Forming a soft lead vs. a hard lead

When forming a hard lead for a story it is fast, breath taking, and full of excitement because it is highly important breaking news, or it is very recent and needed to be known. Writing those types of leads for our stories are more fun because it jumps into the story faster and it is easier to answer the 5 w's faster. I feel that it is more interesting to write fast introductions and it is a little easier. When writing about Valentines Day though, it was much easier to start with a softer lead because Valentines Day is not breaking news. Everyone knows that it is a holiday and it is not a very demanding holiday for high rated news. Instead it was good to pick the softer lead because it still draws in the reader, but in a more relaxed way that keeps them wanted to read more to find out the point of the story. Also it is good to use softer leads because you can build it longer and keep interest, where as in a hard lead you get all of the hard hitting news out right in the beginning and then end it with the boring finishing details to wrap it up. I think even though it is easier to write the hard leads, it is more effective to write a softer lead for our types of stories.

Reading today's Boston Globe

While scanning through the Boston Globe for today, I found one of the most interesting stories and now I want to know even more about it than the article gave for information. The article is called "Police Chief son arrested in N.H." and it caught my eye because there are always interesting police stories that have to do with drunk driving. As I started reading the story it then became even more interesting because the arrest of the police chief's son happened in Plymouth, NH on the past weekend, and I was in Plymouth during this arrest. It just so happens that this boy that is from Mass. who is 22 years old was in the car with 5 minors who had all been under the influence, got pulled over due to suspicion that the driver was intoxicated. Then when the boy got pulled over on High st. he was taken with his girlfriend back to his house in Mass. by the police. This story is super intriguing and it is awesome that it took place where I happened to be, and the Boston Globe is covering it.

using blogger

Using blogger has taught me many new things and also has helped form new writing skills. One interesting thing it taught me was that I can write about almost anything, and people will still read it, there are so many different types of readers out there. You never know who could be reading your blog so it is always cool to see how many people view your blog each day. Another thing I learned using blogger is that it is a good way to get thoughts out, you can write personally, but you can also keep it short handed. One particular thing blogger helped me with is to write about various topics, but still keep my own writing style. Writing journalism pieces has brought me out of my comfort zone and showed me how to condense my writing and make it more for the crowd rather than myself. Blogger has helped formulate my ideas for stories, helps for practicing stories, and I can also use it to continue with my writing itself. This blog site is user friendly, and a creative way to share your thoughts.

learning how to soften a hard lead

Maureen A. O’Leary has been leading a group of researches searching for a common ancestor linked to humankind. Fossil records show that there may be an animal connecting back to humans that is the size of a rat. It has a long furry tail and lived on insects millions of years ago.

“The animal had several anatomical characteristics for live birth that anticipated all placental mammals” according to scientists. This mammal flourished 66 million years ago and the comprehensive study has been going on for 6-years now. 

Finding my story

When finding an interesting story, it is hard to figure out how news worthy the situation really is. Trying to find a topic to write about for this weeks assignment, I knew Sunday night what I was going to write about, because it happened to myself and many other students. The parking on campus during a snow storm is like parking in a snow bank, because our cars become part of the snow bank. Because the plow  is only able to do the isles, the snow bank goes right up to the back of everyones car, leaving a wall for students to dig out. After spending 40 minutes with no shovel, kicking out with my feet a spot to put my car, it was a nightmare and I knew I had to let people know. Many students were in the same predicament and they started to get frustrated at campus parking for not making spots cleared out. Cars were getting stuck, and students got soaking wet trying to free their car from the massive amount of snow that was left on and around their car.

Using Pulse

Using the app called Pulse on my Iphone is awesome because it is all of the news in the palm of your hand. When signing up for it I was hesitant because I wasn't sure how many stories it would give me, and if it was even user friendly. Once I got started it was a lot easier than I thought, all I had to do was make an account and select which news I would like to read about and BAM! top stories right away. My favorite part of the app is how it puts the news into categories, and then you can scroll through the stories, each story having a picture above it. Once you open the article, it gives you the first few paragraphs with the key facts, and if you want to know anything more on the article you can click to view the whole article. The app has a very wide range of news papers and sites to look at. Anything from Time and Wall Street Journal, to even HuffPost Style and any other sites that interest you. It is the quickest way to read up on what is happening around you, and I am really glad I took the time to download this app, it is very helpful and dummy proof.

