11. Sources of news:
• Beats
• Handbook
• Press Releases
• City newspaper
• Magazines
• Tips
• Snack, lunch
• Club activities
• Extra-curricular
activities
• Twitter
• RSS Feeds
• Class Site Portal
• Personal Site Portal
• City hall
• Chamber of Commerce
• City Bulletin Boards
14. Characteristics of a
good reporter
• Ability to interview strangers
• Ability to inspire confidence
and make people feel at ease
• Wide educational background
15. Characteristics of a good
reporter
• Resourcefulness and persistence
• Ability to write and speak
standard English
• Keen observation
• Extensive vocabulary
16. 5 Ws and H are basic
requirements but not
enough to make someone
remark, "Wow! Great
story."
• Dig deep • Make facts
interesting
18. All About Leads
• Feature the feature
• Clothesline WWWWHW
• Colored Clothesline -- quote,
eye-catcher, comment;
• Include as many wwwwwh as
possible as soon as possible
• Hold one back as a tease
20. Leads
•"Fire raged through a
Chicago elementary school
on Sunday, injuring two
firemen and destroying a
brand new auditorium."
Start by featuring the
feature with strong
words
21. "Two firemen were
injured in a Chicago
elementary school
fire that destroyed a
brand new
auditorium last
Sunday."
22. "The brand new
auditorium of a Chicago
elementary school was
gutted Sunday by a fire
that left two firemen
injured."
24. Finding the lead
• Yuck! The Benicia High School band
won first place in state competitions.
• Yuck! On Tuesday, October 9, the
Benicia High School blah blah blah”
• Better! First place went to the Benicia
High School band in state competitions.
• Better! Benicia wins first place in the state
band competition.
34. WRITING NEWS
• Why is this story important?
• Is it an advance or a follow-up story?
• Do not editorialize
• Remain objective
• Balance the interviews -- pro con, or
authority and reaction quote
35. WRITING NEWS
• Why is this story important?
• Is it an advance or a follow-up story?
• Do not editorialize
• Remain objective
• Balance the interviews -- pro con, or
authority and reaction quote
36. WRITING NEWS
No Mr., No Mrs., No Ms.
• Introduce every person with a
title or description. Then use
only the last name
• Never use Ms. Miss. Mrs. Or
Mr.
41. Layout: headlines
•The headline is the purest
condensation of the story’s
key focus
•It must capture the eye,
lure, entice, intrigue reader
42. Layout: headlines
• Headlines must have a strong verb
• They must be sentences, not labels
• Verb “to be” is omitted: is, was,
were, are
• We do not say:
• President is coming to Benicia
44. Layout: headlines
•Point size should decrease
as you go down the page
• Headlines must fit over the entire
story
• Use down style
45. Layout: standards
• Folio contains “Page” #, month
& year, dept name IN CAPS
• Save fancy fonts for ads
• Don’t jump more than once
• Jumps should NOT continue at
the top of the page (if possible)
50. Steps in conducting
INTERVIEWS:
• Schedule early!
• Learn all you can beforehand
• Write any and every question
you can think of before you go
51. Steps in conducting
INTERVIEWS:
• If important, take note of person's dress,
surroundings, mannerisms
• Bring a recorder if you can
• Always ask permission to use recording
device and put it in plain view
• Do not stick it in your person's face
• Write down counter-numbers when good
lines are spoken
52. Steps in conducting
INTERVIEWS:
• When notetaking, maintain a balance:
don't bury your nose in your notebook
and don't expect to memorize everything.
• Jot down the essentials for paraphrasing,
and capture precise sentences for quotes
• Open-ended Vs close-ended questions
53. Steps in conducting
INTERVIEWS:
• End by asking if the person
has anything to say that you
haven't asked
• Advise that you may condense
quotes for clarity, but that you
will not change meaning
54. Steps in conducting
INTERVIEWS:
• Get permission to follow-up
with a phone call or a drop by
if you need any more info
• Offer to give them a proof of
the story if it's warranted
59. FEATURES
• They may inform, instruct, advise, but
their primary purpose is to entertain
• They are factual, and can relate to
current news/news story
• They allow for creativity and individual
curiosity
• Written in a casual style
60. Types of Features:
• News feature
• Human interest
• Character sketch
• Writing the Feature:
• All the other rules of news writing apply
except the feature writer is permitted
more creativity in expression and layout
62. Writing Sports Stories:
• Don't editorialize, but you have more
freedom than regular news reporters.
