COMM 209 (390, too): Notes and quotes

You've heard me talk about a reporter's scribble, and you've read about it Tim Harrower's "Inside Reporting." Well, here's what it looks like in action ... and how I would turn the scribble into printed copy.

When I got to Monday's "Game Show" event in the Angela Hall gym, I made a note of the time and did a quick crowd count. Both are second nature to me after 15 years of newspapering. Pavlov's dogs salivate, I count crowds.

Then I noticed Dean Broeckling sitting on the bleachers at the side of the gym, walked over, sat down and got out my notebook. I asked him something really obvious, something like what's going on here. He told me and I started taking notes. You see them at the left. (Click on pix to enlarge.) I used green ink because I'd been grading papers, and that was the only pen I had with me. But I prefer a No. 2 soft lead pencil, because that's what I write fastest with. Everyone is different; whatever works for you, works for you. As Kevin talked, I took down what he said, improvising something kind of like shorthand but less systematic.

I would write the conversation up like this:

Broeckling was asked the purpose of the event.

"It's an alcohol-drug education program right before spring break," he said. "We just wanted to make sure the students make educated and informed decisions when they're put in difficult situations."

"Spring break?" he was asked. "Is that a difficult situation?"

Broeckling paused for half a beat.

"Yes," he said.

A couple of things to note. I made up my shorthand as I went along, abbreviating everything, circling words I wanted to spell out (but using the same part of speech, i.e. "education" instead of "educational." If Kevin had said "educational," I would have written "ed'l" or something like that.) and using ditto marks for repeated words. Also, notice where I went back a couple of minutes later and rewrote words that were illegible. (Like "ed'd" for educated, still a made-up abbreviation but at least a legible one.) If I hadn't gone back and written over my worst scribbles, I would never have been able to read my own writing when it came time to write a story.