Thursday, March 1, 2012
Cigarettes in bad are bad
I promised a link to the Tennessee Williams poem, "Life Story" that reinforces the point we discussed on refining news ledes this morning.
Your rough draft
To all, this is an old post from a few years ago explaining what I mean by first draft. I think it should help you zero in on what I'm looking for next Thursday, Rob.
I promised a little more explanation on the drafting method we will use for your stories. We may at times use the phrase 'rough draft' interchangeably with first draft, but I don't what you to get the idea that the draft you turn in will be nothing more than a bunch of hastily assembled notes. The first draft of a basic news story from a professional journalist will really need only minor tweaking in the editing process before it is ready for publication.
None of you are professional journalists, yet. So I suspect your first drafts will require significant rewriting in the drafting process. Try not to get too discouraged when that first draft comes back covered in chicken scratches from your's truly. That's how I teach and you learn. Someday maybe some of you will be editors or journalism profs and you'll get to inflict the same torture on others. It's a circle of life kind of thing.
Back to what I'm expecting next Thursday. Your first draft should include all the components of the news story as I outlined earlier in the semester. Remember, they are:
Headline
Lede
Backup for lede (should contain lede quote)
Impact
Background
Elaboration
Ending
You should have your three sources. At least two quotes, preferably from different sources.
Even if you have all these things, I may ask you to revise, rewrite or even reinterview. That's the nature of this process, and that's the nature of being a cub reporter.
So the bad news is that I'm going to ask you to rework these stories multiple times. That can be a maddening process. But the good news is that with just five of you in the class we'll have plenty of time to make sure each of you gets it, that all of you can succeed in learning the basics of writing a news story.
Another advantage of the drafting method is there really isn't a final deadline for your stories (well, there is the end of the semester). You will be able to revise and rewrite until the story is ready to be graded. If that takes a week, great. If it takes until May to get it right, that's what we will do.
Oh yeah, I'm looking for stories 400 to 500 words in length. But that will vary depending on the story. Longer does not necessarily mean better.
I promised a little more explanation on the drafting method we will use for your stories. We may at times use the phrase 'rough draft' interchangeably with first draft, but I don't what you to get the idea that the draft you turn in will be nothing more than a bunch of hastily assembled notes. The first draft of a basic news story from a professional journalist will really need only minor tweaking in the editing process before it is ready for publication.
None of you are professional journalists, yet. So I suspect your first drafts will require significant rewriting in the drafting process. Try not to get too discouraged when that first draft comes back covered in chicken scratches from your's truly. That's how I teach and you learn. Someday maybe some of you will be editors or journalism profs and you'll get to inflict the same torture on others. It's a circle of life kind of thing.
Back to what I'm expecting next Thursday. Your first draft should include all the components of the news story as I outlined earlier in the semester. Remember, they are:
Headline
Lede
Backup for lede (should contain lede quote)
Impact
Background
Elaboration
Ending
You should have your three sources. At least two quotes, preferably from different sources.
Even if you have all these things, I may ask you to revise, rewrite or even reinterview. That's the nature of this process, and that's the nature of being a cub reporter.
So the bad news is that I'm going to ask you to rework these stories multiple times. That can be a maddening process. But the good news is that with just five of you in the class we'll have plenty of time to make sure each of you gets it, that all of you can succeed in learning the basics of writing a news story.
Another advantage of the drafting method is there really isn't a final deadline for your stories (well, there is the end of the semester). You will be able to revise and rewrite until the story is ready to be graded. If that takes a week, great. If it takes until May to get it right, that's what we will do.
Oh yeah, I'm looking for stories 400 to 500 words in length. But that will vary depending on the story. Longer does not necessarily mean better.
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