Susan Green Ink

Writer, Editor & Storyteller

The best thing about Bernie

I’m no political pundit, but it certainly looks like – barring some fluke – Bernie Sanders’ run at the White House will come up short. I feel bad about this for my kids. They were so certain Sanders would win, and it’s always sad to see youthful idealism dashed against the rocks of reality. I have to admit I have

News delivery: Does the medium really matter?

Remember those newsreels from the old movie palace days, when instead of previews of upcoming features you saw some choppy-edited film about current events accompanied by a booming voice-over? OK, I don’t really remember them, either, except from some TV channels that show oldies movies. The cinema newsreels were long gone by my day, outdone by television news that could

What’s new? Maybe news itself

News has always been hard to define, even in the pre-Internet days when people got their news from a dedicated print or broadcast source. For those of us who come from a traditional American news media background, news tends to mean people or happenings of public interest near and far. We believe true news should be told objectively, with coverage

That witch! And other common curses of the English language

One of the more frequent errors I see as an editor is confusion over what relative pronouns to use to introduce a descriptive collection of words. Years ago, when I was taking a college course in magazine writing, one of my classmates gifted me with an enduring reminder of the need to pay attention to relative pronouns. The professor had just

Know your audience

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of

5 minutes with The Comma

Q: Thank you for taking the time to talk today Comma. How are you? A: Ooooh. Well, I’m feeling a little left-out. Before we get started, though, do you think we could have more than five minutes? I have a long list of grievances, starting with your leaving out a comma in front of my name in that first question. Q: