FINAL STAFF BOX - Please check this one more time and if you see anything you need corrected go so Reeves RIGHT NOW. Thanks
Everyone
Deadlines are crucial - you must make deadlinesDon’t procrastinate
Interview early and often
If you need help with interviewing, get support. Lots of people want to help, if we don’t know what the problem is, we can’t help.
Everyone should get help sooner
EVERYONE IS responsible for art/graphics/photos for your story!! If this is an issue for you - please talk to your Editor. They can help. In select cases, they can assign a photographer (we only have a few!!) to help with your image.
Lead writing
Write how and why leads. Narrative.
Follow up with a good nut graf with the who, what, where, when
No WHO, WHERE, WHEN leads
Do not use the word Bowie or Bowie High School if possible
You can talk to me and I will help you brainstorm your lead writing if that will help
Which of these leads makes you want to keep reading?
Sitting down in front of the small electric piano, she adjusts her microphone to a perfect height. She places her hands on the black and white keys, takes a deep breath, and begins to play.
Bowie’s choir group has been gearing up for the first choir concert back in person on Sept. 30, and they have hours of after-school practice to show for it. The choir concert was held in the Bowie cafeteria where they all performed nine songs together.
Caulin Wagner knew something was wrong when he felt extreme pain in his left leg.
COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March of 2020. Since then, there have been many regulations implemented to mitigate the spread of the virus. Common recommendations for protection against COVID-19 is to get vaccinated, wear a mask, get tested, washing hands, and social distancing.
Helmets clash, and bodies slam against one another, leaving a student-athlete laying
awkwardly on the turf. The spectators fall silent, but Bowie’s newest addition in the training room, trainer Lauren Maldonado, has prepared for this moment, understanding she’ll be a vital part of the athlete’s recovery.
On August 10, 2021 the US Senate passed a $1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill. The bill was crafted by Senators under President Biden in an attempt to rebuild the country's bridges and roads as well as to fund a new climate resilience plan. After weeks of negotiation and debates, the final vote in the Senate was 69 in favor and 30 against the legislation, which was uncommonly bipartisan in 2020-21.
Transitions
We need to work on transitions. The goal of a transition is to provide facts and data that help to tell your story. You should avoid “leading” transitions where you restate the information that is coming in the following quote. We also need to avoid editorializing in transitions. This happens most often at the end of the story where writers often try to summarize the piece.
Example of leading with opinions:
The choir students are excited for the positive effects being back in person will have for them and their performance in choir.
“Now you can’t fake certain things that he might not have heard and couldn’t tell you because we were online,” Tapia said. “Some people sing more confidently with other people around too, which we couldn’t do.”
Leading with opinions:
Both teams are filled with many hard working students and have provided them with life lessons and values that they will carry on for the rest of their lives.
“Band has given me a sense of comradery, and I think most importantly an understanding of responsibility that I think will be so critical to the rest of my life,” Bloder said.
Leading, but acceptable:
With the combination of these hate crimes and in-class discussions held in UT OnRamps Rhetoric classes, senior Yuni Kim believes that these things have had an impact on her.
“I was inspired to join SOAR when I had to confront reality where the anger that I've
felt for a long time about violence against my community became more focused on wanting to stop"
Transition with source transition that avoids leading:
There’s been some debate as to whether or not the facility equally distributes space for both genders of sports. As a girls’ coach, Benson has first-hand experience with battling adversity, and is able to analyze whether or not the whispers of mistreatment are actually present in the environment for all parties involved.
“We have more males involved in athletics here than we do females, and there are hundreds of football players and not as many girls’ athletes, so the fact that they have more coaches is rightfully so,” Benson said. “I want to make sure the picture is painted properly because
there may appear to be more representation for boys’ sports, but there’s a reason for that, because they’re two different things. If you have 100 on one side and you have 30 on the other side, both sides have the resources that they need for their size.”
Transition without leading, or sourcing:
Besides just physical health, climate change has been shown to exacerbate mental health issues as well. In what has now been dubbed “eco-anxiety” or “climate anxiety,” thoughts of climate change have been linked to worsening mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse.
“I definitely think that with climate change, there is this ever-encompassing dread,” Amnesty International Club co-president junior Jake Stachura said. “ There is uncertainty that I won’t have a good life in my future. That affects me and my decisions now, if I do something is it even worth it? If I’m going shopping for something, I have to be conscious of hey, how does this affect the environment? Does this increase pollution? Does this increase carbon emissions? Is it green? Is it locally sourced? How does it affect the climate?”
Editors
Check docs sooner - and do NOT wait to talk to writers who don’t make progress between classes
Design basics still need to get better here - look at old issues. Let’s start getting creative. I have lots of resources both digitally, books, and other school’s newspapers
No art for art’s sake. It either has a message like a political cartoon or it is an infographic with data and visuals to support that data
Editor design links:
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/award-winning-newspaper-designs/
https://www.canva.com/learn/editorial-design/
https://bashooka.com/inspiration/30-stunning-newspaper-layout-designs/
https://www.freedomforum.org/todaysfrontpages/#1
You can also just do a google image search for newspaper design ideas. I have lots of books too.
