Fourth Quarter Breakdown Week 1: Writing Basics (ledes, grammar, quotes) Week 2: Political reporting, covering meetings Week 3: Sports Reporting Week 4: Feature Writing Week 5: News Editing Week 6: News Design Week 7: Radio/TV/Social Media Reporting Week 8/9: Newspaper Projects

Mr. White’s Website The Journalism I page now has a Bell Ringer sheet that you can download in case you lose it. The website also has sections for each week with a description and files that can be downloaded. I plan to put everything we do on the site. If you lose any files or miss class, you should be able to go to the website to find materials.

Active Voice vs. Passive Voice Good writers use active voice. Active voice means the subject performs the action. Is, are, was, were are to be avoided since they usually are passive voice words.

Examples A: Jason changed the flat tire. B: The tire was changed by Jason. A: The story was read by the student in one hour. B: The student read the story in one hour. A: The question is answered by the teacher. B: The teacher answered the student’s question.

Short Paragraphs News reporters limit their paragraphs to 3-4 sentences. Long paragraphs make for difficult reading. A quote is its own paragraph. Never combine your own wording with a quote in the same paragraph. Print newspapers indent for new paragraphs. Online newspapers skip a line instead of indenting. Either is fine for your writing.

Capitalization Rules Always capitalize the first word of a sentence. Always capitalize proper nouns. Always use capital letters for acronyms. Learn the difference between a specific common noun and a proper noun.

Proper vs. Specific Common Just because you use an adjective does not mean that you have a proper noun. Common Noun: a chocolate chip cookie Proper Noun: a Mrs. Smith’s cookie Common Noun: A red four-wheeler Proper Noun: A red Kawasaki

Using Commas Use a comma with three or more words in a series. Example: Ed, Sue and Fred ran the race. (nouns) Example: Triathletes swim, run and bike. (verbs) Use a comma for compound sentences. Example: He ran toward her, and she ran toward him. Never use a comma unless you can explain why you used it. Use a comma after phrase or clause that begins sentence.

Beginning Clauses and Phrases During the scary part of the movie, Karen grabbed Jim’s hand. (tells when) With a giant burp, Emily announced her arrival at the lunch table. (tells how) Although I had a broken leg, I ran away from the grizzly bear. (under what conditions) In a strange forest, I found a river flowing with chocolate. (tells where)

Using Apostrophes There are two times to use apostrophes. When your goal is to show the reader possession (ownership) of something. In this case, you use an apostrophe in front of a modifier (adjective) in front of a noun. Examples: Jon’s house, dog’s bed, batter’s eye. When you leave out a letter (contraction) Examples: doesn’t, he’s, they’re

Possessives Rule 1: If it is singular, you must add an apostrophe and an “S”. Example: The student’s hat was red. Rule 2: If it is plural and ends with “S”, you only add an apostrophe. Example: The students’ hats were red. Rule 3: If it is plural but does not end in “S”, you add the apostrophe and an “S”. Example: women’s, people’s

Parallel Structure You must match pronouns to nouns and keep the same verbe tenses. For short sentences, this is easy stuff. For long sentences, you have to be careful. Incorrect: He ran its race. Incorrect: He enjoys running, swims and bikes. How would we fix these?

Don’t be a looser! Confusing Words Some words look and/or sound alike but have different meanings. You need to be very, very careful with these words. It’s easy to make a mistake.Even I goof them up sometimes. Don’t be a looser!

Misplaced Modifiers Modifiers tell something about nouns in a sentence. But, if you put the modifiers in the wrong part of the sentence, it may sound awkward, confusing or even downright silly. Example: The dog chased the boy with the spiked collar. Example: We saw several monkeys on vacation in El Salvardor.

Checking Spelling If you don’t know how to spell a word, look it up! Always, always use spellcheck before you turn in a story. Always, always read your story at least once after you have finished it.

Be Accurate Verify. Verify. Verify. Always triple-check things. This includes how to spell names, what the facts are. Read your stories after you finish. You may catch errors. Never say something unless you have checked it out. Never assume something.

Sentence Length Short is better than long. Two short simple sentences are often better than one longer compound sentence.

Descriptive Writing One way to describe is with sensory imagery. This approach uses adjectives and adverbs to describe. Another way to describe is with specificity. Some words provide pictures in your head better than other words. To be specific, use specific nouns and specific verbs. Specific language lets you say more with fewer words.

Specific Language Examples Imagine that you are in a grocery store when someone in a Superman costume tries to rob the place. You pick up the phone and call the police. They ask for a description of the man. What are you going to tell them?

Your Turn On the worksheet, fill in all of the punctuation and correct any grammar or spelling mistakes. Also look out for Associated Press style problems. When you finish, turn it in for a grade.

BELL RINGER Turn in the grammar/punctuation worksheet from Monday. Go to Mr. White’s website and download the PowerPoint. It’s the same one we used yesterday. Just find THIS page in the middle.

