Develop your eye
In observation mode, be focused. Do not take your eyes off the subject. Record every twitch, every movement, every emotion.

We were talking about a routine apartment fire when I asked the reporter if there was anything unusual that caught his attention.

Well ... when he arrived at the scene, he said, a mother and her young children were huddled together -- the kids still in their pajamas -- watching a firefighter toss their charred Christmas tree through the apartment window.

"The lights were melted to the tree and so were two Christmas presents."

He stopped talking and, with the palm of his hand, slapped his forehead: "That was my lead, wasn't it?"

"Well, I've got goose bumps," I replied.

And then he asked: "Why didn't I use it?"

He, like all newspaper reporters, has been trained to get the facts, attribute those facts to expert sources and avoid injecting his own opinions into his stories. Sound advice, all of it, but the emphasis on the mechanics of reporting means reporters are afraid to trust their own instincts and their inherent skills as natural observers. And if they do trust themselves, they often don't know how to fit what they see into their stories.

Observing takes patience. Don't rush in. Take the time to look around for a sense of where you are. See who might be involved in the story.

The fire story was routine. No one died, no one was hurt, but the image of those kids watching their Christmas vanish as that charred tree dropped from the window couldn't help but leave a lasting impression with readers. Our goal is to take readers into the heart of the story.

Observation is an acquired skill. Just like taking notes and interviewing. In note taking, we learn to improve our speed by developing a form of personal shorthand. In interviewing, we learn to ask better questions and to listen closely to answers. Observation is just as crucial as getting the quote right or gathering the important facts. It requires the reporter, I once read, to develop his eye.

Jim Holt, a former police reporter at the Hamilton Spectator, loved to talk about how he would do a 360-degree turn when he was working on a story. Let me add this bit of advice: Always look up and always look down, too.

Holt said he could be so focused on talking to or trying to get the attention of the fire chief, for example, that he could miss the three bodies being carried from the burning building.

I once observed a group of journalism students as they watched a fire in a warehouse being converted to condominiums. When they saw the platoon chief emerge from the building, they attacked him like a swarm of bees. Here's what they didn't see because they didn't look: A woman, clearly upset, dressed in a business suit talking to a firefighter (we learn later she was in charge of the condo project); two men in white uniforms watching the fire (city building inspectors); a couple of men wearing hard hats and construction earmuffs (welders who had been working inside the building when the fire was reported). All of them played a role in the fire story, but none of them was interviewed.

Observing takes patience. Don't rush in. Take the time to look around for a sense of where you are. See who might be involved in the story. And see, too, whether the story could be told in a different way through different eyes: the condo manager trying to keep a project on schedule, the workers who may have been involved in producing the spark that ignited the construction garbage, or the city inspectors visiting the site for a second time because of a similar careless fire less than a month before.

So just as reporters who listen well get better interviews, reporters who build observation into their reporting get brilliant colour and vivid detail into their stories.

Now about that "looking up" business? At a time when video cameras were not so common, a reporter covering a particularly nasty labour dispute observed that the company had installed cameras on the plant roof to spy on the striking workers. That detail was the focus of the reporter's story.

And "looking down?" Because so many suburban taxpayers were demanding sidewalks in their neighbourhoods, the city invested in a quick and cheap way to build more sidewalks. It turned into a colossal waste of money brought to light by a reporter who kept his eyes to the ground -- and counted. He walked along a stretch of sidewalk and counted how many of the sidewalk sections had crumbled in less than two years.

So just as reporters who listen well get better interviews, reporters who build observation into their reporting get brilliant colour and vivid detail into their stories.

Just as you write down the comments of those you interview, write down what you see. Make the observation section of your notes as important as the interview section. Do not trust them to memory. Separate observation in your notes in some fashion ... maybe by circling them or marking them was an asterisk.

In observation mode, be focused. Do not take your eyes off the subject. Record every twitch, every movement, every emotion. And when you observe things you don't understand, ask questions to help you explain what you saw or where you were.

