WRITING THE STORY
KEY CONCEPTS
 Grabbing the reader’s attention
 Creating flow in the story
 Organization styles
 What to avoid
 Copyediting and how it will save your rear.
GRABBING THE READER’S ATTENTION
 Headline
 Succinct, no more than six words
 Word choice critical
 Telegraphic
 Extra words omitted
 Local High School Wins a High State Rating in Academics
 School Wins High State Rating
 Verb Tense
 Present tense to show immediacy: Tigers Defeat Tech 7-0
 Historic stories can be past tense: Volcano Erupted 50 Years Ago Today
 Future events written with infinitives: 360 Seniors to Graduate Sunday
GRABBING THE READER’S ATTENTION
 Leads
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The “HOOK” of the story
Concise and well-written
Important facts should appear in the first sentence
AP Lead
 Summarize main facts
 Lack creativity
 Inverted Pyramid Lead
 The topic of the story is written as the lead
 Quote/Question leads
 Offer little relevant information
 Should be avoided
CREATING FLOW IN THE STORY
 Transitions
 Avoid ordinals (first, second, third; next, last, then, in addition)
 Repeat key words in paragraphs to show continuity of topic.
Mayor Sid Goldberg today signed over 40 acres of
the Pine Ridge Forest Reserve for the grounds of the
new Galileo Observatory.
The observatory, built with federal funds will
provide astronomy research facilities for three area
universities.
CREATING FLOW IN THE STORY
 Transitions
 Avoid ordinals (first, second, third; next, last, then, in addition)
 Repeat key words in paragraphs to show continuity of topic.
 Explaining relations in time.
The battle eventually led to the
establishment of the Interstate Commerce
Commission for the regulation of rates.
But that was later. A discussion of Populist
Revolt, a fascinating chapter in the state’s
history, now seems in order.
CREATING FLOW IN THE STORY
 Transitions




Avoid ordinals (first, second, third; next, last, then, in addition)
Repeat key words in paragraphs to show continuity of topic.
Explaining relations in time.
Mentioning the previous topic and the upcoming topic in the same, compound
sentence.
While many people blame the state's education
crisis on a faltering government, focused on
financial gain, another factor that could be
influential is the decreasing amount of parental
support students have in today’s dual-income
society.
CREATING FLOW IN THE STORY
 Transitions




Avoid ordinals (first, second, third; next, last, then, in addition)
Repeat key words in paragraphs to show continuity of topic.
Explaining relations in time.
Mentioning the previous topic and the upcoming topic in the same, compound
sentence.
ORGANIZATION STYLES
 Inverted-Pyramid Style
 Lead with Major idea of story
 Progress to details that become less important to the story.
 Story-telling Style
 Chronological
 Narrative in style
 Hybrid
 Uses Summary lead with chronological story body
WHAT TO AVOID
 Offensive Language
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Vulgar language
Racist terms
Sexist comments
Disability bias
Inappropriate remarks on age
 Verbose writing
 Be succinct and to the point
 Eliminate unnecessary words
 Simple Words
 Not everyone knows that assuage means to ease
 Be creative with common words
WHAT TO AVOID
 Redundancy
 2 a.m. in the morning- ‘a.m.’ and ‘in the morning’ mean the same thing.
 Spherical in shape- spherical, by definition means ‘round in shape’
 Clichés
 Trite, overused expressions
 ‘free as a bird’ ‘since the dawn of time’
 Fear of repetition
 It’s okay to repeat a word.
 Don’t use confusing synonyms
 Passive Voice
 State WHO did WHAT no What was done by whom.
 If you can put “BY ZOMBIES” after the verb and it’s grammatically correct, it’s passive voice.
COPYEDITING AND HOW IT WILL SAVE
YOUR REAR.
 When proofreading your own work, your brain will autocorrect it to what it meant
in the first place. Having someone else look at your work will make mistakes stand
out so you can fix them.
 Accuracy
 Spelling
 Grammar
 Facts
 Editing
 Conform to newspaper style
 Logical flow
 Attribution
 Validity of sources
 Crediting sources
THE ASSIGNMENT
 Please take out your 10-15 questions from yesterday.
 Conduct your interviews over the weekend or Monday before class.
 Take photos ASAP.
 Once your interviews are complete, begin writing your story using the notes from
today.
 Turn in these notes now.