Meeting: Transitional Phrases

In stories where you have multiple sub-issues, like a meeting story, it's helpful to have a new subsection started with a transitional phrase, like

In other business, the board ...

Also, the board ...

In other news ...

Also at the meeting ...

Also approved (or rejected) was ... 

Such transitional phrases help clearly delineate when reporting on one matter ends and another begins.

Meeting: Ledeing A Subsection

With subsections of stories, you want to lede with the end result first, just like with a lede.

What some of you did, though, was lede a subsection with something like, something was discussed, and then ended the subsection with the end result, like the board approved the plan.

What you wanted to do was start the subsection with, something was approved by the board, and then detailed what the proposal was and what discussions took place.

So let's look at a hypothetical subsection done right, and wrong. First, the wrong:

In other business, the board discussed creationism vs. evolution in textbooks. The current books feature evolution.

"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.

Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "Thaat's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."

In the end, the board voted 10-0 to keep the current books.

Now, the right way to do it:

In other business, the board voted 10-0 to keep current textbooks that teach evolution. Some parents had argued for a switch to the teaching of creationism.

"The current books suck. I didn't come from no monkey," said parent Omar Sofradzija.

Said parent Lindsay Lohan: "That's scientific fact. Omar is an idiot."

See the difference? In the latter version, we know right away at the start of the subsection what was the end result. Just like a lede. Think of subsections as mini-stories, and look for the mini-story lede to go to end result and ultimate outcome.

Meeting: Writing With (AP) Style

Lotsa basic AP Style goofs that we've blogged about before, and that we should have down pat by now, including:

When part of a numbered street address, abbreviate East, West, North and South; and street and avenue, like this: I live at 123 N. Sesame St. Please see addresses for details.

When not part of a numbered street address, do not abbreviate East, West, North and South, or street and avenue, like this: I live on North Sesame Street. Please see addresses for details.

We always spell out the word percent and never use the percent symbol of %. So, you say something is 12 percent, and not 12%. Please see percent for details.

Military titles are abbreviated when used as part of a name and formal title, so it's Lt. Luis Rafelson, and not Lieutenant Luis Rafelson. Please see military titles for details.

Last names only are used on second and subsequent references. So on first reference it would be a first and last name: Luis Rafelson. On second reference, it's just Rafelson. Please see names for details. 


Titles are not used on second and subsequent references. So, where you may say Lt. Luis Rafelson on first reference, from then on it's just Rafelson, without title. Please see titles for details. 

For money, we use the dollar symbol ($) instead of spelling out dollars. So, it's $618 million, not 618 million dollars. Please see dollars for details.

In general, spell out numbers from zero to nine, and use digits for 10 and above. So, nine is nine, not 9. And 11 is 11, not eleven. There are numerous exceptions to the rule; please see numerals for details. 

Again, these are some basic rules. Let's make sure we're remembering 'em, and using 'em.

JRN 200: Your Monday 6/27 Homework

As noted in previous posts, please finish the POLICE assignment due Tuesday, and your out-of-class story which is due Wednesday. Also, please start working on your SECOND out-of-class story pitch, using the same parameters as before. Your pitch will be due by 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 5 to omars@msu.edu.

JRN 200: Your Thursday/Friday 6/23-24 Homework

For this weekend, again you will have TWO practice story assignments to do. The first one is slugged MEETING. For this one, use information provided in Reporting For The Media 11th Edition, Ch. 15, Ex. 5, p. 326. 

For this exercise, the city council is the Grand Ledge School Board. All relevant locations for this assignment are in the city of Grand Ledge.

Your deadline for MEETING will be no later than 9 a.m. Monday, to omars@msu.edu.

The second one is slugged POLICE. For this one, use information provided in Reporting For The Media 11th Edition, Ch. 18, Ex. 2, p. 389). 

For this exercise, the incident is taking place in Okemos. The store is also located in Okemos. The responding authorities are from the Ingham County Sheriff's Department.

Your deadline for POLICE will be no later than 9 a.m. Tuesday, to omars@msu.edu. 

Now, the POLICE exercise is a bit different from previous practice stories, in that instead of being given a set of information, you are being given a mock police report form which to discern information, make sense of what happened and write your story.

For you to be able to figure things out, you need to know what military time is. The police report, like most police and fire reports, are written in military time, which differs somewhat from regular time.