storm- related anecdotes

Due to the large amount of snow left in New England late Friday night into Saturday, many folks were left to shovel out 2-feet of snow to go anywhere. According to fellow student Breanna Brann, "the storm really sucked coming back onto campus because we had to dig out our own parking spots at West Edge, and we had no shovel. It took 40 minutes to park the car and we got soaked!" Other students felt the same way about snow and it drove them crazy. Talking to Sophia Spainhower, "me and my roommate wanted to go to the mall on Saturday but the busses on campus were closed so we were stuck on campus and didn't have anything to do". When shoveling with my mom on Saturday there was so much snow it was crazy. "We spent around 2 hours getting the deck cleared off and it was so tiring. Every time the wind blew, the dust of snow would fly around and hit our faces making it so cold we had to turn our backs to it. The snow was up to our knees in some places and when I fell snow went down my coat; it was freezing and got my top of my sweat pants all wet" according to my mom. Many students and families around New England were left to tough out the extreme amounts of snow and it was really interesting to see how every one handled it.

Class assignment: Belmont car crash

BELMONT- Tuesday evening, three teens were driving down a dark dirt road and the car swerved off the road and flipped onto its roof. 17-year-old driver walked away, but the 2 injured young girls are in the hospital.

            The driver, Jamie Peterson, a local, was driving down Mile Hill Road at around 9 o’clock making the road very dark. According to witness Josie M. Crandall who lives in front of the crash said: “I’ve never seen a car going so fast on this road. It’s a dirt road, and it’s really easy to lose control”.

            This exact spot has been known for crashes due to a fatal accident at the same spot December 24, 2005 including two local teenagers. Another witness on the scene, Tom Carroll Jr. who is also seventeen, was following when he saw the car flip. Carroll states: “I thought the worst. They were flying. It’s hard to see kids your age in something like this”. Being the first one on the scene, Carroll told police that he saw the car suddenly speed ahead around a curve and the next time he saw the car it was on its roof.

            Peterson was able to crawl from the car on his own, but the other 2 teens weren’t so lucky. Rescuers spent 45 minutes using the jaws of life to free them from the crushed car. According to Carroll when talking to police, three empty Budweiser beer cans were spotted on the ground, but it is unsure how they got there and if they were involved.

            The two young girls were taken to Memorial Hospital in Belmont. One of the girls is in stable condition and on her way to recovery; the other girl had to be airlifted to Mass. General Hospital in Boston. Medical personal confirmed that there was a victim from the crash being treated for a brain injury, but they would not confirm the identity of the patient. 

Looking at the Boston Globe

When scanning through the stories that are featured in the Boston Globe, they all seem to catch my eyes in a different way. I realized that there are so many top stories, and deciding which one to feature first is probably very hard. How do the publishers and editors know which story the readers will respond to more, and what is more important to the readers? I feel that to decide what stories they feature first, they look at what draws more facts and has more relevance to what is happening in local areas. What I like most that news papers do is put the small inserts in of important quotes because it draws in the readers and makes them want to know what the quotes mean. Also I like all of the colors they use, pictures are always eye catching, and the best part is the side columns because it is like a mini preview of what will be throughout that days issue.

How I went about finding my next story

Finding my next story to write about was difficult at first because I had the freedom to write about what I wanted. Once I knew I could pick from anything that I was interested in, I had so many ideas, but none of them seemed news worthy. Finally I was down to the ideas of either writing about the fans reaction to the super bowl outcome, or Hogwarts night in the dining hall. I ended up picking Hogwarts night at the dining hall because it was a story that was happening on campus, students are very excited for it, and it seems to be a pretty news worthy story around campus. This is the first time the dining hall is trying this theme and the students have high expectations. I feel this topic is interesting news to hear about because if the dining hall gets the turn out they are hoping for, and students enjoy the dinner as much as they were looking forward to it, than the dining hall might have a future exciting theme for following years to come. This night could be a hit or miss, and I hope that writing about it will show that this dinner theme could turn out to be a big deal for the dining hall and their future themes.

adapting to news writing

Trying to get into the flow of direct writing, rather than long worded creative sentences, is harder than I thought. Because I love to write endless thoughts, it is really difficult to condense the words into a more direct, news worthy statement. As I begin to practice more, and write a varied range of stories I feel I will be able to pick up the tricks of the trade quickly, and become a successful news writer that people want to read. I really look forward to trying out different types of stories and exploring what stories work best for my type of writing. The topics I am most interested in writing about are topics that include how the people feel. It would be cool to write about the common interest and feedback of what people have to say on what is happening because then you are able to hear a new side of the story. Sometimes reporters only write about the high action news to grab the readers, but it is also important to hear what the readers themselves have to say about what is going on.