Travelin’ Man
Senior editor Joe Nick Patoski provides readers with what you used to get at your local gas station: full service. Writing so-called service pieces—mini-guidebooks that offer readers do-it-yourself instructions and suggestions for trips and other leisure activities—has taken the 46-year-old resident of Wimberley all over Texas. Says Patoski: “I’ve climbed the state’s highest peak [‘Show Your Colors,’ October 1993], swum in the cleanest waters [‘Last One In … ,’ June 1985], and seen the goofiest things—the goofiest probably being the Famous Mexican Crow Park, otherwise known as the Brownsville city dump [‘Hidden Valley,’ October 1992].” For this month’s issue Patoski took a grueling desert-survival course in rugged West Texas (see “Sweating It Out,”). Although the other people in the course knew he was a reporter, he insisted on enduring all the hardships they did. “To write good service,” he says, “it’s important to be in the shoes of the reader. I bend over backward to keep in mind that someone will use my experience later.”
Senior editor Joe Nick Patoski provides readers with what you used to get at your local gas station: full service. Writing so-called service pieces—mini-guidebooks that offer readers do-it-yourself instructions and suggestions for trips and other leisure activities—has taken the 46-year-old resident of Wimberley all over Texas. Says Patoski: “I’ve climbed the state’s highest peak [‘Show Your Colors,’ October 1993], swum in the cleanest waters [‘Last One In … ,’ June 1985], and seen the goofiest things—the goofiest probably being the Famous Mexican Crow Park, otherwise known as the Brownsville city dump [‘Hidden Valley,’ October 1992].” For this month’s issue Patoski took a grueling desert-survival course in rugged West Texas (see “Sweating It Out,”). Although the other people in the course knew he was a reporter, he insisted on enduring all the hardships they did. “To write good service,” he says, “it’s important to be in the shoes of the reader. I bend over backward to keep in mind that someone will use my experience later.”
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