JRN 200: Your Friday 9/29 Homework

Another practice story: please give yourself 90 minutes to read, write and review the  story.

Here is the assignment, slugged ROBBERY:

Ch. 10, ex. 3, #1, p. 231. Slug: ROBBERY. Please write a story based on the provided information. For this story, the store's name is O-Mart. It is located in Haslett. Police officers are with the Meridian Township Police Department. The district attorney is the Ingham County District Attorney. The store clerk attends Lansing Community College. All other spellings and names are correct as presented in the text. Your deadline is 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 2.

Also, please read Chapter 16 and 17 (p. 329-364) in Reporting For The Media, 11th Edition, by Wednesday morning.

Plus, please be sure to read the latest blog posts, posted here. It's important that you do, to make sure that you're on-point with the main points of the readings. The posts also include greater detail and examples of ways to organize the body of a story, so the latest readings are especially important to what we're doing today. Please make sure you're reading the blog on a daily basis, and checking for updates every weekday. 

A reminder: virtually everything we do in this class -- including getting assignments -- revolves around the blog. It is YOUR responsibility to keep up with the latest blog postings, and to read each and every one, and act accordingly.

The blog will be updated every weekday, no later than 9 a.m. And if you have problems getting to a computer, the blog is also formatted to be read on your smart phones, using the same URL of http://jrn200isfunblog.blogspot.com/.

Any questions? Call or text me at 702-271-7983, or email me at omars@msu.edu.

Controversial: A Roundup

Here's a quick roundup of some key points to learn from the "controversial" assignment:

1. Watch your facts! We had some fatals. Be sure to double-check names, titles and any word spellings where a misspelling can change the meaning of a sentence.

It's always the so-called simple stuff, so don't skimp on proofreading after you finish writing and before you send in your story. Do check against what's in the book to make sure what you write was what you intended to write and that it's actually correct.

In journalism, there is no such thing as a small mistake. The audience is right to ask themselves, if you can't get the small things right, why would they trust you with the big things? 

2. Write in many small paragraphs. In journalism, we generally try to write in very short paragraphs. What we try to do is limit a paragraph to one main idea OR one supporting idea OR one fact to support an idea. Not all of the above.

In general, that means many paragraphs will be just one or two sentences; the exact opposite of English comp writing styles that encourage massive paragraphs.

3. Forget the satisfying ending. In traditional English comp we write what is called a satisfying ending; that is, a closing statement that wraps everything up. Happily ever after, and so on.

But in journalistic writing we start with the ending in the lede -- end result and ultimate outcome, right? -- and then backtrack to let people know how we got to that ending and what facts support it.

That means in many journalistic stories, the ending will seem kind of abrupt. But that's okay. Just let the story end where it ends. Don't essentially repeat the lede by adding a satisfying ending.

4. Add attribution, and use it liberally. Let the reader know how you know what you know. Every paragraph after the lede should have attribution to whoever said whatever you're citing. 

5. Just use "said" for attribution. It's not so-and-so explained. It's so-and-so said.

It's not so-and-so commented. It's so-and-so said.

It's not so-and-so continued. It's so-and-so said.

It's not so-and-so described or told or stated or exclaimed.

It's so-and-so said. No need to find another word saying the same thing.

You cannot say said enough. It cannot be overused. I know in English comp you're taught to mix it up; someone said, then exclaimed, then stated, and whatever.

In journalistic writing, we strive for simplicity. And attributing statements are simple tags, so we try to keep the language simple and direct and consistent. So, if someone said something, just say said.

I know it's gonna look weird to you, having graf after graf that says so-and-so said this, and said that, and said some more. But again, we're striving for simplicity and consistency, not creativity in a word that's nothing more than a simple label.

6. Don't forget your articles. Not written articles. I'm talking about grammatical articles, like a, and, the.

Read your work out loud. If it sounds choppy and robotic-like and not like a complete sentence, then it's probably missing an article.

7. Don't forget AP Style! Be sure you're following the rules by looking up AP style usage for your work and making needed changes. And be sure that you're picking up AP style points as you go along, and use those lessons going forward.


