Welcome to NewsU. It's an awesome site that has lots to see and do. And, it's a place where you'll take a few classes pertaining to journalism. So fun! Over the next few class periods you are responsible for completing the following courses:
Beyond the Inverted Pyramid: Creating Alternative Story Forms
The Lead Lab
Cleaning Your Copy
These courses require that you sign-up for NewsU (don't worry; it's free!), so create a username and password you can remember. We'll be using this website again. After you complete each course, please post the 3-5 best take-aways (that means, what you learned that you're just dying to share) to the blog. Keep in mind how you can apply a new skill to your work on The Voice, and be as specific as possible. Lastly, when you finish the course, please print out a Course Report, show it to me, and then add it to your binder. This course report is you receipt of completion. Any questions, just ask.
Homework for the layout days:
Thursday night: if there are any last minute items for your article, get on that! Otherwise, relax and start thinking of article ideas for edition 3.
Tuesday night: 5 article ideas for the next edition. Post these ideas to the blog. Hand out date for the third edition is November 19.
Thursday night: Relax. Get ready for the next edition. Articles will be assigned next class.
42 comments:
1. ASF's can be used to tell a typically boring or repetitive story in a refreshing and engaging way.
2. ASF's are a fantastic way to tell a story that has lots fo bits of information (particularly lots of numbers or dates)
3. ASF's provide a change of pace that can help engage readers and keep them interested in your story
4. Although ASF's are a fun new way to write, it is important to remember that the inverted pyramid style and other traditional styles are still best suited for reporting certain stories
Takeaways from the ASF workshop:
-I thought there were many interesting ways to mix up articles, such as by doing q&as, pros & cons, timelines, and calendars that help add variety to a story/paper
-Things like graphs, grids, and by-the-numbers are good ways to break up a larger article, such as the Voice's centerspread
-There are ways, such as quizzes and games, to make an interesting lighter story
Beyond the Inverted Pyramid:
1. When you are first assigned an article idea, don't automatically think all text. There are ways to represent information graphically.
2. Journalism is a team effort. If you have an idea that you can't execute, ask a good artist or photographer to help you.
3. Games are also an ASF that is fun for the reader and can be very informative.
4. A question: Do Op/Eds have to be written in the narrative format or can they use ASF's too?
Beyond the Inverted Pyramid: Creating Alternative Story Forms:
1. ASFs are a good alternative, or addition, to the traditional story because they provide the reader with "bit-sized pieces," so the information is much easier to absorb and remember.
2. ASFs force journalists to be concise and straightfoward in their writing.
3. ASFs (q&a's, quizzes, bio boxes, timelines, etc.) can help create the "feel" of a story (serious or lighthearted).
1. ASF's are important because they catch the reader's attention, and generally people retain better information from them.
2. ASF's can be used alongside traditional story ideas or they can standalone, but either way they are very helpful to traditional stories.
3. There are many different ASF's to choose from, and generally all the collaborators from the paper help out at once with creating them (writers, graphic designers, editors, etc.)
ASF's
1. Tests show that people who read ASF's are more likely to retain information than from a standard article.
2. Newspapers underutilize ASF's but have been increasing how many they use to help give information.
3. ASF's would not necessarily work as well online because people read websites and online news differently than a newspaper.
1. We should use more forms of ASF in the Voice, such as grids and timelines.
2. The fact that ASF's are not web-friendly causes a problem in ASF's continuation since news is becoming more web oriented and accessible.
3. Call for Collaboration diagram really demonstrated how important the entire news team is and how specific each role is.
4. People were able to answer more questions from articles split up into "bite-size" chunks than narrative stories.
Sir Frog is Alec.
I thought alternative story forms work well for a few reasons: Even though inverted pyramid story forms give you the main facts quickly, it might give too many facts and make the reader confused. A table of facts would work better if the reader wanted to know the main points. Quizes or games can help the reader test his or her knowledge and retain the facts.
Not only does it seem logical that people retain information from alternative story forms, studies have shown this to be true.
In my opinion, we need more games and quizes in the voice. A good idea would be to give a quote from a well known teacher and ask students to figure out who said it. It could be a multiple choice question with three or four possible answers.
Claire Fox:
1. ASF are a good way to make a piece more interesting and include more than just text.
2 .ASFs are easy for the reader to understand and can help them retain more information by using graphics and making the piece more fun
3. Supplemental forms of ASF like quizzes and Q and A are good ways to teach the reader information, which is more easily retainable.
