Tag Archives: freelance

A typical workday for freelancer Jen A. Miller

jen a. miller

Jen A. Miller

For the inaugural installment of A Typical Workday, a periodic interview with freelancers about how they get the job done, AHCJ’s freelance community correspondent Barbara Mantel interviewed Jen A. Miller. Miller is an award-winning freelance writer and author and a frequent contributor to The New York Times and Supply Chain Dive. She has also written for The Guardian, SELF, BuzzFeed, The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among others. She also shares insights and advice about how to build a successful freelance career through Notes from a Hired Pen, her newsletter and e-book series.

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Tips for finding great interview subjects on social media 

Photo by Pixabay

Editors often want people with lived experience in stories. The question is, where to find them? I spoke with four freelance reporters about their experience using social media to find “real” people to interview. You can find their advice in this tip sheet under the Pitching, Reporting & Writing tab on the Freelance Center. Here is a preview of what they had to say.

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When to quote survey results: How to judge quality and recognize red flags

Courtney Kennedy (Photo courtesy of the Pew Research Center)

Journalists often include survey results in a story to offer a sense of public opinion. But not all surveys are created equal, and some should be avoided at all costs. 

In a recent phone interview, Courtney Kennedy, vice president of survey research and innovation at the Pew Research Center, a “nonpartisan fact tank,” shared advice with me on how to judge survey quality. 

A longer version of our conversation, which was edited for length and clarity, can be found at The Freelance Center. 

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To collaborate or not to collaborate?: Tips to help you decide

Photo by Marcus Aurelius via Pexels.

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5 fellowships and grants to explore

In February, I wrote about the soon-to-be-created Awards, Grants & Fellowship tab in the Freelance Center and highlighted five opportunities with approaching deadlines. Since then, the tab has been created and populated with descriptions of 19 non-AHCJ awards, grants and fellowships. Please email me if you have suggestions to add to the list.

Most deadlines for the listed awards are sometime in the first four months of the year and so have passed, but several fellowship and grant deadlines are approaching. Here are five of them:

The Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship

These fellowships are open to U.S. citizens who are full-time print journalists, including freelancers. Recipients receive $40,000 for a full-year fellowship or $20,000 for a six-month fellowship. The goal of the program is to “provide support for journalists engaged in rigorous, probing, spirited, independent and skeptical work that will benefit the public.” Winners are expected to produce four print articles. The competition opened in June, and applications must be received by October 1, 2022. The online application must include a fellowship proposal, work samples, two references, a professional autobiography and a project budget.

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