Some basics from this assignment include:

• Use first and last names on all references when you have more than one person with the same last name in the same story.
• When there are no last name conflicts, the regular rule is we use first and last names on all first references, and the last name only on all subsequent references.
• Punctuation goes inside of quote marks, like this: "Hi," Omar said. Then he said, "bye."
• Titles are only capitalized when directly in front of a title holder's name: King Omar Sofradzija; the king is Omar Sofradzija; Omar Sofradzija is the king.
• The general AP style number rule is this: spell out numbers one through nine; use numerals for 10 and above. There are many exceptions, though, so please review the AP style section for numerals and numbers.

Controversial: Some Okay Examples

This first one is pretty good. Please note the contextual lede that goes to end result and ultimate outcome and small paragraphs that allow each turn of the story to physically stand out:

This years “Take Our Daughters to Work Day” did not end as smooth for the father and daughter duo when the father, Joseph Murphy, was unexpectedly removed from his position after 18 years of service in front of his daughter, Jennifer Murphy, and co-workers.

Soon after lunch with Jennifer Murphy in the cafeteria, Joseph Murphy was called in to speak with the directer of personnel to be fired immediately as a result of the financial problems that the company were experiencing.

“The company was eliminating a number of middle managers in the company and his position was one that was being eliminated,” said Marilyn Quentin, the personnel director.

He was then escorted by security back to his office to pack up his belongs.

“They shouldn't have fired me yesterday when my daughter was there,” Joseph Murphy said.

Joseph Murphy was the only employee being let go that did not receive an email or a notice from the Office of Human Resources or the company.

As a result, Joseph Murphy’s wife plans to sue the company for the emotional distress caused on their daughter and for the way the dismissal was handled.

********* 

In all fairness, I did clean this one up a bit to confirm with AP style rules and other minor matters. Same with this next one ...

Joseph Murphy thought it was going to be a fun day at work with his daughter, until he got fired that day from a company he's been working with for 18 years.

Yesterday was “Take Our Daughters to Work Day,” so, like any other father, Joseph Murphy brought his 14-year-old daughter Jennifer Murphy to Collins Industries. 

Joseph Murphy is the director of research at Collins Industries where he specializes in making and selling health care products and medical equipment. All employees at Collins Industries got an email, sent by the Office of Human Resources, that encouraged them to bring their daughters.

After lunch, around 2 p.m., Marilyn Quentin, the personnel director, called him in to fire him. The company was having financial issues and they were letting go of 8 mid-lever mangers that day to help cut costs. 

Quentin said,“The timing of the dismissal of Mr. Murphy was regrettable.”

Joseph Murphy, who got the job straight out of college, had to say,“It’s not me I worry about. It’s my daughter. It’s not right. They shouldn’t have fired me yesterday when I had my daughter there."

"I can’t believe they couldn’t have waited one damn day. It was too traumatic for Jennifer, seeing me treated like that, and I think we’ll have to get help for her, professional help,” he said.

The company is helping Joseph Murphy find a new job and is giving him 3 months of severance pay. Murphy’s wife Kathleen Murphy does not think they are doing enough and wants to sue the company for the way they fired him. 

No comment from the president of Collins Industries has been made at this time.

******

Here's one more ...

“Take Our Daughters to Work Day” wound up being last day of work for employee of 18 years after he was fired in front of his daughter. 

Yesterday morning, Joseph Murphy, 40, decided that he would take his 14-year-old daughter, Jennifer Murphy, to work with him at Collins Industries, where he held the position of director of research. 

Collins Industries hired Joseph Murphy after he graduated from college as a research assistant. He received two promotions in his 18 years with the company and was now managing a staff of 14.  

Joseph and JenniferMurphy arrived at work at his normal starting time of 8 a.m., and for the next six hours, Jennifer was able to observe her dad go about a seemingly normal workday. 

That was until 2 p.m., when her dad was called in to the personnel director Marilyn Quentin’s office. 

Joseph Murphy was being informed that, as a result of financial troubles for the company, he would be fired. He was then escorted back to his office by security and given one hour to leave. 

Joseph Murphy was upset about losing his job, but seemed more concerned about the impact it would have on Jennifer Murphy.

“It’s not right. They shouldn’t have fired me yesterday when I had my daughter there.” Joseph Murphy said. “It was too traumatic for Jennifer, seeing me treated like that, and I think we’ll have to get help for her, professional help.” 

