The Sacramento Press office is almost done with its remodel. Our first workshop in the new space will be Wednesday, July 21, from 6:30 - 8 p.m. It is titled "Improve Your Writing with Self Editing."  The workshop will teach writers how to remove unnecessary words that clutter writing and create more concise writing that is easier for readers to understand. Clare Noonan will teach the interactive workshop. Noonan has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky. She worked at The Modesto Bee for more than 20 years as a reporter for business, news, feature and sports while also copy editing. She also worked as assistant news editor and assistant city editor in charge

When reporters don't have a camera with them they often resort to using their cell phones to take pictures. It can be hard to take good pictures with cell phones and the topic of our next workshop will address how to take better pictures by using phone applications and different settings. The Camera Phone Photography Workshop will be June 30, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at The Urban Hive. It will be taught by Anthony Bento. Bento has a B.A in film and digital media from UC Santa Cruz, where he photographed and reported on the 2004 presidential campaign and other political events. He has also worked as a product photographer in New York City and here in Sacramento as a freelance photojournalist f

The Art (and Science) of Interviewing Martin Kuz, Senior Editor for Sactown magazine, March 19, 2009 Pre-Interview Deciding what your story is about will help you determine what questions to ask. What are the primary points or themes you want to touch on in your story?  Who is your audience? Understanding who reads the publication you’re writing for – and what writing style that publication prefers — will also help you craft your questions. Research your subject. Read what’s been written about the person. Depending on the story’s complexity, talk to other sources before you interview the main subject. Prepare a list of questions and bring it to the interview. Ideally, you’ll have yo

It was suggested by one of the users of and contributors to the site that the Sacramento Press create a section where people can access the materials from the workshops that we hold. Many people who have been unable to attend the workshops have also requested copies of the handouts from the various workshops. In order to better arm our readers with the tools that will help them write, there will be a section where all of the materials from the past workshops can be found. If you type in "SP workshops" in the search field, all of the articles and handouts dealing with our workshops will come up. Also, in the future we will upload a video feed of the workshops, if people are interested, so

Don't miss out on our next workshop, Interviewing Techniques, which will be held this Thursday, March 19, from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Stephen Magagnini will be leading an interactive workshop on how to make the most out of interviews, which will help to improve the quality of your writing, whether it be for school, Sacramento Press or your career. Magagnini has taught journalism, advanced composition, investigative reporting and narrative writing at UC Davis. He continues to teach professional journalists how to do their jobs better as part of USC's Institute for Justice and Journalism and Health Journalism Fellowships, and the American Press Institute's seminars on compelling writing. He's bee

While I was cleaning out my apartment over the weekend, I stumbled across a handout from my college days. I found it very relevant to what I'm doing now at The Sacramento Press, so I thought I would share it with our readers. It was a handout on how to avoid plagiarism. Many of you may not take the time to read over these, but we at The Sacramento Press feel very strongly about credibility and transparency. While we are unable to fact-check and copy edit everything that gets published on our site, we still uphold a high level of integrity for our newspaper. For those of you who may not be aware, we offer copy editing for anyone who wants to publish a story on our site. Simply email your

Sign up for our site and come on down to our office for free food and a great interactive workshop taught by Holly Heyser, Sacramento State Professional Journalist in Residence. The workshop will be from 6:30pm - 8:00pm Thursday, December 18th at The Sacramento Press office. We will start with food and refreshments, move on to quick introductions and then the interactive workshop. Please R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, December 17th, and do so by emailing journalism@sacramentopress.com. The workshop will be aimed at finding the news that goes on in our lives and how to report it following basic journalistic principles. Parking is available in our lot however it can be rather pricey, $1.50 per h