The Last Class: Bad Grammar Isn't Sexy

Well folks, it's been quite a semester. We've worked hard, done a lot of writing, and shared many laughs. All that's left is the final exam and getting those jobs Professor Eisman promised. 

Today in class we discussed what will be on the final, got our t-shirts, and filled out teacher evaluations. 

NOTE: Remember to check your Black Board to make sure your grades are in order.

As outlined the final will have four parts:

Part One: (60%)

Three writing pieces in different formats we covered this semester.

1. A web article (including text and maybe other stuff)

2. A broadcast report (timed)

3. A press release or PSA (Eisman will decide which at later date, but before the exam)

Part Two: (5%)

-Five news questions (the news could be from any number of days before the exam) 

Part Three: (15%)

-Grammar, Style and Math

-It will be about 15 questions

Part Four: (20%) 

-Two essay questions on any of the following topics:

-Media Law

-Public Service Announcements

-Media Ethics

-Public Communications and Strategy 

Other notes on the exam: 

-To study review the text, past writing assignments, and the online journalist math test.

-We will not be able to use the text book or an AP Stylebook during the exam.

-We will be using the computers in the classroom. 

As a final note, we took a class picture with our new t-shirts.... "Bad grammar isn't sexy." 

See you all Thursday. 

 

Jeopardy: the Penultimate Class

Professor Eisman began class by bringing in bells and telling us we were going to have a good day. But first we talked business. We talked about our Something New assignments, and then moved on to our features. Professor Eisman honored us by saying, on the record, "I'm very proud of you." She read excerpts from Stevia's piece as a particularly fine example (congrats!).

Next we moved on to Jeopardy. After some difficulty deciding on judges and typical lively discussion, the game began. As it turned out, the game we played in fact bore very little resemblance to the real-life Jeopardy. Professor Eisman seems to have found the game guaranteed to cause the most argument among her already argumentative class. After a rousing competition, Stevia and Susan received the prizes: two hats from AU's School of Communication.

After the game, we discussed what we will cover in class on Thursday. We will go over study guides for the final exam, which will be on Thursday, 12/10 from 11:20 to 1:50. The exam will cover current news, grammar, and the ability to write in different formats (broadcast, web, print, PSAs, etc.). It will also cover subjects like libel, legality and ethics, with questions like "Is this particular case an example of libel?" On Thursday we will also receive our T-shirts!

Professor Eisman instructed us to remind her about the evaluation forms. We requested that she give us all A's in the class for our remarkable and commendable involvement. Professor Eisman did not respond, and class was dismissed.

Congrats, writers!

You managed to keep me amused and informed through a variety of feature articles. Some had extremely clear writing. Some had in-depth reporting. The top ones, the most memorable pieces, had both.

Kudos to the authors of the articles about dorm cooking (Jett), triples (Tasha), farmers markets (Carol), costume designers (Franziska), re-learning to walk (Mitchell), culture shock for students from abroad (Jess) and Swine flu in Room 607 (Stevia), which was the very easiest to read in the class.

You may all go on your Thanksgiving holiday without worrying about school. And please know how thankful I am to have such a creative and funny set of students.

Professor Eisman

This may look a lot like Franziska's.... Media Law & Ethics for Monday

Class begin with a lively discussion of the Women's Resource Center (Carmen I saw your response in the Eagle, very well done) and an update on what's ahead in the World of Writing For Mass Comm 200.

1. Grammar Quiz on Thursday - all grammar in the textbook will be fair game, or as Stevia put it "all grammar ever".

2. No class on Monday! - But, the time should be used to work on our "Something New" assignment which is due after break. The piece will cover something that is new this semester on campus (professor, event, class, etc...). You can write up the assignment in any style you want (PSA, feature, press release, broadcast, etc...).

After the above updates, the lesson on Media Law and Ethics began!

Libel -publishing something, on purpose, that is both false and can hurt someone's reputation.

• Living people can sue, dead people can't

• Usually the publication gets sued, not the individual reporter (but in some cases he/she can)

• To be libelous, a statement must be:

-both false, and published (but, simply e-mailing it to a friend counts!
-defamatory - ruins a person's reputation
- you can identify that it is specifically plaintiff who is being talked about
- the defendant is guilty of negligence (being sloppy, not checking over facts)
or malice- intentionally trying to hurt someone's reputation with false information

How do Avoid Libel - ALWAYS CHECK YOUR FACTS! Wait for additiontional information before running a story if you are not sure of something. Also, check with a person before you write something questionable about him or her.

See "Print it or Pull it" examples

Copyright Law - images, music, text all have copyrights establishing who owns the creative work

• The safest way to avoid copyright infringement is to always check with the author/publisher before reprinting something
  

• Remember to not use trademarks when writing (Band -Aids, Xerox etc...) , it's not illegal, but it is sloppy.
  

Privacy -

• Don't intrude - no hidden camera, or trespassing to gain information -you ARE NOT James Bond
  

• Don't portray someone in a false light - no using old pictures for new stories (that have nothing to do with the original context of the picture)
  

• Don't disclose private facts - it really can't get any better than that hemorrhoid example in text.
  

• Don't appropriate - for instance, don't use a picture of me in an ad for a Miley Cyrus concert. I'm not one of her biggest fans, and would be upset that you did not check with me first.
  

Ethics - what you can publish, and what is ethically sound to publish, are two different things.

• Don't assume that people do not want to talk to reporters when there is a tragedy. For
• reporters it is always worth it to seek out new information.
• Show compassion for victims of tragedy
• Don't stereotype or make general assumptions
• Be careful when identifying underage suspects or victims of sexual crimes
• Don't charge someone with a crime before the police have
• Avoid conflicts of interest
• Bring to light ethical violations you may know about

For more information on all of this- see the class hand out sheets!