Joseph Murphy was given severance, but his wife, Kathleen Murphy, thinks they should sue for the way he was terminated.

Joseph Murphy was one of eight people Collins Industries fired yesterday, a cost-cutting measure the company claims was necessary. 

“The timing of the dismissal of Mr. Murphy was regrettable,” said Quentin. Collins Industries’ president was unable to be reached for comment.

*******

JRN 200: Neutral Experts

Today, I'm going to introduce a new concept that you'll need for completing your self-reported out-of-class stories. And that concept is that of neutral experts.

Neutral experts are people who have a great deal of knowledge and/or expertise regarding the subject you're writing about, but importantly they don't have an interest in the outcome. It's someone who can offer analysis that helps readers decide which side of an issue is more credible. In a one-sided story, it helps readers evaluate whether the people you're writing about are on the up and up.

Think of it in terms of a game: you normally have one side and the other side, right? How you view the game depends on which side you're on. Unless you have a referee, that is. A neutral expert is sort of a referee, helping point on when one side is telling the truth and the other side is stretching it a bit -- or a lot.

Let's say you're doing a story on a new business coming to East Lansing. You'd certainly talk to the business owner, but he or she has an interest in telling you positive stuff, since they own the biz. You can talk to rival businesses, but they have an interest in making themselves look better than the new guy. You can talk to shoppers who do have a valid viewpoint, but they are not expert at economic development.

That's where a neutral expert like, say, a business school prof  at MSU, can come in handy. That person doesn't have a stake in whether a business succeeds or fails, but they are expert at business, and can comment on the pros and cons not based on self-interest but rather on expertise. And that expertise helps a reader sort out all the competing perspectives, and decide which ones are credible and carry the most weight and relevance.


Most news stories at least attempt to include at least one neutral expert. And you can find a neutral expert about almost anything, no matter how obscure.

Let's look at this example: during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, a lot was made about how the Obamas would fist-bump each other. The New York Times Sunday Magazine even did a story about it.

Here's how the story started:

Is this the end of high-five?  On the night in June that Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, he and his wife, Michelle, exchanged what was variously described as a “closed-fist high five,” a “fist pound,” a “knuckle buckle” and a “fist jab.” Jonathan Tilove in The New Orleans Times-Picayune called the gesture “the dap heard ’round the world,” which he felt encapsulated “the new cultural trajectory of American politics.”

Believe it or not, they found an expert on fist-bumping. And that expert was right here. Let's continue the story:

Prof. Geneva Smitherman, director of African-American language study at Michigan State University, says: “Pound is when knuckles touch in a horizontal position. That’s the gesture that Michelle and Barack used. Dap is when the knuckles touch in a vertical position. Both gestures can be used as a greeting, to signal respect, agreement, bonding.” 

Dap started among black soldiers during the Vietnam War; to give “some dap” (not usually “a” dap) means “to offer kudos, congratulations”; Prof. James Peterson of Bucknell, a hip-hop historian, says he thinks it is rooted in dapper, “neat, fashionably smart.” Pound came out of hip-hop in the late 1980s. Fist bump came later: a 1996 note in the Sports Network wire service reported that Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles was accepting congratulations from baseball teammates with “high-fives, handshakes or fist bumps.” Peterson says the new phrase robs the gesture of its cultural significance, which includes the Obamas’ “quiet but pronounced in-group affiliation with all of black America.”

Hand signals have a checkered history in politics, from Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s V-for-victory sign to the famed photo of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller “giving the finger” to hecklers to the clenched-fist salute of “black power” to Lyndon Johnson’s fondness for “pressing the flesh.” 

When Michelle Obama visited Barbara Walters on “The View” on ABC, the candidate’s wife sought to soften her image with “I have to be greeted properly. Fist bump, please. It is now my signature bump. . . . I got it from the young staff. That’s the new high-five.” 

Colleges are notorious for being loaded with neutral experts (think of all your profs doing research, and all the TA's working on their thesis papers!) So really, there's no excuse for you NOT to find a neutral expert, especially here or at other schools.

Like many other schools, MSU -- in hopes of getting free publicity -- even makes it easy to find experts. The MSU News Office's Web site has an experts list, which you can link to here: http://news.msu.edu/experts/Results/?

