Writing the Story

readings

Writing the story

It is time to actually start writing the news story. We'll continue to have exercises throughout the semester on editing and use of AP style, but let's get into writing.

Through the next series of lectures I want to introduce you to several tools and thought processes involved in news writing. You've already been exposed to the main one: the inverted pyramid style of writing. We'll add more tools to your tool belt as we go.

But first let's review some formatting rules.

• When you send me assignments send only one assignment per e-mail.
  

• You can write the story in a word processor program if you want, but paste it into a message window using the steps defined earlier. No attachments!
  

• Don't bother indenting your paragraphs, just put an extra return between each paragraph.
  
• Check your spelling and style before submitting any story.
  
• Check the spelling of all names before submitting a story. A misspelled name will result in an automatic redo.
  

Okay, let's take a look at a story and how to put it together.

First rule: Do not get locked into the wording or the order of the material as it is presented to you in the exercise. Your job is to massage the information into a coherent story. Sometimes you may use a sentence word for word, other times you'll reword it or combine two facts together into a new sentence.

Second rule: You do not have to use all the facts that are presented to you. But you will always be writing the complete story, not just a one-sentence lead.

Third rule: You can add thoughts that logically flow from the facts presented, but you cannot make up things. For instance, in the exercise we are going to look at. It says 1) the school will get $4, 2) the school has been raising money and now has the $8 million it needs. You can logically conclude that the school has raised $4 million.

The first step in any story is to review your facts and then summarize what the story is all about. I like to imagine turning to an invisible friend and in one simple sentence say what the story is about. In your English classes they call this developing the thesis statement. We'll call it figuring what the story is about.

Okay, review the facts:

1. The school is building a new residence hall. (news or not?
   Not if they've been busy raising money; good chance we already wrote about the plans, or should have)
   
   
2. The school has raised $4 million. (nice, but not something
   you do overnight, so it is probably not our news peg*)
   
   
3. The projected cost is $8 million (important fact, but not newsworthy unless it is an unusual number)
   
   
4. The school has asked the federal government for money. (the school did this "earlier this year" so the fact is not new)
   
   
5. Yesterday (use a real day) the Northwest College board of trustees learned something. (ahhh, something timely; we're getting closer to the news peg).
   
   
6. The government is giving $4 million. (timely, new, consequence; hmmm, sounds like our news peg)
   
   
7. Construction starts early next year (maybe more newsworthy as we get closer to it)
   
   
8. The name of the architect is known. (nice that it is a local firm, but the firm probably was chosen earlier in the process and we probably covered it, or should have)
   
   
9. Where it will be built is known. (where is important, but again, probably is old news)
   
   
10. The building will accommodate 400 students. (important fact, but not the most newsworthy)
    

* The news peg is the fact or element on which the writer hangs the story. What is it about this story that makes it news NOW? This is usually a time element, but it can be a who (it is news because an important person did it), or a what (something really unusual happens).

So what is our story about? Turn to that imaginary friend and tell him/her.

I'm telling my friend that the story is about the school getting the other $4 million it needs to actually build a new residence hall on campus.

Next we write the story. Now, there are a lot of ways to write any story and most would be acceptable. Rarely is there just one right way to write a story. Some are better than others, though. Let's look at one possible version.

Start with the news:

The Northwest College Board of Trustees learned Tuesday that the federal government will give $4 million toward the building of a new residence hall on campus.

The story is about Northwest College, not the federal government, so we start with the college. Note that we merged information from several facts into that first paragraph. Also note that if the reader walks away from the story after just one paragraph he/she has the most important information. We even got the big number into the first paragraph.

 

The college now has the $8 million it needs to start construction of the 400-unit residence hall, which will be built near the Chartwell Residence Hall.

That's a sneaky way of saying the school has already raised $4 million, but it works. We also got other facts merged into a flowing sentence, including the number of students who will be served.

Construction will begin early next year and the architect will be the local firm of McKim, Oglethorpe and Dodge.

Again, more merging. Also note that you don't have to be locked into the exact wording in the workbook. People will understand the word "local" in place of "Carolton."

No questions to answer this time. Just send me a note verifying that you read the lecture. Feel free to ask any questions regarding the process.