Commentary: Get you rant or rave on

Authorial voice holds sway in this category, which includes signed columns, reviews, critiques, advice Q&A, op-ed pieces and editorials. Essays, first-person pieces and literary musings also fall under this remit: think new-media pundit Jim Jarvis, sci-fi writer John Scalzi, policy wonk Ana Marie Cox, saucy gossipmonger Perez Hilton and The Huffington Post's founder Arianna Huffington. Character and color catapult these writers to fame, as much as extraordinary topics.

Guard against grandstanding, however. Avoid pompous pronouncements a la Wizard of Oz, advised John McCormick, deputy editorial page editor of the Chicago Tribune. Target your tone to the audience. Have clear goals for the text (changing the status quo, official action, entertainment, etc.). Support well-reasoned arguments with scrupulously reported facts.

The legwork is far and away the most difficult aspect – unfortunately one that many webbers avoid. “I'm a writer, not a reporter,” they insist. Yet artistic license doesn't permit laziness. From books to blogs, every text should be anchored by accurate observations – your own and others'. Otherwise it's the sound of one hand clapping, really...

“Writers collect words,” stressed Poynter Institute Senior Scholar Roy Peter Clark, as well as “images, details, facts, quotes, dialogue, documents, scenes, expert testimony, eyewitness accounts, statistics, the brand of the beer, the color and make of the sports car, and, of course, the name of the dog.”

Like icebergs, only one-ninth of the writers' expertise shows above the waterline. The remainder molders in the notebook or files, but its strength supports the story and bestows authority. As Clark said: “A sharp focus is like a laser. It helps the writer slice material that might be tempting, but does not contribute to the central meaning of the story.”