ABSTRACT
Some people say they are born writers who have been scribbling words down all their lives – poems, diaries, letters and stories. Other people have to learn to write, painstakingly, on the job. But both can make excellent fashion journalists as long as they bear certain
ground rules of writing in mind. Number one is that you’re writing for the reader: not to indulge yourself,
or to please the person you’re writing about, but to inform and entertain the reader. Second, fashion may ostensibly be about product, but fashion journalism is
based on telling stories just like any other kind of journalism. You’re writing about the fantastic personalities in the fashion industry, what fashion can mean to people and how fashion fits in with our everyday lives. The product slots into those stories. And third, you must be accurate with your use of language, in terms of
facts, spelling and grammar. It’s what separates the professionals from the amateurs, and is especially important if you are uploading content online without the sort of editorial and legal checks that traditionally happen in print. One magazine editor said that she turned down a writer for a senior job
because there was a single spelling mistake in the first paragraph of a rewrite she was asked to do. Imagine, then, what would happen to a student’s CV if it had mistakes in it. This chapter will outline the basics of good journalistic writing, for print
and online. It will discuss the different structures used for news stories and features, and will give tips on how to develop your writing skills. Good journalists say they are always looking to improve, and are never
complacent about writing. Louise Gannon, showbiz freelancer, says: ‘I’m not confident about writing even
now. If you felt confident about how you wrote, you wouldn’t write well’ (2012b). Grazia’s Hannah Almassi says the same. She keeps a blog so she can prac-
tise outside of work. ‘I’ll always be learning to write, forever and ever. I learn something new with each story’ (2010).
