Final grades: a blog with six stories

Dear Writers:

As the syllabus describes, as I have been saying all semester, the main requirement for this class besides keeping up with current events and doing well on the Tuesday quizzes, is creating a blog with six stories on it.

So far I have received links to seven blogs (listed on the right column for Spring 2018. So only six to go. I will nag you for this all week.

DEADLINE

Your blogs are due on the day of the final: Tuesday, May 8 at midnight. I will start grading the next morning.

What am I looking for in the stories.

A good headline that reflects action and reaction

If you have trouble doing this, study  the headlines of stories on your phone.

The Three-Paragraph Opening

A strong lead  paragraph that includes action and reaction.

A second paragraph that gives necessary background. This paragraph is called the bridge, and may identify the speaker of the quotation in the third paragraph.

The third paragraph is a quotation that expresses the emotion or opinion or both of the speaker. Punctuate the quotation properly. Attribute the quotation properly. If you are drawing a blank on this, search this blog and find past instructional posts.

A Blog with a Theme

If you don’t have many stories, find a theme for your blog and give it a snappy title. If you are a football fanatic, you could title it The Yardline or the like. Make it about a topic you are passionate about. Or at least interested in. This blog should be good enough that you would show it to a prospective employer. Employers expect you to have something online.

Post stories that summarize and quote stories about your theme and explain what certain stories and/or writers are important. Use the block-quote feature of the blog, and link to the story you are quoting.

If you don’t get what I mean about a specialized blog, look at The Marshall Project. 

(Notice the way I am linking. This is the way you should link in your blog.

Some Basic Advice: READ YOUR STORY ALOUD. 

I can’t make this advice big enough or loud enough. If you read the story aloud you will discover mistakes with your ears that your eyes won’t detect. Even better, read it aloud to a friend. This is not cheating. This is editing. Do the same thing for your friend. If you are going to write in a hurry, at least slow down during the revision. Take time to edit and re-write. There isn’t any other way to do this. Revise and re-write.

The famous slogan is: “Writing is re-writing.”

Some further advice

Check the spelling of your post or article. WordPress has a spell-checking feature. Word has spell checking and grammar checking. At the very least use these. 

But neither Word nor WordPress will catch the following punctuation errors in a quotation: “For example”, he said, “the spell checker on WordPress won’t spot the error in putting the comma outside the quotation marks”. You have to develop eyes for punctuation  or purchase a better program, such as Grammarly.

Do you think punctuation doesn’t matter? It does. Employers notice it. If you are careless with periods and commas, they might conclude that you are careless many other details, such as the difference between $1,000 and $1.00.

Follow AP style. So you have forgotten it? Search and find a brief guide as I just did. Or you could download a AP Style software for $55 a month.

Remember, style is arbitrary. Some publications (most magazines for example) follow the Chicago Manual of Style.  The Associated Press (AP), for example, abbreviates months, such as Sept. for September. Chicago doesn’t. Chicago has a different policy on numbers, too. Many corporations have an internal style. For example, MD Anderson Cancer Center has no periods after MD, the initials of the man who left his fortune to the Texas Medical Center. This is why careful writers also check the corporate name for spelling and punctuation. And because it is so easy to check on the Internet, a writer looks careless for not doing so.

 

Burying the lead: an example

Let’s review this on Tuesday. What does burying the lead mean? How do you revise the story? What should the headline be? Hint: think of action and reaction.

The story:

Jack Johnson was in court yesterday on charges of DUI and assaulting a police officer.

Jack was arrested on June 5 when he was pulled over on State Street. Police Officer Fred Smith testified in court that Jack’s Ford SUV was weaving and that he pulled him over at about 1 in the morning.

Officer Smith testified that when he approached Jack’s vehicle, Jack stumbled out of the vehicle and hit him in the face. Officer Smith quickly handcuffed and arrested Jack. A blood alcohol test later showed that Jack had a blood alcohol content of .15.

“He was clearly drunk,” Officer Smith testified in court. “He was slurring his words and had trouble even standing up.”

Officer Smith suffered minor facial injuries in the incident.

Jack was charged with assault, resisting arrest and DUI. His attorney, George Wolinski, told the court that Jack’s wife had recently divorced him and that he had been depressed.

The jury in state superior court in Centerville deliberated for two hours before finding Jack guilty on all counts. Judge Mike Mencher sentenced Jack to 2-4 years in state prison.

Channel 11: PAID Summer internships

KHOU 11 is offering paid internships for this summer. Please share the links with your students and encourage them to apply as soon as possible. If you have any standout students, feel free to send me their resumes directly so that I can forward it to the appropriate department. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks! Alexandria Williams    Community Marketing and Public Relations Specialist 11750 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77079

Alexandria Williams Linkedin

KHOU 11 Internship Links:

https://www.jobs.net/jobs/tegna/en-us/job/United-States/Marketing-Internship/J3R7D777F9ZLN616GRW/

https://www.jobs.net/jobs/tegna/en-us/job/United-States/Summer-News-Internship-Paid/J3N7R76JMRCXTH6S622/

 

Final Grades

Journalism 332, Advanced Reporting is a “capstone” course. You must put six stories on a blog. The blog could have a theme. The blog should be something you are willing to show a possible employer. It should be well written, correctly punctuated and spelled, follow AP Style.