Today’s Agenda Bell Ringer Lecture on News Ledes Complete Lede Writing Worksheet

What is a lede? -the first sentence of a news story -gives the reader the most important details -always tells what, where, when -may tell who, why and how In news, we like to give the ending first. People want to know the most important stuff immediately. So that information needs to be in the lede. Most ledes tell who, what, when and where. But some don’t tell who. Sometimes, nobody knows the who. Think about a lottery. When a winning ticket is sold, there is always a story about it. But that story often doesn’t not name the winner. Because the reporter simply hasn’t learned who won. The why and how may not be in the lede, but they should come immediately after in a sentence called the nut graf. We’ll cover that tomorrow.

Purpose of the Lede It captures the essence of the story. It tells the reader what he or she can expect from the story. It captures the reader’s attention and convinces the reader to stick around a bit to continue reading. It’s not just about what you include. It’s about how you include it, too.

Keys to Good Lede Writing Always use a strong, active verb in your lede. Avoid passive voice. Avoid non-specific verbs. A: A man sprinted to victory Friday... B: A man won the race Friday… C: Friday’s winner was a man… In the example, sprinted is a strong action word. It tells how he ran. In the second example, we don’t even know if he was running. It just says he won. There’s not much action there. It’s simply not an exciting sentence. What? How can you be specific but exclude details? Well, some details are nonessential. They aren’t really all that important to the story. But that doesn’t meant aht you should leave out the important stuff. You still should use specific nouns. But you don’t need to use a lot of adjectives with those nouns. If you look at the example, you’ll see only one adjective for the teacher and one for the student. “Local” is important to the story because it adds relevance. If the story was about a teacher in Maine, the story wouldn’t be as relevant to readers in DeBary, Orange City, Deltona and DeLand. I included the word struggling just to hint at why. But I’ll save the why for that second sentence, the one I referred to earlier as the nut graf. Now, check out that last example. There is way too much detail in there. It is too long. And it includes a lot of unnecessary information. Is it important that the student was blond? Of course not. Is it important too know exactly how much the T-Rex weighed? Not really. Would it change the story if the T-Rex weighed 2,000 pounds? Nope.

Keys to Good Lede Writing Use specific nouns but save the details A: Someone fed a person to a dinosaur Friday. B: A local teacher fed a struggling student to his pet T-Rex Friday. C: A 42-year-old University High journalism teacher fed a blond-haired 15-year-old student from Orange City to a 4,000-pound pet T-Rex on a sunny Tuesday morning because the student wrote a bad lede.

Keys to Good Lede Writing Avoid putting large numbers in a lede unless they are essential. A: A tornado hit Chicago at 5:32 p.m. on Tuesday and caused $354 million in damage. B: A tornado hit Chicago Tuesday. C: A tornado hit Chicago Tuesday and caused millions of dollars in damage. The good lede mentions generally the damage and saves the exact figure for later in the story. The exact figure is not considered essential to the story. The exact time also is not essential. Now, about using names. You don’t need a name in the lede unless it’s truly important for the reader to know it right away. In fact, using the name might confuse the reader. If I read that last lede, I’d be trying to figure out If I’m supposed to know who Dan Jones is. To avoid confusion, the writer should give us the important infor first and the name later. Possibly in the nut graf. Instead of Dan Jones, it could say the head of the new Pity Party spoke Tuesday.

Keys to Good Lede Writing Don’t use names in ledes unless they are people who most readers will know. Always consider your audience when you make this distinction. A: A man spoke Tuesday… B: Dan Jones spoke Tuesday… C: The director of FEMA spoke Tuesday… Everyone who reads Sports Illustrated may know the name of a basketball player. But the readers of the DeLand Beacon may not recognize the person.

Keys to Good Lede Writing Don’t try to be clever or funny. Especially if it’s a serious story. A: Authorities did Nazi this coming. B: Authorities in Miami spotted a giant swastika painted on the bottom of a resident’s swimming pool Tuesday.

Keys to Good Lede Writing Avoid cliches, bad metaphors, figurative language. A: A local basketball team performed a miracle Tuesday. B: Hell froze over Tuesday. Michigan State beat Kentucky. C: A local basketball team pulled off a miraculous win Tuesday.

Examples of Bad Ledes The house on 53rd Street and Huntington stood motionless. South Texas has been emunized. Frank Sinatra’s song about Chicago, “My Kind of Town,” “a town that won’t let you down,” seems dated in light of last weekend’s shooting spree that left 16 dead and dozens wounded in 53 separate incidents.

Your Turn I am handing you a sheet with tips for writing ledes. Using it, write news story ledes based on the following press statements. Use the tips handout to help you out and refer to the PowerPoint if necessary. If you do not finish in class, complete the worksheet as homework and turn it in at the start of class on Wednesday. Don’t forget!

