PROJECTS
When I was in my first semester of senior year at Ashland University, I took a class called "Writing for the Media," which was a journalism class. English writing and journalistic writing are very different, so I was nervous, but also excited, to learn a new and different form of writing. It was a nice change of scenery after having written so many "English class" essays. You can read more about English writing vs. journalistic writing here. Furthermore, below are the three writing projects we had to complete for the class. If a school has a journalism class or school newspaper, this would be what I would teach and use as examples when working with students.
Project | 01
News Story Example
News story's address what's new (what happened today or earlier or was just discovered). For example, speech, tornado, celebrities, war, etc. Now that social media is more popular, there are multiple sources of news. Elements of a good news story are relevance, usefulness, and interest. Qualities that make news newsworthy are accuracy, impact, honesty, entertainment, timeliness, proximity, emergency, etc. News stories use the inverted pyramid style. The "recipe" for a good news story is a lead to grab readers' attention, attributions/sources/quotes, transitions, third person (no "I" or "you"), and a kicker quote/ending with factual information. A kicker quote makes a news story more personable.
Project | 02
Feature Story Example
The purpose of Feature writing is human interest and entertainment. They are more in-depth than news stories and they do not use the inverted pyramid style. Instead, they follow an hourglass or martini glass style using a novelty lead, nutgraph, and kicker quote. A novelty lead is an attention grabber. The nutgraph is the thesis (what it's about, sounds similar to a summary lead). The body paragraphs give more detail based off the thesis. The kicker quote is the conclusion, and it is better if it is personable. There are different types of Features such as personality profile, human interest story, trend story, backgrounder, etc.
Project | 03
Broadcast Script Example
Broadcast journalism uses fewer words, is narrower in focus, and has a focus statement. It also uses audio and visuals. It is more informal and has a conversational style. It includes an introduction by an anchor, a hook for the audience, quotes from sources that should help give emotion to the story, the writer's own writing that should tell the audience the facts, and a kicker quote that will leave the audience with something to think about. Other things that are included in a broadcast script are SOT's (sound on tape), VO's (voiceover), CG's (title on screen), and B-roll's (what's shown on the tv as the story is being reported). Any text written by the writer is in ALL CAPS and quotes are standard text. There is a time limit (30 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on the story). There are also shorter descriptions and they do not end in quotes. Lastly, the anchor and reporter have to base their tone of voice off of the situation/story and they have to have careful word choice.