Elements of a Package

  
Talent. A Football Scholarship. Then Crushing Depression.

Take a look at the news profile from the New York Times above. How many discrete elements do you see?

Now, go to your favorite news website and click on any story. How many elements go into the typical story?

ELEMENTS

Hed
Drophed

Byline
Credit line

Main (with at least one subhed)

Main display photo
credit line
cutline

Quoteout

Sidebar: video feature, fun facts box, highlights or bulleted list, or biobox.

Model TV News Profile

Here is a two-minute TV news feature that Sydney Cheuvront with a lede that plays up Proximity, Timeliness and Impact.

Sydney's feature

And here is Sydney's demo reel on YouTube:

Sydney's demo

Here is an example of a One-Sentence Summary Lede with elements of Prominence and Surprise:

Choreographer Camille Brown looks inward for inspiration

Here is an example of a Delayed Identification Lede with Timeliness and Proximity:

For Elon grad, starring in 'Hamilton' an exhilarating dream

Here is a Direct Address lede with Prominence and Oddity:

In a world of 24/7 news, comedian Paula Poundstone cuts through the noise

Add Music, Without Infringing

Background music adds a nice touch to video feature stories like the news profiles you're working on and when you are doing long-form projects, whether news or documentary.

But BE CAREFUL!  You cannot simply go online and download music willy-nilly for anything you are going to put out for public consumption. That's copyright infringement. You are stealing someone else's work. Thief!

Luckily, there are online options for acquiring music that is royalty-free and for which permissions have already been given.

One of them is iMovie Song, a collection of short bits of music that Apple created for use with its iMovie software (do people still use that?). You can find them on YouTube by searching: iMovie Song. It will look like this: iMovie Song on YouTube.

Another free site to check out: Audionautix

There are also pay services that have paid the royalties and gotten permissions for you. One of them is called Soundstripe. You pay about $100 a year, and you can choose from thousands of music clips — worry-free.

How to become a writer? Write every day

I couldn't agree more with that statement. Here, blogger Darius Foroux makes a short and to-the-point argument for writing even a little bit each day:

Form a daily writing habit — it will change your life

To this advice, I would add: Read at least one undisturbed hour every day.

 You will find many articles online about the benefits of reading. Here's just one:

10 benefits of reading — why you should read every day 

One thing that all of these articles about reading have in common: They are all backed up by science. Do a little online research. You'll be reaching for a book before you know it!

Easing into AP Style

AP Style quizzes

AP Style crib sheet

AP Style introduction

Available on Amazon.com. Save money on a 2017 edition.

The First Step

Welcome to Convergent Journalism I, your first step toward more professional writing!

Catalog Description: “Convergent Journalism I is an introductory writing course in the field of journalism designed to introduce students to the basic principles and techniques of news writing and reporting in a converged media society. Students will learn the necessary writing skills for various media; journalistic skills as well as ethics in journalism.”

Professor’s Description: My overall goal is to teach you to be professionals in whatever field of communications you ultimately decide to enter. Your sophomore year is the time to begin seeing yourself in the role of a professional communicator: how to look, how to act, how to work, how to advance, how to be successful. Whether you ultimately choose to enter the field of journalism or not, the skills you learn in this course will serve you for years to come in any area of business or corporate life. Professional-level writing – clean, clear, accurate and fair – will set you apart.

To achieve that goal, we will work hard on the mechanics of good writing: proper grammar, punctuation, word choice and A.P. style. I also will teach you the handful of story forms that every journalist must know: news advancers, speech stories, obituaries, news profiles, and so on. I have developed a way of teaching these story forms that I call the Road Map Method, and you will leave here with sturdy templates that can be expanded and adapted to every assignment an editor might throw your way. You will never have to guess at how to get started or where the story is going because the Road Map will tell you.

This course’s title makes reference to “convergent journalism,” meaning you will learn how to present your reporting in various media, whether traditional print or online or in broadcast form. In addition to the shorter daily stories you write, you will work on what newspaper journalists call “a take-out,” meaning a longer, more thoroughly reported story. You will present your major term project in three formats: a print version using InDesign, an online version using Blogger.com and a broadcast version using Premiere video editing software. This major project – which will be a news profile on a subject of your choosing – will become your mid-term and final exams for the course.

Besides the tools mentioned above, we will immerse ourselves in some of the emerging new technologies that journalists, even at traditional news outlets, are using today to reach wider and younger audiences. These will include using Twitter to blast out news updates, using Videolicious.com to report fast-breaking news, using Steller.com to create interactive slide shows and Storify.com to turn social media into news platforms.

