Week3 Quiz—FIXT

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NewsHounds Week3 QUIZ
Name: PEASE

PART I:
From Harrower, Ch. 2: Terminology:

• What do you call the area/subject that a reporter covers?
➢ The reporter covers a “beat”—courts, cops, USU, theatre, etc...

• What’s the function of the headline?
➢ To summarize the story content and to attract the reader.

• What is a cutline?
➢ Or a caption: the short description beneath a photo or other graphic.

• Publisher William Randolph Hearst said this is whatever makes you say, “Gee whiz!”
➢ News. Other definitions: “When a dog bites a man, that’s not news. When a man bites a dog, that’s news.” (For extra credit, who said it?)

• What is the first sentence or paragraph of a news story called?
➢ The lead. Can also refer to the first couple of paragraphs (or grafs)—the opening of a story.

• What’s a jumpline?
➢ When a story “jumps” to another page, the jumpline directs the reader to the page (e.g., SEE JUMPLINE, p. 10).

• What’s the reporter’s name at the top of a news story called?
➢ The byline (or, when a reporter screws up a story, the “blameline”).

• What is “attribution”?
➢ Information that comes from a source is “attributed” to that source (e.g.: “...USU President Stan Albrecht said” or “according to the National Weather Service…”)

• What is a newspaper’s “flag”?
➢ The newspaper’s name on Page 1 (e.g., The New York Times) (pp. 26, 32)

9/9 = 100%

PART II:
• Harrower lists five things that every reporter should remember about readers. Which do you think is most important and why?
➢ 1. Readers are in a hurry.
➢ 2. Readers have short attention spans.
➢ 3. Readers want stories to connect to them personally.
➢ 4. Readers want stories to be told in a compelling way.
➢ 5. There are many kinds of readers. (p. 18)

• 1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life = 0 news, says Bastion and Case in “News Arithmetic.” Why? What would make an “ordinary person” newsworthy?
➢ What is news? An extraordinary person (prominence) or event (consequence or human interest). Ex: If sophomore Tim Jones goes to the grocery, that’s not news. If he tackles a Ramen thief, that’s news. (p. 16)

• Harrower lists seven elements that make news interesting. What are they? Which do you think is most important and why?
➢ Impact: How does the story matter to readers?
➢ Immediacy: News is new.
➢ Proximity: Nearby events are more important than distant ones (mostly).
➢ Prominence: How important is the person/focus of the story?
➢ Novelty: e.g., man bites dog. Human interest. Unexpected.
➢ Conflict: All disputes have the drama that can make them newsworthy.
➢ Emotion: Happy/Sad/Tragic/Joyful. (p. 17)
NOTE: See also Bill Blundell’s Story Blocks

• Harrower quotes many journalists on their jobs. Is there one comment—good or bad—about being a journalist that particularly struck you? Why?
➢ Here’s one I like from Ch. 2: “People don’t actually read newspapers—they get into them every morning like a hot bath.”—Marshall McLuhan, sociologist . . . because it illustrates the central part of people’s desire to know….

4/4 = 100%

PART III:
• Do the Test Yourself exercise No. 1 on p. 32 and type your answers below.

8/8 = 100%

PART IV: From Pease’s Newswriting “Primer”
• Explain what is meant by the “inverted pyramid.” How does it work?
➢ The inverted pyramid “design” (if you will) for news stories came about in the beginning age of the telegraph (or the town crier), when it was important to get the most important news items out before the telegraph poles fell down and cut you off: Ex: “President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated!” not “The play at the Ford Theatre started late last night…” The same requirements exist today—headlines must hit the basic news first and fast. Details follow.

• What should appear in a news story’s lead?
➢ What happened? Of the WWWWW&H, what would YOU want to know first?

• Explain the “Fred Rule.” Why does it work for newswriting?
➢ See “What Is News?” on AskDrTed.

• What’s wrong with writing a news story chronologically?
➢ ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz. See WWWWW&H, Leads, etc.

• Pease says writing is an aural art. What does he mean? Do you agree?
➢ For me, the art of writing isn’t just the words, it’s the sound they make—their cadence and rhythm and impact as they come together. What does playwright Tom Stoppard say? “Words are sacred. They deserve respect. Get the right ones, in the right order, and you can nudge the word a little.” Stoppard is talking about how words can create meaning, but a large part of that meaning for the writer (and reader) is the sound the words make in a well-engineered sentence. Read your stuff out loud. If you stumble in the reading, the sentence is poorly constructed. Strive for words in an order that pleases both the mind and the ear.

5/5 = 100%

PART V: Some Associated Press Style stuff. Correct these so they conform to AP style:

(These are now correct. If you don’t understand why, ask!)

• The boy is 5. He ate 27 chocolates. He lives at 4 Main St.
(See number/numerals; addresses, ages. What is the basic number rule? That is, what’s the different between 4 and four, and when does AP say you use each?)

4/4

• The new governor of Utah is Gary Herbert. He is friends with Sen. Orrin Hatch.
(See capitalization and titles. Formal titles (e.g., governor and senator) are lowercase when they stand alone, but uppercase and abbreviated when the come before the individual’s name. EXCEPT!!! A lot of things: mayor, professor, etc.)

2/2

• The president of USU will speak at 5 p.m. in the afternoon. It ends at 6 p.m.
(See a.m./p.m., capitalization and times/numerals)

5/5

• The hat cost $5. It is brown. He lived in Paris for seven years.
(See exceptions to the basic number rule: money/dollars; datelines (big cities e.g., Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo… don’t need their states or nations because they’re so well known)

5/5

• The conference took place over the weekend in Boston.
(See Datelines/state names—big cities—and state abbreviations: these are NOT the same as the post office abbreviations!)

2/2

• 200 N. Central Blvd. 14 Adams Road. 4 Elm Ave.
(See addresses. When it’s just the street—Central Avenue, Main Street, North Kumquat Boulevard…—everything is spelled out fully. When there’s a specific street address—7 Central Ave., 190 Main St., 215 N. Kumquat Blvd…—the address abbreviation rules kick in. Note that only street, avenue and boulevard are abbreviated in addresses; road, circle, lane, etc. are not. )

5/5

• He joined the Air Force and shipped out to Iraq.

1/1

• The car cost more than $24,000. The cuts were $12 million, or more than 6 percent of the budget, and hurt 9 percent of the staff.
(See numbers/numerals/dollars. The basic number rule: most numbers larger than nine are numerals (see exceptions), from 10 to 999,999; after that, it’s 1 million (or 1.2 million, 3.8 billion, $4 trillion). Use $$ sign, not “dollars.” Spell out %, and always use a numeral (see percent).)

6/6

• The student is 19 years old. She drove six hours to get here. She drives a 6-year-old Toyota. She had seven suitcases and 23 stuffed monkeys in the trunk.
(See number rules. The basic number rule: zero-nine spelled out, then 10 etc. are numerals EXCEPT for numerous exceptions (e.g., addresses, ages, temperatures, money, percentages, etc….). See also hyphenation: 6-year-old is hyphenated because the whole thing modifies “Toyota” (or girl or elephant or whatever). )

6/6

Total: 62/62 = 100 percent