Samples of My Writing in Various Formats/Styles

Help arrives at College for youth questioning their sexuality
http://www.tcnjsignal.net/2007/02/14/he ... sexuality/

Key to election outcome close to home
http://www.tcnjsignal.net/2008/10/29/ke ... osetohome/

Small change could spur big change
http://www.tcnjsignal.net/2008/09/24/sm ... bigchange/
Note: using the words "travesty" and "resoundingly" was something that my editor decided to do without asking me. Also, in hindsight I realize that we don't know whether Al Gore would have instituted some expensive social program, so it's extremely difficult to know whether an Al Gore presidency would have been more or less expensive than a George Bush presidency.

Different publications have different writing styles; some are more formal/ornate/terse/verbose than others. It's a lot like how different subcultures dress themselves up in different kinds of clothing (suits vs. jeans and a t-shirt). My personal preference is for a pretty informal style, but if editors visit my site I don't want them to think that I'm incapable of writing in a different style. So on this page I'll demonstrate samples of my writing in the various styles out there.

Right now I'll just list different styles I come across so that I can write something later for each:
The Economist
The Economist - Book Review
The New York Times
The New York Times - Book Review
The Wall Street Journal - Book Review
Vanity Fair - Cover Story



The New York Times

Sources of Info:
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage - http://www.amazon.com/York-Times-Manual ... pd_sim_b_6
10 Ways to Develop Expository Writing Skills With The New York Times -http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/ ... ork-times/

Sample Book Review Articles:
An Economist Gets Lunch - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/books ... ookreviews
When American Faith Transcended Differences - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/books ... ookreviews


Distinguishing features:
- they mix in some advanced/unusual/literary/nonconversational vocabulary ("pretentious", "skewer"), but nothing extremely unusual (like what you'll see in the Economist).

- they mix in everyday use of language with more advanced language: 

- the analogy is funny and something you might hear someone say in conversation, but the way he says it is not the way you'd hear it in everyday conversation. it's more formal. but his use of the phrase "poking at it" is like something you'd hear in everyday conversation.

- they throw in references to things New Yorkers would be likely to know about (eg SNL)


The New York Times - Book Review