Welcome to Detroit High School Journalism Program TRAINING DAY 2015

Welcome to Detroit High School Journalism Program

TRAINING DAY 2015

Interviewing 101Story Structure 101

Quotes 101Editing & Style 101

Interviewing 101

Interviewing 101

• In-person is best.

• Be prepared.

• Let’s do this!

• Back to basics.

Interviewing 101• In-person is best.

Set up a time to meet. In the person’s office. At a nearby coffee shop. On the phoneSecond-best option. Make an appointment to call.Over emailLast resort? Some newspapers have policies about email interviews and how they are quoted. For FreepHigh, if you do an interview via email, you need to stay that: “… Bob Jones said in an email.”

Interviewing 101• Be prepared.

Have a good notebook and penThere are a few kinds of notebooks. Have a couple of pensDo you want to record it?

Recording device. App on Smartphone. But you have to transcribe. Do you have the time?Do your research?Use the Internet. Find out everything you can about the person/subject.What will you ask?Have at least four questions prepared.

Interviewing 101• Let’s do this!

Write down details about surroundingsI use my margin to do this. Is it hot outside? What does his/her office look like?Ask and listenPut the pen down every once and a while. Listen for good quotes. Ask follow-up questions.Ask and repeatDon’t be afraid to ask interviewee to repeat something. Or rephrase something if you don’t get the answer the first time. Or to explain something you don’t understand.

Interviewing 101• Back to basics.

Double-check your factsGet details/facts: double-check the spelling of the name! Get age, grade, etc.Ask interviewee if he or she has anything to add.Get contact info for follow up.Say Thank You.

Story Structure 101

Story structure 101

• The lead

• The body

• The end

Story structure 101

• The leadWe need to grab the reader. Hard or soft lead?Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

• The body• The end

Story structure 101

• Lead or lede?

-News leads need to give basic info—some of the elements: who, what, where, when, why and/or how.

-If you don’t write a lead that grabs, you’ll lose readers.

-You should have an idea about your lead as soon as you are done interviewing. Review your notes.

Story structure 101• The lead

We need to grab the reader. Hard or soft lead?Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

• The bodyNews value. The “Why are we writing this?” People/ Quotes.

• The end

Story structure 101

• Nut graphIf you need to have a paragraph that let’s the reader know what the story is about. If you don’t have a traditional hard-news lead, you must have a nut graph that answers the five W’s and the H.

Story structure 101

• The Inverted Pyramid-Do we even do this anymore?-Helps organize in logical order. More important info first, then in descending order-Basic summary lead works best

Story structure 101

• Other ways to organize-Scene recreation-Anecdotes-Foreshadowing-Dialogue

Story structure 101• The lead

We need to grab the reader. Hard or soft lead?Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

• The bodyNews value. The “Why are we writing this?” People/ Quotes.

• The endWith a quote? With a summary paragraph? Stories should END not STOP.

Story structure 101

• All articles should have-A lead-Quotes-At least two sources. There are exceptions-Correct facts-Correct style and grammar-No editorializing. Leave yourself out of the story.

Story structure 101

• What is the difference between news and opinion?- News articles don’t use use “I” or “we.”

- News articles use facts and interviews with attribution … not the author’s viewpoint on the subject.

Story structure 101

• What is the difference between news and opinion?- Opinion articles can use “I” or “we.”

- Opinion articles share your viewpoint, should also include facts and can include interviews.

Story structure 101

• NO Cheerleading!–We don’t want to end articles with statements of support. For example: “We at the HSJP wish the club good luck this year.”–Keep yourself out of the article.

Quotes 101

Quotes 101

Said. Said. Said. Said. Said. Said. Said.

Said. Said. Said. Said. Said.

Said. Said.

Said. Said. Said. Said. Said. Said.

Said.

Quotes 101HOW TO SET UP A QUOTE “I love journalism,” sophomore Ben Jones said.OR“I love journalism,” said Ben Jones, a sophomore.

-Always begin a quote with the person’s

words. -THEN give their name and ID/info(year, city, title).

Quotes 101HOW TO SET UP A QUOTE

WRONG When asked how she felt about the school’s new policy, journalism teacher Janie Werth said, “I’m very excited about it. Students deserve to practice journalism without the fear of prior review. The students are happy too.”

RIGHT

Journalism teacher Janie Werth said she is excited about the school’s new policy. “Students deserve to practice journalism without the fear of prior review,” she said. “The students are happy too.”