Media Law and Ethics (Nov. 16, 2009)

Announcements:

1. There will be a grammar quiz this Thursday about all grammar ever covered.
2. There will be no class meeting on Nov. 23.
3. The “Something New” assignment (see syllabus and add press release and speech to the possible formats) will be due after Thanksgiving.
4. Take John Watson’s class! Next semester, he will be teaching COMM-320 Reporting and COMM-504 Journalism Ethics.

After we (more or less successfully) tried to find out what Professor Eisman did during her day off and discussed the new Women’s Resource Center (follow the debate at http://www.theeagleonline.com/opinion/story/feminist-err-womens-center-wastes-money), we started discussing media law and ethics.

1. Media Law

Libel is a false statement that intentionally damages somebody’s reputation, and any alive party can sue for libel. For example, if a journalist accuses someone in his story to be crazy, the person accused can sue for being labeled a mentally ill person.
Usually, it is the publication that will be sued, but in some cases, journalists themselves will get sued. In some cases, it can be difficult for the court to decide whether or not the libel was actually deliberately damaging reputation.
For examples on risky statements that fall into the grey zone of publishing or not publishing, refer to the in-class “Print it or pull it” exercise.

Other important issues in media law are privacy and copyright law. For example, if you want to find pictures online that can be used without paying a royalty or copyright fee, you can use flickr’s creative commons. This application will tell you which images are free, which ones are free if you credit the photographer, which ones you can only use if you pay a fee etc.

For more information on how to avoid legal risks, you can check out the “Top Ten Rules for Limiting Legal Risks” by the Knight Citizen News Network. This link is also on our syllabus:
http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk

If you are interested in media law, you should also read the brief on media law in the AP stylebook, which can be accessed via the stylebook online (through the AU library’s website or through http://www.apstylebook.com/ if you have a subscription).


2. Ethics

Ethics is a very broad field, that includes many grey areas and has become increasingly concerning with the growth of digital imaging software. Today, it is easier than ever before to alter images and produce text that has little factual bases.
In class, we discussed the New York Times coverage of the 9/11 attacks as an example of ethics. Whereas newspapers around the U.S. as well as international papers published pictures of people falling out of the buildings, the New York Times, as the local newspaper of the New York community, did not publish such pictures until several days after the attacks. This is an example of very ethical behavior.
Also, we talked about the question whether or not it is ethical to interview family members of murder victims: always interview them! It can be difficult and uncomfortable at first, but you never know what they might have to add to the story. As an ethical journalist, you can never assume anything. This is why it is important to talk to people and get as many positions on an issue covered as possible.

Different publications have different codes of ethics.
For example, the New York Times’ code of ethics (that we looked at in class) can be found here:
http://www.nytco.com/press/ethics.html

All:

In case you are wondering, there is no written assignment for Monday. But please be sure to do the reading about media and the law -- libel, slander and more. See you Monday! Professor Eisman

Monday

Week #12!

Monday, November 9, 2009.

First on the agenda for Monday was returning the bio assignments. As Professor Eisman put it, “Some of them were wonderful.” She pointed out that those who did well wrote them like bios, not like news features. Congrats to Sam, Alica, and Tasha for writing the best bios! These three did well because they stayed on focus and used vivid details – they also happened to pick really interesting people.

Next we took a news and grammar quiz. Professor Eisman announced that it was also a “no-whining quiz,” but I think we failed that part.

After that, we presented the group PSA assignments. Everyone obviously had fun with these! Professor Eisman told Sam that he made an excellent 40-year-old man, and is making t-shirts out of the tagline Susan and I came up with: “Bad grammar isn't sexy.” Unlike her promise to give us all jobs, she said she plans to stick to this one.

Some tips for good PSAs:

• Keep it short and simple.
• Know your audience.
• Get their attention from the start.

Next, we discussed Yahoo's plan to release a style guide for web writing in 2010. The style guide will be similar to the AP Stylebook, but with some differences, although probably not as many as this. Professor Eisman went over a powerpoint and gave us a pamphlet with several of the tips from the Yahoo guide.

Finally, class was let out 15 minutes early! Hooray!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

One would expect that everyone would have been exhausted on Thursday after writing our features all night, but everyone seemed as lively as usual. Professor Eisman even said we were annoying! Personally, I was more concerned that “math” was listed on the agenda.

Quizzes were returned, and Professor Eisman confirmed that the correct possessive forms are “waitress'” and “Dickens,'” as in, “Sydney Carton was the waitress' favorite character in Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities” - but that sentence is in the passive voice, so don't write it.

Next, our PSA assignments were returned. Professor Eisman said that Fia and Taylor's anti-flip flop ad was the best because of its great tagline, its simple focus, and its relation to the World Series. Stevia and Brittany's chilling medical marijuana ad was a close second – Professor Eisman said that the short sentences as well as the repetition worked well. Professor Eisman said that Susan and I came in third because our tagline was the best, and said she is working on getting us t-shirts!

After that, we started looking at news sites to figure out what makes goods headline and blurbs (sidenote: blurb is NOT a technical term). We encountered some controversy with this video. The title is an incorrect quote – never do this! Professor Eisman said she plans on sending an email about this.

We read a lot of headlines, so I won't list them all, but here are some characteristics of the good ones:

• Make sure the headline fits the story! Deliver what you advertise.
• The headline and blurb should be connected, but shouldn't repeat each other – a blurb should elaborate on the title, not reiterate it.
• While headlines and blurbs should be informative, don't give too much away, because then no one will read the actual article – except, of course, Mass Comm students studying for news quizzes.
• Suggest drama or controversy when practical.
• Use strong verbs.
• Drop names.
• Use humor when appropriate (e.g., when writing for The Onion).

Next, we read a long, rambling article on democracy in Bhutan. There was a lot that could be cut from the article, some poorly worded sentences, and even some contradictions. Sam suggested that the story be restructured before “hacking into it at the sentence level.” Professor Eisman pointed out the visual problems with the story as well – there are no subheadings to break it up, and the reader's eye is drawn to the captions first. When writing for the web, consider appearance.

