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Workshop on Journalistic Writing

D.M. Reyes, Ateneo de Manila University
 COMMUNITY ANALYSIS

❖ Roles that the community plays

❖ Aspects of community life

❖ Formulating a journalistic vision

ROLES THAT THE COMMUNITY PLAYS

❖ Constant readers

❖ Subject of news and features

❖ Resource persons for inquiry

 ASPECTS OF COMMUNITY LIFE

❖ Academic Life

❖ Cultural Life

❖ Actors

❖ Sectors

❖ Issues/Problems
 THE JOURNALISTIC VISION

❖ Profiling and defining your community

❖ Creating consciousness

❖ Encouraging responsibility

❖ Promoting dialogue

❖ Articulating the truth

 PARTS OF THE PAPER

❖ News
❖ Sports
❖ Opinion
❖ Features
❖ Inquiry/Reports
❖ National Issues
❖ Creative Writing/Literary Section
 THE ART OF NARRATIVE

❖ Identifying a story line

❖ Hinting at conflict

❖ Tracing a progression

❖ Presenting a resolution

❖ Assessing the value of your frame narrative

 IDENTIFYING A STORY LINE

❖ A Thai-circus elephant escaped from Araneta center

 HINTING AT CONFLICT

❖ Hungry and distressed, the elephant broke through a

barrier, hurting its own trainer
 TRACING A PROGRESSION

❖ The elephant wandered through the city

❖ This unusual sight surprised the city folk

❖ City people readily turned into spectators, cheering the

elephant on the run
 PRESENTING A RESOLUTION

❖ In Kamuning, a beer-truck driver finally cornered the

elephant and pacified it
ASSESSING THE FRAME NARRATIVE’S VALUE

❖ The escaped elephant gave the city a free show

 EXERCISE

❖ Compose a 100-word fictional narrative (not

including names, articles, and prepositions) on the
given pictures.

❖ Develop a clear story line, a hint of conflict, a sense

of progression, a convincing resolution, and an
insight into the story.
 THE NEWS LEAD

❖ WHO: Jumbo, one of Elephant World’s 10 stars, escaped from his

trainers yesterday afternoon at the Araneta Center in Cubao.

❖ WHAT: An elephant from Thailand, a star performer at the Elephant

World show, escaped from its trainers yesterday afternoon at the
Araneta Center in Cubao.

❖ WHEN: Yesterday’s sweltering siesta hour was the time that a Thai
elephant chose to run away from its trainer at the Araneta Center in
Cubao.
 THE NEWS LEAD

❖ WHERE: Araneta Center in Cubao became the exciting site for a free
circus treat yesterday, when a Thai elephant escaped from its trainers.

❖ WHY: Because yesterday’s summer temperature hit its highest in the

afternoon, a Thai elephant ran away from its trainers at the Araneta
Center in Cubao.

❖ HOW: By ramming against the circus enclosure, a Thai elephant

escaped from its trainers yesterday afternoon at the Araneta Center in
Cubao.
 SHARPENING THE NEWS LEAD

❖ STRAIGHT SUMMARY LEAD: An elephant from Thailand named Jumbo,

one of the 10 stars in the Elephant World show at the Araneta Center in
Cubao escaped from his trainers yesterday afternoon.

❖ DRAMATIC LEAD: Spectators cheered, security guards gave chase, and

traffic fell into a standstill yesterday afternoon when a Thai elephant
escaped from its trainers at the Araneta Center in Cubao.

❖ BACKGROUND LEAD: The free street show that thrilled spectators and
threw Cubao traffic into chaos yesterday afternoon ended shortly past 2
p.m. after animals handlers finally cornered a runaway Thai elephant.
 SHARPENING THE NEWS LEAD

❖ QUOTATION LEAD: “Jumbo just ran away during practice” a Thai

animal handler told the police yesterday after his star elephant ran
away to the cheer of spectators at the Araneta Center in Cubao.

❖ IRONIC OR CONTRAST LEAD: Jumbo ate his way through a harsh

winter in Russia and tramped past rising flood waters in India but the
elephant simply lost its patience with Manila’s summer heat
yesterday afternoon, prompting it to run away from its trainer at the
Araneta Center in Cubao.
 FEATURE ARTICLE

❖ HUMAN-INTEREST: about people, places, and events. 


❖ Well-researched, descriptive, colorful, thoughtful, original


 

❖ In-depth: looks at the most important & interesting elements

of a situation. 

 

❖ Uses imagery and keeps an eye on details.

 FEATURE ARTICLE

❖ A form of non-fiction writing

❖ It celebrates the angle of human interest

❖ Contains plot, characters, setting

❖ But the narrative details are all factual

❖ Aspires to be memorable: detailed, creative, organized

❖ Its length varies

 FEATURE ARTICLE

❖ Way longer than news

❖ Expands on details

❖ Goes beyond a few important key points  

❖ Develops a theme

❖ May postpone the main point until the end

 TYPES OF FEATURE ARTICLES

❖ HUMAN INTEREST: discussion of an issue through a story of a particular person’s

significant experience 


❖ PROFILE: helps us to know someone by revealing his character and lifestyle


❖ HOW-TO: tells us how to do something using information, experience, research,

or expert opinion 


❖ HISTORICAL FEATURES: commemorate important dates or turning points in the

community’s social, political, and cultural life. May compare time periods,
contrasting then with now.
 TYPES OF FEATURE ARTICLES

❖ SEASONAL THEMES: cover milestones in the community’s social,

political, economic, and cultural cycles.