Online
Make checklists of what you need in support so we can give people who need something to do, something to do.
On Interviews:
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/edit/MencherIntv1.html
1. Know your subject
I can’t stress this enough. You need to know as much as possible both about the person and the topic. Use our modern tools: there are great chances that you’ll find a whole bunch of information on the Internet. Read previous interviews of this person if you can find some, dig further into the person’s job, their interests, and more importantly the subjects you’re going to ask them about.
Thus, first of all, you’ll understand what they say if they get in deep details. Moreover, you won’t be trapped if they are testing you. There’s nothing more embarrassing than having to admit that you didn’t do enough researches.
However, it doesn’t mean that you have to know everything. You can, of course, ask further explanations as the conversation goes on. But don’t get trapped on basic things.
2. Don’t send questions in advance
It would be like blowing the candle before even lighting it. Even when asked, don’t send the questions in advance. Let them know about the topics you’re going to discuss, so they know what to expect, but don’t go any further.
There are two reasons for this. First, the person will get prepared, and be more likely to recite a ready-made speech. You don’t want that. You want to surprise the person, observe their reactions, extract who they truly are. Secondly, interviews can’t be reduced to a matter of questions/answers. It’s a discussion that one person leads more than another. If you send the questions, you’re reducing your job and the process into this very scholar questions/answers things.
3. Humanize the interaction
Don’t dive into your topic right away. Humanize the interaction. Start with questions centered on the person you are talking to. Not their job. Not their career. Not their role in any political organization, or whatever. Get to know them a bit.
It shows your interest while building the foundations of a more personal exchange and a confidence-based relationship. It’s not pleasant to feel reduced to a job, a role, or a position. First and foremost we are human beings.
4. Get your questions ready
I always prepare a list of questions in advance. It’s a two steps process. First, while doing researches, some questions naturally come to my mind. I write all of them down. Then, when I’m done researching, I think about what I want to find out, what I want to get out of the interview, to which subjects it can open up. The more you’ll think about it, the more questions will come to your mind, and the more interesting they’ll be.
However, don’t stick too much around your questions during the interview. They are kind of a safety net, and a way to remind yourself what you mustn’t forget to ask (you can highlight some of them so you know which ones are crucial and which ones can be skipped). Adjust along with the conversation. If you feel like the spark is appearing, drop your questions and go on. It’s where the most interesting things happen.
5. Use a voice recorder
This one doesn’t work all the time. But as soon as I can use a voice recorder, I do. This technique has both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are: you don’t have to take notes, so you can focus all your attention to the exchange happening and keep eye contact; you’re sure not to miss out or forget any information; you’ll be able to write complete quotes to the nearest word in your article; you protect yourself from accusations — it’s more difficult to call into question what you wrote if you’ve got the voice record of it.
However, not every interlocutor accepts this. You always need to ask them before, and precise what’s your purpose with the voice record. Another disadvantage is that you’ll have to listen again to the whole thing, which is a longer process than just taking notes.
6. Ask open-ended questions, and allow them to drift away (a bit)
You will sometimes need to ask closed questions, such as “for how long have you been…?”. But more than 80% of your questions should be open-ended ones. It’s the fundamental condition to effectively revealing the person you have in front of you, thus leaving with the feeling of a great interview.
Let them drift away. Not too much, because you don’t want them to fall in the “corporate speech”. But let them talk and bring the conversation somewhere else. You can still refocus the discussion later, using formulas such as “may I go back to…”.
7. Use silences at your advantage
Whatever the situation, silence is a very powerful tool that you have to use at your advantage. When you feel like the person is not saying everything they would want to, or they might be lying to you, just keep silent a bit after they’ve stopped speaking. Not too much, you don’t want to be awkward. But a few seconds. They might be surprised, and feel a bit ill at ease, therefore great are the chances that they’ll add further information.
8. Reformulate answers
This is another trick to getting more information. When your interlocutor keeps silent, and you feel like things need to go deeper, just reformulate the answer of the person: “If I understood you correctly…”, and drop an interrogative intonation at the end of your sentence. They might add further details.
9. Pay attention to the answers you get
Human communication is about words, but also about intonations and facial expressions. Pay attention to all of this, as it is your raw material. Is the person stating something? Hesitating? Do they seem angry? Shy? Are they maintaining eye contact?
It’s a great tool to make sure that you’re not misinterpreting what is said to you. And it’s another reason for me to use voice record, as I can focus on all of this.
10. Listen to the little burst
When you feel the little burst, the little excitement, the “here we are” thing, it’s a sign that you’re getting close to the core of the interview. Dig deeper. Ask further questions. Focus all your attention on the moment.
Each successful interview kind of has this “turning point” when things slightly shift. It’s this exact moment that you’re looking for. It’s the reason why you’re doing it. When you have it, don’t let it fly away, go deeper.
All of these can seem like tools intended to extort information from your interlocutor. It’s not. Please see them as tools to lead a great interview. Always show respect to your interlocutor. If they don’t want to go any further on any topic, you have to respect their choice. It’s a matter of confidence. You don’t want to be this kind of journalist.
A great interview is when something magically goes on a higher or deeper level that the basic questions/answers thing.
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