In regular time, the daily clock is divided into two 12-hour clocks. For example, we have 12 hours of the morning (known as a.m.), and 12 hours of the afternoon (known as p.m.). The number indicates how many hours we are into the morning or afternoon. Like, 8 a.m. is eight hours into the morning. 2:30 p.m. is two hours, 30 minutes into the afternoon. Duh, right?

Now, let's compare that to military time. In military time, the daily clock is a single 24-hour clock, where the number indicates how many hours we are past midnight, and into the day.

For example, 0500 hours is equal to 5 a.m., since it's five hours into the day. 1430 hours is equal to 2:30 p.m., since 2:30 p.m. is 14 hours, 30 minutes after midnight.

The reports will list information in military time, but for the stories we must translate that info into regular time, since the latter is the time people in regular society use.

Also, please keep working on your first out-of-class story, which is due by 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 29 to omars@msu.edu.

JRN 200: Your Wednesday 6/22 Homework

In addition to reviewing the new blog entry posted below, please read RFTM, Ch. 18 and 19 (p. 365-420). And keep working on your out-of-class story. Thanks!

RFTM Ch. 15: Speeches And Meetings

To cover a speech or meeting, planning and preparation are very important. Topics may be unfamiliar or complicated, so it's critical to take steps to prepare, including:

Learning the identities of key players and decision-makers;

Requesting agendas and other advance preparation materials;

Arriving early, getting good seats, pre-interviewing key players, arranging to talk to key players afterward;

Taking detailed notes!

Identifying key groups or people that may have counter views or who may be affected by any decisions being made/announced at the meeting/speech. Reporters can contact these people after the meeting/speech and either add their comments to the story or use them as the basis for a follow-up story.

Speech or meeting stories are often posted or published immediately after speeches or meetings take place. Reporters report on an event in detail, after identifying the central point or theme.

To organize such a story, lede with one or two of the most important/interesting/relevant.useful topics. Then, back into the rest of the details or issues.

(Like with a traditional news story, that means having to identify and highlight an end result/ultimate outcome/bottom line in your lede. You'll have to make judgments based on news values of what to lede with. You can't -- and shouldn't! -- lede with everything.)

To write an effective lede, write about the action, not the process. That is, the story not about a meeting or a speech, or even that a meeting or speech took place; it's about what happened at the meeting or what was said at the speech.

(Let's think about this in the context of writing a football game story. The story isn't about a game taking place; it's about who won or lost, and by how much, ect. We'd never write, MSU played Notre Dame in a football game Saturday night; we'd write, MSU beat Notre Dame 107-0 Saturday night. In the same way, we should never write, The East Lansing City Council met on Tuesday or Tom Izzo addressed the Happy Campers of America meeting Tuesday; we'd write, The East Lansing City Council voted to close MSU Tuesday or Tom Izzo proposed making himself King of the World at the Happy Campers of America meeting Tuesday. It's the action (winning 107-0, voting to close MSU, proposing royalty status) and not the process (a game was played, a meeting was held, a speech was spoken) that is the news.) 

Also, in the body of the story write happenings in the order of importance, and not necessarily in the order that things occurred. The most important item is in the lede; then, you detail the second most-important item; and so on.

In writing transitions between separate items within the same meeting or speech story, those subsections should be treated like mini-ledes, with focus on action and end result, and not just process and discussion.

(For example, you would focus on ultimate outcome in beginning a transitional section with something like, In other action, the city council also ordered the demolition of Spartan Stadium, and NOT something like, In other action, the city council discusses Spartan Stadium.)

In deciding what to write about and how to rank happenings, remember the audience! Keep audience interests in mind. Think about which issues are most interesting/important/relevant/useful TO THEM, and write your story accordingly.  

Help the audience clarify issues, understand events, and clarify jargon. Pleasing sources NEVER trumps helping the audience. You're there as a representative of the audience to identify and ferret back what they'd most want or need to know, and not necessarily what sources want told. People who do the former are journalists; ones who do the latter are publicists.

Also, do check your facts! Don't take what is said as gospel. Try to affirm what was said is actually true. Exaggerations and falsehoods are not unheard of from speech-makers and politicians, so fact-check what they're claiming. If they're caught in an untruth, do report what they said, and then counter it with what facts you discovered, including attribution. And see if you can ask the untruth-teller to explain the inconsistency.

Plus, get reactions to speeches and meetings from attendees and relevant outside parties.

(Who may be relevant? Think about who's affected by the decisions. If the East Lansing City Council votes to close MSU, those affected would include MSU officials and students and businesses that cater to students and even residents who have to live among students. Find such relevant parties, and add their voices to the mix.)