Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Chapter Twelve Editorials, Opinion Pieces, Columns, Blogs and Cartoons 371 Columnists may pace the action, sometimes breaking from the action at a crucial point to provide statistics and quotes, then return to fi nish their story. A story often frames the column, beginning with the lead and not ending until the fi nal line. Well-told stories keep audiences interested. They make the columnist’s point. The Voice of the Column A columnist needs to develop and sustain a voice—a characteristic way of expressing herself—that her audience recognizes and enjoys. A voice helps maintain a regular following, that is, repeat readers and viewers. Finding your voice is as much art as science—voice is made up of thousands of choices—but fi nding it is an essential part of column writing. Sandy Banks, who writes a twice-weekly column for the Los Angeles Times, tells how she developed her voice: I try to follow the advice I offer to young women: Be true to yourself. I don’t always have the answers, but I am always willing to ask the questions. I try to follow my own heart in pursuit of columns, and that means owning up to confusion, confl ict, indecision, anger, awe. I try to be intellectually curious and emotionally vulnerable. If you are reliably authentic, people may disagree, but they will trust you enough to at least listen. Meet the Professionals: Sandy Banks Sandy Banks grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, with an after-school routine: On cold days, she’d lie on the floor, put her feet on a heating vent and read Ann Landers and Dear Abby. Then she’d clip out her favorite columns and stick them in her journal. She still has a few. They remind her of the power of the written word to comfort, challenge, teach and inspire. She worked on her college paper at Ohio State University, but when her mother was diagnosed with cancer during her sophomore year, she moved home to help care for her. Sandy’s mother died a few months later. The next year Sandy graduated cum laude from Cleveland State University and took a job as a sports writer at a black weekly newspaper while trying to decide between law school and teaching. She had so much fun—and learned so much from the people she wrote about—that she found herself hooked on journalism. She spent two years as a reporter at the Cleveland Press before moving to California in 1979 to join the staff of the Los Angeles Times. She has worked for the Los Angeles Times as an education reporter, the religion and education editor, assistant metropolitan editor, a features columnist, an editorial writer and as the director of the newspaper’s internship program. She was on the team awarded a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Los Angeles riots in 1992. She is best known for her twice-a-week columns on events and issues in the news, which offer her personal perspective as an African- American woman and a single mother—her husband died when her three girls were small. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times