Society of American Travel Writers
The English language has millions of words – a veritable buffet. But like a buffet, sometimes we overindulge. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm: Strong verbs and nouns are keys to great prose. Adjectives and adverbs are not always your friends. If you’re […]
At an SATW professional development session some years ago, University of Missouri professor Don Ranly gave us this gem: Something compared to nothing doesn’t mean anything. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm: Dr. Ranley was talking about using numbers effectively to paint the […]
The old joke among journalists is that we chose our profession because we can’t do numbers. Here’s a 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm: You don’t have to be a mathematician to use numbers in stories, and that’s good because they lend gravitas. The number of […]
Good writing begins with good reporting. Here’s an SATW 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm: A well-known travel writer used to insist, “I’m NOT a reporter. I’m a writer.” Yet her stories brimmed with facts, figures, and imagery collected by carefully questioning sources and recording […]
Show me, don’t tell me. Here’s an SATW 60-Second Travel Writer Tip from LA Times Travel Editor Catharine Hamm: Missouri is the Show Me State. It’s a good reminder for travel writers that our craft requires showing, not telling, readers about what they’re seeing. The best travel writing gives the […]