6 Tips for Writing About Live Events

Writing about live events such as meetings, press conferences, and speeches can be tricky even for seasoned reporters. Such events are often unstructured and even a bit chaotic, and the reporter, on deadline, has to make sense of what happened and present it in a story that has structure, order, and meaning. Not always easy. Here are some basic dos and donts for good reporting of live events: Find Your Lede The lede of a live event story should center on the most newsworthy and interesting thing that occurs at that event. Sometimes thats obvious: If a congressional leader announces a vote to raise income taxes, chances are thats your lede. But if its not clear to you whats most important, or even what just happened, after the event interview knowledgeable people who can give you insight and perspective. It may be something you didnt even fully understand or a combination of a few things. Dont be afraid to ask. Avoid Ledes That Say Nothing Whatever the story—even a boring one, and sometimes those happen—find a way to write an interesting lede. The Centerville City Council met last night to discuss the budget does not pass muster, nor does, A visiting expert on dinosaurs gave a talk last night at Centerville College. Your lede should give readers specific information about something interesting, important, funny, or catchy that happened or was said. For example, Members of the Centerville town council argued bitterly last night over whether to cut services or raise your taxes. Or, A giant meteorite was probably responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, an expert said last night at Centerville College. See the difference? If absolutely nothing of interest happened, you write a brief instead of a story, or perhaps nothing at all. Dont waste your readers time. Watch for the Unexpected No matter how it was sold, sometimes what you expected would be the most important story of a live event turns out to be dull: a non-event. Perhaps a side story—a protest or something said unexpectedly by someone noteworthy—rises to center stage and becomes the better story. Grasp it. Keep your ears and eyes tuned and your mind open. Be willing to shift your focus, start over, and reorganize. Dont Cover Events Chronologically When enthusiastic newbie reporters cover their first live events, they often feel an urge to tell their readers everything: Afraid of missing something important, they cover the event as it happens, from beginning to end, starting with the roll call and the approval of the minutes. This is a classic mistake that most reporters quickly learn to avoid. Remember to be discerning: no one cares about the humdrum. Again, find the most interesting thing that happened—it might be the last item on the agenda, or the very last thing said—and put it at the top of your story. Include Plenty of Direct Quotes​ Good direct quotes are like a spice in a dish: They take the readers right there on the spot, give them a sense of the person who is speaking, and lend the story flavor, energy, and music. They also lend authoritativeness and credibility to stories involving public officials (whose career a quote can break). So, great quotes are essential to the fabric of a great story. Again, though, be discerning: Few people are worth quoting at great length. Try to pick out the jewels—either eloquent or important things said in a special way that you couldnt reproduce by paraphrasing, or, if appropriate, things poorly said that you want your readers to hear for themselves. Or things your readers wouldnt believe were said if they didnt have quote marks around them. If the quotes are humdrum and run long, cut and paraphrase. Add Color and Leave out the Boring Stuff Remember, youre a reporter, not a stenographer. Youre under no obligation to include in your story absolutely everything that happens at an event. If the school board members discuss the weather, its probably not worth mentioning (though if its all they discuss, that might be a good story). On the other hand, you are your readers eyes and ears: Color that gives the reader a sense of the scene can take your story from ordinary to memorable. Report with your senses.

