Bob Herbert columns

Bob Herbert is a columnist for The New York Times who frequently uses human interest stories as part of his opinion pieces. Here are two such pieces:

The Man in the Room
Who was the tall young man, the quiet guy with the small wire-rimmed glasses, who was spending the entire day, every day, with the badly wounded soldier in room 5711 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center?

Letters From Vermont
Despite the focus on the housing crisis, gasoline prices and the economy in general, the press has not done a good job capturing the intense economic anxiety — and even dread, in some cases — that has gripped tens of millions of working Americans, including many who consider themselves solidly middle class.

Go to the complete archive of Bob Herbert articles by clicking here.

Writing Assignment #6

For this assignment you will be writing a feature article profiling one of your classmates (see list below). Please follow these steps:


1. Read the article in the post below this one on feature story writing.
2. Read the stories you all wrote for your previous writing assignment.
3. Interview your subject with an eye toward getting essential information and uncovering interesting stories.
4. Make notes and an outline until you have determined your story angle.
5. If you have any further questions, ask them!
6. Write an article profiling your subject with an emphasis on "human interest" and storytelling. Use at least two photographs and make use of storytelling elements whenever possible.

Who to write about:
Aleksey write about Ance
Ance write about Sally
Sally write about Forest
Forest write about Murad
Murad write about Megan
Megan write about Aleksandrs
Aleksandrs write about Pandy
Pandy write about Shelby
Shelby write about Tonny
Tonny write about Effie
Effie write about Sierra
Sierra write about Aleksey

Feature Story Writing

by Jeffrey Romanow

Some of the basic elements of a feature news story:
a. Focus on less timely subject matter
b. Use creative leads rather than straight news leads
c. Use many sources, lively quotes, creative endings, and descriptive writing to tell their story.

1. Creativity
• All good writing springs from creativity, including feature and news reporting even though it is more formal in style than other programs:
Creativity involves:
• Selecting specific details that paint pictures and allow the reader to imagine what is being described.
What to Say: Finding the Angle
• The first step in developing a story is to find the angle, or the main point of the story. One way to find the angle is to clarify the facts and then ask the question, "So what?"
• To answer the "so what?" question, you need to understand who the readers are. What news interests them? What information is relevant to their daily lives? What are they worried about? What do they feel strongly about?
• The answer to "so what?" will lead to the story angle.
The necessity of an angle
• The angle is what makes readers say, "Oh, that's important," or "That's interesting."
• Identifying the angle helps to sharpen focus for the story and leads to clearer writing. A story without an angle that covers every aspect of an issue will be confusing and lose readers

Finding the angle
While reviewing a story idea, ask:
• What is happening or what has been happening?
• Why is the story important?
• Why will readers care about this story?
• What will readers want to know?


Think about:
Readers
a. Who are they?
b. What will make them identify with the story and find it relevant and interesting?
c. What do they already know or think about the issue?
d. What other questions would they like to have answered?
e. Why did the event occur?
f. What do people think about the event that occurred?
g. Who is involved in the event and why?
h. Will something happen in the future as a result of the news event

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Citizen Journalism: Photojournalism

CJ Writing Assignments #4 and #5 — due this Thursday

Assignment 4: Web Research
Do some web research and find at least one good article from a reputable source that relates directly to the subject matter of your blog. Write a short intro to this article (a few sentences) and then provide a link to it. For example...
________________________
Harsh treatment awaits children fleeing war and persecution
In this article from The Guardian (London) dated June 3, 2008, the reporter follows the lives of children fleeing the horrors of war and civil turmoil in such places as Afghanistan and the Congo to their arrival in Greece, where they are liable to end up in abysmal conditions, housed in detention centers alongside hardened criminals.

Click here to read the whole article.
_________________________

Reminder: to create a link to the article, do the following:
• copy the URL of the article to the clipboard
• back in the Blogger "New Post" window, highlight the word or words you want them to click on to get to the article
• click on the link icon (= a chain) in the tool bar at the top of the New Post edit window
• paste in the URL you just copied


Assignment 5: Storytelling
Telling a good story is not just for movies and novels, it's also a key skill for the journalist. Your first storytelling assignment is to simply tell a story in a page or two. You can tell any story you want. It does not have to have anything to do with your blog or to be "newsworthy." All stories will be read aloud in class!

Some key components to consider:
• characterization
• visualization of their world
• conflicting forces
• dramatic tension
• empathy
• building our interest (the un-inverted pyramid!)
• playing with expectations; plot "twists"
• the ending offers a payoff