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TODAY is a News Day. Your first opportunity to experience what print reporters do every day–that is, churn out at least one story.
Your story will be 300-maximum 400 words long, plus a photo.
Correct spelling of names is essential. Names spelled incorrectly will result in a grade of ZERO!
Story is due today Monday, October 19 at midnight!
Summary lead or variation and inverted pyramid. At least two sources. Remember if someone doesn’t say it, it doesn’t go in. Your opinions should never be included in a news story, unless someone else voices them. But you should be aware of your opinions because there is a tendency to give more prominence to facts/quotes we agree with. Your job is to give equal time to every side you present.
Grading matrix JRN 300 Newsday 1 Assignment – election day
*** How will you introduce yourself to your interviewees?
You are a journalist.
You are a journalism student at the SJ UR
Your story could be published on the InkOnline website
AGENDA
Postponed to next week: Quiz #3 – Active vs. passive (p. 292); Singular or plural? (p. 395-397); Numbers (p. 335-340); Possessives (p. 360-361)
Review notes from radio-to-print stories:
- I asked for a summary lead – no description, no poetry, no grand statements…just the 5 Ws
- Make sure your summary lead actually summarizes all of the various aspects of the situation that you will present in the story.
- If someone doesn’t say it, it doesn’t go in.
- Your opinion should not be represented at all, unless someone else says it.
- This is not about you. You are a conduit–only.
- Focus, focus, focus
- Short, short paragraphs. One thought only per paragraph. Often one sentence, unless it is one sentence setting up a quote and then the quote.
- Write simple, straightforward, factual
- With quotes, you can use …to indicate that you left words out and (fhkjdsf) to add words in to clarify or make sense. It’s okay to ask people to restate things if the first time they say it is confusing or incomplete
- Often a good way to format quotations is to give the first, short part and then close quote, she said, and then pick it up again.
- If you have a long quote, you can break it up over two paragraphs. Don’t close the quote after the first paragraph but do open them for the second
Story meeting:
Pitch your idea: What is the story? Why is it important for our audience? (Specify your audience.) Who are your sources? Photo idea?
Due tonight at midnight. Mark and I will be here until 4:30 and then you can reach us by cell phone
Shannon 306-536-8069
Mark
Resources
2015 Saskatchewan Federal Election Riding Profiles (Leader-Post article)
Employers must give employees time to vote
Emailed assignment – forwarded by Mark on Friday
Hey all:
We are looking forward to working with you on your first News Day in JRN 300 on Monday, October 19, 2015.
We will start the day a little later than usual, because we are expecting that the day will be long as we all wait for returns and results. So we will meet in the newsroom at the Journalism School at 10 a.m. on Monday.
When you arrive on Monday morning, you should come with a solid story idea that you will work on and complete by the end of the day–your deadline is Monday midnight. Your election story will not cover everything about the election, of course. It is your job to come up with an interesting angle or aspect of the election–voters, candidates, issues, whatever–that you will write up in a 300-400 word article. You should spend the weekend getting caught up on election background, so you can frame your story in the wider context of the election; but your story should be focused on one aspect of the election.
Your article can use a summary lead or something more creative, but don’t get too poetic–300-400 words is not very many words. You should have two sources that you quote directly in your story. Remember to stay focused–someone did something because of some reason. And especially remember that your story must have a person at the center of it. If you are writing about an issue, you must find a person or people who is/are impacted by the issue and wrap the story around them, their thoughts and experiences. Journalism is always about real people.
You can also take a picture to go with your story–on your phone is fine. The photo won’t be marked but it’s good practice to think about how to illustrate your story with a photo.
If you have any questions, you can email us–Shannon through our UR Courses site and Mark at mark.taylor@uregina.ca
We are looking forward to working with you on Monday.
Shannon and Mark