• Support opinions with facts and
quotes
• Coach quote
• Opposing coach quote -- before/after
the game. Ask who to watch.
63. Sports Layout:
• Sports can have hard, soft news,
interviews, surveys, all the
elements of the entire paper
• Special Note: Triple check name
spellings and grade level
69. REVIEWS
• Goal is to introduce people to good
entertainment and protect them from
crap
• Reviews are critical analysis
• They are sort of like book essays in
English class, except the primary
question is Did you Like the Book or
Not? Why?
70. Steps in reviewing:
•Take notebook
•Take notes
•Get all names: actors,
characters, performers,
hosts
74. Steps in reviewing:
• Summarizing a story is O.K., but
it shouldn't be more than 20% of
the story…
• …and don’t give away the
ending or any other surprises
77. Opinion Polls:
• Ask one open-ended, controversial
or entertaining question to a
balanced variety of individuals
• Get equal males, females, 9, 10, 11,
12, from different walks of life
• toss in an occasional teacher,
administrator, janitor or parent
78. Opinion Polls:
• Gather twice as many responses
as you intend to publish
• Extract the best quotes and
organize them
• Check name spelling and grade
level
79. Questionnaire Surveys:
• Devise a topic
• Create a list of
opinion and value
questions on a
related topic
• Agree/disagree,
for/against,
most/least
important
• Format the
questionnaire so
two fit on one 8x11
paper
• Distribute across
campus in an
organized fashion
84. Questionnaire Surveys:
• Write an intro paragraph that
explains the nature and purpose
of the survey and how many
votes you tabulated. Interpret the
results. What was the overall
outcome of your findings, and
were there any surprises
86. Every newspaper sets a style
for consistency of design
and word use
• In many ways it simply
follows traditional
grammatical, mechanical rules
87. Titles of apposition
• Short titles go before a name
in caps: Principal Bob Jones
• Long titles go after a name, in
low case: Mike Bowers,
director of personnel relations
89. All titles that precede names
•Principal Jones
•Coach Hayes
•President Smith
90. First and all words in titles except for
articles, prepositions of one to three
letters, and conjunctions
•The Holiday Collection of
Songs and Poems -- book
•“The Man With Time to
Spare” -- short story
99. Schools
(not simply middle school or high school)
• Benicia High School competed in
the games against Benicia Middle
School
• The high school competed in the
games against the middle school.
• Mary Farmar Robert Semple
103. Names of specific courses
(usually followed by number or letter)
•American History I (but
American history)
•History 101 (but history)
•Math B ( but math)
110. Rooms, offices, buildings, unless
they have a proper name
• The journalism lab
• The Gibbs Memorial Journalism Lab
• The gymnasium
• The Annette O'Connor Memorial
Gymnasium
123. Do Not Abbreviate the
Following:
• State names
• Titles following a name
• Days of the week
• States when used without a city
• Use the word percent (use % only in
tabular material or in headlines following
a number)
124. Do Not Abbreviate the
Following:
• Department
• Christmas
• 1999 not '99 (But Heather Deal, '99)
• United States as a noun, abbreviate it
as an adjective
• U.S. history
126. Exception: always use digits
to write
• Dates
• Scores
• Addresses
• Ages
• Time
• Money
• April 7, 2000
• Benicia 26, Concord 2
• 9 Pine Street
• 7 years old
• 4 o'clock
• 5 cents
127. Do not begin a sentence with
digits
• Don't say: 25 students missed
the deadline
• Say: Twenty-five students
missed the deadline
• Or: A total of 25 students
missed the deadline
128. Do not use d, rd, st,
or th in dates
• Dec. 11, 1941, not Dec. 11th, 1941
• June 3, 2000 not June 3rd, 2000
• Streets are OK. 3rd Street, 11th
Avenue
129. When two numbers are used
together, avoid confusion by
spelling out the first, whether
the number is above or below nine
• Don't say: 14 4-year-old kids
• Say: fourteen 4-year-old kids
130. In a list using numbers below
and above nine, use digits for all:
• Attending were 2 from the
elementary school, 13 from
the middle school, and 9
from the high school
131. For sums of money below
one dollar, use digits and
the word "cents"
•10 cents, not $.10
132. Do not use zeros when
giving the exact hour or an
even number of dollars
•4 o'clock, not 4:00
o'clock
•$6 not $6.00
133. For numbers of four
or more digits, use a
comma
•1,000 64,500
135. Comma
•Do not use a comma before
the word and in a series
•Red, white and blue.