Just looking at the first page, these are just some of the topics for which MSU can find you a neutral expert: wind power, renewable energy, water preservation, breast cancer, breast cancer education, medical education, microfinance, filmmaking, documentary production, sensors and nano-bisensor devices for biodefense, health diagnostics and theraputics, child welfare, biblical references and history, Samartian population, meteorology and climatology, Isreali-Palestinian conflict, Israeli politics, society and culture, international relations, U.S. foreign policy, school funding, school choice, school district building projects, the effects of mass communications, health communications, communications campaigns, international relations, the Middle East, Muslim issues, the early formation of galaxies, tax and expenditure policies, state and local public finance, poverty and income distribution, campus sustainability, Internet governance, new wireless technologies, telecommunications regulation and policy, bone and tissue engineering, labor markets, chaos theory, alternative dispute resolution, primitive stars, galaxy formation, labor unions and collective bargaining, international and domestic labor policy, work and family policy, flexible scheduling policy, tropical diseases, malaria, AIDS/HIV . . .

. . . and those are just a FEW of the subject areas!

You can also search by typing in a topic here: http://news.msu.edu/experts/

I took some general topics and looked for experts. Like Google, sometimes you have to try the same general term in different ways (like if you're searching for an expert in campus safety, you try that term, then campus, then safety, then police, and so on).

Under "campus living" I found one expert. For "transportation" I found two. There were three each for "housing" and "discrimination" and "elections." I found four each for "police" and "campus" and "drug." For "safety" I found 14! And "health" produced 35!

And you can filter by these general topic areas: agriculture and environment; arts and humanities; athletics; board and administration; business, economy, law and communications; education; family and social issues; health, medicine and veterinary medicine; international; science and technology; staff and faculty; students and campus life; tuition, costs and enrollment.Plus, there's always Google, right? And other schools as well. And think tanks. And private research institutions.

Wherever you find a good one, it's critical that you do. Journalism isn't about just getting both sides of the story. Getting one side and the other side and nothing else is just enabling a fight.

We're about trying to arrive at a verifiable version of the truth based on facts and checking out what people have to say, right? That's the role a neutral expert helps accomplish.

To paraphrase legendary baseball announcer and willful drunk Harry Caray -- and this might be the only smart thing he ever said in his life, God rest his soul -- there are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.

We need to get more than two out of three. We need all of 'em. And we need our out-of-class stories to cite AT LEAST one neutral expert!

So go find some neutral experts!

JRN 200: Imagine If ...

. . . if this story didn't have a neutral expert. Or two. A reader would just get two people arguing. And that's not journalism.

Journalism isn't about simply getting one side and the other side; it's about fact-testing the sides that are presented through the use of empirical evidence and expert testimony that helps make sense of what was said, and helps the reader determine what is true -- and what is not.

In this instance, the reporter didn't simply stop at reporting an argument over the Constitution between two politicians during a debate; rather the reporter went and found an expert in constitutional law who did NOT participate in the debate, to help answer what was right and wrong from the various positions claimed by the candidates.

And that completes journalism's true mission, which isn't simply to report the facts. Today, it's about helping the audience make sense of the facts, without partisan bias. 


Here's a link, and here's the text (with the neutral expert's passage highlighted. See the difference it makes?):

O'Donnell questions separation of church, state

By BEN EVANS, Associated Press Writer 

WILMINGTON, Del. – Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.

Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn't belong in our public schools."

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"

Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.

"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp," Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O'Donnell's grasp of the Constitution.

Erin Daly, a Widener professor who specializes in constitutional law, said that while there are questions about what counts as government promotion of religion, there is little debate over whether the First Amendment prohibits the federal government from making laws establishing religion.

"She seemed genuinely surprised that the principle of separation of church and state derives from the First Amendment, and I think to many of us in the law school that was a surprise," Daly said. "It's one thing to not know the 17th Amendment or some of the others, but most Americans do know the basics of the First Amendment."

O'Donnell didn't respond to reporters who asked her to clarify her views after the debate.

During the exchange, she said Coons' views on creationism showed that he believes in big-government mandates.

"Talk about imposing your beliefs on the local schools," she said. "You've just proved how little you know not just about constitutional law but about the theory of evolution."

Coons said her comments show a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the Constitution.

The debate, their third in the past week, was more testy than earlier ones.

