For this first writing exercise, you won't need your book. Instead, use the information provided below.
After reviewing the blog posts below, what I would like you to do is write four ledes -- one for each item, each of which should be no longer than 32 words -- using a Word document, with each lede based on the sets of information provided at the end of this post, numbers 1 through 4. Use the readings and blog posts as your guides in doing this.
For each, please do a basic summary lede. DO NOT do alternative ledes for this exercise; you will get a chance to play with that in the very near future, but for right now I want to see you doing the most basic form of a lede.
I would like you be be sure to double-space your work (for easier grading on my part), and in the upper left-hand corner of your paper I want you to list the following:
Your name (e.g., Ronald McDonald)
The assignment due date (in this case, it's Sept. 12, 2016)
The assignment page number (this does not apply to this assignment; it will for future work)
The assignment slug
What a slug is, is a one or two-word working title for a news story. In this case, the slug is FIRST LEDES. So, please use FIRST LEDES both for your slug AND for the subject of the email to which you will attached your Word document and send to me at omars@msu.edu.
Let me be clear: it's omars@msu.edu -- with an "s" at the end of "omar." This is important because there IS an omar@msu.edu (with no "s"), and that's not me. YOU are responsible for making sure you're sending this to the right address.
Your deadline will be 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 12. That's a.m., as in the morning. That gives you A LOT of time to do this assignment, which for in-person classes is usually done in-class in about 75 minutes, tops, with no prior warning. If you really need to get it knocked out before the holiday weekend, just do it today (this assignment is designed to be done within a normal class period for the in-class version, so we're talking about a couple of hours, max).
I will not be grading this based on conformance to AP Style (since we just started readings on that), but I will make a note of AP Style usage in evaluating your work.
I, however, WILL be grading you based on accuracy (any fact error automatically gets a 1.0 final grade) and meeting your deadline (anything received by me at or after exactly 9 a.m. Tuesday will get a 0.0 final grade, though I will still evaluate your work so you can at least figure out what you did well and what you can do better next time).
These rules are in place -- and will be strictly enforced -- not because I'm a monster, but to start building in you an absolute respect for journalistic mores. In journalism we must always be accurate, as people count on us for correct information and otherwise wouldn't rely on us. So we must make sure we carefully double-check our work. And in journalism we must always meet our deadlines, as they won't delay the 11 o'clock news by a minute or two to get your script finished.
Plus, I will be strictly holding you to the 32-word limit. You will be severely docked for going over. In journalism, we have to make decisions every day on what information is of the highest and best use to our audiences. In doing that, we have to find and focus on what is most important, interesting, relevant and useful. This is the sort of decision-making I will better see from you by essentially forcing you to decide how to best use an allotment of no more than 32 words. You don't have to make it 32 words -- if you can do an adequate lede that is less than that, that's great -- just don't exceed that limit.
So, please make sure that you're giving yourself enough time not just to write your story, but to thoroughly read the information before you start writing (so you are sure you understand the facts behind what you're about to write); and review the story after you finish writing (to make sure you wrote what you intended, and didn't make any typos and such.
Ideally, for every minute spent writing, you want a minute devoted to pre-checking and rechecking. So, if you have one hour to write, ideally you'd want to spend the first 15 minutes going over your gathered facts; then 30 minutes writing your story; then 15 minutes reviewing your work.
Before you start this assignments, please read the chapter lecture summaries, which highlight key points from your latst reading assignments in the Reporting For The Media textbook.
After reviewing the blog posts below, what I would like you to do is write four ledes -- one for each item, each of which should be no longer than 32 words -- using a Word document, with each lede based on the sets of information provided at the end of this post, numbers 1 through 4. Use the readings and blog posts as your guides in doing this.
For each, please do a basic summary lede. DO NOT do alternative ledes for this exercise; you will get a chance to play with that in the very near future, but for right now I want to see you doing the most basic form of a lede.
I would like you be be sure to double-space your work (for easier grading on my part), and in the upper left-hand corner of your paper I want you to list the following:
Your name (e.g., Ronald McDonald)
The assignment due date (in this case, it's Sept. 12, 2016)
The assignment page number (this does not apply to this assignment; it will for future work)
The assignment slug
What a slug is, is a one or two-word working title for a news story. In this case, the slug is FIRST LEDES. So, please use FIRST LEDES both for your slug AND for the subject of the email to which you will attached your Word document and send to me at omars@msu.edu.
Let me be clear: it's omars@msu.edu -- with an "s" at the end of "omar." This is important because there IS an omar@msu.edu (with no "s"), and that's not me. YOU are responsible for making sure you're sending this to the right address.
Your deadline will be 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 12. That's a.m., as in the morning. That gives you A LOT of time to do this assignment, which for in-person classes is usually done in-class in about 75 minutes, tops, with no prior warning. If you really need to get it knocked out before the holiday weekend, just do it today (this assignment is designed to be done within a normal class period for the in-class version, so we're talking about a couple of hours, max).
I will not be grading this based on conformance to AP Style (since we just started readings on that), but I will make a note of AP Style usage in evaluating your work.
I, however, WILL be grading you based on accuracy (any fact error automatically gets a 1.0 final grade) and meeting your deadline (anything received by me at or after exactly 9 a.m. Tuesday will get a 0.0 final grade, though I will still evaluate your work so you can at least figure out what you did well and what you can do better next time).
