Good News Writing Interesting and Informative News Reports

Good News Writing Interesting and Informative News Reports

“Being Wordsmiths” - Dan Austin English Teacher and Journalism Adviser @ Casa Roble High School in San Juan, California JEA Denver Writer’s Workshop

What Good Writers Do

Good writer catalog Show, Don’t Tell My room is a mess. Everyday it is a struggle to wade through the dirty jeans and jackets lying on the floor. My mom each week tells me to clean it up, but the piles of dirty clothes simply become even higher. Entering my room is dangerous. I tip-toe in past the door, arc my legs over heaps of Calvin Klein underwear and trip over my backpack onto the stained sheets of my bed. A Lakers poster with Kobe Bryant hangs off the wall above with one corner missing its tack, causing it to slump forward from the side.

Show, Don’t Tell My room is a mess. Everyday it is a struggle to wade through the dirty jeans and jackets lying on the floor. My mom each week tells me to clean it up, but the piles of dirty clothes simply become even higher. Entering my room is dangerous. I tip-toe in past the door, arc my legs over heaps of Calvin Klein underwear and trip over my backpack onto the stained sheets of my bed. A Lakers poster with Kobe Bryant hangs off the wall above with one corner missing its tack, causing it to slump forward from the side.

Good Writers Have Fun Find a fresh way into the piece - Angle/Handle Have a sense of humor or play See world in detail (catalog) - Writers are in and out of their heads

Good Writers Spot Universal Experiences School Family Religion Emotions … Find something relevant to the readers.

Example WWII Vet Forms Unlikely Friendship with Preschooler

Enemy Verbs “Be” verbs ie. “is, ” “are, ” “were, ” “being, ” etc. Avoid if possible. Ex: “Two birds were in a tree. ” “Two robins were warbling in a tree. ” “Two robins warbled in a tree. ”

Example After the Sky Fell

Comparisons Make Abstractions Concrete Don’t use a thesaurus. “Because he fell in love with her brown hair and wide eyes and 100 -watt smile. ”

The Culture of Practice

“It’s not what you know, it’s what you can do. ” Pressroom Reps ● Two-sentence Stories ● Imitate a pro

Two-Sentence Stories Four basic syntactical structures: 1. Three Action Sentence 2. Appositive + Adjective 3. Participial Phrase 4. Absolute Phrase

Three-Action Sentence One subject and three verbs The fish darted away, hid from its predator and swam away.

Appositive + Adjective “An appositive is a noun or pronoun — often with modifiers — set beside another noun or pronoun to explain or identify it. ” - OWL Purdue The cruel and determined monster stalked its prey. VS The monster, cruel and determined, stalked it prey.

Participial Phrase “A participle is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often ends in -ing or -ed. ” - OWL Purdue The English teacher shuffled into class. vs The English teacher shuffled into class, sipping his coffee. Closing participial phrase usually best spot.

Absolute Phrase A phrase that has a noun modified by a participle, added onto the end of an independent clause. Used to add more information. Can be removed and sentence should still make sense. The cheshire cat curled into the pillow, tail twitching and eyes fluttering. Marsha looked worried, her fears creeping up on her.

1. (Open structure) The golfer stepped up to the tee. 2. (Three action) He studied the shot fingered his short irons and slipped a seven from his bag. “The few drivers on this dark, lonely stretch of the Suncoast Parkway in Pasco County pull up to the toll booth, hand their dollars to Lloyd Blair and then speed away” - Brady Dennis, Tampa Bay Times My example: The track runners jogged 10 meters to the starting line. They looked straight ahead at the horizon, swallowed breaths of oxygen and flexed their muscles.

1. (Participle) Tiger studied the putt, squatting behind the putt. 2. (Three action) He stalked to his ball, firmed his stance and rolled the Nike down his line. My example: Bryan Fernandez glanced at the finishing stretch ahead, gauging his distance from the end. He picked up his pace, pumped his arms and sprinted ahead of the competition.

1. (Appositive + Absolute) The Datsun, weather-beaten and dented, chugged up the hill, wheels wobbling, tailpipes spewing oil into the sky. 2. (Three action) It crested the hill, gained momentum and coasted to the garage. My example: The engineers, with bloodshot eyes and coffee in their veins, hurried to finish their robot, hearts fluttering from caffeine and adrenaline. They squinted at designs on their computer monitors, fashioned sheet metal and gears and finished their build with blistering speed.

Imitating a Pro Style imitation Find piece of writing and imitate its structure.

http: //espn. go. com/espn/feature/story/_/id/1 2321274/alex-rodriguez-return-new-yorkyankees