COMM 209: Today's assignment - Tunes at Noon

Truman, a pop/rock band consisting of brothers Ben and Chad Truman of Nashville and Provo, Utah, is playing today in the student lounge downstairs in Dawson Hall. For Tunes at Noon. That's like right now. So we'd better get down there, so you can cover the gig and write it up for Monday.

Here's the assignment: 10 to 12 column inches (how many words is that?) written like you would for a metro newspaper. Write it like one of those "dumb little stories" I keep talking about, but make it sparkle. Due in class Monday.

Sparkle?

He say what? If it's a dumb little story, how do you make it sparkle?

1. Make your writing sparkle. A catchy lead that sums up the experience. Quotes. In 10 to 12 column inches, you'll have room for two or three snappy quotes. String them together with supporting detail like a "quote-kebab." What else? Short sentences. Little words. Action words. Description. Color. Engage the reader's senses.

Which leads me to ...

2. Make your reporting sparkle.

Take notes on the scene. Description. Dialog. Put us there. How do you do that? You notice detail. What's the room look like? What do the students look like? Sound like? What are they doing? Are they listening with rapt attention? Or are they doing something else? If so, what? Get it in your notes. You won't remember it later.

Some background on Truman and their brand of "blue-eyed soul" is available on their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/trumanboys at http://www.myspace.com/trumanboys, and there's more on their THE TRUMAN SHOW (Rock with Caution) at http://bentruman.blogspot.com/

There's also an article in Deseret News, one of the big dailies in Salt Lake City, that gives a little more background on the Truman Brothers. And it's a pretty good example of how a professional newspaper writer handles quotes, sentence structure, word choice, paragraph length, objectivity, etc., in writing about the act.