ABSTRACT
A good ‘ideas person’ should be able to take any object from their bag, be it a pen or a sweet, a tampon or a condom, a torch or a penknife, and use it as inspiration for several feature articles.
For example, at a basic level you could ask questions such as what the object is made of, where is it from and who makes it. This may lead to features about the child labourers making your pen or the remote village whose economy relies on you buying sweets. It might pose questions such as the impact on the local economy of wherever your pen is made if people stop buying pens, or if eating sweets goes completely out of fashion. Maybe there is an article in the journey your pen takes from the factory to your bag, or how many air miles there are in your sweets.