After that, we read a much more concise article on the same subject from BBC. This article listed all of the facts about Bhutan under a map instead of working them into the article. Let's face it, most readers aren't terribly interested in the number of tourists that go to Bhutan every year or the date they first had television, but it's good to have this information off to the side in case anyone is curious. The article also included a subhead, even though it was much shorter, and had a good kicker about the king having several wives. Overall, everyone seemed to find this article much more accessible

Then we did math. I don't know about you all, but I haven't done math since I took stat as a freshman two years ago. I can't even add anymore. However, some of you clearly knew what you were doing, as we got all of the questions on the quiz right! Professor Eisman said she's never had a class do that.

If you want to torture yourself, the quiz is here. Professor Eisman said that we will probably have some math questions on the final.

Finally, some of the Talon editors stopped by because they're looking for writers. They gave out fliers, but in case you lost yours, here are the details:

• Stories should be about something on campus, and must be 350-400 words with 2-3 quotes.
• Meetings are Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. in MGC 250.
• Office hours are Sunday from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Monday from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
• Direct questions to talonmanager@american.edu.

Have a great weekend!

Week 11: PSAs and Writing for the Web

Monday- 11/2

Professor Eisman handed back the Press Release Assignment.
Congrats Amy, Jess, and Brittany for doing a fantastic job on them!

Special congrats to Brittany for Eisman's praise of her writing style - "You have the crispest writing style of anyone your age!"

CHANGE IN SYLLABUS: Feature Article is now due Nov. 12th (this Thursday!!!)

Eisman is willing to read the first paragraph of our features, so sent them her way if you are interested!

Some important things to remember about the feature:

• Length: 5 pages or less
• Include your sources and their contact info at the end
• Don't forget to attribute information and use credible sources
• Audience: AU Students

Eisman assigned a new PSA project today.

• Due Date: Mon. Nov. 9th
• We were split up into group of 2-3 people to either record a 30 second audio PSA or film/storyboard a 20 second visual PSA
• More information can be found on blackboard if needed.

Eisman gave us the last 30 minutes of class to work on our PSAs in groups.


Thursday- 11/5

Class began with Carol exhibiting some Ohio pride and then quickly becoming embarrassed because we had a prospective student and his father sitting in on class.

The topic of class was "The Media Landscape" and we dived into writing for the web.

We discussed with how people read online. Some of us students had some good examples of why web writing is different:

• People can be more selective about what they read
• The transmission of info is instantaneous
• Content can be stolen much easier

We then discussed the importance of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Eisman told us, "I was very upset when TMZ was right about Michael Jackson on Twitter."

As a class we decided that the most important aspect of writing for the web is to get the reader hooked and keep the reader hooked. According to studies that have been published, people read in an "F' shaped pattern. This means that important information must be right at the beginning, and that the topic sentence has to be very focused, clear, and well written.

Eisman coined the term "visual editing" for the way we must edit writing for the web, because really we are writing for the eye.

We also learned the when people read a webpage they "Glance, scan, then click," so it is VERY important to make websites user friendly.


According to a poll about how in depth people read an article had the following results:
77% online
62% broadsheet
57% tabloid

Here are important tips when writing for the web:

1. Find an intriguing story
2. Break up long blocks of text
3. Deliver what you promise
4. Have one thought per paragraph
5. Avoid lists of numbers, use sidebars
6. Write for the eye

Eisman also dished out some more praise today when she said, "Mitchell I just adore you! You're on fire today!"

Before giving us a short assignment on writing for the web Eisman made it clear she has once again lost control, however she did remind us that she is still going to get us all jobs!

Not my week but...

I know it's not my week to blog but I had two things I wanted to share:

1) I told Paula McCabe about our blog, she wanted to check it out. Just a heads up.

2) Just found this on twitter, follow @FakeAPStylebook. It's funny, especially since we're all gaining a love/hate relationship with the real AP Stylebook, which apparently you can follow @APStylebook. There's even a hash tag! #APStyle. wow.

That's all,

Amy

"The Secret to Good Speechwriting Is..."

A preliminary note of gratitude: danke to everyone in class for being understanding about my delay in bloggin'. My family emergency is, henceforth, resolved, and so I bring you a Carmen Rios original about last week's adventurous WMC Curriculum:

"Where is our student blogger?" were the first words heard by the student blogger herself as she settled into her seat, raised her hand, and assauged all fears. No worries- she was here. Professor Darrell Hayes, an American University Public Communication Professor and noted public relations expert, took his seat in response and began a lecture with three main points: ethos, pathos, and logos.

When delivering a speech, he said, it is most important to begin by thinking of your audience. Maybe, he suggested, you have two different audiences in the same arena: athletes, for instance, combined with musicians. There are a lot of things that could divide those groups- perspectives on art high on a list that could also include lifestyle, personality, and background. Hayes, however, took another path and suggested that students begin their speechwriting practice by thinking of what "unites your audience." Teamwork, for example, is something both divisions in that audience understand. The important of practice, cooperation, and the ability to take criticism and direction are also shared experiences among an audience of bass players and basketball ameteurs. Once you have linked your audience, you can find a direction for your speech and target your points to those unifying thoughts.

That's when ethos, pathos, and logos enter the room. Those three elements, in that order, are essential to good speechwriting. Hayes carefully described each: ethos, the credibility of the speaker, should come as an introduction and motivate the audience to listen to what the speaker has to say; pathos, the emotion, comes next in an effort to keep that audience intrigued and often to make them personally hold a stake in your topic; logos comes last, the logical argument formed in time to explain the other elements and close neatly.

