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!
SOME SPEECH STORY TIPS (Speech story examples follow)
- Avoid making unreported generalizations and definitely don't start your piece with one. Start by diving into the one thing you would say about the talks if you only had a sentence to say it. Don't just say a science professor and fiction writer spoke at UMass Tuesday, for example. Tell us what his message was in the lead.
- Avoid cliches.
- Tone should be professional -- NOT promotional.
- Write lean. Don't say "Then she continued to say..." or "Asked about this, she said..." etc. Go through your piece after you write it and see if you can trim words. Don't repeat anything.
- Keep your paragraphs short and tightly focused.
- DETAILS will make or break your piece. Write vividly, concretely
- Use first and last name for people you quote. Don't directly quote anyone who won't give you his/her name. After the first reference by first and last name, refer to people in your story by last name only.
LEADS
- Do NOT lead with a sweeping, unreported generalization; plunge right into the reported material.
- Lead should do more than just say the event occurred; it should be direct, reader friendly and engaging!
JUST THE FACTS
- 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.
- Keep your opinions/judgments out of the story. Don’t editorialize, make predictions or grand claims
WRITING
- 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.)
- In general, keep the reporter and the mechanics of the interview out of the story. Get to the story!
- Put your best, most vivid, reported material up top. Put details anyone could get off your subject’s resume low in the story
- Double- and triple-check name spellings!
- Use “said” vs other words like it.
- AP style is to NOT capitalize academic subjects & do not capitalize job titles unless the title comes RIGHT before the job holder’s name.
- In general, write in past tense
- News stories do NOT have essay-style conclusions.
- 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…”
- Don’t alter direct quotations AT ALL. But if a person says gonna or shoulda, write g
oing to and should have…
- 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.
- Describe/SHOW vs. Tell.
- 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!
- Eliminate wordiness! Again, Do NOT repeat anything!!
- 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.
- Keep quotes short so that they have a greater impact. Paraphrase!!
- 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.
- Commas and periods INSIDE quotation marks.
- Put TV shows, book titles, article titles, movie titles in quotation marks.
Speech story examples:
PERMISSION WAS RECEIVED TO POST THE FOLLOWING STUDENT PIECES:
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.
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.
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.
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.”
ESPN writer Brendan Hall visits class
ESPN reporter Brendan Hall at UMass
By: Nicole B. Dotzenrod
“Once the moment is gone, it’s gone forever and there’s no getting it back … when moments like that happen you just become a fly on the wall and let it roll,” he said.
Hall, a 2007 University of Massachusetts Amherst grad, returned to his Alma mater last Monday to speak to current journalism students about his experiences as the high school sports editor and reporter for ESPN Boston since 2010.
With his easy-going demeanor, Hall shared many stories with the students about the day-to-day life of a sports reporter and his passion for creating new ideas and ways to cover sports.
“I’m never going to have this much creative autonomy in my life,” he said. “I use this as a cool thing to give to the kids. It’s not a bad way to live.”
Prior to joining ESPN, Hall has worked for a series of news organizations, including the Sentinel in Fitchburg, the Telegram and Gazette in Worcester, and The Boston Globe. The veteran reporter shared some advice with the college students: “You can have all the practice you want, but if you don’t know your subject, you’re gonna suck,” he said.
He also told students the importance of being a tough editor on yourself, and surviving in a changing field of journalism. “If you’re worried about your future, as there’s a lot of change as we morph into an online medium, you have to cast a wide net,” he said.
Hall shared with students that as a young reporter, he did everything necessary to stay afloat, picking up substitute teaching positions during the day, working as a basketball coach in the afternoon, and then driving to Boston to cover the Celtics at night.
Still, “It’s not a bad way to live,” he said. “One hundred years from now when people are looking at this in history, they’re going to pull up your account of it.”
Hall’s dreams go further than covering high school sports – he said his ultimate goal since playing football as a child has been to work covering the NFL.
“It’s been my biggest passion since I was five years old. As soon as I was heavy enough to be eligible, I was on the field. I’ve always been attracted to it.”
Hall’s laidback temperament shined through when he described one of his experiences interviewing New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. “His eyes have a way of piercing through your soul,” he said, laughing.
Student Katie Bowler said, “I thought Brendan Hall was hilarious. He didn’t hold back and gave great advice, especially on broadcasting your horizons and writing about a range of subjects. It was really cool to have him come in for the day.”