The Birth of Social Media Essay - 888 Words

Social media: (noun pl but singular or pl in constr) forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content. Social media has developed to allow for information to be shared instantaneously: image and video sharing, spontaneous group get-togethers, and worldwide, real time news announcements are sent through time and space with the click of a button, and can spread like wildfire. In the following pages we will discuss several aspects of social media and how it affects our culture. Issues such as how social media is changing the way people communicate, positive and negative effects of†¦show more content†¦The emergence of interacting socially through the use of the Internet began with Email. The information contained in an Email message has the ability to be delivered instantly to one or many, as well as forwarded to other recipients with the click of the mouse. This enables widespread, viral like interactions to cross the plane of space and time, and impact society and culture on a global scale. Email continues to be the largest social network online today. (Owyang, 2014) We use Email for everything from business correspondences, to sharing photos and videos. Most Americans have at least one email address; in fact, the average number of email accounts per person is 3.1. (toptenreviews.com) Different uses of Email can require different email addresse s. For example: one for work, one personal, and one for SPAM (also known as Internet junk mail.) It seems however that using Email to connect to the people we know has its limitations; we need to know who the people actually are in order to contact them, please allow me to introduce American Online. America Online (AOL) brought together people who subscribed to the AOL service with other like-minded individuals. AOL features included Internet searching, Chat rooms where groups of people could all talk about the same subject, and Instant Messaging. The idea of being able to connect with someone miles away, who you don’t know personally, was both novel and ingenious. Instant Messaging can be credited withShow MoreRelatedEffects Of Social Media On Teen Pregnancy Essay1400 Words   |  6 PagesEffects of Social Media on Teen Pregnancy Does social media impact teenagers in a positive or negative manner? With the advent of social media, it is unclear what to expect from it and the influence it brings to the society. According to various research studies in the field of online social networks, it has been revealed that these sites are impacting the lives of the youth greatly. When using sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many others, there are both positive and negative effectsRead MoreThe Cognitive Response Theory On Birth Control1222 Words   |  5 Pagesfirst section provides an exclusive look into the evolution of birth control and its comparison of the contraception methods used in the 20th century vs. today’s current 21st century. A second section focuses on the use of advertising to promote birth control and the effectiveness of birth control and does it truly work. While the third section concludes the chapter with three distinct research questions. 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Free College Admissionss I Love Electronics Essay Example For Students

Free College Admissionss: I Love Electronics Essay College Admissions EssaysI Love Electronics I have been interested in electronics since I was a child. At the age 5 I made a plug of aluminium foil and I put it in the electrical wall socket. To my surprise I got an electric shock, the wall and socket consequently became blackened, we had no electricity for the rest of the day (I wasnt at all very popular). Following on from this incident, I was often found sitting by the side of the blackened socket looking at it and thinking. I never did try to make another aluminium foil plug. My father was greatly interested in electronics. When I was 7 years old he made his first black and white television. We often had father-daughter chats about electronics. I used to assist him with great enjoyment, these jobs ranged from passing him resistors of the correct value (I hope), to the manufacture of PCBs. In my infancy electrical appliances fascinated me and the iron was the first I thoroughly discovered. It started with me watching my mother doing the ironing, she was very happy to see me watching, she thought one day I would make someone a very good housewife. But after a while her irons would slowly disappear one after the other, until finally one day she found an iron totally dismantled in the bin. She had discovered that my real intention wasnt to understand the finer points of house work but science. After the iron in the bin episode I was continually in trouble with my mother, but my father was very proud of me in the way that I wanted gain an understanding basic science. Later my father and I used to have competitions against each other to see who could make better electronic devices, like amplifiers, speakers, mini radio, etc It used to take me ages to make these devices operational and they were always of an inferior quality of my fathers, until one day, my father said to me that even he could not do a better job. These words from my father positively overwhelmed me and I will never forget this day!