4. Standalone ASF can be graphics that stand by themselves and do not need any story to go with them.
ASF's are used to serve a few major purposes. I think that they can convey facts and present information in a concise manner and thus allowing readers to stay interested. I think that ASF's would be useful since we are trying to go for the type of newspaper that no matter where we look, we should see images and graphics. Since the ASF's allow us to write the same information but in a quicker way, we could have more space for graphics and graphs, and images which would take our newspaper to a new level. Overall the ASF's allow for more creativity and varying in the article style and allow the reader to remain interested and informed.
Beyond the Inverted Workshop
1. A great ASF we could use in the Voice is a timeline with pictures that grab the readers attention. Instead of in previous articles telling the reader the history of something, it would be much more interesting to have a timeline so there is an aspect of "show not tell".
2. Question and Answers are very popular in ASF's and in the Voice, but I think we should make it a little bit more fun for the reader. Instead of simple telling the reader the answer, the reader should guess it first, and then check the answer by looking at "the upside down text on the back of the page."
3. Bottom line, if the voice can incorporate more pictures and still make the article readable, than the voice will be that much better! Pictures definitely draw high school students into reading the articles, therefore we need to put more into the voice without taking away the quality of the text.
Marshall L
ASF's
1) I took away how to keep the reader more engaged and intrigued by the story with different charts and graphs.
2) Using a timeline, rather than making a long list, is a great example of an ASF since it is easy to read and since it is different it makes it fun.
3) Using ASF's would really help with following the hand length rule where a hand will not cover only text, but also other graphics.
4) ASF's can't be applied to all stories, but they can create a great mixture of articles in the paper.
The Lead Lab
1) A lead is the heart of an article, which needs to be concise and intriguing to the reader.
2) A lead should be able to sum up the entire article in a couple of words, but still must have a "hook"
3) A lead isn't something that will often just come to you, critical thinking and time are often what leads to creating a good lead.
Cleaning Your Copy
1) This section emphasized that small words, which may seem to be the same, can greatly affect an entire sentence from the incorrect grammar.
2) A journalist must constantly be aware in their writing about grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
3) Use which in a sentence when you are adding additional information and use that when the information is necessary.
4) Not only do quotations go around words that somebody said, but they also go around words that show irony.
1. I was surprised to see how ASF's completely change the tone and feel to a journalistic piece. When looking at an ASF, I feel like the author is less talking down at me than actually talking to me.
2. By changing mediums, ASF's attract to a much wider range of readers. You can direct your writing a bit more specifically whereas with a normal large block of text, many readers are quickly turned away.
3. When reading an ASF, the reader feels a bit more knowledgeable as the change can be used to make the material a bit more accessible to a reader.
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1. I was surprised to see how ASF's completely change the tone and feel to a journalistic piece. When looking at an ASF, I feel like the author is less talking down at me than actually talking to me.
2. By changing mediums, ASF's attract to a much wider range of readers. You can direct your writing a bit more specifically whereas with a normal large block of text, many readers are quickly turned away.
3. When reading an ASF, the reader feels a bit more knowledgeable as the change can be used to make the material a bit more accessible to a reader.
.
Jamie Muresanu
1. ASFs promote comprehension and retention of information; so for number dense or fact dense stories (healthcare?) we should try using ASFs in any of their three forms.
2. Since we aren't a daily paper, I really like the idea of long-term ASFs; like a monthly calendar that has all the upcoming events relative to the MA community on it.
3. When a story is too complex to break down into just an ASF supplemental forms can work well as an addition to a traditional narrative.
4. Since we do a lot of bios I think a good example of an ASF would be the bio box. It uses graphics and short bullet points to engage the reader as well as inform them.
ASF workshop:
1. In general, ASF's are easier for a reader than conventional narratives because of their creative appearance and fresh writing style. They also have the ability to cut the information into smaller "chunks" that make it easier for the reader to digest.
2.Q&A, checklists, games, and timelines are all a good way to offer a fresh approach to an article and it has been proven that information sticks better with people when it is written in more creative ways such as these.
3. Standalone forms have no traditional stories to accompany them, so they need to be able to convey all the information that is necessary for the article in a concise and creative way.