O'Donnell began by defending herself for not being able to name a recent Supreme Court decision with which she disagrees at a debate last week. She said she was stumped because she largely agrees with the court's recent decisions under conservative chief justices John Roberts and William Rehnquist.

"I would say this court is on the right track," she said.

The two candidates repeatedly talked over each other, with O'Donnell accusing Coons of caving at one point when he asked the moderator to move on to a new question after a lengthy argument.

"I guess he can't handle it," she said.

O'Donnell, a tea party favorite who stunned the state by winning the GOP primary last month in her third Senate bid in five years, called Coons a liberal "addicted to a culture of waste, fraud and abuse." 

Coons, who has held a double-digit lead in recent polls, urged voters to support him as the candidate of substance, with a track record over six years as executive of the state's most populous county. He said O'Donnell's only experience is in "sharpening the partisan divide but not at bridging it."

Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc. All right

JRN 200: Your Wednesday 9/27 Homework

It's time for us to move from practicing ledes to trying to organize a full-blown story. So, the assignment before you is to write a story based on the information given to you in Reporting For The Media, 11th Edition, Chapter 9, Exercise 2, story 4 from p. 208.

Your slug will be CONTROVERSIAL. The length of the story should be whatever you feel it needs to be to sufficiently cover the subject at hand so a reader can fully understand what happened and see your evidence for your main points.

(You will be graded on whether that length sufficiently meets that requirement.)

Please give yourself no more than 90 minutes to review, write and proofread your work. Your deadline will be no later than 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 28 by email to omars@msu.edu.

Before completing this practice story, please be sure to read the latest blog posts, posted here. It's important that you do, to make sure that you're on-point with the main points of the readings. The posts also include greater detail and examples of ways to organize the body of a story, so the latest readings are especially important to what we're doing today.

Also, please make sure you're reading the blog on a daily basis, and checking for updates every weekday. On the last assignment, I had some people say they didn't know we had an assignment. That tells me that not all of us are reading the blog, as those who did were able to meet the deadline and do everything they were supposed to do.

A reminder: virtually everything we do in this class -- including getting assignments -- revolves around the blog. It is YOUR responsibility to keep up with the latest blog postings, and to read each and every one, and act accordingly.

The blog will be updated every weekday, no later than 9 a.m. And if you have problems getting to a computer, the blog is also formatted to be read on your smart phones, using the same URL of http://jrn200isfunblog.blogspot.com/.

Any questions? Call or text me at 702-271-7983 or email me at omars@msu.edu. Good luck to all!

RFTM Chapter 9: The Body Of A News Story

The portion of the story that follows the lede is the body. The body offers details amplifying, supporting, building and detailing the lede.

The most basic type of story body is known as the inverted pyramid. In an inverted pyramid, writers arrange information of descending importance or newsworthiness, in this kind of order:

First paragraph: the lede
Second graf: The nut graf
Third graf: first most-important bit of detail
Fourth graf: second most-important bit of detail
Fifth graf: third most-important bit of detail
... and so on

The advantages of an inverted pyramid are: it helps reporters prioritize information; it helps new reporters find missing elements in a story; it's easy for readers to understand; and it's easy to write and edit quickly (making it especially useful in breaking news situations).

The disadvantages include: it concentrates on basic facts, not leaving much room for context and meaning; it can be boring to read; and it locks reporters into formulatic writing, allowing less flexibilty.

(Having said that, it is a basic writing style that works well as a default style if you're getting confused on how to write something. You can always fall back on an inverted pyramid and be okay.)

In organizing an inverted pyramid story, of course we start with the lede, which we've already gone over. The second graf is known as the nut graf, which does two big things: first, it answers questions created by the lede; second, it offers a logical transition to the body of the story.

For example, let's look at a lede from a previous exercise:

A 22-year-old man speeding at 100 mph crashed his car and died, just 15 minutes before his wedding was to begin this morning in East Lansing. 

This lede creates several questions: who was the 22-year-old man? When, exactly, was the crash? And where, specifically? Why did he crash? And so on.

Those exact details were probably left out of the lede for brevity's sake. But now we can add in some of those details via a nut graf, like this:

Scott Forsythe, who was to wed Sara Howard, was trying to avoid a dog in the road at the time of the 8:45 a.m. crash along Kirkmann Road.

