Journ 300 – FALL 2015
Sept. 10 class:- We’ll pick a speech/event to attend and write about. The assignment and an example from a previous class is below.
- We’ll review the leads from your first day pieces in groups of 3
- The same group of 3 will arrange among yourselves which of you will interview each other and who will film it using your camera or phone camera. Figure out the subject you’ll interview each other about and prepare questions in advance so that you will get some meaningful information in 3 minutes or less. Upload the finished videos to Youtube and send me a link. Make sure the privacy settings will allow me to open it. We’ll watch and analyze these in class later.
- A 500-word mini-profile about the same classmate you interview will be due soon.CLICK PHOTO BELOW FOR INTERVIEW TIPS:
- Class interview example; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pj9wprzZsM&feature=youtu.be
SPEECH PAPER ESSENTIALS (650-750 words)
1) The lead should get to the heart of the event -- NOT just say it occurred.
2) Include in the first few sentences of the story A) what the occasion was, B)who sponsored it, C) where it was held and –D) how many attended. Include the title if there is one. It’s not necessary to cram in every detail, such as what time it was held.
3) Nutgraph: This takes the reader beyond the lead and sums up in a few sentences the major points the speaker made or the basic gist of his/her argument/case/presentation. It’s a roadmap to the rest of the story. Can be combined with the paragraph that includes the title, name of occasion etc.
4) Body of story: Take the reader through the points that the speaker made in support of his or her case/main point/argument/presentation. Each paragraph should have a strong topic sentence. Provide specific examples and direct quotes.
5) Interview 3-4 people who attended for their reaction/thoughts. Don’t forget to include this at the end of your paper!
Speech story example: Journalism professor speaks at 2nd UMass Tedx talk By Kristin Lafratta
On a cold Monday night, Professor Shaheen Pasha, assistant professor of journalism, spoke along with seven other professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s second ever TEDx event, where she invited listeners to release all feelings of fear and shame in order to reach their goals.
THIS COULD BE REVISED TO READ SOMETHING LIKE THIS: Release all feelings of fear and shame AND YOU CAN reach YOUR goals, Professor Shaheen Pasha, assistant professor of journalism urged students last night. (PUT THE BEST INFORMATION FIRST AND FIX IT IN TIME.)
Pasha spoke to an audience of nearly 200 people in the Isenberg School of Management’s Flavin auditorium, sharing intimate details of her life to remind listeners that every person has a life story worth sharing.
TED, technology, entertainment and design, is a national, non-profit organization owned by the Sapling Foundation, that holds conferences around the world. TEDx Talks invite the world’s brightest progressive thinkers to speak for 18-minutes about a topic they are both knowledgeable and passionate about.
Other speakers included marketing professor Cynthia Barstow who spoke about her breast-cancer prevention organization “Protect Our Breasts,” operations management professor Anna Nagurney who spoke about networking and her efforts to invent a new format for the Internet, and assistant professor of information systems Ryan Wright who discussed ways to improve “mindfulness” when using technology.
Pasha’s began by telling the audience how she begins her classes by asking journalism students about their life stories. “I either get the glassy, dulled, glazed look…or I get the nervous giggle, or more often than not I just get the shrug,” she said.
Pasha added that students think they have no story. Often they think their story is irrelevant or that it does not matter, though Pasha said she felt such modesties “couldn’t be further than the truth.”
After receiving a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism, Pasha had various jobs as a journalist, including work as a daily columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a banking and legal reporter for CNN Money. She later worked in Dubai as an Islamic finance correspondent for The Brief, a legal magazine. She also taught print and online journalism at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. All of these accomplishments were possible, she said, when she disposed herself of fear and shame.
“I started realizing all the things that were hindering me: fear and shame, unnecessary emotions,” Pasha said. “I started talking to people and developing their stories into mine.”
She told listeners of a conversation that took place between her and the chairman of Enron, Kenneth Lay, who was on trial for accounting fraud. She said she was covering the trial, and interrupted to ask Lay a question. He told her she didn’t understand what it was like to fight for what you got, and she identified with him.
“For a second I understood I was him,” she said. Pasha went on to tell how she lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. She added that her parents were “intelligent, hard-working” immigrants from Pakistan. “The American dream hadn’t worked out from them yet,” she said.
“Endless bills, secondhand clothes, endless battles with critters and vermin that somehow took offense that we were living there,” Pasha said when describing their apartment. “Filled with fear because we were ashamed.”
She described a friend with whom she rode the subway everyday, who was gunned down. She began to have dreams of leaving Brooklyn and being an international journalist. “I would sit on the subway…and try to dream big,” she said. “I want to see all the color and light that is out there…I’m going to get out of my cage.”
She succeeded in breaking out of her “cage” by going to Pace University and later Columbia, and then settling down into suburban life in New Jersey – though it wasn’t the kind of life she imagined. “I was secure and bored out of my mind,” she said. “I wasn’t doing what I was meant to do…a lot of it was fear because I didn’t want to make the wrong choice.”
Pasha said she sat down and asked herself in a very journalistic manner if she was where she wanted to be in life. When she found her fears were keeping her from her goals, she overcame them.
“I quit my job at CNN and I took my then 4-year-old old daughter and 3-month old son and got on a plane and flew to Egypt,” she said. Though she didn’t speak a word of Arabic, she said, “It was the best decision I ever made.”
Years later Pasha would see students she taught on TV, reporting protests on international news outlet Al-Jazeera. She continued to pursue journalism in an area of the world where journalism was not welcome by the government.
She realized that though they were worlds apart, the people of Egypt faced the same obstacles as she had. “How similar our hopes and dreams and were. And shame,” she said.
Pasha finished her speech by concluding that though her story had not changed, she is now more aware of it, and how much it had been influenced by others. Whether a cab driver in Cairo, an African prime minister, or a rich Pakistani lawyer, Pasha believes every person she has met is a part of her story.
“Your story is not boring, it’s not lame, it got you to where you are,” she said. “Decide what you want your story to be.”
Listeners in the audience found Pasha’s story to have an impact on how they view their own life stories.
“I had been one of those students who didn’t think much about their life story,” said sophomore Halley Ames. “But after hearing Pasha talk, she influenced me to reevaluate where I want to be in life.”
Sophomore Mirabella Pulido felt Pasha proved how important confidence is. “I like a good underdog story,” she said. “It just goes to show where motivation and being comfortable with yourself can get you.”
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