1.ASF's offer a new way to tell your story. It is a way to grab the reader's attention with the style of writing rather than the article/event itself.
2. ASF's can work with a main article or stand alone. Nonetheless, they create the feel of the article; whether it lighthearted or serious.
3. Different types of standalone forms can be used depending on the type of story. For example, a timeline can be used to show the history of a sports team throughout the month.
4. Collaboration is important when writing ASF's. Everyone needs to contribute. Reporters must think visually and designers have to write. It is not a strait path.
1. ASF's can be implemented in a story through a variety of ways (question-and-answers, timelines, calendars, games, etcetera.)
2. ASF's are good to use when covering recurring events such as graduations and annual awards, which makes it more interesting for the reporter, editor, and reader.
3. Collaboration is key in crafting an ASF - never shy away from asking questions and working with other members in the newsroom for a potential ASF.
Lead Lab
1. When writing a lead one should follow the breath test, by being able to say your lead(minimum 50 words) in under three breaths. When writing a lead for the Voice, all of us should definitely use this test to see if our lead has the quality to be the best.
2. Make sure your lead is accurate. Don't write any untrue information in your lead to make it stand out or make it more interesting. Facts is what people want when reading a lead not fiction!
3. When writing a lead use "fresh" language. Remember using jargon in your lead will make your readers feel distant and confused about the writing. Also using cliches will simply bore the reader into not wanting to read your lead at all.
The Lead Lab:
1.This lab demonstrated that editing leads to make them more concise is very important. For example, just because a lead in the New York Times is published does not mean that it can not be edited anymore. The lead about the robbery from the New York Times could have benefited from some of the points on this revision tip checklist, such as: saying the lead in a single breath, keeping the reader alert and interested, making sure it flows, etc.
2. Direct leads are good for stories in which you want to hit the main points right of the bat. These leads most likely show up in ASF story forms because they get to the point. Delayed leads allow for setting the mood of the story. These types of leads allow the reader to get more involved and attached to the story if they take the time to read the entire lead/setting for the story.
3. Tension is when two forces in the story compete, as opposed to conflict when the two stories attack. When is tension used in a story as apposed to conflict?
Jamie Muresanu
Lead Lab
1. Good leads often portray tension, raise a question, and draw in the reader within the first few words.
2. Many different forms of leads exist, and a riskier, but often effective lead creates suspense that forces the reader to read the story.
3. There are many myths surrounding lead writing, often time these myths are based on truth, but complete commitment to the principles often clutters leads with unnecessary info.
Claire Fox:
Lead Lab:
1. I learned about how leads need to answer who, what, where, when, why, how, and so what.
2. I learned that dangerous leads that can be used rarely are questions, quotes, and topic leads.
3. I also learned that good leads have tension in them, which is when two forces compete with each other.
4. I also learned that there are two main types of leads, direct and delayed. Direct is strait to the point and delayed tells more of a story.
Lead Lab:
1. I learned that although the basic lead is supposed to be short, informative, not start with a quote, etc., I learned that there are times when experimentation with leads really pays off, and a quote lead can work.
2. I learned that there are two different types of leads, the "tell me the news" lead and the "tell me a story" lead. These depend on how soon the story comes out after the scoop, if the reporter is the first one to know about the story or not depends on what type of lead it is.
3. I learned that there are many different types of leads such as analysis, round-up, summary, emblem, and anecdotal.
Lead Lab:
1. I learned that although the basic lead is supposed to be short, informative, not start with a quote, etc., I learned that there are times when experimentation with leads really pays off, and a quote lead can work.
2. I learned that there are two different types of leads, the "tell me the news" lead and the "tell me a story" lead. These depend on how soon the story comes out after the scoop, if the reporter is the first one to know about the story or not depends on what type of lead it is.
3. I learned that there are many different types of leads such as analysis, round-up, summary, emblem, and anecdotal.
Lead Lab:
1. Leads can be written in either the "tell me the news" or "tell me a story" styles, each of which convey the information in different but efficient ways.
2. Some great leads have been written that don't follow the traditional rules of leads of being short, having attribution, and not having quotes.
3. An effective lead should be concise and easy to read, and you can test it by reading it to see if you might say it on the phone to a friend.
Lead Lab:
1. There are many different types of leads that can be used to highlight different story types.
2. As the Voice, we can use summarizing leads for "new" news stories, and experiment with anecdotal and emblem leads for information that already might be familiar to the MA community.