Finally, throughout the semester, you will create and build a high-quality blog that will become a showcase for your work as you continue on your path toward graduation. I cannot emphasize enough how important this blog can be for advancing your educational and professional goals. It can help you get a job! Three examples of three recent HPU grads who used their blogs from last year to land their first jobs: Daniel S. Walker, who used his blog on politics to get a job in the office of Sen. Richard Burr in Washington; Olivia French, who used her feature-writing blog to help her get a job writing for Scholastic Publications; and Tyler Sekula, who used his sports commentary blog to help him get accepted into the sports management program at the University of Texas-Austin.

I am here to help you follow in the footsteps of those successful students. Your life as a professional communicator is only three years away. We’ll start working toward it in this course. You’ll be able to envision it by the end of this semester!

Work Flow Chart

At the midway point in the semester, we have walked through the entire process of launching and creating a print news or feature story, from idea to assembly of all the components needed for a completed package.

We have used the white board to create a complete visualization of the process:

Now, you will never have to wonder again. Just follow the flow chart.

Sample News Profiles & Ledes

Here are a few samples of news features from various sources on the Internet. Notice the structure of the top each story. Very similar and close to the Road Map we've been practicing in class. Notice how with people-oriented stories like these, the writer chooses to go right to quote a P2 to get the subject's voice into the reader's mind faster.

The last example is a Q&A, which is generally the only time you want to do a one-source story. Although this one does not do it, Q&As traditionally start with a short intro of four or five paragraphs.

News Profile

Charlotte native Tre Smith has one extraordinary 'Hamilton' job

UNC women's soccer player Alexa Newfield: Fighting her way through

Chapel Hill muralist Michael Brown prepares to paint again

Business by Day, Improv by Night: A Day in the Life of Luke Miller

Q&A

Meet the real reason you can see 'Hamilton' here — Tom Gabbard

Q&A with music critic John Fine

Three Quote Structures

Without set-up

“It was one of our better shows,” said guitarist Henry Boyd, 18, of Raleigh.

Go straight into quote and use NAP format. Note: In this exception to the rule, you start the attribution with the verb "said."

With set-up

The band’s guitarist, Henry Boyd, 18, of Raleigh was pleased with their performance.

“It was one of our better shows,” he said.

Keep set-up short, using NAP format. Note: Now, no need for the "said" exception.

Partial

Guitarist Henry Boyed, 18, of Raleigh said it “was one of our better shows.”

Note: no comma.

Proper Quote Formats

Here they are, with the most commonly used formats at the top. You should ALWAYS structure your quotes this way, and you should NEVER deviate from these formats. Remember, too, that you should almost always float the quote, meaning let it stand as its own paragraph.

1. "A one-sentence quote," he said.
2. "First sentence of a two-sentence quote," he said. "Second sentence." Note: This is a very handy one.
3. "First sentence of a three-sentence quote," he said. "Second sentence. Third sentence."
4. He continued, "You can keep a long quote going by using this construction to break part of it into a new paragraph."
5. "The start of a long one-sentence quote," he said, "which then continues to the end."
6. He said: "You can use the colon construction to introduce a three- or four-sentence quote. You should do it only if you think the long quote is truly worthwhile."
7. He said, "This is often a weak way to do a simple quote because it's better to put the attribution at the end"
8. He said that you also can "quote just part of what I am saying" as a partial quote. Note: This is the only time you leave out the comma or commas.

Quick-Fix Tips

This list is not based on theories or books. It is based on real errors and glitches that have appeared in your writing assignments in recent weeks. In the spirit of learning from one another, I offer this list of quick fixes that will instantly improve everyone's blog posts and printed stories:

Top 10 Quick-Fix Tips
1. No semi-colons.
2. No comma after a conjunction.
3. No ... more ... serial ... commas ... evaaaaaah!
4. No slang or jargon in a straight news story.
5. Never personalize or editorialize in a news story.
6. Stay in past tense for the most part.
7. Use "said" when you mean "said."
8. Put closing punctuation inside quotation marks (see above).
9. Use plain words, simple sentences, short paragraphs.
10 Use your stylebook!

As with all rules, there may be exceptions to some of these tips from time to time. But when you're self-editing, this would be a good place to start.

Organizing the Story

The most common and recommended way to organize a news story is called Inverted Pyramid. We will talk much more about this when we begin writing so-called "hard" news stories — i.e., car crashes, house fires and the like.