The challenge he then posed was for students in the Writing for Mass Communication class to write a speech as if they were AU's own Dean of Students. Their audience? The parents gathered at Family Weekend receptions and events, particularly the one the Dean was speaking at. And the topic? Underage drinking, and why it should be legal. Students split quickly into groups and worked on making the Dean of Students seem rational and not radical, perfecting language along the lines of, "my sons and daughters" and establishing the Dean's credibility not only as someone personally involved in education as an institution, but also in childrearing as a parent. Relating to parents proved easier, however, than the logos- how could lowering the drinking age ever be marketed to parents?

"Family Weekend is a freshman mistake," one student quipped. "These parents will be terrified."

"Can we say 'children?' They're adults by now," one student put forward. "Sons and daughters! Sons and daughters!"

The students all completed the speech outlines by the end of class and printed them out, with Hayes eagerly walking around the classroom to see how the challenges of speechwriting would be overcome by the small group of honors undergrads.

On Thursday, the students reconvened, this time with the familiar face of Amy Eisman at the front of the classroom. AU Professor Dotty Lynch, a recognized pollster and well-known communications professional, came in to judge and evaluate their in-class project for the day: PSAs.

Following a lecture on the nature of PSAs and the elements that make them successful (directing your audience to more resources, speaking concisely and in easy-to-understand language, writing casually and colloqiually in broadcast fashion, and connecting with your specific target audience), the students once again faced down a group project. They were instructed to compose audio PSA's 30 seconds in length on H1N1 prevention. After looking to their student portals and flu.gov, the room was full of feigned coughs and strained voices.

"Best radio voice goes to Carmen," professor Eisman quipped. The most successful group in the exercise was that who put forth tons of coughs and clever references to the importance of hygiene in everyday life for students, focusing on washing hands as key to prevention. Another group used the slogan "do your friends a favor- stay in," and others experimented with allusions to pop culture and the importance of knowing what is not okay to "share" (namely germs). Lynch was impressed overall with the performance of the student groups.

The week ended with printed scripts and the promise of more PSA work in the future, soon to be fulfilled by the recently assigned PSA assignment (DUE NOVEMBER 9).

Time to Meet Adults!

Julie collected the homework. Prof. Eisman passed back quizzes and the midterm. She warned the class as passing the midterms back that the tests were graded hard. She reminded us to answer the who, what, where, when and how in news stories.

Prof. Eisman told us that she will try to get a speech writer to speak to the class on Monday.

We had a high school student visiting the class. "This doesn't happen in other classes," Prof. Eisman said in reference to our out-of-control class.

We reviewed as a class why we loved Brittany and Mitchell's bios. Prof. Eisman was not crazy about the phrase "prior to" in the bios. She said that the phrase, "sounds a little stiff."

Julie was concerned about the uncomfortable, stranger biography assignment. The class voted for the off-campus interview to be due Thursday rather than Monday.

The assignment should be 4 to 5 paragraphs long. Examples of good bios are available on blackboard.

The class felt uncomfortable about the assignment. "I just don't know adults," Alicia said. Prof. Eisman assured the class that the bio will be a valuable exercise. "Get out of your comfort zone," Eisman said.

The class then analyzed brochures and pamphlets. In looking at the pamphlets, Tasha liked the bullet points, Amy wanted bigger print, Stevia loved action words, Sam loved bright paper and Carmen didn't like awkward photos.

The class then had 30 minutes to create a four page brochure on Writing for Mass Communication. We were assured that we weren't getting graded on this.

The class presented the brochures and the truth about the class came out. Tasha highlighted the "tough love" of the class. Alicia described the class as a, "writing boot camp."

OK maybe not a job, but free advice!

Eight must-know writing basics for j students:

http://newmediamobtown.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/writing-basics-for-j-students/

We're All Getting Jobs!

Prof. Eisman started off class by telling everyone how pleased she has been with our writing lately. Good work everyone!

Frank Kauffman from Edelman came in to speak about PR. Prior to his career at Edelman, he worked as a lawyer and a journalist. He manages crisis communication, litigation media and trains company officials in media relations.

He gave 3 pieces of advice from famous writers:

1.) "'Big things are almost always best said with small words.'" This quote came from Peggy Noonan, a Regan speech writer.

2.) "'The first draft of anything is...,'" Ernest Hemingway said. Kauffman suggests putting a piece aside for a while before editing it.

3.) "'No sinner is ever saved after the first two minutes of a sermon,"' Mark Twain said. Kauffman said that people get distracted after 28 seconds of speaking with them and that in 30 days, one will only remember 5% of what was said.

Snaps to Taylor for knowing Twain's hometown of Hannibal.

"What are you trying to communicate and how are you able to effectively communicate that?," Kauffman said to ask yourself when determining how to go about a company's PR message. Public relations is simply taking a company's point of view and helping them express it to a targeted audience. Kauffman's job is to bridge the communication gap between the company and the audience.

Companies want to disperse their messages to their audiences before the media does so for them. "By definition, journalism is selective," Kauffman said, "a roll of the dice." Clear, concise communication is the goal.

Before an interview, Kauffman would instruct a company representative to pick three messages to focus on. Each message is a point of view, not a fact. Thus, the messages need to be inductively supported with facts, figures and statistics.

Facebook and Twitter are new great ways for companies to directly contact their audiences. An argument in the class broke out as to whether Facebook would be the fourth or fifth largest country in the world. Prof. Eisman and Kauffman settled the dispute and claimed that Facebook would be fourth behind China, India and the U.S.

Ninety-two percent of journalists rely on online research before writing a story and around 40 percent of the U.S. population relies on Internet sources for news. Kauffman was concerned by this since Internet sites, especially blogs, can be ill-informed. Blogs are very interconnected to news.

Most of Kauffman's clients have their own public relations departments within their companies. A company's PR department will handle common matters and a larger, outside company handles larger PR issues.

In order to get a job in PR, Kauffman suggests working in journalism or law and building up an impressive resume first. He also said that one could work as a PR intern and get a job if he or she is a standout. He said that PR is a very tiring job and that he is the oldest person in his job.

Prof. Eisman promised us all jobs and later retracted to say that she could give us recommendations. "Have I lost control?," Eisman asked.

