News Report Example Assignment

Task:
Write a news report based on someone else’s service/learning project.
 You will have to gather facts and information by interviews, research (remember the person you’re
writing about has probably already done research for you), answering some or all of the following
questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
 You must include both a headline and at least one picture.
Purpose and Audience:
to report on an event(s) for the readers of a newspaper.

Let’s practice with the following picture and title as a way to generate the kind of writing we’re looking for:

Student volunteers improve school grounds.

Rough Notes.
Rough Notes.
Use space below for rough notes. Nothing you write in this space will be scored.
 Write your report on the lines provided on the following page.

News Report Graphic Organizer

Note: Never use I or we. Don’t refer to the reporter. Use the ‘third person’ (He, she, they). Use your imagination to create the details of the story, the
names of people who would be involved, and what they would say (quotations). Refer directly to the picture in your news report.
Headline: Student Volunteers Improve School Grounds

1st Paragraph
1st Line that grabs attention: Last Saturday, a group of kids teamed up to get their high school ready for summer!
Who: Local high school students

What: Planted trees and flowers in the front gardens

When: Saturday May 9, 2020

Where: East High School Salt Lake City, Utah

Why: Janitors and gardeners could not keep up the grounds because of the pandemic

How: Each student came with flowers or a tree and they worked together to plant everything and clean up the weeds and
overgrown shrubs.

2nd Paragraph In this paragraph, provide specific details about the event and create statements from people directly involved.

Detail 1: There was absolutely no obligation from the school.

Quotation 1: “We just saw how the front of our school was in bad shape, and we’re so proud that we went to East, that we
wanted to show it off to everyone driving by” – Elle Huntsman, a senior at East High, one of the students that helped plant
flowers.

Detail 2: The staff and faculty were just as shocked as everyone else.

Quotation 2: “My husband and I were driving past and saw these cute students hard at work! We pulled in to see if they were
working for a class or something and they replied, ‘Nope! Just wanted to make East look classy!’” – Sarah Aylor, a Physics
 teacher at East High.

3rd Paragraph In this paragraph 1) create statements from witnesses or experts and 2) either provide more specific details about
the event or else specific details that provide a wider context (i.e. There have been fourteen such instances since 2002 and this
is by the far the most serious.)

Detail 3: In all 106 years of this school’s existence, no one has ever done anything like this.

Quotation 3: “Every senior class does a senior prank. But this year, the universe pranked the seniors by cancelling the best
three months of their high school career. These seniors did the best with what they got.” – Deseret News reporter who
followed the students throughout the day.

Detail 4: It was the student’s way to say goodbye.

Quotation 4:“These kids deserve the world. When life threw them a pandemic, they planted flowers so they could have one
last high school memory.” – Heather Wissler, a mom of one of the students who participated.

Concluding Statement or Quotation (Remember the reporter cannot give an opinion]:

These students took matters into their own hands and made Salt Lake a brighter, happier place.