Now, let's pair the lede and nut graf, and see how they symbiotically support each other:

A 22-year-old man speeding at 100 mph crashed his car and died, just 15 minutes before his wedding was to begin this morning in East Lansing.

Scott Forsythe, who was to wed Sara Howard, was trying to avoid a dog in the road at the time of the 8:45 a.m. crash along Kirkmann Road.

The nut graf doesn't mimic or echo the lede; it builds upon it, by filling in details from the lede. Then, we can start a narrative telling in the body of the story.


Another way to pair a lede/nut graf combo is to do an alternative lede. In such cases, the lede (rather than being a summary of how things ended up) can be an anecdote that conveys a more human and relateable example of the bigger issue. (In such cases, the lede may actually be two or three grafs, or more.) Then, the nut graf (much like a traditional lede) sums up the issue bottom line.

For example, a hypothetical story about students struggling to pay for tuition may start with a two-graf anecdotal lede, and then go to a nut graf, like this:

Joe Schmo is a college student, but his day consists of far more than class.

Schmo, a sophomore at Michigan State University, works six jobs in addition to attending six hours of class each day. He works as a waiter, a clerk, a mime, a bookie, a pilot and a rodeo clown, all in an effort to cover his $25,000 in annual tuition payments, he said.

A growing number of students -- like Schmo -- are having to work while attending college, with the number of students engaged in work-study increasing by 500 percent between 1993 and 2013, a recent study found. 

With an anecdotal lede, we try to take something big -- like student struggles -- and break it down into something that's easier to relate to, in this case a single student's struggle.

Now, in picking which way to lede a story, we don't base it on what writing style we prefer. Rather, we select the one that best tells the story, and allows readers to best relate to what makes this story interesting, relevant and.or useful.

(This is another big difference between writing for English composition and writing for journalism. In English comp, we write for personal expression and artistic reason. It's all about us. In journalism, we write to contextually and accurately represent the facts we've discovered, and for reader understanding of the story. It's all about the readers and the truth. We may use creative and artistic techniques in telling the story, but we do it based on the facts and reader comprehension, not our own personal expressiveness.) 

Then, we continue with the news in the body of the story. We more fully explain how things unfolded or happened. We offer quotes and descriptions. We offer more detail and reaction.

Also in the body of the story, we explain the unfamiliar. We avoid or translate words that are not used in everyday conversation,or that are jargon, as we blogged about earlier. We can translate terms (like, instead of saying cardiac arrest, we use the more conversational heart attack).

Or we can define terms (by saying something like, the man suffered cardiac arrest, commonly known as a heart attack), helping to make a complex story more understandable, and teaching the audience something that may be useful or interesting.

Examples are important, too. Citing examples can help factually justify your summations; make stories more readable and interesting; they can personalize stories and make stories more understandable and relateable; and make concepts more understandable by comparing them to things that are familiar.

In journalism, we try to remember a concept of show, and don't just tell. That is, don't just tell me the news; show me the proof through quotes and data and such. In the lede and nut graf, we generally tell. But in the body of the story, we must show.

Body Of A News Story: Some Examples

The most basic story structures are very specific in style yet simple in design. So let's look an imaginary story done in a basic news style, starting with what you already know -- the lede:

School was canceled forever today after a 48-year-old college instructor won a multi-billion dollar lottery, quitting his job and sparking a walkout among his students.

The lede is usually followed by what is called the nut graf. The role of that paragraph is to elaborate and expand upon the details of the lede.

Consider the general identifiers posed in the lede: an unnamed instructor, an unnamed school, an unspecified big-money lottery ect. Try to follow up on those generalities with specifics in the nut graf, like this:

Omar Sofradzija, who teaches a journalism class at Michigan State University in East Lansing, won the $99 billion Amazeballs drawing Monday, after which he quit Tuesday, lottery officials said.

That was followed by a mass walkout by MSU students, and then cancelation of MSU classes the next day, university officials said.

In journalism, we try to keep paragraphs fairly short -- usually limited to one main point or idea per graf, and/or one or two sentences per graf. In this case, I thought the nut graf was running a bit long, so I split it into two grafs.

We try to keep paragraphs short and specific for two big reasons: one, to make it easy for the reader to identify key points and specific quotes and such; and two, to make it easy for editors to do the same so they can more quickly edit the story by easily finding what may be worth emphasis or cutting out.