Jim Stovall has created this very handy Inverted Pyramid Check List, which we will make use of when writing hard news stories.

Meanwhile, please be reading pp. 147-63 in the new book, pp. 153-72 in the green book.

Link Library

These links are in no particular order. This post is essentially a filing cabinet of stories that I will recommend or have you study for their attributes and, sometimes, faults. Feel free to read any of them at your leisure.

You might take a look at the first two stories from the Technician, for example, to get a feel for how the writer organizes the top of the story — of utmost importance.

Battling in a Cage, Brewing at Home

Balancing Acts, Music and School

Super Bowl winner applies can-do attitude to restaurant

Lindsey hoping to give back to UNC as student body president

13-year-old Chapel Hill resident lands finalist spot in Smithsonian challenge

White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer

A Voice Raised in Joy

AP Style Hand-Out

In addition to the short summary of key rules in our textbook — pp. 56-58 — I have also found a very handy PDF put together by a professor at Brandeis University. In lieu of an AP stylebook, this would be a useful print-out to have on your desk when self-editing your own copy.

Websites for News Writers

Here are five websites that I would recommend to any student learning the elements of journalistic writing, no matter what field of professional communication they plan to pursue.

The New York Times
We've said in class that one of the tenets of good writing is that good writing is imitation. You can do no better than to imitate The New York Times. It is the best-written and best-edited newspaper in the world. That's just a fact. I am including it on this list not for its content but for the skill and craftsmanship in its pages every day. You can learn to write well by reading the Times every day. Generations of journalists have done just that.

Audience: Anyone who wants to learn how to write.
Link: New York Times

Technician
As students of this university, you should not have to be asked to read NCSU's student newspaper. As students in the communication department now taking a journalism class, it should go without saying that you read it regularly if not every day. Staying abreast of news and issues in your community is just one of those responsibilities that comes with adulthood. As Susan Sontag would say: "Tune in. Be serious. Wake up."
Audience: The NCSU community, alumni and those living in the campus area.
Link: Technician

News & Observer
This is the state's second largest newspaper after The Charlotte Observer. It covers the workings of our state government better than any other publication. At a time of a sweeping changing of the guard in the N.C. General Assembly and the Governor's Mansion, that alone should recommend it. There is another important reason for students in this class to read the N&O: Because you can learn traditional story forms, the focus of this class, from its news and feature pages.

Audience: Engaged citizens of North Carolina.
Link: News & Observer

I Want Media
You could describe the main page of this website as Google News for professional communicators. It aggregates the latest news from every corner of the world of communications, from traditional newspapers to the latest Web ventures. The latest merger or bankruptcy? It's here. The Books section, linked in the left sidebar, is a continually updated rundown of popular and scholarly works related to our field. There is even a jobs board for those looking for work in the communications sector.

Audience: Anyone working in, or who wants to work in, any line of media.
Link: I Want Media

J Prof
This is a site maintained by veteran journalist and journalism professor Jim Stovall, who teaches at University of Tennessee. We'll use some of his materials during the semester. I encourage you to check out his site for other guides and tip sheets on everything from reporting and interviewing to editing and avoiding libel problems. This would be a good place to look for grammar and punctuation reviews.

Audience: Students who want more tips, advice and practice.
Link: J Prof

Filter posts: What's the point?

Learning to write is just like learning to play Beethoven at the piano. The key to both is doing it every day. You know the old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice!

We learn to write by doing it every day. We become comfortable "speaking" through the keyboard. We naturally sit down in front of the computer and "talk."

So the goal of the weekly filter posts is to encourage you to write. They don't have to be long. They don't have to be deep. Just write.

Your first order of business when doing that should be to get the mechanics right, to write cleanly and correctly. That means getting the grammar and punctuation right. That means structuring sentences and paragraphs correctly. That means writing like a pro.

So please don't think of this weekly assignment as just a chore to be tossed off at the last minute to fulfill a class requirement. Filtering is the most basic function of online writing. Think of this as your chance to get good at it, your chance to practice your Beethoven piano sonata.

For the sake of discussion in coming classes, please at least skim this free online reading: The Blogging Phenomenon 

It is an old student paper from 2001, yet it does a good job of capturing the realization that blogging — and online journalism in general — can perform a function that traditional journalism cannot. And that is filtering: providing a valuable service to your readers by pointing their attention to worthwhile material — news, sports, entertainment — that you have found in the vast universe of material on the Web.

