Tell the truth

On June 23rd, Robert Levey died. Many, perhaps most of you didn't know Bob. For 30 years starting in 1962, he wrote for The Boston Globe. For a couple of decades he was a reporter who covered issues of race and education, often covering challenging stories at a time when few others dared to cover them in a city that was facing equity issues in its schools and neighborhoods.

He later became an editor for the Globe's Sunday magazine and finished up his career as the restaurant critic for the newspaper. It was in this last role where I met Bob. I was a tagalong on a visit to a restaurant he was reviewing in Chinatown. Bob was careful not to let his identity be discovered by any restaurant's staff. He also wanted to sample as many meals as possible, so it was not unusual for him to invite others to join him for a meal so he could sample from what they ordered. A mutual good friend arranged for me to join them.

Our meal had to have occurred more than 30 years ago and I have no memory of what we ate. I do remember meeting a person who loved his work, loved the company of other people even if he had just met them, and loved to tell a good story. We did not become close friends, but years later, after he had already retired, Bob introduced me to the Globe's then editor for a potential project.

In Bob's obituary, writer Bryan Marquard ends with a story about Bob's daughter asking him to tell his granddaughter, also a writer, who was heading to college "what's the most important thing about being a good writer."

Bob's health was failing at the time, but he responded "clear as a bell" that the most important thing about being a good writer is: "Tell the truth."

Students who take writing courses with me regularly tease me about cajoling them to "always be writing." I continue to tell them that the best way I know to become a good and better writer is to be insatiably curious and to write constantly. And I do regularly end any conversation with them with the question, "Are you writing?" I also stress the importance of getting their facts right and making sure they are fair in whatever they write even as they are tackling challenging topics.

My students are attending graduate school to study public policy. Few will go on to become journalists or full-time writers, although many continue to write and publish op-eds or articles after graduation that relate to the policy issues on which they are working. But in their work as in their writing, they are committed to telling the truth.

While I stand by my advice to them to always be writing, to be tenaciously curious, and to double-check their facts, those three words from Bob to his granddaughter stick with me as the best advice any good writer should follow: Tell the truth.

Telling the truth is the right thing for any writer. It's also sound and wise advice for everyone else as well.

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice," is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School.

Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin

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