20190319

news should be value

e.g. (no value)
For graduates of 2019, this is the last semester they will spend in Nanjing
University.

The gate of Weihua playground was unexpectedly closed on Saturday night,

leaving the students who are eager to jog at the night dissatisfied.
(should tell the story behind)

Problem: Failure to include the essence or the story

e.g. (value)
Department of artificial intelligence, which was founded in March 2019, celebrated
its first anniversary and planned to recruit 45 graduate students.

World Consumer Rights Day is approaching, Rights and Interests Service

Department of School Students Union is now collecting lyrics from students and
preparing gifts for the event to be held on March 15.

Problem: Be specific. Don’t generalize.

Students in Nanjing University celebrated Lei Feng(who is he?) Memorial Day via
various events.

Face recognition technology(explain it a little bit) was used this year in the
examination of high-level sports team(what does this mean?).

One sentence including the most important information is preferred in the lead.
Be concise, don’t include too much details. No need to include all the titles.
Who, institution(e.g. Nature), did what, when, why
Immediate identification not always necessary
Accuracy of proper names. E.g. School of foreign studies 外国语学院
First time full name, next time sure name only
Place of the time element. Put at the beginning e.g. sb talked on March 10th

Writing basic 1: quotations & numbers Unit 8 p.37

When someone says something better than you could write it in your story.
When his or her words are vivid.
When the speaker stirs strong emotions or reactions in the readers. When they convey
drama.
When it provides new information, again expressed in a way better than you.

When the person you are quoting isn’t stringing words together well
 …
Other tips:
Avoid using ellipses
Avoid partial quotes
Put just one speaker in a paragraph
Always attribute a quote
Use said, added(neutral)
Start the sentence with the quote and follow the attribution, not the reverse
Watch your transitions and pronoun agreement when quoting more than one person in
a story.

Numbers (AP Style)

Days of the week – always capitalized and spelled out: Friday.
Times: - use a.m. and p.m.
It’s not necessary to write the current year
May, 18, 2018
Writing big numbers with comma,
In the 1990s, ‘90s,

# Crime, accident, and disaster stories

Crime stories
Crime coverage (or police beat) is considered an entry-level job
Accuracy, objectivity, fairness(ethical issues)
Crime stories are often associated with court stories (legal terms & procedures)
Types: homicide(murder & manslaughter), burglary & robbery, fire (arson), violence
against women

Accident and disaster stories

The 5 Ws and 1 H are essential
Generally journalists use the word disaster to cover large loss of life.
Some define a disaster as a massive, widespread destruction of the kind unusually
associated with the vagaries(strangeness) of nature – floods, earthquakes, hurricanes,
storms and droughts.
Types of accidents: motor vehicle accidents, airplane crashes
Names and identification of dead and injured, how many people have been made
homeless
Extent and cost of property damage
Time, location and cause of the disaster.
Comments from eyewitnesses and authorities
Rescue and relief operation (evacuations, heroism, unusual equipment used or
techniques)
Warnings ()
Basic information in crime stories:
Victims, suspects, cause of fatalities or injuries, location of incident, time of incident,
what happened,

10 people died on last Friday due to a landslide occurred nearby a health center of
Xiangning district in Linfen, Shanxi Province.

20190326
Good writing

Tips
Write with verbs, not adjectives or adverbs
A single fact is worth a thousand opinions
A short word is better than a long word; sentence; paragraph
Use words precisely
Avoid evaluative expressions
Avoid passive sentences
e.g. arsenal were beaten by Manchester united…
Manchester united beat arsenal…
Arsenal lost to Manchester united…
It was raining, there was lightening and the car was stalled.
The rain poured, the lightening flashed and the car stalled.
Avoid editorializing

At the present time, the restaurant opens for business at 6 a.m. every morning of the
week.
Revised: the restaurant opens at 6 every morning.
He was trapped in the car for 40 minutes before he could be removed by rescue
personnel.
Revised:

Interviewing techniques

Questions that elicit information relating to the major theme of the story
Role-playing by the reporter that puts the interviewee at ease
Careful listening and accurate observation

Professor Renyuhai
Could you

20190402
Many more direct flight to be ready by Eastern airlines, including Yancheng to Taipei,
Wuxi to Macao. Eastern airlines launch new flights/routs for Jiangsu travelers.

Experts gathered in Nanjing discussing advertisement transformation via

Convergence Media， big data technology and etc. new tech, upgrading, transform

College students experiencing darkness in the Earth Hour

(VAT)Added-value tax lower start from today, about 1.28 million Jiangsu household
taxpayers to be benefit. Lowered VAT rate benefit

Flora coffee shop by Nanguo drama club create local series for Nanjing junior theater
festival

Reporting stories
Direct quote is needed. Be sure to take down exact words. Avoid partial quote.
Pay attention to the surroundings. How are people reflecting: laughing? Lawning?
Is the speech long? Is the speaker dramatic?
Tell something interesting. Hard news story. Emphasizing the significant of the
speech.
5w1h
Transition matters. Start your sentence or paragraph with an idea rather than a name.
Quote before name

The speech story:

Speaker’s main point.
Name and identification.
The setting of the speech: time, location, purpose.
Circumstances of the speech: size of the audience, reaction of the audience.
Any unusual occurrence

The meeting story

News conference

20190416

Comments on the speech story assignment

1. Lead (and headline): highlight what was said, what was important, interesting or
special
Importance of the meeting should be addressed.
Examples in phone
2. Organization: describing order of importance (chronological order not
recommended); NOT first, then, later, at last...
3. Suggested structure: lead; summary of the lecture; details (the important comes
first), how lecture was received; background information.
4. Background information (about the lecture and/or speaker if less important)
5. Paragraphing: short paragraphs are preferred
6. Focus: it’s OK to emphasize one aspect, and mention or summarize the other less
interesting ones; no need to give equal weight to each point or section of a speech.
7. Show; don’t tell. Don’t use judgmental adjectives and adverbs.
8. Don’t generalize (either elaborate or eliminate)
9. Attribution:
a. Always attribute the source of information. Don’t confuse what the speaker
said with you said.
b. Identify a subject with his/her full name. on second or additional mentioning,
use the family name instead of the full name.
c. Paraphrase facts.
d. Pay attention to punctuation marks
e.g. in phone.
e. “said” /add/according to him/her is almost always better than other words you
can think of to replace it, e.g., suggested, pointed out, analyzed, remarked.
f. Avoid using long and complicated sentences with too many embedded
structures; avoid beginning the sentence with a participle.

10. Revision:
a. Read your story out loud
b. Check to make sure your sentences are not too long.
c. Do your sentence length vary?
d. Make sure that you have used the subject-verb-object construction in most of
your sentences
e. Are your sentences simple and strong?

# Feature Story: an introduction

A feature story is an extended treatment of an issue, situation or event you consider
newsworthy
A feature takes an in-depth look at what’s going on behind the news

#homework!