3. Adding humor and making text dramatic can spice up leads.
Cleaning Your Copy:
1. I was surprised how commonly adverbs are misplaced in sentences. To affirmatively state what happened without misleading the reader is often very difficult.
2. Misuse of pronouns can leave a writer sounding preachy or just stupid. "One must wear a raincoat when it's raining" sounds much worse than "you should wear a raincoat if it's raining."
3. Most importantly, I learned that everyone makes minute grammatical mistakes ALL THE TIME. To cut out every single little thing would elliminate some of the character from the writing.
The Lead Lab:
1. Leads can be diverse. There's no single, boring way to write a lead. Sometimes it just hurts a writer to write multiple boring, cookie-cutter leads.
2. Leads are also the best and easiest place to set the tone of an article. On one side, you must be extremely precise in your lead as to not mislead the reader, yet on the other side, you the ability to make things seem exactly how you'd like. If your lead is not in complete agreement with the body of your piece, you will struggle the entire time to reach any sort of concordance.
3. Leads also take a lot of time to develop. It doesn't help to just try and throw down a lead as quickly and directly as you can. Take your time.
The Lead Lab:
1. There are two types of leads: direct leads and delayed leads. Each are effective in different situations. The writer has to judge the reader's interest level: do the readers want to know the facts of the story right away, or are they willing to wait to get to the substance of the story?
2. A narrative lead introduces characters and tells a story that transitions into the "news" of the article.
3. A single-instance lead transitions from a single story to a larger topic.
4. Word play leads are generally used in light-hearted stories to grab the reader's attention.
5. "The only rule in writing is that there are no rules." ––George Orwell
Be creative and experiment. That said, let others read your writing so that they can tell you if you've gone "too far."
Cleaning Your Copy
1. When someone is reading your article, spelling is the first thing they look at to judge your writing skills. If you misspell words, the reader will think you are careless. If you have a question about spelling refer to the AP Stylebook.
2. Good gramar is important to have in your writing because it allows the reader to easily read your article. If your gramar is incorrect, than the reader will be confused and stop reading your article. Your article will go to waste if the reader can not understand what you are trying to convey.
3. When a month is used in a specific date remember to capitalize the first letter of the month. For example, I am going skiing on Aug. 13. If the month is used alone, spell it out: I am going skiing in August.
Cleaning Your Copy:
1. When to use who and whom:
Use who when you can replace the word in question with he or she.
Use whom when you can replace the word in question with him or her.
2. Conjugations of lay and lie and when to use each:
-Lay = to put down (present: lay, past: laid)
-Lie = to recline (present: lie, past: lay)
3. Abbreviate the months unless you are using it alone or with only a year.
-ex: Jan. 22, 2009
BUT January 2009
4. Use afterward and toward, not afterwards and towards.
5. When to use further and farther:
-Further: time or degree
-Farther: actual distance
ASFs:
-different types of stories can draw the reader in visually or engage him/her with q&a more than if it was just a plain news piece
-ASFs provide the reader with an easy way to identify the important tidbits of information, the main points are there without having to be squeezed into an overworded lead or boring article
-ASFs bring the whole staff together rather than the division of a graphics, writers, editors. With ASFs, especially when they accompany a main article, everyone has to agree on how to work the ASF with the article and find the most relevant information and displaying it graphically.
Lead Lab:
1. this opened me up to the idea of delaying the lead helped me understand that it is ok to integrate a short story or a quote into the lead.
2. I think that we could definitely elaborate on the leads we have in the voice, as they tend to be very generic. i.e. date, what happened, who did something.
Maybe we could use a short story or description of something an athlete did to start off wildcat of the issue.
3. I was interested about tension in leads rather than conflict. I think we could definitely find some angles in stories that you wouldn't make you necessarily think of "conflict" but that have strong opinions and oppositions.
4. I learned that we don't have to write leads first, but maybe after we start writing the story, we think of a more concise way to give the who, what, when, where, why, and how. and so what??
5. I always had trouble editing leads before, but I really liked the guidelines: would you say it to your friend? and can you say it in one breath? I think that we often try to cram a bunch of useless facts into one sentence when there is a lot we can edit to just get the main points.
From cleaning your copy I learned that the many small details and information involved in your article make a significant difference.
When writing your article it is very important that you write in the correct tense. For example says, said.