Members included Lewis,
Clark and Upton
136. Do not use a comma
before Jr. in a name
•William Strunk Jr.
137. Use the semicolon in lists where the
individual items contain commas.
• The committee included Mary Ladd,
chairperson; Oliver Greenwood,
treasurer; and Nellie Kim, secretary.
• They brought with them from New
Orleans a box of gumbo; a large, green
suitcase; and a change of clothes.
138. Quotation Marks
• Periods and commas always go
inside the quotation mark.
• The quarterback said, “That last
tackle hurt.”
• “That last tackle hurt,” said the
quarterback.
139. Quotation Marks
• Colons and semicolons always go
outside the quotation mark.
• Here are the “Articles of
Confederation”: blah blah blah
• He played “Yesterday”; it was
off-key.
140. Quotation Marks
• Question marks and exclamation marks
go inside or outside, depending…
• John asked, “What are you doing?”
• Who said, “What are you doing”?
• Run when you hear the word “Fire”!
• We ran when someone yelled, “Fire!”
141. Use quotation marks around short things: one-
act plays, song titles, short stories, speeches,
sit coms, 1/2-hour T.V. shows. poems.
• “The Misfit” one-act play
• “Yesterday” song
• “To Build a Fire” short story
• “I Have a Dream” speech
• “Just Shoot Me” sit-com
• “America” poem
142. Use italics on large things: three- and five-act
plays, novels, motion pictures, newspapers,
ships,CDs
• Hamlet
• Gone with the Wind
• Saving Private Ryan
• The White Album
• USS Port Royal
• The Paw
143. Italics
• Use them on foreign words that have
not become an integral part of
English
• The de facto standard was followed.
• Use them on photo captions
144. Do not put quotation
marks around
popular slang
expressions like
"groovy."
145. Apostrophes
• Use ' after plural nouns to show
possession
oThe students' handbook
• Use 's after singular nouns to show
possession.
oThe student's handbook
146. To ALL sports writers:
It's the girls' basketball
team, not the girl’s
basketball team.
147. Use apostrophe when you
omit a letter
•I'm from the class of '71.
•I like rock 'n' roll.
•Don't forget the
contractions.
148. Use 's to form plurals
of single letters and
numbers
•She got all a's and b's.
149. Do not use the apostrophe for
plurals of numbers or multiple-
letter combinations
•1960s
•ABCs
150. Omit the apostrophe in names of
organizations when the possessive
case is implied and in certain
geographic designations
•Citizens League
•Actors Guild
•Pikes Peak
152. Use hyphens in such
words as
•Vice-principal
•vice-president
153. Use a hyphen on compound
adjectives used to modify a noun
• The two-sided issue; the double-edged
sword; the 8-year-old boy
• (not for multiple adjectives. The old, tired
argument. The late, exhausted student)
• (not for adverb ending in ly
• The smartly dressed man
154. Use two hyphens with spaces at
each end -- to represent a dash.
• Use a dash to show long
apposition.
• The quarterback -- a man short
on energy but long on
determination -- finished the
game with a touchdown pass.
157. extra school-news
precautions: no flippant,
positive or enticing
references can be made to
the use of drugs, alcohol,
tobacco, or illicit sex
158. Say all the positive you
want about a person.
Negative comments
require you to show the
story to the person and
give them an opportunity
to respond