Kauffman gave the class fun facts about Sandra Day O'Connor including that she dressed up on Halloween and gave out candy from her Chevy Chase house and that she used to date William Rehnquist.

Kauffman's final piece of advice was, "if you can write, you're ahead of eighty percent of the population." Everything is about communication, he said.

The class took a news quiz. The news quiz was not terribly difficult. Due for next class are two press releases from any two exercises on pages 298-301. Write a 140-word summary for each for a Twitter feed.

Comment on "best quote"

Ha ha, Brittany.

I am back in charge again.

So here is my question: If that was the favorite or best quote from the American Forum, why didn't I see it in anyone's article??

Professor Eisman

The Week with A Lot of Work

Well..at least we're all still alive. With the forum and the midterm, this week was worth 20% of our semester grades. I hope we all got A's!

Professor Eisman began Monday's class by passing back the "Hiker" stories (finally). She suggested that we save them as momentos of our early days of writing. After eight weeks, we've improved drastically, and Professor Eisman is beginning to know all our "little quirks."

Next, we received our Washington Post broadcast pieces back. In usual form, we argued about nearly every detail.

In general, we picked good stories, but used too many big words and weren't conversational enough.

Professor Eisman discussed the midterm and announced that she would email us the bio assignment for Monday. We also discussed the due date for our forum articles. Sometime in that process, confusion broke loose and Professor Eisman realized she was "losing control." I think the rest of us knew that weeks ago.

For those of us who couldn't attend the forum, Professor Eisman promised that somewhere, there would be a person talking about something because "that's all they do in this town."

We got a few great pieces of advice for our forum pieces:
-paraphrase bios for articles.
-don't write about ties, water, or the fact that someone tallked last night.
-"every fact you don't know is a fact I don't know, although I know more facts than you."-Professor Eisman
-use one speaker for the lead, and then transition into the rest of the article.
-or, summarize the news for the lead.
-avoid jargon!
-keep to one thought per paragraph, no matter what.

We also looked over some sample leads, and were given permission to criticize our colleagues because we'll be critcized.

Last but not least, we watched part of last year's forum and took notes to practice. We found out that we already knew how to indentify news-worthy quotes.

Tuesday, most of us covered the forum, which was a lot more interesting than I expected. I thought the best quote of the night was from David Corn: "anything involving Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, and sex, hopefully all three!" That's not a news value Professor Eisman taught us.

And then the day of the dreaded midterm arrived. We'll found out how we did soon, but I'm proud of all for making deadline.

Happy Fall Break Everyone!!!

-

Week 7

October Blues

Monday October 5, 2009

*Professor Eisman handed back the Obama assignment from last week.

Here are some tips:

-Report what happened

- Distant, but detailed

-Don’t use long quotes

-Don’t start a story with a quote

-Tuck in quotes; REMEMBER quotes are gems

-Ex: Use Mass. not the postal address MA

-Watch opinions

*The Feature assignment is due on NOVEMBER 9, 2009. It is worth 10% of our grade.

-The assignment should be double spaced and five pages or less.

-Everybody you talk to is on the record

-Everything you write can be published

-Explain that something is on the record:

Example: Hello my name is _________________ from Amy Eisman’s writing class. I’m doing a story on _______________. I need to interview students, officials, etc. This interview will only take about_________ minutes. It may be published in the school newspaper, a school publication, American Observer, The Northwest Currant, etc.

-Don’t use fake names

-Everything you do for stories needs to have evidence and hard facts.

-Do not be in the mindset of “Oh, I got a student!”

-Interview until you get a good quote/idea for a story.

-The reference librarians can help you find original sources.

-Attribute research to the original source.

-Do not quote a blog that isn’t credible.

-Do not interview friends, roommates, etc. This should not be a hard assignment, and you do not want to have a potential conflict such as a close friend telling you after the interview to not use their name.

-Interview Professors from other campuses, if possible, instead of just AU professors.

-Be able to write down your story idea in ONE sentence before you write.

-FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS

-Stay focused in whatever direction you take.

-First get the facts; then write the story.

-If you have a question, or want to do a type of story you aren’t sure about, make sure to ask. “Clear everything with the boss of all bosses.” Aka Professor Eisman. Make her happy.

*Writing Tips for Broadcast

-Simple Sentences: subject, verb, object

-Use active verbs and avoid passive voice.

-Avoid clauses that sound unnatural.

-Avoid Run-on sentences.

-Attribution is at the beginning.

-Don’t begin a story/idea with an unknown name.

-Use hyphens between things you want to say separately. Example: At the U-N.

-Avoid using too many pronouns.

-Use phonetic spelling.

-Auto only-no sound-bites.

-Remember; you are writing for the ear. Tell the story as if you are picking up the phone and telling your friend.

-READ the chapter from the other textbook for more tips.

-Use a conversational tone; keep it short and easy to follow.

-You do not have to use the inverted pyramid.

-Use present tense: “says” is ok to use instead of “said”.

*After, we listened to NPR.

-The context was before the news story.

-More descriptive and humorous than a regular news story for print.

-Do not put words in “quotes”; the listeners cannot see them.

-Listen to NPR’s 5 minute Daily Summary.

*We practiced summarizing a story for listeners and will continue to work on broadcast in the next class.

Thursday October 8, 2009

*Reminders

-Exercise 9.9 will NOT count.

-Washington Post assignment will count.

-Next week, we will go over how to cover a forum (Tuesday Oct. 13).

-There is no homework this weekend.

*Our guest speaker was Professor Carolyn Brown. She teaches journalism at American University. She came to the SOC after working as a producer for MSNBC News, Fox News. She also worked as a producer in local news in San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Arizona. Her new career started at CBS News, The Early Show, and other television shows. She is an excellent broadcast writer, and she graciously took the time to look over our work and prepare a class for us!