Shaving Policy for Males for US Armed Forces Essay Example

Shaving Policy for Males for US Armed Forces Essay In my rush to prepare for the day, I missed a spot shaving. Of course, this is a new experience for me, since I had been proudly shaving since middle school when I had but four whiskers sprouting and would ask my parents, in my 14-year-old unreliably squeaking voice, to pick up a pack of Bic shavers while they were at the grocery store. Since that time, I have produced more than my initial four whiskers and now have too many to count. As I have developed calloused and rough hands from doing heavy duty on a daily basis, it is not impossible to miss a few spots while shaving. That is no excuse, however, for not having full and comprehensive understanding of the US Armed Forces shaving and facial hair policy for males.There will be no beards in the military, unless for health reasons. If there are health reasons for facial hair, an exemption will be authorized by the commanding officer on advice of the medical officer. If facial hair is authorized by the commanding officer as recommende d by the medical officer, the beard must be trimmed so that it does not exceed  ¼-inch in length.   If granted a shaving waiver, members will not shave any facial hair, keeping it at no more than  ¼-inch in length.Mustaches, if authorized, will not extend below the upper lip or sideways beyond a vertical line drawn upward from the corners of the mouth. Sideburns must be neat and taper in the same manner as the haircut, be straight and even and not extend below the bottom of the exterior ear opening. Unless you are in the Navy, in which case sideburns must not extend below the middle of the ear, with no flares or mutton chops.As there are no beards in the military unless a health wavier is granted, that means no facial hair will be present at any time. All shaving will be result in an absence of facial hair from the bottom of the orbital socket to the bottom of the Adam’s apple and laterally from the jaw line distal to the ear to the opposing jaw line distal to the ear, exclusive of side burns that meet standards.To comply with shaving standards of the US Armed Forces, I will not appear unless clean shaven and will maintain policy at all times. Unless I was to have a medical reason for a shaving waiver authorized by my commanding officer on the advice of a medical officer, I should not appear without a cleanly shaven face. A cleanly shaven face demonstrates respect for the uniform and the standards of the finest military in the world. A cleanly shaven face demonstrates a high regard for military policy and a high regard for the rest of personnel in my unit. A cleanly shaven face is simply part of a soldier’s or sailor’s uniform and should be treated with the regard and respect the uniform portends.Therefore, in clear understanding of the importance of a cleanly shaven face in compliance with shaving standards of the United States Armed Forces, I promise to never again be remiss in my shaving practices lest I appear ungroomed or unkemp t.

Bridge to Wisemans Cove free essay sample

One of the main ideas in the novel is family. In the novel, Carl and Harley are desert by their family and are forced to move in with their aunt who doesn’t care that the three of them share a bond with each other. Also, at their new home Carl and Harley are often detested because of what had happened in the past with their grandfather so another situation regarding their family has landed the brothers into another dilemma.As the story progresses, Carl regains the trust of the townspeople in Carl and Harley and they lose the label of the Matt Family being a bunch of troublemakers and by the end of the novel Carl and Harley are able to get their lives back by joining a new family. Journey: During the course of the novel, self conscious, awkward Carl matures and begins to stand up for himself. When Carl first arrives in Wattle Beach he is miserable and lonely. We will write a custom essay sample on Bridge to Wisemans Cove or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He is extremely naive and hands all his money over to Beryl.Then, once he starts working, in an effort to have her keep him and Harley, he gives her all of his pay. Gradually, Carl learns to stand up for himself and his brother. When Beryl chains Harley up, Carl finds the courage to confront her at the club where she has been all day playing the pokies. Towards the end of the novel, Carl is regard as a hero by protecting Maddie by standing up to Nathan- â€Å"No-one’s ever told him of like that†. Each time Carl starts to get a little more self-confident another secret is revealed and he slips back into his self-doubts but at the end, he has clearly matured.Love: Carl is crippled by the belief that his mother no longer loves him. Carl is a gentle person with a lot of love to give- He goes to Nugent’s store every afternoon to meet the bus, hoping that his mother will get off it. He buys reflectors for Harley’s bike and a coffee plunger for Beryl, even though he receives and expects nothing in return. He constantly looks out for Harley and tries to protect him in every way. Throughout the novel Carl is haunted by Beryl’s comment â€Å"Who’ll ever love you†. Courage: Courage is shown in many ways throughout this novel. When Carl finds Harley chained up at home whilst Beryl is at the bowl’s club, He has the courage to confront her and set things straight. When Carl is working on the Barge and Skip Duncan finds out who he really is, one of the Matt’s, Sip wants him off the barge straight away and to never come back. Carl has the courage to stand up for himself and tell him that he is nothing like his grandfather. By the end of the book, Carl finds the courage to grasp some happiness for himself and for Harley as well.

