Good writing is at the heart of journalism.

Journalists write for a living. They use words precisely and efficiently. They present accurate, verified information in a way that a mass audience will understand it by reading or hearing it only once. Such writing takes skill, discipline and practice. Writing Like a Journalist will give the reader some of the basic concepts of how journalists achieve good writing -- writing that an audience can understand and will pay for.

Chapters topics in this volume include:

• The discipline of good writing

• Mastering the language

• Tools of writing: Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling

• Why journalistic writing is different

• The inverted pyramid structure

• Headlines

• Writing for audio and visual journalism

The book also contains a bonus chapter on the First Amendment with sections on each of the five freedoms protected by the amendment and a section on the history and development of the amendment.