50 writing tools Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, who looks curmudgeonly enough to be a righteous editor, is posting week-by-week lessons from the writer's toolbox. These tools are designed for journalists, but any writer -- even a blogger (or especially a blogger) -- could benefit from reviewing them. As Clark points out, most writers use these tools without realizing it, but it doesn't hurt us to refresh our memories from time to time. So far, he's posted five of the 50 tools, with exercises at the end of each segment. My staff and I will be using Clark's essays and exercises in the coming weeks to review our own work.