Week 4: CyberHounds

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Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia speaks @ USU
4—This Week in NewsHounds Online

(Sept. 13-19, 2009)

This week, your readings in Harrower and about leads, quotations and nut grafs get deeper into the nuts&bolts of creating news stories. The short item—a handout, really—on “Leads, Quotes & Nut Grafs . . . Oh My!” reinforces some of your other readings, and we’ll revisit the complexities of quotes and nut grafs further. In Harrower, please note “How much editing do you need?” (p. 53)—do it and check your answers on p. 292. We will have real quizzes like this, and these kinds of errors will cost you later if they appear in your stories. Please also pay particular attention to Harrower’s AP style tips on pp. 54-55, his useful “Deadline Checklist” (p. 57), and his excellent “boring-but-important” newswriting tips (pp. 58-59).

You also will do your first basic lead-writing exercise, emailed to you via BB early in the week and due Friday.

Read . . . . . . . . . . . .

• Today’s WORD on Journalism

• Harrower, Ch. 3: “Newswriting Basics” This is probably the single most important chapter in the text, because it contains the mosst essential elements of newswriting. Some you already know about—the WWWWW&H, for example. But this chapter expands on that with real-world examples aand explanations. Read this chapter closely. And then read it again.
• Associated Press Stylebook, E-G
• The Inverted Pyramid
• Leads, Quotes & Nut Grafs, Oh My!

• Newspapers/TV/Online news (every day)

Exercises . . . . . . . . .

• Go here for the first set of newswriting exercises. These will be due to Dr. Ted by Friday 9 a.m. via BB email. Save your stories to a Word .doc. Open the BB email and attach your file to an email to me.
• Week3 Quiz (click here, or get it from the BB mail, sent Sunday).

File . . . . . . . . . . .

• Participate in Week 4 NewsTalk on Blackboard
• NewsQuiz (due by BB email to Professor Pease Saturday @ 9 a.m.). Click here for directions.
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