The point after the nut graf is a great place to consider putting in a telling quote; something that goes to the heart of the story's theme or context or ultimate meaning. Something like this:

"If there's no Omar, there simply isn't any point in having school," MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon said.

At this point, the lede/nut graf/key quote package creates sort of a mini-story. In the same way the lede gives you the bare minimum of what you need to know about the story, this grouping of grafs gives readers the minimum amount of information AND supporting detail and evidence.

From this point on, you have a couple of options: you can add more supporting facts and quotes, in descending order of importance. This is called the inverted pyramid style of story organization. You start with the most important piece of background, then the next most important, and so on. Like with short paragraphs, it allows for faster reading and editing. Like this:

Sofradzija, who has been making just $2 an hour teaching an introduction-to-journalism class, said he plans to never teach again.

"Seriously, eff those little brats," he said.

But a number of students said that losing Sofradzija as an instructor has sapped their will to learn.

"If I can't learn from Omar, I can't learn. I'm that stupid," said Elvis Presley, a sophomore journalism major from Canada.

Sofradzija said he did not know what exactly he's spend his fortune on, but he promised it would be something stupid.

Notice how pieces of telling information are paired up with quotes supporting, amplifying and humanizing that raw data. It's not necessary that every graf of info is followed by a related quote, but it does help in reinforcing the points that are made throughout a story.

Also, please note attribution is liberally used throughout the story, in every graf after the lede. That's for the benefit of readers, who get to see exactly where you get each bit of information that supports the original claim you make in your lede. Not only are you transparent, but you essentially rely on the expertise of your sources by citing them, building your credibility.

Another approach is to offer a chronological telling, looking at things from the start and listing them in the order they happened. It's important that you weigh the facts you have and the context of the story to decide if an inverted pyramid, chronology or some other method best tells the story. Like this:

Events quickly began to unfold around 8 p.m. Monday, when Sofradzija was named the Amazeballs winner. His resignation was submitted to MSU by 6 a.m. Tuesday, school officials said.

"Seriously, eff those little brats," Sofradzija said.

Word quickly swirled around campus of Sofradzija's departure, with students walking out of their classes em masse throughout the day Tuesday, school officials said.

"If I can't learn from Omar, I can't learn. I'm that stupid," said Elvis Presley, a sophomore journalism major from Canada.

University leaders met that night before making the cancellation of the semester official at 8 a.m. today, officials said.

And that's it. Notice how the story seems to end sort of abruptly. Looks weird, right? Well, in journalism that's okay is your story lacks what writers call a satisfying ending. Why is this okay? Because you already have an ending: your lede.

Now that we looked at these two structures in pieces, let's put it all together and look at the pieces as stories. First, the inverted pyramid:

School was canceled forever today after a 48-year-old college instructor won a multi-billion dollar lottery, quitting his job and sparking a walkout among his students.

Omar Sofradzija, who teaches a journalism class at Michigan State University in East Lansing, won the $99 billion Amazeballs drawing Monday, after which he quit Tuesday, lottery officials said.

That was followed by a mass walkout by MSU students, and then cancelation of MSU classes the next day, university officials said.

"If there's no Omar, there simply isn't any point in having school," MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon said.

Sofradzija, who has been making just $2 an hour teaching an introduction-to-journalism class, said he plans to never teach again.

"Seriously, eff those little brats," he said.

But a number of students said that losing Sofradzija as an instructor has sapped their will to learn.

"If I can't learn from Omar, I can't learn. I'm that stupid," said Elvis Presley, a sophomore journalism major from Canada.

Sofradzija said he did not know what exactly he's spend his fortune on, but he promised it would be something stupid.

*****

Now, the chronological style:

*****

School was canceled forever today after a 48-year-old college instructor won a multi-billion dollar lottery, quitting his job and sparking a walkout among his students.

Omar Sofradzija, who teaches a journalism class at Michigan State University in East Lansing, won the $99 billion Amazeballs drawing Monday, after which he quit Tuesday, lottery officials said.

That was followed by a mass walkout by MSU students, and then cancelation of MSU classes the next day, university officials said.

"If there's no Omar, there simply isn't any point in having school," MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon said.