Hall told the students that the biggest reward of his job as a reporter is seeing other writers come along.
***
No Seconds: The Last Meal on Death Row
Jaclyn Bryson
The narrow hallway was decorated with the images of home cooked meals: fried chicken, grilled steak, and pecan pie. For some, these were a few of the last images they saw before they died.
Henry Hargreaves, a former fashion model and current photographer originally from New Zealand, presented his collection of photographs depicting the last meals of death row inmates at an art gallery in Herter Hall at the University of Massachusetts.
The exhibit, titled “No Seconds: The Last Meal on Death Row,” attracted a large crowd of people during its opening on September 12, 2012, where people flocked to see Hargreaves recreation of infamous convicts’ last meal requests.
The exhibit included photographic depictions of the last meals of 10 notorious death row inmates. Ted Bundy, one of the more infamous criminals convicted of rape, necrophilia, prison escape, and over 35 counts of murder was granted the traditional last meal of steak, eggs, hash browns, toast with butter and jelly, milk and juice.
Hargreaves captured the last meals of some of the more puzzling inmates, including Victor Feguer, convicted of kidnapping and murder, who requested only a single olive with the pit still intact.
Henry Hargreaves now resides in Brooklyn, N.Y. As a past fashion model and aspiring photographer, he worked for world icons such as Ralph Lauren, Stefan Semester, and New York Magazine while experimenting with other side of the camera lens.
Hargreaves said of himself that, “As an artist, I find a lot of my inspiration from the weird and unusual.”
This is certainly not his first “weird and unusual” project. His other photographic collections include “Bacon Alphabet,” a recreation of the English alphabet made from strips of bacon and “3DD,” a 3-D depiction of female breasts.
Since the popularity of his recent projects, Hargreaves has embraced his new found fame, and has said in an email interview that, “Any recognition is a good thing. It gauges if people are paying attention and being moved by your work.”
Hargreaves developed the idea for this project by simply surfing the web, specifically Wikipedia, until he stumbled upon pages concerning the last meals of death row inmates. He found the practice of the death penalty in the United States particularly strange, and thus, his exhibit was born.
Trevor Richardson, the curator of the exhibit, believed that Hargreaves “wanted to feature more of the notorious criminals.”
Teresa Lewis, who was convicted of murder, conspiracy, and robbery, requested fried chicken, peas with butter, apple pie, and Dr. Pepper as her last meal. Being the only female convict to be included in this exhibit, Richardson believed that Hargreaves simply wanted to prove that, “Women could do bad things too.”
This particular exhibit also raises serious moral questions concerning the death penalty. Without hesitation, Richardson said, “I would be opposed on principle to the death penalty.” In ten years, he hopes it will no longer be a part of our justice system.
In response to being asked if it was necessary to provide death row inmates with last meal requests, Richardson stated that, “It is bad enough that someone is going to be killed in a few hours, so why not?”
This opinion concerning the death penalty seemed to be widely accepted. Kayla Marchetti, a journalism major at UMass, was openly against the death penalty, stating that, “The idea is overwhelming to me.”
Sue Liu, a graduate student at UMass, originally walked through the gallery thinking the exhibit was about health and nutrition. She jokingly stated that, “the pictures were making me very hungry.” After learning that the photos were actually recreations of death row inmates last meals, she could only say that, “This exhibit is about a lot more than just food.”
Hargreaves hoped to induce this exact reaction from his audience. In an email interview, Hargreaves stated that doing this project reinforced his beliefs against the death penalty. “I’m opposed to it, just too much room for error,” he said.
It is estimated that since 1992, there have been about 12 wrongly convicted death row inmates who have been executed.
However, some people had a different opinion. Priya Nadkarin, a graduate student at UMass, thought the photographs “could be a little too gimmicky.” Nadkarin believed that the fact that the photographs all depicted death row inmates last meal was simply a connecting thread between the works, and firmly believed that, “The artist was just being facetious.”
Nevertheless, the artist wanted these photographs to convey a particular message. In a prepared statement, Hargreaves said, “I hope that people are able to look beyond the crime, to stir some empathy for another human.”
When asked what his own last meal would be, Hargreaves quickly replied, “I don’t think I could stomach anything in prison. Hypothetically if it was in New York City it would be a Black Label burger at Minetta Tavern. ‘Comfort’ food at its finest!”
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