Quotes 101HOW TO SET UP A QUOTE

WRONG When asked how she felt about the school’s new policy, journalism teacher Janie Werth said, “I’m very excited about it. Students deserve to practice journalism without the fear of prior review. The students are happy too.”

RIGHT

Journalism teacher Janie Werth said she is excited about the school’s new policy. “Students deserve to practice journalism without the fear of prior review,” she said. “The students are happy too.”

Editing & Style 101

Editing and Style 101• Our Most Common Errors

-Numbers-Dates/Days of the Week-Punctuation-Capitalization-Abbreviations-Attribution (from the Web)

Editing and Style 101Common Errors: Numbers

*One through Nine are written out, 10 and above are numerals* Time of day: 1 p.m., 5 p.m., 12 a.m.* Fractions standing alone are spelled out. “One-fourth of the students …”* Money: $1 or $1.55 or $150 or $1 million

Editing and Style 101Common Errors: Dates

*You don’t need the year if you are writing about the current year. For example:She went to the zoo Sept. 1.* If you are talking about LAST year, then:She went to the zoo Sept. 1, 2014.

Editing and Style 101Common Errors: Days of the Week

* Because we publish four times a year, you are going to use dates for most time references. You do not need to include the day of the week.* If you are writing for the web, you will use the day of the week. But not the date and the day of the week.

Editing and Style 101Common Errors: Punctuation

Always put the period and comma inside quotation marks. Put other punctuation marks inside when they are part of the quoted material.“I went to the concert,” he said.He said, “I went to the concert.”“Did you see the play?” he asked. Should I see “King Lear”?

Editing and Style 101Common Errors: Punctuation

Put the period inside parentheses when a complete sentence is enclosed in parentheses. When only part of the sentence is in parentheses, put the period outside the parenthesis.(The other three students followed in a separate car.)The other three students followed (in a separate car).

Editing and Style 101Common Errors: Capitalization

Generally speaking … proper nouns are capitalized and common nouns are not.


Academic subjects: Generally lowercase these, such as in: She is a history professor; he teaches advanced algebra; the medieval literature course is offered Tuesdays and Thursdays. Uppercase when you would do so in all usages, such as: They studied English and Italian.


Geography, places, buildings: Capitalize these specific regions: In Michigan, Upper Peninsula, Lower Peninsula, the Thumb, Downriver; in the U.S., East, East Coast, Midwest, North, Northeast, Northwest, Pacific Northwest, South, Southeast, Southwest, West, West Coast; elsewhere, Mideast, Middle East, Far East.

Do not capitalize the adjective in regions that are, for readers, more vaguely defined, such as northwest Detroit, metro Detroit, western Wayne County, southeastern Michigan, southern California, east Africa and northern Europe.


Capitalize City Council, City Commission and County Commission when referring to a specific one: the Detroit City Council, the City Council (one in particular), the council. If possible, use just "the council" on second and subsequent references.

Editing and Style 101Common Errors: Abbreviations

Days and months:

Spell out days of the week:

Spell out months unless they appear with days: December or Dec. 1. Use these abbreviations: Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Do not abbreviate other months.


States: Use Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kan., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Neb., Nev., N.C., N.D., N.H., N.J., N.M., N.Y., Okla., Ore., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.D., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo. Do not abbreviate Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. These forms for states are acceptable in headlines.

Use Postal Service abbreviations (for example, MI or OH) only and always with mailing addresses.


Also: It’s U.S. for United States on all references. It’s DPS on second reference for Detroit Public Schools (write it out on first reference).**Decide NOW what you want for your school. Should King be “King” on all reference or just the second reference? Is it Benjamin Carson High School or Ben Carson High School? You select the style and stick to it.

Editing and Style 101

And lastly …

Let’s talk about attribution (from the Web)


Be very careful when using research from the Internet. Don’t use Wikipedia. Make sure it’s a trusted source. How do you know? Ask me. You don’t have to quote it; use the website as background to get an authoritative source on the record.


However, if you use a website (for example, you get sports info from ESPN), source it like this:

According to article on ESPN.com, “the Lions are not interested in adding anyone else to the roster.”

If you use the exact words, it’s best to use quote marks.


For statistics, make sure you use the original source. If you read something online and it gives numbers, find the original source of those numbers and go to THAT website, find the info and cite that as your source. More authoritative.

Documents

Welcome to Detroit High School Journalism Program TRAINING DAY 2015