JRN 200: Your Tuesday 5/27 Homework

More ledes for you all! It's the same kind of exercise; you're being given four sets of information; write four ledes (one for each). In this exercise, you may do either a basic summary lede OR some sort of alternative lede, along the lines of what we've read and blogged about earlier.

If you have the book, the lede exercises are #1 and #2 on p. 218 and #1 and #2 on p. 234. If you do NOT have the book yet, below I have cut-and-pasted  the same items from the ninth edition. Just use those as your information sets.

In these ledes exercises, "your city" is defined as East Lansing. "Today" will be defined as the deadline day, which will be Thursday. "Your university" will be defined as Michigan State University.

The slug for this exercise will be MORE LEDES. Your deadline will be 9 a.m. Thursday, in a Word document via email to omars@msu.edu.

A reminder: formatting in the top left-hand corner of your paper should be:

Your name
May 30, 2013
P. 218, 1-2 and p. 234, 1-2
More Ledes

The MORE LEDES slug should also be the title of your Word document and the email which you'll send to me. Please be sure to start working on this assignment ONLY after you've reviewed your graded previous assignment (which I have emailed back to you by now) and the blog post review of the previous assignment.

Again, deadline will be 9 a.m. Thursday. Here's the info from which to write your ledes:

EMPHASIZING THE UNUSUAL

Write only a lead for each of the following stories. As you write the leads, emphasize stories’ unusual details. Correct stories’ spelling, style and vocabulary errors. Also, none of the possessives have been formed for you.

1.   Scott Forsythe is 22 years old. He was killed in a car accident today. Police in East Lansing say the accident occurred at about 8:45 AM this morning on Kirkmann Rd. Forsythe was driving a ford mustang. Police estimate the vehicle was traveling at least 100 m.p.h. and witnesses told police it was passing slower traffic when a large dog walked into his path. As Forsythe veered to avoid the dog he lost control of his car and hit two trees and a fence before coming to a complete stop, police said. The accident occurred about a half mile from the church where he was to be married to Sara Howard of 812 Bell Av. at 9:00 a.m. today He was alone in the vehicle. No one else was hurt.

2.   Your city needs more money. Its in a financial crisis and trying to trim its expenses. So today East Lansing officials announced that every time someone is arrested and the police take mug shots and fingerprints, the jail will charge them $25 for the service. Police chief Barry Kopperrud said he wants to make criminals pay a price for their actions. “They have to learn there’s a cost for their behavior,” Kopperrud said today. “Decent citizens shouldn’t have to pay for this. Let the crooks and other bad guys pay the full cost what it costs to arrest and incarcerate them.” The fee will go into effect immediately but will be refunded to people who are arrested and later acquitted.

WRITING ALTERNATIVE LEADS

Using techniques you studied in this chapter, write an alternative lead for each of the following stories. You may want to use complete or partial quotations, questions, descriptions, buried leads, multiparagraph leads, suspense or chronological order. Or, you may want to try a shocking lead, ironic lead, direct-address lead or a word used in an unusual way. Correct any errors you find.

1.   A group of ecologists and biologists at Michigan State University and other schools have come up with a unique idea. They want to transplant African wildlife to the Great Plains of North America. Julie Allen, 1504 Lincoln Drive, is an associate professor of biology at your university. She had this to say about the idea, “I think it would be wonderful to drive across the Great Plains and see lions and elephants and giraffes roaming the prairie.” The idea was developed by more than 30 scientists as a way to perpetuate species that are slowly facing extinction because of declining habitat in Africa. The scientists say there is plenty of room left in the American West for these types of animals. Relocating the animals could help them increase their numbers. The plan is being criticized by ranchers, developers and other scientists, who say that it would be difficult to introduce animals to a place they had never lived. Ranchers, such as Jim Smithson, who lives in North Dakota and is vice president of the Western Stockman’s Association, claims such a move would devastate the regions cattle industry. “How many steers or dairy cows can a pride of lions eat in a week?” Smithson said. Supporters of the idea say the animals they want to relocate would be held in large game parks or private reserves. They would not be allowed to roam free. Other critics say the transplanting of alien creatures could have devastating effects on native creatures. The animals being brought to places they have never lived could introduce new diseases or could destroy native wildlife. In addition, taking wildlife from Africa could hurt the tourist trade on that continent.

2.   It was an intense situation for police Wednesday afternoon. It was an adventure for the six-month-old daughter of Michael and Ethel Perakiss of 876 Collins Street. Everything ended OK, police said. Megan Perakiss, the daughter of Michael and Ethel, was in the back seat of a 2006 Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle when it was carjacked by a man who had just held up the convenience store where Ethel had stopped to get gas. The robbery of the Quik Shoppe convenience store at 2752 Michigan Avenue occurred shortly after 2 p.m., according to Police Chief Barry Kopperud. Kopperud said the suspect walked into the store and waved a handgun in the face of Edwin C. Jimenez, manager of the store. He ordered Jimenez to empty the cash register into a cloth bag he threw on the counter and threatened to shoot him if he did not. The thief made off with an undetermined amount of money. Megan was unaware of what was going on. Police said Ethel pulled into the convenience store to get fuel and had just finished pumping the gas when the robber ran from the store and pushed her away from the vehicle. Reports of the carjacking sparked a massive, multi-agency search for Megan that at one point included nearly two dozen units from the city’s police force. Ethel Perakiss left her keys in the ignition while she was filling the fuel tank. Police described the armed robbery and carjacking suspect as a 6 foot 1 inch tall white male in his early to mid-20s wearing a white T-shirt and long black pants. He had short, neatly cropped hair. “My baby’s in the back seat,” Perakiss shouted as the carjacker drove away. About 40 minutes after the ordeal began, Kopperuud said, police officers spotted the missing vehicle abandoned in the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant with Megan inside. The carjacker apparently had fled, leaving the vehicle unlocked and running with the air conditioner on. Police said they were shocked but pleased that the incident ended so quickly and without harm to the child.