*Here are some of her notes (also see handouts)

-Producers are the writers for broadcast.

-TV directors have more of a technical job.

-Use conversational writing;write how you would speak.

-Read aloud after writing.

-Always check multiple sources and do research.

-Use clear, short, simple sentences.

-Emphasize the latest news of a continuing story, but give necessary background

information. What is going on TODAY.

-For TV, write for a 10-year-old.

-Keep the lead simple: Who, what, when, where, why is too much for TV writing.

-The most you can fit in is probably two or three “Ws”. Put them all in, but not in

the first sentence.

-Avoid highly technical terms like “police talk” and “PR talk”.

-Example: Instead of vehicle, use car or truck.

-Instead of the location of the vehicle accident, say- The accident happened on

Mass. Ave.

-Be careful when writing crime stories- use the correct terms.

-Do not convict a person before they are actually convicted of a crime. Say

“person of interest.”

-Avoid clichés. Example: Lucky to be alive.”

-Write in all CAPS for spoken text. Usually, sound bites are in lowercase.

-Remember, you are writing to video/pictures.

-Connect the words with the images, or you will lose the viewer.

-Use contractions if you want; this is how we speak.

-Don’t forget the basics-even though it may be a short news story.

-The “How” is sometimes hard to include in video, but include as much as possible.

-You have 1 Pass at making sure the viewer understands the story.

-There is no going back to reread parts as in print journalism.

-Using commas in TV writing is NOT a good idea.

-Commas do not show up well on a teleprompter. Use ellipses instead.

-If you need to use a comma, consider writing two sentences.

-Example: Garlic . . . Onions . . . and Salt.

-Needs to make sense when read aloud.

-Round up big numbers, unless you MUST give the exact numbers.

-$201,300.01à 2-Hundred Thousand Dollars.

- Only write for as long as you have compelling images.

-Example: A School Board Meeting about a budget would be a boring picture. So

get footage of school children instead and tell the story to images of kids.

-Sometimes, print stories and just words cannot capture a story like a video can.

Example: Obama on election night.

Use Active Voice. Do not use Passive Voice. (Subject, Verb, Object)

Tense has nothing to do with voice.

-Never use the word yesterday. If you don’t have another choice, say the day of

the week you are talking about.

- VO-Voice Over. About 20-25 seconds.

-Don’t start with “Last week”à start with current news

-For local news, give the exact location. Ex- 1400 block of Mass. Ave.

-Gray areas need attribution usually.

-Present Continuous Tense. The Subjects are_______ing.

-Be conversational to a certain extent. Do not use slang unless it is in a sound bite.

-Be aware of what video you have and when the story is going to air.

- :00-:10 zero to ten seconds.

* After the notes, Professor Brown went over our Dog broadcasts from 9.9.

-For the correct format, go to Table—Insert—Columns 2—Rows 1—Enter to make bigger.

-Here is what we came up with...

A Frederickson dog is chasing cats again after getting a pacemaker implanted. The 14-year old retriever named Wrangler is recovering today. The owner took Wrangler to the vet last week after he collapsed. Dr. Charles Eulau did the surgery. Wrangler is the first dog in the area to get a pacemaker. The pacemaker came from the local hospital.

Week Six; Kennedy's Eulogy

Greetings, classmates!

Week six looks to be uneventful. Bereft of our Commander in Chief, professor Eisman, we occupied ourselves with an in-class assignment. I think the highlight of the class was when the TA introduced the activity as "Obama's Eulogy," and most of us got scared that Obama had died without us even noticing.

Remember there is no class on Thursday, but be sure to e-mail professor Eisman with activity 9.9 from the syllabus.

Stevia

To Do List

Speaker 2 article due TOMORROW (9/25) by 5:30

Read ch. 9 for Monday

Information about upcoming American Forum

:

AMERICAN FORUM ON OBAMA, MEDIA AND YOUNG PEOPLE, ONE YEAR LATER
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 6:30 TO 8 P.M.,
KATZEN ARTS CENTER


Dear Colleagues:

We have a terrific group of panelists for our Oct. 13th American Forum on Obama, media and young people, one year later. Young people played an important role in voting and organizing for Obama through innovative media in 2008. In this American Forum we'll talk about how 18-to-24-year-olds view Obama and the issues facing the country, from the economy to health care--
and the role of social networking and media in reaching them.

The Forum will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13th, in the Abramson Recital Hall in the Katzen Arts Center, across the street near Ward Circle on Mass Ave.
Please tell your students they need to be there at 6:30 p.m. We will tape the program for WAMU from 7 to 8 p.m. for broadcast later that night,
and the doors will close before then. We have also invited other media coverage, including C-SPAN. This is a great topic and a great showcase for our students--so please
encourage them to attend. Thanks, as always, for your support. .

Student Questions --Also--Please encourage your students to get to the mikes and ask questions--AND to submit questions beforehand.
The email address for that is americanforum@american.edu.

.

Our panelists are:

• David Gregory, journalist and moderator of NBC's Meet the Press
• David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief for Mother Jones magazine and columnist for PoliticsDaily.com
• Jose Antonio Vargas, technology and innovations editor for Huffington Post
• Erin McPike, reporter for Congress Daily
• David Winston, Republican strategist and President of the Winston Group

I Adore...Week Four!

