Sunday, April 11, 2010

Extra Credit Assignment #6

1) Pole is not the only one who's had his bicycle stolen this year, and the numbers are continuing to rise. An all-time high of 230 bicycles were reported stolen this year, compared to an average of only 50.

2) You're news peg for the closing of the Vancouver Olympics could maybe be the closing ceremonies (so, a focus on the event). But, you could then expand it to talk about closing ceremonies in past years, as well as maybe what is planned for the future, and compare them. You could compare them based on a variety of things - cost, extravagence, how the show was laid out, what kind of performances there were, or even how they compare based on the city they were hosted in. For example, one of the athletes died in Vancouver, which was a tragedy that seemed to set these games apart from the others. The nut graf might read like this: "Closing ceremonies in Vancouver celebrated the various countries with incredible performances, which were, sadly, slightly overcast due to the death of a Georgian luger earlier in the games. This tragedy seemed to change the mood and distinguish Vancouver from past winter games."

3) Cruises are very popular with honeymooners looking for a romantic getaway after their wedding. Now, a growing number of newlyweds are tying the knot on cruise ships and bringing the wedding party along with them.
According to the Cruise Lines Internatioal Association, cruise weddings increased by over half in the last decade. Carnival Cruise Lines alone expect nearly two-thousand couples to spend around a thousand to two-thousand dollars to marry aboard its ships this year.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Extra Credit Assignment #5

1.) Name: Janet Davies
Position: feature reporter for ABC 7 News in Chicago; host and producer of 190 North, a Chicago-based entertainment and lifestyle program

Interesting Facts:
- She was nominated for 55 regional Emmy awards, and won 12 of them.
- She is an ambassador for CARE, the global poverty organization
- She has worked on magazine shows in Cincinnati and Colombus, Ohio.

If I were to write a story on Janet Davies, I would focus on philanthropic accomplishments, because it seems that all of her charity work contributes greatly to her work as a journalist. I would emphasize her work with poverty organizations and local hospitals, and how that contributes to her work as a features reporter.

2.) It seems that one of my biggest things I need to work on is sentence structure. Many of my sentences are too long, so I need to either be more concise or split my sentences up more. I also need to work on redundancy, because I tend to repeat what I've already said in different words rather than saying something completely original. I need to work on clarity, and making sure that my quotes are not too ambiguous for the reader to understand what the source is trying to say.

I was more careful with my word choice in this paper than the last, but I still need to work on picking clear, concise quotations that are easy to understand.

The criticisms were pretty clear, but I still need help learning how to fix them because I seem to be making the same mistakes. I'm not sure how to pick quotes that are easy to understand, but still contribute something to the story.

3.) When you attribute a student, you must say their name, their year, and their college. For example, "You attribute a student like this," Brittney Henton, senior in LAS, said.

You would fix a quote like this:
"When people talk, sometimes they jibber on about things, you know, (and) don't think about whether she's saying the sentence correctly," Henton said.

You would insert an ellipsis like this:
"When people talk, sometimes they jibber on about things...(and) don't think about whether she's saying the sentence correctly," Henton said.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Extra Credit Assignment 2

1. Defeated in the House, the Senate now gets to debate the bill.

2. Last night at 9 p.m. the 19-year-old got a ticket for jaywalking.

3. Meredith was so angry that night, she ran away from home.

4. Yes, Brittney, I can figure this one out.

5. Holding their flags high the veterans marched through town.

6. The students said they would "skip class" if Brittney made them do more exercises that had to do with grammar, punctuation, spelling, or style.

7. I think most students in this class are a part of the class of '09.

8. "I wonder if this is how you punctuate this quote?" Brittney said.

9. It's important for journalists be grammatically correct at all times for a few reasons. First of all, good grammar is the basis for good writing. If you want to be a writer, grammar is something you have to master in order to progress stylistically. If you're misspelling words, your readers won't take your content seriously and you lose a lot of credibility. Plus, you don't want readers to be distracted by bad grammar and not pay attention to the story they're reading.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Chapter 1 and 2 Extra Credit Questions

1. Writing a story is a very complex process that involves a lot of different people. It starts with an idea, then the reporter begins researching the story and interviewing various people, putting all of the pieces together. They will then toss the story around with their editor just to brainstorm different ideas and figure out where to go with the story, or what's missing. The final facts are either found or trimmed out of the outline of the story. And at last, the reporter actually types up the story, which takes only about 10% of the time that is put into bringing a story together.

2. There are quite a few potential challenges, but only a few stick out. First of all, finding all the pieces of a story can be very challenging. Many times people refuse to cooperate (whether it's your editor or the person you're interviewing), and vital areas of the story are left blank until the very last minute, if they are ever filled at all. Also, with so many people working on a story, you are bound to disagree with any person that is working on the story with you, especially the editor. Sometimes the story cannot be told exactly the way you want it to be.

3. Thankfully, we live in a very technologically advanced society, where it is easier than ever to acquire information from various sources, whether it be through the phone, internet, or a quick e-mail. Stories are never going to be published exactly the way you want them to be, but every time you work with a group of people on a story you are improving your people skills and showing them the kind of person you are and the kind of stories you want to write. Each time you write a new story, it should become easier to deal with outside factors.