. Lots of celebrities had kids; others had adopted kids; some even had twins. But none had all of the above."
Labels: Anne Helen Petersen, movies
06 February 2014
Quote of the Day: Anne Helen Petersen
Seen The Rental History of an Academic Nomad:
"We placed a Craigslist ad trumpeting ourselves as very mature and responsible grad students looking for a home to take care of, and within days, hit the jackpot: a naturopathic veterinarian and his landscape painting wife were spending the year in Sedona. That’s the most Eugene sentence ever, but while in Sedona, this couple wanted someone to take care of their perfect little retiree home."
"We placed a Craigslist ad trumpeting ourselves as very mature and responsible grad students looking for a home to take care of, and within days, hit the jackpot: a naturopathic veterinarian and his landscape painting wife were spending the year in Sedona. That’s the most Eugene sentence ever, but while in Sedona, this couple wanted someone to take care of their perfect little retiree home."
Labels: Anne Helen Petersen, random silliness
31 December 2013
Quote of the Day: Anne Helen Petersen
From her "Scandals of Classic Hollywood" series, Katharine Hepburn's Trousers:
"At some point, Hepburn married her college sweetheart, Ludlow Ogden Smith, a man eight years her senior. In typical Hepburn fashion, she forced him to change his name to S. Ogden Ludlow so that her own legal surname wouldn’t be something as dreadfully ordinary as Smith. You can see where this is headed."
"At some point, Hepburn married her college sweetheart, Ludlow Ogden Smith, a man eight years her senior. In typical Hepburn fashion, she forced him to change his name to S. Ogden Ludlow so that her own legal surname wouldn’t be something as dreadfully ordinary as Smith. You can see where this is headed."
Labels: Anne Helen Petersen, movies
04 September 2013
Quote of the Day: Anne Helen Petersen
From her twitter:
"In my Fall classes: 6 Emmas; 5 Sophies. Just in case you wanted to know what Gen X named their babies."
"In my Fall classes: 6 Emmas; 5 Sophies. Just in case you wanted to know what Gen X named their babies."
Labels: Anne Helen Petersen
01 June 2013
Quote of the Day: Anne Helen Petersen
Anne Helen Petersen writes the fascinating and readable Scandals of Classic Hollywood series. Based on her twitter, she's writing about Jean Harlow next:
"It'd be much easier to write about Jean Harlow's life in under 5000 words if she didn't have all these sham marriages. I mean seriously, Jean, you married YOUR CAMERAMAN after playing golf with him?"
"It'd be much easier to write about Jean Harlow's life in under 5000 words if she didn't have all these sham marriages. I mean seriously, Jean, you married YOUR CAMERAMAN after playing golf with him?"
Labels: Anne Helen Petersen, movies
