Out of my inbox

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Editing, Interviewing, Journalism, Reporting, Students, Teaching, Writing Tags: editing, journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, teaching, writing

I cringe when I think of the practical wisdom buried in years of disorganized and deleted email exchanges.

I’ll send up a flare when I’m struggling with a deadline project and get quick help back from some generous soul who knows stuff I don’t. That’s a whole lot of souls.

Or I’ll get a ping from a student, journalist or first-time Thanksgiving dinner cook desperate for some career or craft counsel. The pleas pile up my inbox. I scan, reply best I can, hit SEND – then move on. As Jed Bartlett would say, “What’s next?”

Incoming, Outgoing. And over time, a trove of lost treasure.

Learning to teach, teaching to learn

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Journalism, Reporting, Students, Teaching, Writing Tags: Missouri School of Journalism, students, teaching, Writing Process

The University (in the capital-U sense) wants my “teaching philosophy.” Reasons for that request are happy, which isn’t always the case with a cap-U request. But happy doesn’t get the work done. So…

First: Thank God and Whoever Else had more important things to attend to while I taught at Missouri for 15 years without figuring that bit out.

Second: Even greater thanks, with apologies, to the students on the receiving end of me figuring it out as I go. And a deep bow to the Missouri Method – learn by doing – which doesn’t end with students.

Third: I have to write something. Cue anxiety, procrastination, much abuse of the F-word, coffee and wine.

Mourning, memory and paying it forward

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Editing, Journalism, Students, Teaching, Writing

I’ve been in mourning this week about the Packers’ loss to the Seahawks. I’ll get over that. Maybe not by Super Bowl Sunday, but someday. What I’m not over, and never will be, is the loss of Deborah Howell, my fiercest editor-foe-fan-believer. She died five years ago in New Zealand, when she popped out of(…)

Letting my fingers go

By Jacqui Banaszynski in Blog, Journalism, Writing

In my second official act of 2015, I committed to committing some words to this space, which has sat waiting for some months now, nagging me to write … I’m not sure what. But as editors know, and writers often forget, the simple act of writing is usually what it takes to figure out what to write.

I’ve read studies that claim a direct connection between the movement involved in writing and the part of the brain that writes. I know I think differently – with more clarity, mindfulness and memory – with a pen in my hand and paper to hold my scribbles. And I have anxious memories of sitting at my keyboard in the newsroom, facing deadline with a crowded mind and blank computer screen, and finally just letting my fingers go – “Mary had a little lamb.” “The quick brown fox jumped over some kind of fence.” “This is a story about…” – until those restless fingers found a rhythm that cornered my mind and the letters gave shape to precise words that formed meaningful sentences that became the path through my thicket of notes and quotes and factoids to reveal a true story.