Think about how your favorite Web sites regularly perform this function. Think about how you can do this on your blogs. Think about both substance (what you add to the linked content) and form (how best to point readers to the linked content).

Keep blogging, and keep filtering!

Lexicon of Blog Types

Although blogging has only been around about a decade, the formula has exploded across the Worldwide Web. According to BlogPulse, there were 152 million blogs on the Internet as of 2010. And although most bloggers do it as a hobby -- about 60 perscent -- the ranks of full-time and part-time professional bloggers increased to 18 percent of the blogosphere, according to Technorati.

Just as any veteran newspaper reporter knows the difference between a news profile and a personality profile, bloggers have developed their own recognizable conventions of form and content. Below are the most common types of blogs to model:

• The Diary Blog — Just like the paper version, collects a persons private thoughts, feelings and doings; intended for the writer or small circle of family and friends.

• The Filter Blog — Filters the Web for good or interesting or unusual items, summarizes the item and links to it. The most common type of blog.

• The News Blog, Themed — Brings originally written reports or filters the Web for news on a particular topic, such as professional football or rap music.

• The News Blog, Unthemed — Same as above, but covers the waterfront.

• The Project Blog — Follows the writer as she or he embarks on a project, like building a house, with frequent updates on the steps along the way.

• The How-To Blog — Walks the reader through the steps of a certain project or task, like how to knit a blanket, with detailed instructions and expert advice.

• The Review Blog, Culture — Cultural criticism of arts, entertainment and cultural fields, from movies and fashion to architecture and food. Also often serves a preview function.

• The Review Blog, Consumer — Like the above, but focusing on products and services, such as the latest iPhone app.

Remember that in addition to being types of blogs, you can think of these as types of blog posts as well. Add variety to your blog by alternating post types if you like.

Happy blogging!

Study Guide for Comp 2

What follows is a pinpoint guide to the readings. This will give you a topic-by-topic reminder of the the things we've covered and, therefore, the things to expect to come up on the exam.
Libel, see class notes
Copyright, see class notes
Appropriation, see class notes
Grammar, see PP slides #2
Word Usage, see PP slides #3
Math for journalists, pp. 46-53
AP style, see class notes and pp. 56-58
Reaching audiences, see Chapter 1
News values, pp. 118-24
Types of ledes, 128-35
Obits, see PP Slides
Online research, 229-32
Quote formats, see next blog post
With libel, copyright and appropriation, be sure to think about how to DEFEND YOURSELF if you are accused of those things. With copyright, be sure to think about FAIR USE.
Send me study questions by e-mail: dcsmith8 (at) ncsu (dot) edu.
Best!

Speech Story as Template

We’ve talked in class about how mastering the basic format of a speech story can act as a kind of template for other types of stories. Think about how the general structure helped you instantly structure your Occupy Chapel Hill stories even though it was the first reported news story you did. Think also about how it can help guide you as you write your first profile story.
There are no hard-and-fast rules for any of these story forms. Think instead about how the format below can act as a sort of skeleton on which the flesh of the story hangs:
P1: One sentence summary lead, ending with attribution (should include at least some news elements).
P2: A “punchy quote,” he said (adding any news elements not accounted for in first sentence).
P3: Nut graph with context or background, two or three sentences (adding the “why” of the speech).
P4: Go back to speech, paraphrasing in your own words.
P5: “Another meaty quote,” he said (using quotes as free-standing sentences to break up story).
P6, Etc.: Alternate paragraphs in your voice and paragraphs in the speaker’s voice.
Last P: End with a quote.

Grammar practice

Here is a link to a set that has a lot of free practice material for the SAT. This link will take you to a series of practice questions in which you identify grammatical and punctuation errors in sentences.

http://www.majortests.com/sat/grammar.php

Also be sure to take advantage of the PowerPoint slides on our Blackboard site. They are under the "GUIDES" button in the left hand column.


Good luck!

Spelling and Grammar Prep

Spelling and Grammar test dates: Feb. 7 and April 3.

You can find the spelling list and other tips starting on page 47 in the UNC stylebook at this link: http://jomc.unc.edu/stylebook

Student adviser Marla Barnes has offered these helpful reminders for you as you get ready to take -- and pass! -- the spelling and grammar test:


      1) Spelling words used on the exam are in the UNC-CH Stylebook. The stylebook also contains a good guide to punctuation rules. Study material starts on Page 47. See the STYLEBOOK link now on our Blackboard home page.

