COMM 209: In class Monday

Following up on last week's review of the format for a news story -- i.e. how to make one look like a news story instead of a freshman English theme -- I'm going to link a couple or three more things.

One is a a feature story I wrote on a cedar flute demonstration at Springfield College. It isn't great literature. (If you're taking COMM 387 [Lit./Journ.], you'll notice it wasn't on that syllabus.) But I can share how I reported it, how I chose the quotes and how I put it together. Notice it has a standard soft lede that runs into a nut graf.

The nut graf isn't exactly standard ... there's a summary, that the guy I'm writing about loves the music, followed by a quote, followed by the second part of the nut graf, the announcement he's starting a flute circle in Springfield. But hey, this ain't rocket science.

POINTS TO REMEMBER: (1) The lede can be longer than one graf. Has to be, in fact. (2) The nut graf can be longer than one graf. Usually is, in fact. And (3) the higher up you can get a good quote, the better (even in the middle of the nut graf)!

On the Yahoo! news page is an Associated Press feature on Northern Illinois University's police chief and how he's dealing with the aftermath of the student shootings there. Is it a summary lede or a soft lede? I can't say. It has elements of both. But look how high the best quote is. Also: Look at how short the sentences are. Look at how short the grafs are. Look at how the reporter keeps out of the story.

A Reuters news service story from Yahoo! This one is written with a hard news lede. It's about a woman who was ordered to remove her nipple ring in an airport search. Notice how the story is organized: lede (2 grafs), followed by best quote (also two grafs because it's a long quote), transition, quote and so on.

Here's another one with a hard news style, summary lede. A drunk in Muncie, Ind., made the news when he woke up in a garbage truck just before, apparently, he was compacted with the garbage. Lede (two grafs), quote (one graf this time), and so on. By the way, notice how there's not an extra word in this story? It's really bare bones, just the facts. Try to hype it up even just a little, and it's too much.