• • • Story idea (The new baseball stadium will not be ready for the upcoming baseball season, despite multiple promises by the contractor and the university. My story will look at how this happened. I'll include costs, the history of how & why UNA built the stadium, why there were construction delays, how the stadium benefits UNA & the community, what people think about it.) Sources & how to reach them. Include at least three sources -- one primary, one secondary and one stored. (Make appointment to talk to baseball coach, email or call community supporter of baseball team, email UNA president, email or call people involved with baseball-stadium construction at other schools, search online for similar situations, research numbers from other university baseball stadiums) Multi-media elements (Include photos of the stadium, members of the baseball team practicing and mug shots of local people quoted; charts; graphs; include hyperlink to UNA sports, UNA baseball Facebook page and database for university stadiums for online publication; when publish online, create comment section for readers to express their opinions.) You DO NOT have to include these in your final story -- I just need to see your ideas. • The purpose of submitting a proposal is 1) so I can make sure your idea is viable, 2) to help you get organized and 3) to get you in the habit of submitting proposals. I'll evaluate your proposal and suggest any changes. GOOD WRITING BEGINS WITH GOOD REPORTING— find the details that will help tell the story. ACCURATE, SPECIFIC DETAILS 1. Use concrete examples— be specific (6 feet, 6 inches tall, not just “big”); avoid abstractions. 2. Show, don’t just tell— appeal to the five senses (touch, taste, sight, sound, smell). 3. Translate numbers— make comparisons; use rates (per student, per citizen, etc.). 4. Use words precisely — words should mean exactly what you intend them to mean. COHERENCE— built on a logical structure, matching content to appropriate sentence structure, using correct coordinating conjunctions, guiding readers with transitions. 1. Decide on the order of elements— chronology is often a luxury, so cre- ate an outline. 2. Select the proper sentence structure— simple vs. compound vs. complex. 3. Compound equates two or more ideas without comment. o Complex allows you to show sequence and cause/effect, among other things. 4. Use the precise conjunction— subordinating (if, since, while, after, until, etc.); coordinating (and, or, but, for, nor, so, yet); meaning is different and precise. 5. Use transitions— words and phrases that show logical progression of story structure and ideas; road signs directing traffic. 1. 1. Indefinite modifier (“a memory”) vs. definite modifier (“the mem- ory”) vs. demonstrative adjective (“that memory”). Parallelism. Chronology and references to time. CONCISENESS AND SIMPLICITY — conciseness is a virtue. 1. Aim for conciseness— eliminate some subject areas; eliminate redun- dancies; challenge intensive and qualifying adverbs; train yourself to value brevity. 2. Keep it simple— ask sources for simpler explanations; if necessary, paraphrase and check for accuracy. CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE LANGUAGE 1. Figures of speech— simile and metaphor. 2. Careful word choice— don’t turn nouns into verbs; avoid jargon; be precise (will vs. would). 3. Bias-free language— sexist or racist language is imprecise; context matters; the freedom to choose precisely the right word is both exhilarating and dangerous. 4. Correct grammar and punctuation. 5. Dangling participles. 6. Subject-verb disagreement. 7. Pronoun-antecedent disagreement. 8. Misplaced modifiers. 9. Punctuation. THE TOOLS OF NARRATION— allow readers to see the action, to make stories as entertaining as they are interesting. • 1. Scenes— you have to be there to capture the sights, sounds, smells; get the sensory details into your notebooks; work scenes into the story. 2. Dialogue— gets the writer out of the scene. 3. Anecdotes— stories embedded in stories that help entertain while informing; hard to get; ask sources for examples and illustrations; ask superlative questions (best ever, worst ever, funniest, etc.). 4. Foreshadowing— giving hints of what’s to come; a writer’s promise that the best is yet to come in the story.
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