Archive for January, 2014

It’s That Time of Year Leads

It’s that time of year again: Cupid is floating around on his cloud, bow in hand, waiting to shoot some poor soul with an arrow of infatuation.

It’s that time of year again when students become familiar with the select group of faces that cover campaign signs mounted on windows and sidewalks across campus.

Diorama Leads

Spring has sprung. The birds are chirping again. The snow of winter has melted. And flowers bloom to welcome the warm air that drifts blissfully in from the south. And social clubs turn their attention to spring rushes.

Insignificant Detail Leads

The roar of diesel engines and the pounding of a hammer – this is the sound of progress at Parker University.

“A Few of  My Favorite Words” Leads

Amazing, beautiful, comfortable, friendly, and warm-hearted _ these were just a few of the words used by four students from Xiangyang City Vocational and Technical College to describe the people, culture, and history they encountered on their trip to America and Parker University.

However, I liked this:

It only takes two words to sum up one of ACU’s longest standing traditions: Sing Song.

The Meeting Met Leads

The spring semester’s Big Tuesday meeting, the day the Dean of Students explains campus rules and guidelines to Parker’s new students, was held recently in the Harris Building.

The Neverending Story Leads

Last week, a tropical storm later to be known as Hurricane Irene, struck the east coast of the United States, and struck hard. Irene hit the coast of North Carolina Saturday, after which it began making its way 1,100 miles up the Eastern Seaboard. Many began the evacuation process well before the storm even hit land to be sure of their safety. Irene had a huge impact on the daily lives of those in the affected areas. Thousands of commercial flights were cancelled, transportation was shut down, and flooding wiped out hundreds of thousands of homes. Approximately four

I Can Only Imagine Leads

Just imagine that you’re new to Parker University, or even a transfer student, and your major is education. You think about all the opportunities an education degree could take you, and all the children you can inspire along the way. But you’re also wondering, “What can I be a part of as an undergrad that can reach me closer to my goal, as well as prepare me?”

The SAEA may be your answer, and becoming a member is easy.

The English Major Lead…

Once upon a time, a word was spoken, a single word, and the world of literature, of story-telling and of communication was born. Being an English major, and more specifically a student of rhetoric, I cannot begin to share my appreciation for the art of writing, speaking and communicating. I have been writing since weaned, and it is something I cannot go a day without doing. I write about everything, from over-enthused workers at Books-A- Million (you know the kind, the ones that try to sell your soul to their club card) to my hippie boss at work who throws his shoes at waitresses for fear that I will one day forget something that I always want to remember. My desire for writing drove me to join one of the most prestige international honor societies in the country. It is called Sigma Tau Delta, and it is the Engl…

By classtime on Friday, develop an indepth abstract, a plan to guide your reporting and writing. The abstract should follow this structure:

1. Working Nut graph. Develop a theme paragraph that will guide your research and that will serve as an umbrella statement for your entire story. It might change depending on your reporting, but you need a thesis to guide your reporting.

Example: The increased connectedness of the university’s human resources department has opened the faculty, staff and students to increasing hacking threats. The university has been forced to respond by hiring more and better trained technology professionals.

2. More complete description of the idea. Expound on your idea. Here’s where you can include questions. Things you don’t know the answer to. But the questions you ask have to be answerable in a 700-word story. (Don’t ask: How does the university find people to donate to it?)

3. Ideal news feature lead. Describe how you would like your story to begin, focusing on an individual and his or her action. Using Jack Hart’s Lexicon of Leads, identify it as anecdotal, narrative, scene-setter, scene-wrap (gallery), significant detail, single instance or word play.

Example: On a Friday in early December 2013, Wendy Jones knew something was wrong. By 10 a.m., she had already received calls from three faculty and staff members letting her know their paychecks had not been deposited on Dec. 1. She would soon discover it was the most serious breech of the university’s human resources system since it went online and the result of a sophisticated and widespread phishing effort.

“We still don’t know who was behind it,” Jones said, “but I’d sure like to get my hands on them.”

4. List of sources. Where will you get your information? Ideally these will be human sources and data sources. You will need at least 5-7 sources to get a good feel for the story. That doesn’t mean you have to quote or reference them all.

Not all news features and indepths need to be hard news. Here are a couple of recent stories from the Wall Street Journal:

In London, ‘Guardians’ Live in Empty Office Buildings

In Tough Job Market, Applicants Try Résumé Gimmicks

Things to consider when writing your stories.

History.
When did this start? Who started it? What are the pivotal events on a timeline?

Scope.
What is the extent of the problem? How many people are affected? How much money is at stake?

Central reasons.
Why is this happening? What are the economic, social or political forces that created it, influence it, threaten it?

Impacts.
“Who is helped or hurt by this,” Blundell said, “and to what extent and what’s their emotional response to it?”

Gathering and action of contrary forces.
“If this is going on, is somebody trying to do anything about it, and how is that working out?” Blundell said.

The future.
“If this stuff keeps up,” he said, “what are things going to look like five or 10 years from now, in the eyes of the people who are directly involved?”

For more, see Blundell’s “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing.”

Yale admits it was wrong to unplug student course evaluation website.

Submit by Friday at class time four (4) ideas for indepths (news features). They can be on- or off-campus ideas. Give me two or three sentences for each idea.

Remember your techniques:

• extrapolate (cause and effect)
• synthesis (three’s a trend)
• localization
• projection

Here’s an example:

Changes in the law (liability, building codes, etc.) mean construction of a new science building would cost far more than it did in the 1950s, when Foster Science Building was constructed. And risk management requirements once one would be built means it would be a far cry from the Chemistry Shack in the 1920s and 1930s, where the floors were covered with hydrochloric acid stains.

Not:

What’s the deal with the new science building?

Put your ideas in the comments and I’ll post them after class. I’ll respond and let you know which I think is the best option at this point.

I’m going to go through this and see if it should be required when we start talking about audio news reporting.

Writing for the Ear | Poynters News University.

4 Copy Editors Killed In Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence | The Onion

Top student media content that made news, went viral in 2013 | Poynter..

Are the U.S. media as transparent as the U.S. government?.