Turn in the link immediately at Michael.Berryhill@tsu.edu

Submit the stories by the end of Tuesday, May 8 at midnight. I will start reading Wednesday, May 9. I will bug you if it’s not there.

Additional bit of quizzing. I will give you another “Burying the Lead Quiz” on Tuesday, May 1. Do you remember that one?

Gentrification in Third Ward

Gentrification In The Third Ward

Something you could write about

Writing opportunity

Hi,

I am involved in a project named The Artifice which is an online magazine that covers a wide spectrum of art forms, including Film, Anime, Comics, Literature, Games, and Arts. It is collaboratively built and maintained by the writers. The platform has an established audience of millions.

We are currently expanding and we would like to provide an opportunity for your students and faculty to join our team of writers.

Our current writers range from undergraduates, to graduates, to professors, and a bit of everyone in between.

If this is something of interest, can you please let me know and I will send across more information about the project and how to join.

Or alternatively, it would be helpful if you could kindly forward this message to the relevant staff in your department.

I very much look forward to your response.

Kind regards,
Alyson

The Artifice:
the-artifice.com

Communication week: a missed opportunity

Dear Writers:

Communication week offered a banquet of possible interviews, stories and career opportunities, but I saw very little of the students of JOUR 332. On Thursday, the day I spoke about the late Bob Lee and his stories, not a soul showed up, and this was the normal class meeting time.

Wednesday was journalism day and I saw maybe two people from JOUR 332. What a missed opportunity. We had the managing editor of the Houston Chronicle. We had Melina Spaulding, vice president of development at TSU and a former Fox 26 anchor. She said something about success in the news business  that struck with me: lukewarm doesn’t work in the news business. Actually, lukewarm doesn’t work in any business. Do you know anybody who is a lukewarm and successful in music, or sports, or public relations?

So we’re down to the wire. You still need a blog with six stories on it. Send me your blog link.

Now look at your stories. Have you edited them and re-read them? Have you read them out-loud to see if they make sense when you read them? Have you showed your stories to a friend for review? A new set of eyes finds errors and problems that writers overlook.

Or did you just sling your stories on the blog or the computer? Or are you saying I’ll just throw some stories together at the last minute? Are you scared of writing? You know what you’re doing. You know how much passion you bring.

Did you see any of the Tweets I posted at #TSUCommWeek? Did you know it existed? Was Comm Week just a good reason to stay away from TSU? Or maybe you came to the meetings, took notes and photographs, wrote Tweets and stories, shook hands with people who might be of help to you in the future?

Or were you not just lukewarm? Maybe you were just absent.

Your friend and teacher who wants you to succeed,

Michael Berryhill

$1000 Scholarship: Apply by April 30

The Houston Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists invites journalism students in the State of Texas to apply for a $1,000 scholarship to be applied against education expenses for the school term beginning fall 2018.

More information is below. An application form is attached, along with the application score sheet, which may be helpful for students in preparing their applications.

The application form can also be downloaded at http://www.spjhoustonscholar.org.

Eligibility

To be eligible, applicants must be pursuing a four-year degree in journalism, communications, digital media or a related field; be classified as a sophomore, junior or senior enrolled in a relevant degree program at an accredited four-year educational institution in Texas; and be from the nine-county Houston metropolitan area (permanent residency, high school graduate or family home).

The nine counties are Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston, Liberty, Wharton, Chambers and Austin, with the object being to award the scholarship to a student originally from the greater Houston metropolitan area.

Application

 Applications should be postmarked no later than April 30, 2018, and should be mailed to:

HOUSTON SPJ SCHOLARSHIP
PO BOX 131402
HOUSTON TX 77219-1402

Scholarship Award

The scholarship will be awarded prior to the beginning of the fall 2018 semester.

More Information

We will be happy to answer questions from applicants or faculty advisers. Please submit questions by email to info@spjhoustonscholar.org or call us at 281-468-3276.

Regards,

Tom Marsh, Scholarship Committee Chairman

Student Journalist Fellowship Program

Dear Journalists:

I just received this. It’s late notice, and I don’t fully understand the details, but check it out. Maybe this is for you.

MB

The March on Washington Film Festival’s Student Journalists Fellowship Program provides an opportunity for five student journalists to learn the essential role that reporters have in shaping and preserving Civil Rights in a Democracy, while giving them a chance to step into that role themselves. This is a professional development program that offers in-depth training for students interested in carrying the mantle of social justice reporting. In addition, the students receive mentorship, expert insight from leaders in the field, and a plethora of resources to develop long-form social justice reporting projects that identify and dissect the Civil Rights challenges of their generation. At the end of the program, students have the opportunity to pitch their final projects directly to festival media partners and outlets.

The program begins April 23 and ends after the conclusion of the July festival (July 12-20).

Participating fellows:

• Receive a $500 stipend
• Attend monthly reporting workshops and seminars facilitated by experts in the field
• Engage in virtual Coffee & Conversation sessions with media professionals via video group chat
• Engage in mentorship sessions with program coordinator and former New York Times journalist
• Access resources to work on long-form social justice pieces
• Pitch their stories to festival media partners
• Tour newsrooms
• Media access to certain festival events
• Throughout the course of the program, maintain a “reporter’s notebook” style blog on www.marchonwashingtonfilmfestival.org about their fellowship experiences, and find creative ways to document them via social media.

Home www.marchonwashingtonfilmfestival.org