Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence Part 23

13. Try writing a story by simply elaborating and explaining the details mentioned in the lead of the story. Determine what facts must be added.

14. See if any story can stand the loss of its last paragraph.

Determine how many paragraphs it can lose without sacrificing its interest.

15. In writing the body of a fire story, list the facts that are to be told, in their logical order; thus: origin, discovery, spread, death of firemen, escapes, injuries, rescues, explosion, extinguishing of fire. Number them in the order of their importance. Try to build a story out of these by following the logical order and at the same time crowding the most interesting facts to the beginning.

16. Practice getting the facts of a story by means of interviews.

The instructor may have the students determine what persons they wish to interview for the facts and the instructor may impersonate these persons in turn. The cla.s.s may then write the story from the facts gained in this way without reference to the interviews. This is for selecting and arranging facts in their logical order.

17. Practice the use of dialogue in stories. Judge its effectiveness and show that in most cases it is well to avoid dialogue.

18. Practice rewriting long stories into short press dispatches of 150 words or less, considering the different news value.

EXERCISES FOR THE EIGHTH CHAPTER

1. Collect clippings of other kinds of news stories.

2. In writing these other stories use the fire story as a model; the facts may be presented as they were in the fire story.

3. Study the possible features in accident stories; write accident stories with various features; make lists of dead and injured.

4. Study and write robbery stories with various features; distinguish between the various names applied to robbery and to the people who rob.

5. Study and write murder and suicide stories with various features, striving in each case to give the facts without shocking the reader. Show how the featureless murder or suicide story is very much like a featureless fire story.

6. Study and write riot, storm, flood, and other big stories.

7. In the study of police court news have the cla.s.s go to the local police courts and report actual cases.

8. Send the students to report meetings. Report conferences, decisions, etc. Insist that the story begin with the gist of the report in each case and never with explanations.

9. Write stories on bulletins, catalogues, city directories, etc.

Study them with reference to their timeliness and try to discover what in them has the most news value. Require the student to begin with this element of news value and to give the source (the name and date of the bulletin, etc.) in the lead.

10. Look over the daily papers and pick out news stories which bury the gist of their news and have the students rewrite the leads to play up the real news or to give greater emphasis to buried features.

EXERCISES FOR THE NINTH CHAPTER

1. Collect good examples of the follow-up and the rewrite story; follow one important story through several days' editions to see how it is rewritten day by day. Examine an afternoon paper's version of a story covered in a morning paper.

2. Take any news story and work out the follow-up possibilities; imagine what the next step in the story will be.

3. On this basis, write follow-up stories and rewrite stories.

4. Write a follow-up story which, while beginning with a new feature, retells the original story.

5. Study and write follow-up stories involving fires, accidents, robberies, murders, suicides, storms (present condition), etc.

EXERCISES FOR THE TENTH CHAPTER

1. Collect good examples of speech reports.

2. Take notes on oral speeches and write reports of varying lengths. Practice taking notes in the proper way and write the report at once--perhaps as an impromptu in cla.s.s. The instructor may send his students to public lectures or read representative speeches to them in cla.s.s.

3. Write reports of speeches from printed copies of the speech; that is, edit them in condensed form.

4. Take one lead and experiment with different beginnings, playing up the same idea in each case.

5. Discuss speeches to determine the newsiest and timeliest thing in the speech--the statement to be played up in the lead.

6. In the body of the report try to use as much direct quotation as possible, use complete sentence quotations, do not mix quotation and summary in the same paragraph or sentence. Study the rules regarding the use of quotation marks.

7. Have the students write running reports of speeches--that is, have them write their report as they listen to the speech and submit their report in this form. Naturally the lead must be written later.

EXERCISES FOR THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER

1. Collect representative interview stories.

2. Have students interview various people without the aid of a note book; have them bring back quoted statements by the use of their memory. Have them interview some one who will criticize their manner and method.

3. Have a definite reason or timeliness for every interview--have the student map out a definite campaign beforehand. Try writing out the questions beforehand in shape to fill in the answers.

4. Write interview stories from the results of these attempts.

5. Begin the same interview story in various ways.

6. Write an interview story in which the feature is a denial or a refusal to speak; tell what should have been said and what the denial or refusal signifies.

7. Study the form of the body of the report (see Speech Reports).

8. Write stories which are the result of several interviews on the same subject; arrange them informally and formally.

EXERCISES FOR THE TWELFTH CHAPTER

1. Collect examples of good court reports.

2. Attend and report actual cases in the local courts (preferably civil courts).

3. Determine what is the most interesting thing in each.

4. From this, write court reports--reports of the cases which the students have heard.

5. Experiment with the various beginnings for the same report.