These rules are in place -- and will be strictly enforced -- not because I'm a monster, but to start building in you an absolute respect for journalistic mores. In journalism we must always be accurate, as people count on us for correct information and otherwise wouldn't rely on us. So we must make sure we carefully double-check our work. And in journalism we must always meet our deadlines, as they won't delay the 11 o'clock news by a minute or two to get your script finished.
Plus, I will be strictly holding you to the 32-word limit. You will be severely docked for going over. In journalism, we have to make decisions every day on what information is of the highest and best use to our audiences. In doing that, we have to find and focus on what is most important, interesting, relevant and useful. This is the sort of decision-making I will better see from you by essentially forcing you to decide how to best use an allotment of no more than 32 words. You don't have to make it 32 words -- if you can do an adequate lede that is less than that, that's great -- just don't exceed that limit.
So, please make sure that you're giving yourself enough time not just to write your story, but to thoroughly read the information before you start writing (so you are sure you understand the facts behind what you're about to write); and review the story after you finish writing (to make sure you wrote what you intended, and didn't make any typos and such.
Ideally, for every minute spent writing, you want a minute devoted to pre-checking and rechecking. So, if you have one hour to write, ideally you'd want to spend the first 15 minutes going over your gathered facts; then 30 minutes writing your story; then 15 minutes reviewing your work.
Before you start this assignments, please read the chapter lecture summaries, which highlight key points from your latst reading assignments in the Reporting For The Media textbook.
Also, included after those posts are a few posts regarding tips to ensuring accuracy. Please take a look and start working those habits into your routines.
For assignments during the week, I will be available to answer questions during regular business hours, but for this assignment I will NOT be. Please do your best and be sure to meet your deadline. It's better to turn in a so-so story than none at all. In a real-world situation, an editor can fix up a weak story. But an editor can't fix nothing.
Plus, I am fully aware this is your first assignment. It will be a tiny part of your final grade. Mastering it won't guarantee a 4.0 final grade; we have a lot of work yet to do. And tanking it won't ruin your hopes for an Ivy League grad school. It's just a start, so let's have at it. Good luck to all!
For assignments during the week, I will be available to answer questions during regular business hours, but for this assignment I will NOT be. Please do your best and be sure to meet your deadline. It's better to turn in a so-so story than none at all. In a real-world situation, an editor can fix up a weak story. But an editor can't fix nothing.
Plus, I am fully aware this is your first assignment. It will be a tiny part of your final grade. Mastering it won't guarantee a 4.0 final grade; we have a lot of work yet to do. And tanking it won't ruin your hopes for an Ivy League grad school. It's just a start, so let's have at it. Good luck to all!
1. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control conducted a major study of American marriages and announced their results at a press conference Friday. Of couples that marry, the researchers found that 43% break up within fifteen years, according to their study of 50,000 women. It helps if women are wealthy, religious, college-educated, and at least 20 years old when they marry. They are less likely to divorce. The CDC found that half of U.S. women had lived with a partner by age 30. And 70% of those couples that lived together for at least five years eventually walked down the aisle. But their marriages were most likely to break up. After 10 years 40% of the couples that had lived together before marriage had broken up, compared with 31% of those couples that did not live together. That’s because people who choose to live together tend to be younger and less religious and have other traits that put them at a greater risk for divorce, the CDC concluded.
2. There’s a new program to help East Lansing's teachers. They aren’t paid much. Many can’t afford a down payment for a house. So local school officials on Saturday unveiled a new program that will offer mortgages with below-market interest rates to teachers and administrators in public schools. Its designed for first-time buyers and would offer eligible educators up to 10,000 dollars to help cover down payments and closing costs. They will not have to repay any of that amount provided they both continue to teach and remain in the home for a minimum of the next five consecutive years. Helping teachers buy or rent is becoming a popular incentive across the nation as teacher shortages and attrition continue to plague schools. Cash for the down payments will come from Federal funds already used to help low to moderate income residents buy homes. Program rules have been tweaked so teachers qualify, said school supt. Gary Hubard. There are limits on applicants income and on a homes purchase price, mostly depending on exactly where a home is located.
3. Kalamazoo's Fire Chief announced Sunday that the fire department is ending a tradition at least a hundred years old. It’s the tradition of sliding down a pole to get to a fire engine. The city, he explained, is phasing poles out as it builds new one-story stations to replace older multistory firehouses. Going down the pole too fast and hitting a concrete floor can cause injuries and was therefore never a good tradition, he said. He explained that fire department records show over the past 20 years at least 12 firemen suffered injuries, especially sprained or broken ankles or legs. Still, crews improved their response time to fires by bypassing staircases from their upstairs living quarters, by cutting holes in the floors of firehouses, and by installing and using the brass or steel poles. The last multi-story firehouse with a pole is slated for demolition sometime early next year.
4. There’s a deadly problem at Kennedy High School in Detroit. Two more students tested positive for tuberculosis last week, indicating they likely picked up the germ from a student with an active case of TB, city health officials announced Monday. The two students are not yet ill and can not pass the infection on to anyone else but will be given antibiotics to make sure they never develop TB. The two were among 170 persons tested at the school last week. The tests were necessary because health officials determined that one student has active TB, which is contagious. The Health Department last week tested every student and staff member who was in a class or rode a school bus with the ill student. The ill student is no longer in school, having dropped out for the year. The health officials said there is little danger to the schools nearly 3000 other students. TB is spread when an ill person coughs, but only after prolonged exposure and in poorly ventilated areas. A high school campus isn’t likely to be a place for TB transmission. Those two who tested positive will be given a chest x-ray and medication to be sure they don’t develop active TB.
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