Monday, Sept. 14 – HOW TO WRITE NEWS I

How news content is written
What makes news—news? Well, there are several traditional ‘news values’ that help us know when a story is worth writing about, including:
-Timeliness of the incident. For example, once Oregon State beats Cincinnati this weekend at football (I’m crossing my fingers…), there will be a number of news stories written in the next 24 hours about their glorious victory.
-The impact/consequences. After the Beavers beat the Bearcats by a whopping 40 points, they will be ranked in the top 25 in the country! Not exactly surprising, but still news worthy.
-Prominence of people involved. Jaquizz Rogers, our 5’6’’ running back and former PAC-10 offensive player of the year is a national hero. Inevitably, everyone in the country will be reading about him after he destroys the Bearcats.
-Conflict. The Beaver’s will trounce them. Period. The only news story focusing on ‘conflict’ that could be written would be about the Bearcat’s players fighting over tissues to wipe away their tears.
-Unusual Nature. Professor Eisman gave the example that a ‘dog biting a man isn’t news, but a man biting a dog-NOW THAT’S NEWS!’
-Proximity of Readers. The Corvallis Gazette Times will cover different aspects of the game in at least three or four articles, whereas the Ney York Times might only cover the game in two.
-Interest or Novelty. These could include public service announcements about floods, storm warnings, etc.
In other words…News stories are written for: relevance, usefulness, and interest

Structures of News Stories
I: The News: Who?/What?/Where?/When?/Why?/How?
II: The secondary news; important details that were not included in the lead.
III: More information and evidence about the story
IV: Either quotes or context about the story
VI: Conclusion

Exercise on leads, collect Lincoln homework
Writers should develop an attractive lead. A lead could be: a summary, one side of a debate (followed by the other side of the debate later in the story), or an expert’s view of what happened.
The class proceeded to do an exercise on leads, and Professor Eisman collected our Lincoln homework.


Thursday Sept. 17 – HOW TO WRITE NEWS II

Grammar/News Quiz
We started class with a grammar/news Quiz. From now on, we should expect random news quizzes! To study, know all of the main, headline stories out of the on the Washington Post and CNN. A great way to stay caught up on the news is to set Google News as your homepage. It isn’t biased (like the Huffington Post, Politico, or the Drudge Report), and it presents links to several different articles.

Lessons learned from the Lincoln Assignment:
Then, Professor Eisman returned the Lincoln assignment. The students reviewed their scores, and asked Professor Eisman a number of questions. The lessons learned from the assignment were:
-When starting a new quote, it can be used within a pre-existing paragraph.
-say: 4 million, instead of four million. When describing a number in the millions, use the #. It is one of those weird grammar rules we have all come to love so much
- Attribute statistics-ALL THE TIME! Never trust a statistic without a source, and expect your audience to think the same way.
-Try to break up long quotes and insert a ‘said so-and-so,’ at natural breaks so it is easier to read. For example: “As soon as I looked up,” said Bearcat’s quarterback Tony Pike, “I was immediately smashed to the ground by the Beaver defenders.”

Quote Notes:
-Paraphrase long quotes.
-Use correct punctuation inside of quotation marks.
-Do no convict a criminal before his trial. (Unless he is OJ Simpson…)
-Follow AP Style (duh!)
-Do not back into a sentence with a prepositional phrase. Sadly, I do this all the time. Prepositions are used to indicate location. Examples are: with, on, in, at, etc. Writing a sentence like: “At the twenty yard line, he dropped the football” is worse than re-arranging it and writing it like this: “He dropped the football at the twenty yard line.” The second example is more active and direct, and therefore superior. You want active, direct sentences in news stories, so avoid beginning sentences with prepositional phrases.

Homework for next week: Read the three articles that Professor Eisman sent us via email to prepare for the guest speaker.

And that, my friends, is the week review. See you guys Monday!

I Adore...Week Four! the week in review

Monday, Sept. 14 – HOW TO WRITE NEWS I

How news content is written

What makes news—news? Well, there are several traditional ‘news values’ that help us know when a story is worth writing about, including:

-Timeliness of the incident. For example, once Oregon State beats Cincinnati this weekend at football (I’m crossing my fingers…), there will be a number of news stories written in the next 24 hours about their glorious victory.

-The impact/consequences. After the Beavers beat the Bearcats by a whopping 40 points, they will be ranked in the top 25 in the country! Not exactly surprising, but still news worthy.

-Prominence of people involved. Jaquizz Rogers, our 5’6’’ running back and former PAC-10 offensive player of the year is a national hero. Inevitably, everyone in the country will be reading about him after he destroys the Bearcats.

-Conflict. The Beaver’s will trounce them. Period. The only news story focusing on ‘conflict’ that could be written would be about the Bearcat’s players fighting over tissues to wipe away their tears.

-Unusual Nature. Professor Eisman gave the example that a ‘dog biting a man isn’t news, but a man biting a dog-NOW THAT’S NEWS!’

-Proximity of Readers. The Corvallis Gazette Times will cover different aspects of the game in at least three or four articles, whereas the Ney York Times might only cover the game in two.

-Interest or Novelty. These could include public service announcements about floods, storm warnings, etc.

In other words…News stories are written for: relevance, usefulness, and interest

Structures of News Stories

I: The News: Who?/What?/Where?/When?/Why?/How?

II: The secondary news; important details that were not included in the lead.

III: More information and evidence about the story

IV: Either quotes or context about the story

VI: Conclusion

Exercise on leads, collect Lincoln homework

Writers should develop an attractive lead. A lead could be: a summary, one side of a debate (followed by the other side of the debate later in the story), or an expert’s view of what happened.

The class proceeded to do an exercise on leads, and Professor Eisman collected our Lincoln homework.

Thursday Sept. 17 – HOW TO WRITE NEWS II

Grammar/News Quiz

We started class with a grammar/news Quiz. From now on, we should expect random news quizzes! To study, know all of the main, headline stories out of the on the Washington Post and CNN. A great way to stay caught up on the news is to set Google News as your homepage. It isn’t biased (like the Huffington Post, Politico, or the Drudge Report), and it presents links to several different articles.

Lessons learned from the Lincoln Assignment:

Then, Professor Eisman returned the Lincoln assignment. The students reviewed their scores, and asked Professor Eisman a number of questions. The lessons learned from the assignment were:

-When starting a new quote, it can be used within a pre-existing paragraph.

-say: 4 million, instead of four million. When describing a number in the millions, use the #. It is one of those weird grammar rules we have all come to love so much

- Attribute statistics-ALL THE TIME! Never trust a statistic without a source, and expect your audience to think the same way.

