Out-Of-Class #1: How To Write It

I recently was asked how we were supposed to write the out-of-class story; in a structure similar to the practice stories?

The answer was -- and is -- absolutely!

The reason we've done all these practice stories was to initiate you into a journalistic style or writing and information organization. Essentially, the out-of-classers are like your midterms and finals, in that that's where I get to evaluate in a more definitive way what you've learned.

So, let's make sure our out-of-class stories have ...

>>> No fatals! Like I've said a million times, journalism isn't about writing; it's about getting it right. So, our first and highest obligation is to make sure we've double-checked not only our work to make sure what we wrote is accurate to our notes, but also double-check our sources against other sources, to make sure what we were told by our original source is verifiably true.

There's a rule of thumb in journalism that goes, if your mother says she loves you, check it out. What that means is, if your mom says she loves you, don't simply take her word for it. Seek evidence that supports what she claims.

For example, if your mother says she loves you and you're trying to verify it, you can go by documented evidence (such as, birthday cards she went you every year, in which she wrote how much she loves you) and historical evidence (like, she never missed any of your sports games in high school, and always rooted loudly for you) and source/witness evidence (like friends and relatives, who say she never shuts up about how much she loves you).

Like Ronald Reagan used to say about dealing with the Russians: trust, but verify. That's what journalists have always done. We don't just write down what people say; we check it out. It's not that we think they're lying; we're just making sure what they're saying is fully accurate and contextual, with nothing misinterpreted or left out.

>>> Strong ledes, whether it be a summary lede getting to the main point of the story, or an alternative or anecdotal lede that offers a humanizing example of the greater issue, before backing into strong nut grafs hammering home the main point.

>>> Thought given to the Peanut Barrel rule in crafting those ledes, so that readers can quickly get what is most interesting/relevant/useful about your story.

>>> A focus on what is most newsworthy, in sequential order, rather than simply listing things as they unfolded.

>>> Lots of quotes, introducing human voices into your stories.

>>> Interviews you did yourself! Not stuff you found online, or something CNN reported. All info -- even background info -- should be from first-hand sources you spoke with.

This is the difference between writing a term paper and writing a news story. With a term paper, you start with a conclusion, and then find evidence from second-hand sources like Wikipedia or whatever to support your main point.

But in journalism, we start out with a theory, and then fact-test our starting point by doing first-hand interviews and seeing what we can discover that confirms or rebuts our starting assumptions, or even takes us in a whole new (and newsworthier) direction. We folow teh facts, not necessarily the original expectation.

Only then -- after we have done our first-hand interviewing -- do we determine what the main point of our story is, and we write it based on what we discovered and the facts we gathered and verified, rather than what we started with.


>>> Solid attribution, so that the audience knows exactly where you're getting your information from, and leveraging the expertise of your sources in a transparent way. For attributing statements, just use said.

>>> Short paragraphs, with only one main point OR one supporting idea OR one supporting quote per graf. Not all three; not even two of three. Just one per graf. This is done so that main ideas and supporting points can stand out (like in an outline), and for ease and clarity of reading and editing.

When in doubt, hit the "return" key and start a new graf. There's no such thing as too small a graf in journalism,but there are grafs that are too big.

If you have any questions, please see me sooner rather than later. A reminder: your deadline is no later than 9 a.m. Thursday, July 2, at omars@msu.edu.

And please be careful, thorough and timely. Each out-of-class story equals about 10 percent of your final semester grade, or roughly equal to all the practice stories we've done sofar, put together.

Again, these are our midterms and finals, so treat these out-of-classers with the same level of importance.