Events quickly began to unfold around 8 p.m. Monday, when Sofradzija was named the Amazeballs winner. His resignation was submitted to MSU by 6 a.m. Tuesday, school officials said.

"Seriously, eff those little brats," Sofradzija said.

Word quickly swirled around campus of Sofradzija's departure, with students walking out of their classes em masse throughout the day Tuesday, school officials said.

"If I can't learn from Omar, I can't learn. I'm that stupid," said Elvis Presley, a sophomore journalism major from Canada.

University leaders met that night before making the cancellation of the semester official at 8 a.m. today, officials said.

Now, which is the best structure to use: inverted pyramid or chronology? Again, it depends on what best tells the story.

If you're writing about something complex where impact and meaning doesn't necessarily happen in sequence -- like a tuition increase or comparing on-campus and off-campus housing -- then structuring things based on an analyzed importance may be the way to go.

But of the story you're looking into naturally and dramatically unfolds in order -- like a bank robbery or 9/11 -- then a chronology probably works best.

A lot of it depends on what kind of facts you dig up while reporting. Note in each approach, some facts get greater or lesser emphasis, and some facts get entirely left out. You should think about which approach best uses the most important, relevant, interesting and useful facts. Whichever does is probably the highest and best approach to take.

Let me be clear, though: these are NOT the only two story structure options you have. As you've read in the book and probably noticed in your newspaper readings, there are endless ways to write ledes and detail nut grafs and add quotes and cascade facts throughout a story.

You're first and foremost looking for the best way to tell a story, based on what makes meaning and context and accuracy clear and easy to follow.

These are just two basic ways to do that. Master this, and then start practicing other ways.

Out-of-Class #1: Questions And Answer

Not so long ago, I got this email from a 200 student:

Would all the killings in Chicago be a possibility for my out-of-class, or is that too large of scale for what you are looking for? I am from Illinois so getting interviews would not be a difficult task, and it's reasonably local, I am about 20 minutes from Chicago.

This is what I wrote back:

How many first-hand interviews could you get from a wide range of sources? The ambition of the topic is far less important to me than the depth and breadth of first-hand reporting. I want to see if you can do a story by getting everything yourself, by talking to all sources directly. If you think you can get everything first-hand -- including background -- without utilizing other media sources or the Web, then go for it. If not, you may want to wait to do it later, if at all. Thoughts?

This is what they sent back to me:

So more of what you are looking for is for us to develop our own story as opposed to investigating an already prominent one? A few examples would help me understand this a little bit more!

Here's my return volley:

Sure. First, here are some example topics from the assignment email:
 
Pros and cons of living on-campus versus off-campus at MSU
 "Culture of rape" on college campuses, including MSU
Summer vacation employment plans among college students at MSU
Prevalence of fake ID use among college students at MSU Finals week stress among students at MSU
How foreign students acclimate to being on an American campus, like MSU
Seniors at MSU facing the "real world" after graduation Recycling at MSU
 
Plus, here's the approved topics for the second out-of-class stories from a past 200 class of mine:
 
Teen pregnancies
Sex assault awareness
Students and buses
Campus construction inconvenience
Social media making people less social
Freshman adjustment to campus life
Police brutality
Cell phone usage
Stadium student section struggles
Preparing for winter
Covering a school board meeting (public affairs! And the only type of event I will allow you to cover, instead of a trend or issue)
Campus employment
Social media effects
  
  
Here are links to some examples of past out-of-class stories that offer a sense not just of self-developed topic, but an almost-absolute reliance on first-hand interviews for everything: quotes, anecdotes, background, etc.
 
jrn200isfunblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/out-of-class-2-rewrite-great-example.html

jrn200isfunblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/out-of-class-1-pretty-typical-but.html

Does that help at all? Please feel free to write back if I could further clarify things.

I'm sharing it with you all because if one of you has a question like this, my guess is a bunch of you do. That's why we're doing this class blog; many of the issues you face are shared by others, so it's a change to address those issues broadly.

And that's why I'm sharing this exchange with you now. Hopefully, it helps you figure out what this first story is supposed to look like -- and the first is the hardest one, since you don't have a template for this -- or it'll affirm that you're going in the right direction.

And, as always, please contact me at your earliest convenience if you need further refinement. I expect you to do much, but I don't expect you to figure it out by yourself. I'm here to help.