-Try to break up long quotes and insert a ‘said so-and-so,’ at natural breaks so it is easier to read. For example: “As soon as I looked up,” said Bearcat’s quarterback Tony Pike, “I was immediately smashed to the ground by the Beaver defenders.”

Quote Notes:

-Paraphrase long quotes.

-Use correct punctuation inside of quotation marks.

-Do no convict a criminal before his trial. (Unless he is OJ Simpson…)

-Follow AP Style (duh!)

-Do not back into a sentence with a prepositional phrase. Sadly, I do this all the time. Prepositions are used to indicate location. Examples are: with, on, in, at, etc. Writing a sentence like: “At the twenty yard line, he dropped the football” is worse than re-arranging it and writing it like this: “He dropped the football at the twenty yard line.” The second example is more active and direct, and therefore superior. You want active, direct sentences in news stories, so avoid beginning sentences with prepositional phrases.

Homework for next week: Read the three articles that Professor Eisman sent us via email to prepare for the guest speaker.

And that, my friends, is the week review. See you guys Monday!

Twitter and "off-the-record"

I thought I'd just start a quick discussion.

In a recent pre-interview with CNBC, the president called Kanye West as a "jackass" for his recent antics at the Video Music Awards.

ABC's Terry Moran, who was watching at the time, twittered that the President called Kanye a jackass. ABC later apologized for the reporter publicizing comments that were "off the record".

What do people think?



For further reading:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2009/09/jackass-gate_what_obama_actual.html

ABC's apology:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0909/ABCs_Moran_tweeted_OTR_Obama_swipe_at_Kanye.html?showall

Here's the TMZ audio:

http://www.tmz.com/2009/09/15/obama-calls-kanye-a-jackass/

Writing would be rewarding if it wasn't all carets and sticks.

Week #3, Sept. 10, 2009.

Class focused on how to get a story started quickly, how to end it punctually, and how to write it in AP style. There were four discussions this week:

1. Feedback on the High School interview
2. AP Basics Handout
3. Discussion and Submitted Romeo and Juliet Assignment
4. Emancipation Proclamation Story Assigned

1. Feedback on High School interview
Professor Eisman peppered the High School assignment with comments and returned the papers to students. As she handed out the pages, she made some suggestions for the class. I am going to extend some of her comments a little bit.

It is easier to create attention-grabbing writing from an interesting interview than from a bland interview. The stories she recalled were of experiences of white exclusivity, church school and Guam. I, who struggled to find an exciting anecdote with my subject, had never considered doing another interview to find something fresh. Better ingredients, better pizza.

In the news business, a writer has to get into the point. It's not an essay-- where an author can take a paragraph to set up some context. In news, the context is right now. The world that readers are living in. Readers are interested in what is happening. In week 2, we looked at some effective leads and learned a formula: (who) did (what), according to (who). A story should start like lighter fluid-- fast and with danger and a flash of light.

Don't end with an opinion. After a long struggle to write down only hard-news fact, it seems tempting to end it with a penetrating conclusion that cuts through to the gut truth. Sometimes it's a wonderful insight, but more often it just looks like the writer's judging the situation. That brings the reader's focus onto the author.

Always read the writing aloud. This is a key to editing. Sometimes, when you write quickly, you make mistakes that need to be caught. Reading aloud helps prevent jargon, unclear language, unintentional alliteration and subject/verb agreement errors. Read my lips... aloud.

Don't assume. If you're wrong, you misinform the public, hurt your credibility and make your source think you didn't listen. In the real world, you should call your source back and ask another couple questions. The only assumption you should make is that people with intimate knowledge of the event will be reading the story. And they will know... Assumptions aren't careless, they're criminal.

Use quotes sparingly. Good quotes are like chocolate chips; a few sprinkled into cookies makes them delicious, but you wouldn't want to bake an entire bar of chocolate. By using a different recipe, you can make delicious cookies that don't use chocolate chips.

2. AP Style Handout

In class, we got a big piece of paper with some pointers about AP style. This is a good resource for the upcoming style quizzes.

My top five lessons:
1. Internet is capitalized. So is the Web and CD-ROM, but not online, cyberspace or email.
2. Some descriptive job titles are not capitalized. ex. assistant coach, astronaut.
3. Write out percent. ex. Half of something is 50 percent.
4. Do not use parenthesis to set off a political party. ex. Rep. Joe Willson, R-S.C., shouted at the President of the United States. (not Joe Wilson (R-SC), like on TV).
5. Heroin was once a trademark. ???

3. Lessons from Romeo and Juliet leads
Professor Eisman led the class on a discussion of what should go in the lead of the story. It seems like there is a simple formula:

discovered dead bodies > grieving families
and
grieving families > yesterday's dead bodies

I wonder if professional newsrooms have a hierarchy like this for determining the layout of stories. Certainly writers organize within stories by the inverted pyramid method. Do editors know how many dead civilians is equal to a dead B-list celebrity? Does someone actually keep an A-list and a B-list? Who? How do you measure celebrity (outside of the ability to make news)? Do news editors make celebrities by giving them prominent coverage?

It seems like the key to a news item is to deliver the five W's as quickly as possible in the story. That means leads should try to hit two or three categories in the first sentence.


4. Abraham Lincoln

The entire class had a lively discussion about what the lead for a news story about Abraham Lincoln should be. This was really a discussion about what were the important facts in the story. Some people thought the "4 million slaves" the most important part of the story. Others made the case that "only in rebel/seceded states" should be in the first sentence.

Earlier I wrote "in news, the context is right now." I think its interesting that we were having so much difficulty deciding which word to use, or how portray the announcement. We trying to put the news together, without any real sense of the context. The news lead would be what an average Sept. 22, 1862 American didn't know on Sept. 21. The Honors students in the multi-media center had different ideas of what that was. I think that made it a lot harder.