Additionally it is important to know differences in word choice and which words work best in which situations. For example when to use who and when to use whom or further and farther. Adverbs are also constantly misplaced or misused in articles.
Making sure you use words in the correct form. Making sure not to use a singular form when plural should be used or vise versa.
When writing dates, you can abbreviate the month when the year is also listed but when it is alone the month must be written in full. Listing streets or addresses it is important to make sure that you label in the correct format.
Errors are constantly made. Most of them are small, but every single error has a result, and errors reduce the quality of writing. If we could reduce even a couple small errors we could increase the writing quality in the voice.
A Few Things I Learned:
-As technology develops and the way we find out the news changes. It is important that newspapers adapt in order to stay relevant. ASFs are an effective way of making newspapers more interesting and engage a new generation of readers that has had the Internet since they were born.
-Our culture is very modern and increasingly low on time. In order to adapt to this reality ASFs can be read in a much shorter time and in this way they are appropriate for the 21st Century lifestyle.
-Graphical elements can be captivating and informative to readers but writers must know when they are standalone or supplemental. If the graphical elements are supplemental then the writer needs to give context and significance for having it.
A few things I learned about Cleaning the Copy:
-Journalism has a very specific style. It is not that way just to annoy the writers. The rigid style must be followed so that there is consistency from publication to publication. Its important that the Voice follows these rules in order to be taken seriously.
-A lot of times style rules use the smallest amount of characters (example avoiding writing out numbers for figures and anything greater than 9). This saves writers room which is can be hard to come by.
-Punctuation is especially important in Journalism because a lot of people will be reading the pieces. With out proper punctuation, writing can be awkward for the reader especially if read out loud. Double Check It.
A few things I learned in the Lead Lab:
-When constructing a lead, it's important to remember the Who What When Where Why and How. But also one should try to give the reader the "So What". Writers need to give the readers a reason to read the article and in a best case scenario, why it could be significant to the reader.
-It is important to determine whether or not an your article is straight up news or a story. Depending on which ever it is, a writer must adjust his lead accordingly.
-Ignore the unbreakable myths of lead writing, and instead focus on what serves the rest of your story best. It's okay to use a quote, it just depends on your story.
Leads should be able to be read allowed in one breath and should be under 50 words. Leads tend to summarize the whole article in one brief passage.
The lead should be concise and engage the reader. It is important to make sure leads don't have any untrue statements and ideas that conflict. A lead will transition you into the story and it is important to be creative with leads because success can come from creativity. A lead intrigues the reader and leaves them with a question or an idea
Two major types of leads. One which conveys the major events is "tell me the news" and the one which conveys the people is "tell me a story."
It is important to follow the four myths format.
cleaning your copy:
1. The words "impact" and "hopefully" are almost always used incorrectly.
2. "The first lady" is an honorary title and is not capitalized.
3. Rules for the usage of numbers are extremely arbitrary and vary greatly by the source.
Clean Your Copy:
1. When using two proper names as plurals, then the last word is not capitalized. For example Main Street is capitalized, but Main and Green streets has streets are not capitalized.
2. "Hopefully" is almost always used incorrectly, and "all right" can't be spelled as "alright"
3. The titles Mr. Ms. Mrs. and Dr. are always abbreviated when put before a person who is speaking.
What I learned from the lead lab is that it is more detailed than I thought. I used to believe that leads should just begin with the news and not a normal quote. Now I know that leads are not as stringent as they could be and that quotes can describe news better than a normal lead.
The Lead Lab:
1. A direct lead gets right to the point. The reader’s primary interest in a direct lead is for the journalist to “tell [them] the news.” They focus on breaking developments and summarize the story in a single paragraph.
2. An “emblem lead” is when a journalist uses a single instance or individual to illustrate something emblematic of the subject or theme of a story.
3. A common myth of lead writing is that a good lead is never more than three or four lines long. Though “short and sweet” is always a good prescription for a journalist, some readers are cheated out of “hearty” leads because of this inaccurate preconception.
Cleaning Your Copy:
1. Who is the subject or subject complement. Whom is an object. This is one mistake I have frequently made in the past, so it was a nice clarification. For example: Sue dated Bob, whom her father hated.
2. I had assumed that semicolons were placed on the inside of quotation marks; however, they are always placed on the outside.
3. Spell out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number; for example, Pennsylvania Avenue.
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