Orbitals essays

Orbitals essays Moving Object has wave like characteristics Particles really do have wave-like properties, it just took a while for us to notice them. It wasn't discovered until 1925 that electrons do have wave characteristics. An American physicist, Clinton Davisson, was working with Lester Germer at Bell Labs reflecting electrons. An apparatus containing a nickel target was damaged, breaking the vacuum and ruining the prepared sample of nickel. Davisson and Germer heated the nickel to use it again, unintentionally fusing it into large crystals. When electrons were scattered off these crystals, diffraction patterns were observed, demonstrating that electrons have wave characteristics. We treat a light wave as a ray of light if the wavelength of the light is smaller than the size of objects that it encounters. If the wavelength is about the same size or larger than objects it encounters, we must acknowledge the wave properties of the light. An electron of course is a particle. We know its mass, charge, and some real-world effects that demonstrate the particular nature of an electron. Diffraction is fundamentally a wave property. Even if we could explain diffraction in terms of particles, the explanation in terms of waves is the simplest one- that's what it means to say that the electrons behave as waves. Quantum Number The quantum number indicates how far the orbital is from the nucleus. Electrons are farther away for higher values of n. By Coulombs law we know that electrons, which are closer to the positively charged nucleus, are more powerfully attracted and thus have lower potential energies. Electrons of orbitals with higher values of n, being farther away from the nucleus, have greater potential energies. In a given atom, all the atomic orbitals with the same n are known as a shell. n can take on integer values of 1 or higher (ex. 1, 2, 3, etc.).The Quantum numb...

How to prepare and recover from a Hurricane Research Paper

How to prepare and recover from a Hurricane - Research Paper Example Besides the flying debris and flood coming in the wake of hurricanes are also quiet destructive. Hence, in the areas that are prone to hurricanes, it is certainly a good idea to prepare in advance. Such timely and prompt preparation could save many human lives and property and could well protect the people living in hurricane prone areas from the disaster and destruction caused by hurricanes and facilitates a better recovery after a hurricane (Wagner 6). Preparing for a Hurricane While making preparations for a hurricane it is imperative to select and identify a safe area where the families could weather the strong storms, tornadoes and rainfall accompanying a hurricane (Mitchell 7). This place could be a location within the home like some room located at the bottom floor or any other room in the house that has no windows. In case a home does not have a safe area than it is important that the family members in such homes do have access to at least two hurricane shelters located close to the home. In case a family member is suffering from some medical condition and will not be in a situation to shift on one’s own, than it is important to seek the help of the concerned professionals in advance (Burnett, Dyer & Pickins 10). While preparing for a hurricane it is also important to stock up the requisite quantities of water and food (Dickson 9). The families lying in the route of an imminent hurricane should have sufficient supplies of processed food and water in the stock that should last for a number of weeks (Dickson 9). In case the stock of food and water accrued by a family has gone old, it is important to replace this stock with the fresh supplies, well in time. Besides the preparations for a hurricane require stocking varied other emergency supplies like flashlights and extra batteries, strong and sturdy shoes, battery operated radios with extra batteries for them, cash, credit cards, first aid kits and manuals, important medicines, and non-electrical c an openers (Ready 1). It is also important to make arrangements for pets. Pets may not be accommodated in a hurricane shelter for cleanliness and hygiene reasons (Bevan 54). Thereby it is necessary to contact the nearby humane societies to cull out information on local pet shelters (Bevan 54). It is useful to get one’s home ready in case of an imminent hurricane. In case a house is already provided with hurricane shutters, it helps to look to it that one has extra screws and washers in one’s possession. In case a home does not have access to precut plywood to bolster the windows, it helps to look into the storeroom to locate anything that could serve the purpose. It really helps to hurricane proof the home well in advance. In the case of an approaching hurricane, it happens to be quiet pragmatic for the families to prepare family communication plans (McGinnis 60). The family members may get separated after or before the storms start. In such a case the family members s hould recognize an out of state contact as a contact point for all the family members. It should be assured that all the family members know about this contact and have its phone number with them. It is helpful to keep the vehicles gassed up during the hurricane season. It is also pragmatic to check one’s insurance coverage in advance because insurance companies stop extending coverage in case of an approa