COM 2610-101
Spring 2008
Review Examination -KEY
I. Lead Writing
A. Write one-sentence, hard-news summary lead for the items below. Choose the most
important of the 5W’s and H but don’t clutter the lead with these elements.
1.
Murders in North Carolina increased 57 percent and violent crime increased 5 percent, but the
number of rapes and robberies decreased, according to a report issued by the State Bureau of
Investigation.
2.
FAYETTEVILLE - The body armor worn by a State Highway Patrol trooper shot during an
Interstate 95 traffic stop protected him from the gunman's bullets, a patrol spokesman said.
B. Delayed-identification Leads. Write delayed-identification lead (both paragraphs)
for the items below, as directed.
3.
A Pioneer City (location) man in critical condition at Walker County Medical Center after being
diagnosed with Legionnaires disease. (1st paragraph - delayed identification)
Officials suspect that Darius Nicholas, 69, contracted the disease at the Walker County High
School reunion. (2nd paragraph - Identification paragraph)
C. Impact Leads. Write an impact lead for the item below. (You have more information
given than you’ll need for the lead, but just write the lead.)
4.
Residents who have gravel driveways will be forced to park in the street if an ordinance
outlawing the parking of vehicles in front yards and unpaved side yards is adopted by city council.
D. Soft Leads. Write a soft lead – including the nut graph – for the item below, as
directed.
5. Write a descriptive lead for a story about apartments that violate town codes but
that are often rented to students anyway.
As you climb the stairs to the Boyer neighborhood apartment, you hold onto a banister kept in
place by duct tape. Inside, the kitchen is infested with mice and roaches. And the bathroom has no electricity,
making nighttime trips an adventure.
“It’s a dump,” said Erick Alexander, a senior majoring in architecture. “But it was the cheapest
thing I could find.”
Alexander’s experience is similar to those of many other students in the Boyer neighborhood,
where apartments that violate town codes are often rented to students anyway. (Nut graph)
II. Story Structures.
A. Inverted Pyramid. Using the inverted pyramid structure, write a news story of up to 250
words, using all the information given below. After you’ve finished the story, write a
headline at the top. Put the word count under the headline. Pay attention to matters of
style. Type and center -30- at the end of your article.
Two workers crushed to death by sheet of steel in Manteo
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 16, 2008
Two men working on the town's sewer and wastewater project on Bowsertown Road
were crushed to death Tuesday when a large piece of steel fell on them.
The workers, Tim Bissette of Pikeville, N.C., and Renee Perez of Seven Springs, N.C.,
were employed by Goldsboro contractor T.A. Loving Co., said Town Manager Kermit Skinner.
Their ages were not available.
Manteo Police Chief Vance Haskett said the 8-foot-by-20-foot-by-1-inch sheet of steel
was being lifted in the air when the wind caught it. The steel twisted on the chain, forcing the
chain to snap. Skinner said the men were standing on the bank of a ditch where sewer pipes
were being laid when the sheet fell.
"It landed flat on them," he said. "It covered them completely."
The sheet weighed 3 tons, Skinner said, and the men died instantly.
No other workers were injured, Haskett said. Another man at the scene escaped the
steel by running in the other direction.
The $800,000 sewer and wastewater lift station replacement project began Dec. 15
and was scheduled to be completed April 1.
"I don't know what this will do to this schedule," Skinner said. "I certainly don't want
anybody back on the job site until we determine it's safe."
Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have been contacted
to investigate, Skinner said.
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COM 2610-103 Review Exam, Spring 2008
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