❖ BEHIND THE SCENES: inside views about unusual callings, issues, and
events. Some people like to discover secrets or peek into what they
don’t know.
 SHORT WORKSHOP 1

❖ List examples of 3 different types of feature articles from your

community that you are interested in writing

❖ Provide a brief annotation for each (3 sentences maximum per

topic), describing the central story that it will feature
 SHORT WORKSHOP 2

❖ Map your community’s natural, social, political, economic, &

cultural cycles

❖ Identify recurring events that have an impact on the life of your

community

❖ Organize them following a timeline

 FORMAT
MONTH NATURAL SOCIAL POLITICAL ECONOMIC CULTURAL
 THE ART OF ASKING QUESTIONS

❖ Exploring an issue
❖ Recognizing its scope
❖ Recognizing perspectives: stakeholders and voices
❖ Drawing insights
❖ Developing a personal voice
❖ Asserting a position
❖ Revealing a facet of society
 THE ART OF ASKING QUESTIONS

❖ Exploring an issue (Who are the Mabuhay Singers?

How valuable are they to our culture?)

❖ Recognizing its scope (What course has their career

taken?)

❖ Recognizing perspectives: stakeholders and voices

(What do others think of them? Who says they are
important?)
 THE ART OF ASKING QUESTIONS

❖ Drawing insights (What are their contributions to our

culture?)

❖ Developing a personal voice (What makes them

important to me?)

❖ Asserting a position (What is their main impact?)

❖ Revealing a facet of society (What picture of society do

they suggest?)
FORMULATING TEMPLATE QUESTIONS

❖ What is your research?

❖ Where has it taken you?

❖ What have you found out so far?

❖ In a story, tell us one unforgettable discovery that

you’ve made about the culture.

❖ Anything funny or strange that happened to you?

FORMULATING TEMPLATE QUESTIONS

❖ My research made me discover that being Asian

means . . .

❖ Whom do you think will gain most from your

present research?

❖ Away from my country, I have come to realize that . .

.
 THE EDITORIAL

❖ Presents the newspaper's opinion on an issue.

❖ Reflects the majority vote
❖ Usually unsigned
❖ Builds on an argument
❖ Persuades readers to think the same way
❖ Meant to promote critical thinking
❖ Move people to take action on an issue
 TYPES OF EDITORIAL

❖ Explains the way the newspaper covered a sensitive subject.

❖ Sees the problem (not the solution). A constructive criticism of

actions, decisions, or situations

❖ Sees the solution (not the problem). Encourages readers to take

specific action.

❖ Praise people and organizations for their good work.

 EDITORIAL CARTOON

❖ Graphic expressions of editorial ideas and opinions.

❖ Based on current events. Produced under restricted time

conditions.

❖ Meant to educate, to make readers think about current issues.

❖ With a popular visual and verbal vocabulary.

 EDITORIAL CARTOON

❖ Their size and placement affects their readers.

❖ Additional color may also excite more readers.

❖ Usually appears as a single-panel format

❖ Do not feature continuing characters like comic strips.

 EVALUATING EDITORIAL CARTOONS

❖ Clear drawing, good writing

❖ Delivers a reasonable point

❖ Words and the pictures go together in delivering the message

❖ Humor is one tool; not all cartoons are meant to be funny.

❖ Editorial cartoons show us what people are thinking and talking

about at a given time.
 TOOLS FOR EDITORIAL CARTOON

❖ CARICATURES: drawings of public figures with exaggerated physical

features.

❖ STEREOTYPES: formula images for easy, popular recognition.

❖ SYMBOLS: traditional pictures with a double meaning.

❖ ANALOGIES: comparisons that suggest that one thing is similar to

another.

❖ HUMOR: powerful laughter that says what is amusing, contrary, or

absurd.
 THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW

❖ Evoking character

❖ Tracing a personal history

❖ Outlining achievements

❖ Evoking a context

❖ Revealing a unique outlook

❖ Disclosing peculiarities
 EXERCISE 1

❖ Write a short narrative.

❖ Your story should feature an ordinary experience that
took place on your way to to the workshop.
❖ Make it really interesting by giving it the important
features of a story: conflict, characters, a series of
actions.
❖ The story’s resolution involves your reaching the
workshop venue at last.
❖ Edit it and do an interesting wall lay-out of your short
narrative.
 EXERCISE 2

❖ Develop an issue-oriented article.

❖ Write about either a) registration and opening of

classes or b) graduation in your school.
❖ Explore it as a broad issue by formulating important
questions that would reveal its various dimensions.
❖ Present your questions during the plenary session.
❖ Prepare either a wall text or photocopies of your
article for the plenary workshop.
 EXERCISE 3

❖ Undertake an interview of an interesting workshop

participant.

❖ Develop a comprehensive set of questions revealing

important aspects of the respondent’s career history,
significant facets of his/her personality, and striking
impressions about his/her character.

❖ Prepare a wall text or photocopies of the interview

transcript.

❖ In your presentation, also tell us about your process.

 SUBSTANCE EDITING

❖ Formulating the big picture

❖ Looking for the most effective structure

❖ Attending to logic

❖ Additional data research and context fillers

❖ Lay out
TECHNICAL EDITING AND PROOFREADING

❖ Sentence sense

❖ Consistency of tenses

❖ Appropriate title

❖ Choice of blurb

❖ Captions

❖ Attention to typographical mistakes

 ANNUAL PLANNING

❖ Line-up of issues

❖ Enrichment activities for the staff

❖ Drafting the budget

❖ Transitions