Tips

JOURN 300/SPRING 2015 Tips

LEADS

Ø  Do NOT lead with a sweeping, unreported generalization; plunge right into the reported material

Ø  Lead should do more than just say the event occurred; should be direct and reader friendly; Should be engaging!

JUST THE FACTS

Ø  Closely observed, specific, concrete DETAILS will make or break your story.

Ø  Journalism is the reporting of the visible and verifiable. Reporters describe what they can observe and what identified sources tell them. Reporters don't speculate or presume to know about their subjects' mental states and do not relay information that they have not verified and substantiated with objective facts.

Ø  Keep your opinions/judgments out of the story. Don’t editorialize or make grand claims

Ø  Don’t pile on the adjectives and adverbs and reporter’s editorializing. For instance, instead of saying she is an extremely likable person , say, Her friends describe her as an “extremely likeable”  person.  (If they do.)

Ø  In general, keep the reporter and the mechanics  of the interview out of the story. Get to the story!

WRITING

Ø  Put your best, most vivid, reported material up top. Put details anyone could get off your subject’s resume low in the story

Ø  Double- and triple-check name spellings!

Ø  Use “said” vs other words like it

Ø  AP style is to NOT capitalize academic subjects & do not capitalize  job titles unless the title comes RIGHT before the job holder’s name

Ø  In general, write in past tense

Ø  News stories do NOT have essay-style conclusions

Ø  Don’t write  “When asked a question about this or that.” Just tell us what your source said. If need be you could say “As for this or that…”

Ø  Don’t alter direct quotations AT ALL.  But if a person says gonna or shoulda, write going to and should have…

Ø  Write with the idea that you will try to get it published. Don’t include material that will appear “dated” or as if  it’s “old news” a few weeks from now. If  your feature, for instance, is about an event that is coming up, mention the date and time of the event high in the story.

Ø  Describe/SHOW vs. Tell 

Ø  The more reporting, the better. You can’t make up for a lack of reporting by trying to write cleverly. For most stories, you will need several voices, so that you’re not going back to the same source for more than a couple or so paragraphs. Every page should have a lively, dynamic mix of voices – not just one person! 

Ø  Eliminate wordiness! Do NOT repeat anything!! 

Ø  Paraphrase or rewrite rather than using parentheses/brackets. You should only need to use parentheses once or twice a year – NOT once or twice in a single paper.

Ø  Keep quotes short so that they have a greater impact. Paraphrase!!

Ø  Don’t jam together, spliced by a comma,  two complete and unrelated sentences. For instance, don’t say something like, “Wearing her black moccasins, Jane Doe is a graduate of UMass.”  Avoid getting into traps like this by using SVO.

Ø  Commas and periods INSIDE quotation marks

Ø  Put TV shows, book titles, article titles, movie titles in quotation marks