It is an entertaining video to watch, but one line the actress/journalists repeated numerous times stuck with me: “Do you have a pen?”

It is a golden rule in journalism to always have a pen and reporter’s notebook with you wherever you may be when on assignment. Sadly, many (including myself) have been guilt of not implementing this rule. Pens are essential!

Just today, I was conducting an interview for a story, and found myself to be without a pen or a pencil. Embarrassed, I asked the person I was interviewing if they had a pen, and they were without one as well. Luckily, I had a backup. Not so luckily, it was a highlighter.

For future references, taking notes with a highlighter is probably the dumbest thing a journalist can do.

I’m sure there are some journalists who are amazing at remembering quotes and facts during an interview. One could argue that we could always use a recorder to capture the interview. Would that serve as a suitable replacement for a pen? Never!

You need your notes to jot down their quotes, your observances, and any other details needed for your story. And what kind of journalist would you look like if you didn’t take notes? (Again, there are the exceptional ones, but let’s not assume–another golden rule–that we among them.)

So, always carry a pen. And have plenty of backup, because pens tend to mysteriously disappear…

“Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”

- Henry Anatole Grunwald