Reporting Skills

A decision guide for picking between email, phone, and in-person interviews depending on your story, source, and deadline.

A practical guide to shaping a raw idea into a pitch your editor can approve in thirty seconds.

Your first interview will feel awkward. Here is how to walk in prepared, ask questions that actually get answers, and leave with the material you need to write a real story.

Publishing a false fact under your byline follows you. Here is a rigorous, practical approach to verifying sources and checking facts before anything goes to print or online.

The reporters who break the best stories are not the ones who chase everything. They are the ones who own one area so thoroughly that sources come to them. Here is how to build that kind of beat.

Public records laws give journalists legal access to government documents. Student reporters can use these tools too — and often should. Here is how to file effective records requests and what to do when agencies push back.