When golfer John Daly, who has struggled with alcoholism, broke down At last year's Greater Vancouver Open, a Canadian Press report made good use observation:

"Daly began shaking terribly on the 15th hole ... He crossed his arms on his chest and walked around the green, tears coming down his face ... Both (Corey) Pavin and (David) Frost tried to comfort the troubled golfer, who put on a second jacket to ward off a chill even though the temperature was 26C."

TIPS ON OBSERVATION Do not trust your observations to memory. Write what you see in your notebook, just as you do with the comments of those you interview. Separate observations in your notes by circling them or putting an asterisk beside them. It will make them easier to find when it comes times to write. It also allows you to put them in context by knowing when they happened in relation to the other elements of your story. In observation mode, be focused. Do not take your eyes of the subject. Record every twitch, every movement, every emotion. Often it is not about observing the clowns juggling balls in the air, but observing one clown juggling balls in the air. When you observe something you don't understand or need more detail on, ask questions to have it explained to you. Remember to develop the eye. Look beyond the obvious. There are layers of detail. It is the most miniscule detail that adds brilliance. Make observation a part of every story. Take a moment (or longer) to soak in the scene. Do the 360-degree turn. Editors can draw out a reporter's eye for detail by asking questions. Here's a starter list: What happened? What did you see? What surprised you? What caught your interest? Did anything unusual happen?

Later, the reporter interviewed Frost and blended the golfer's comments (the expert source) with his own observations. Don't be afraid to lead with all of your observations before bringing in other comment. And in this case with Daly, don't take your eyes off him for a moment. Scribble down everything you see. Every detail. He was on the 15th green .. The ball sat 12 feet from the hole ... He crossed his arms, then walked around the green ... Tears rolled down his left cheek ... All the time, he was shaking ... Then he put on a second jacket to ward off a chill ... The temperature was 26C ... Pavin and Frost tried to comfort him. Everything you see. Later, you can ask Pavin and Frost what was said, but you need every detail so that it is clear in your mind when you decide how to report it.

In his book, The Word: An Associated Press guide to good writing, Rene Cappon says writers must train themselves to spot the small, specific details that give intimate glimpses into the nature of the subject.

A writer doing a profile of U.S. president Herbert Hoover noticed that among many items on his desk was a tumbler containing a dozen well-sharpened pencils. But he also noticed that the erasers on the pencils were worn. That detail, Cappon writes, told more about the man than all the obvious ones, such as the colour of his necktie or the shine on his shoes.

New York Times writer Rick Bragg is the kind of writer who takes that advice to heart. In his now famous little profile on black washerwoman Oseola McCarty, who donated her life savings to finance scholarships for black students at the University of Southern Mississippi, Bragg wrote:

"She spent almost nothing living in her old family home, cutting the toes out of shoes if they did not fit right and binding her ragged Bible with Scotch tape to keep Corinthians from falling out."

This is observation and detail so plainly stated, yet so brilliant in the image it creates for readers. It is all about developing the eye. Most of us might catch the Scotch tape. How many of us would get the next layer of detail, Corinthians?

A week after I talked to reporters working for the Cariboo Press chain of newspapers in British Columbia, Betsy Trumpener, a reporter at the Quesnel Observer, tried the 360-degree turn, described earlier by the former Hamilton Spectator police reporter. The turn occurred when Trumpener covered the disappearance of a diver in the effluent pond of a local pulp mill. No one was telling her anything and she couldn't get close enough to see what was actually happening.

"I did my 360-degree turn taking in grim-faced workers watching from the roof, the sound of the steam coming from the mill, the vapour mist rising from the effluent pond, the ambulance parked with its back door open. I had a great story which I think conveyed the horror of dying in a pipe in the effluent pond."

On a breaking news story that was hard to get, she used her eye to record the event.

Editors can also help reporters develop their observation skills. They can draw out the details and help reporters figure out how best to use them. Ask questions: What happened? What did you see? What surprised you? What caught your interest? Did anything unusual happen?

Then editors should listen carefully to how reporters answer those questions. Flesh out the visual images and words and tell them to write it the way they saw it.