       2) A mock test for the spelling portion of the exam, developed by student Andrew Gray to help him pass the test, can be taken at http://ibiblio.org/spelling_test/.
      3) At www.SpellingCity.com, you can enter words to be called out to you!
      4) Additional grammar help can be found at the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/index.html.
      5) The textbook used for JOMC 153, “Newswriting,” has a grammar tutorial in Chapter 2. Check out Yopp and McAdams, Reaching Audiences: A Guide to Media Writing. Copies are available in Park Library.


If you have questions about the test or need help signing up to take it outside of class, see Marla in the office next to Sharon Jones.

Good luck!

Story forms to get you thinking

Being familiar with traditional story forms makes it easier at the start of the writing process to determine the right direction and tone for our stories. It also makes the writing process faster because these formats can provide a rough road map for nearly any story. No need to reinvent the wheel!

These formats are not based on some book or theory. They are based on my 20 years in the newspaper business. They are the kinds of assignments that we, as professional writers, are called on week in and week out to write.


The list that follows came out a brainstorming session in my features class. Although this isn't a feature writing class, we use these story forms as jumping off points to help us generate content for our blogs. Blog posts can take on the forms in this list.

Think of these story forms as tools in a toolbox:

1. The Tribute Story — Like an obit, but longer and published after the news obit.

2. The Personality Profile — Like a news profile, but usually longer and not necessarily tied to a news event. It's better if they are, though.

 3. The Celebrity Profile — Distinct from a personality profile insomuch as people already know a lot about your subject, so a fresh angle is especially important. They're also hard to get sometimes.

4. The Company Profile — Distinct from personality or celebrity profiles insomuch as it focuses on a company or business or website or other endeavor.

5. The Preview, or Advancer — About an upcoming event. Should be consumer-friendly and focus on how people can participate.

6. The Review — Usually focusing on arts and culture but not necessarily. For example, product reviews.

7. The How-To Article — What it sounds like. Food stories are often written as how-to stories.

8. The List — A format that has exploded in recent years, especially online.

9. The Historical Feature — Uses news as a jumping off point to talk about the history and background of an issue, place, person, etc.

10. The Sense-of-Place Story — About a place, why it's special, unusual, historic, strange, endangered.

11. The Travel Piece — Also about a place but very consumer-oriented: how to get there, where to stay, how much it will cost.

12. The Interview Story — Usually with only one VIP, the I-recently-sat-down-with-so-and-so story, often focusing on one issue. Example: Warren Buffett predicts 2012 a sluggish year.

13. The Q&A — A compact and efficient way to present an interview. Popular with readers.

14. The First-Person Piece — Usually the approach of an essay, commentary, memory or confessional piece. Can include "I."

15. The Narrative-Journalism Story — A long-form feature that tries to reconstruct events as though you are there. Think of Paige Williams' piece about the "Possum Living" author.

16. The Color Piece — A feature about an event that isn't about the event itself but everything about it. Picture a story about a basketball game that focuses on everything but the game, such as the sights, the sounds, the fans. Also called a sights-and-sounds piece.

17. The Bright — A very short feature about something surprising, funny, weird, shocking. Also called "a talker," something people talk about at the water cooler.

18. The Trend Story — A feature that builds on a news story about a trend by trying to explain or illustrate it.

 19. The Impact Story — Will pick up on some serious issue in the news pages, like the controversy over hydraulic fracking for natural gas, and will put a human face on it by illustrating how this issue affects real people. Often on the depressing or sound-the-alarm side.

20. The Disease of the Month — A somewhat cynical label for a tried-and-true feature format about some disease, often something you've never heard of, and how it has tragic results for a person or family. Or it can be written as an inspirational story about someone overcoming the disease of the month.

21. The Ghoul Watch — OK, a very cynical label. Feature writers often are asked to prepare obituaries and/or tribute articles before someone famous has actually died, so the publication will have a head start on coverage. Sometimes, you might even run a sort of pre-tribute story when, for example, it is learned that this VIP is in deteriorating health and death might be imminent. Often takes a why-the-world-will-be-a-sorrier-place-without-him or look-at-all-the-great-things-she-did tone. Think of the Steve Jobs saturation coverage.

Alt codes for Windows

Alt codes can help us improve the professional appearance of our blogs.

No more double-hyphens!  Only real long dashes will do!

Here is a link to a Penn State site that has a handy list of alt codes. The long dash — aka, em-dash — is at Alt-0151. Remember that in news writing, you put a space before and after.

Cheers!