THE INVERTED PYRAMID Creating a News Story

The Inverted Pyramid Some stories are told chronologically, from beginning to end. But journalists don’t want their stories told from the beginning of a news event. Journalists give away the ending first. They know readers are interested in the outcome. There is no rising action in a hard news story. Instead of rising action, the information is delivered in order of importance. The most important comes first. The least important is left for the end. This story form is widely known as the inverted pyramid. It is not the only form used by journalists, but it is the preferred and expected form for most hard news stories. Have you ever tried to tell a story from the beginning and then you notice that your story is taking a long time to tell and the listener is beginning to lose interest. Or maybe you were the listener, and someone is telling a story and they just keep yammering on when you want them to get to the point. Well, newspaper readers don’t have all day to read newspapers. They want info fast. And that means telling them what happened first. For this reason, journalists do not start at the beginning of a story. They tell the most important information first. This is usually the outcome or ending. For sports stories, the first thing reporters give is the score of the game and the names of the teams. For crime stories, people want to know what the criminals did and if they were captured or are still out there somewhere.

What Is Hard News? Hard news is designed to inform. Hard news gives details of what happened Soft news is more for entertainment and allows for greater creativity in how the writer chooses to tell the story. We’ll cover soft news when we dig into feature writing in late April.

The Inverted Pyramid The inverted pyramid writer organizes whole sentences and paragraphs based on news value. Writers compare each fact, each detail and organize them based on which is most important to the story. The inverted pyramid begins with the lede, of course. But what comes next? After the lede, reporters provide details, clarification, facts, an explanations of the current situation, background information and quotes that help to tell the story and give opinions from people involved in the story.

The Nut Graph For some stories, the lede doesn’t tell the reader why the story is significant. Readers are left thinking “so what?” In some cases, it’s because the writer used a creative, narrative lede. When that happens, the writer it must couple the lede with the “nut graph.” The nut graph immediately follows the lede. It can be one sentence or a whole paragraph.

Quote on Nut Graph “At their most basic, these simply literary devices tell readers why news and feature stories are relevant to them…They can answer any questions raised in leads, explain why stories are significant and place stories in meaningful contexts. They help writers organize their own material…” -Jack Hart, The Oregonian

Why Use a Nut GraphP Nut graphs… answers the “so what” by providing the why and how tells why the reader should care, how it could affect the reader gives details or supporting material after the lede ties a creative lede to the point of the story

Example 1 LEDE A water balloon fight broke out Friday in Mr. White’s journalism class. NUT GRAPH The fight erupted one day after Mr. White called his students idiots for not knowing how to write a nut graph. Apparently, they wanted revenge.

Example 2 LEDE: Police in Orange City ordered all people to remain indoors Thursday after a University High School student was eaten by a giant earthworm. NUT GRAPH: “We don’t want it to happen to another student,” said Orange City Police Department chief O.M. Gawd.

Some History In the early 1900s, journalists wrote with a lot of creativity. They used big words and flowerly language. And they didn’t put the most important details first. Early newspaper stories featured multiple headlines. Some stories had 5-8 headlines. As society began to change, people wanted their news faster and a simpler, easier-to-read format. Newspaper editors decided to use only one or two headlines per story. The rest of the important details went into the first part of the story in a new format called inverted pyramid style.

The inverted pyramid: Advantages 1. Offers quick reading 2. Features less repetition 3. Offers easier editing (easier to cut and paste) 4. Offers faster headline preparation 5. Easier to add to a story (as well as cut it) 6. Allows for faster writing of a story (can do it in your head, from a phone booth even) 7. Offers a quick organizing tool

Inverted Pyramid: Disadvantages This style doesn’t always encourage readers to continue to the end of a story because the important elements come first. It’s backward; you give away the “punchline” at the top. Can be somewhat formulaic; it gives more value to substance rather than style. There’s less allowance for creativity.

A short exercise These paragraphs from an inverted pyramid story are out of order. Spend a few minutes thinking about how you’d arrange them to tell the story in the best way. A. David Bailey, homeland security division chief for the Austin Fire Department, said nine workers from the mailroom where the letter was processed were quarantined until tests could determine whether the powder was toxic. B. The mailroom is in the State Insurance Building. C. Gov. Rick Perry's office said the letter came from a prison inmate but provided no other details. The substance was sent to the Texas Department of State Health Services for testing. D. Bailey said none of the workers became ill. E. Authorities evacuated a state office building on Wednesday after a suspicious powder was found in a letter sent to the governor's office.

How it ran (e, a, c, d, b) AUSTIN — Authorities evacuated a state office building on Wednesday after a suspicious powder was found in a letter sent to the governor's office. David Bailey, homeland security division chief for the Austin Fire Department, said nine workers from the mailroom where the letter was processed were quarantined until tests could determine whether the powder was toxic. Gov. Rick Perry's office said the letter came from a prison inmate but provided no other details. The substance was sent to the Texas Department of State Health Services for testing. Bailey said none of the workers became ill. The mailroom is in the State Insurance Building.

Ending a Story The end of the story provides a stopping point; not a conclusion. It also doesn’t summarize what’s already been said. There are many ways to end a story. Here are a few: -A quote that summarizes the whole story -A sentence or two that tells what’s next Remember that the editor cuts from the end of the story. So the end might be gone. You’d better let the editor know if the end is really important. Perhaps he’ll save the end and cut out something from the middle.

Your Turn Use scissors to cut out the paragraphs, which have been mixed up. Then paste each paragraph onto the sheet of copy paper in the order that you think works best to tell the story. When you finish, make sure you put down the name of you and your partner and turn it into the correct drawer.