SCCS Media Writing 2012

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Tips for Very Successful Interviewing

The Very Successful Interviewer gets people to tell things that they didn't want to tell.

The Very Successful Interviewer knows how to make the interviewee feel comfortable.

The Very Successful Interviewer lets the interviewee know that he or she understands the interviewee's position and point of view.

The Very Successful Interviewer is cheerful, friendly, courteous, kind, and respectful.

The Very Careful Interviewer knows how to put sensitive questions clearly, but with tact. Often the Very Successful Interviewer will have worked out the wording of the "tough" questioins in advance.(A good place to write them is inside the cover of your notebook, where Very Successful Interviewers also make a little list of the things they need to find out in the interview.

The Very Succesful Interviewer knows how to use periods of silence to his or her advantage.

Some Very Successful Interviewers are very confident, affable and outgoing; some are klutzy, unintimidating, and may seem to need help. Know which kind you are and be it. (And whichever kind you are, remember that some of the best appeals to an interviewee often start, "I need your help . . ." Everyone wants to help someone who needs help.).

All Very Successful interviewers are keen observers of the interviewee always on the lookout for little tics and nervous habits. They notice if a woman is always pushing her hair out of her eye (even when her hair is not near her eye). They notice if fingernails have been bitten, they watch to see if the interviewee pulls on his ear (often a sign that he or she is lying), they listen for nervous coughing during an answer (a warning sign), or inappropriate laughter (indficating extreme nervousness).

The Very Successful Intervierer is always listening for a great (or even a good) quote -- and writes it down right away.) Very Successful Interviewers take careful, accurate notes, but don't get so absorbed in doing so that they stop paying attention to what the interviewee is saying and doing.

All Very Successful Interviewers make eyeball-to-eyeball contact with the interviewee -- and notice if the intervieweee won't look them in the eye. But the Very Successful Interviewer is also very careful not to do anythjing to make the interviewee nervous or uncomfortable other than the questions he or she is asking.(Don't, for example, pick your nose or slip your shoes off.)

Very Successful Interviewers know that often they will have more questions (or that they have forgotten to ask something important), and so always say at the end of the interview, "I hope I can call you if any other questions come up," or something to that effect.

But, most of all, the Very Successful Interviewer knows that there are times when the rules must be broken, and is always ready in case the interview goes in an interesting direction he or she didn't expect. The Very Successful Interviewer is both prepared --and flexible.

SCISL Basketball and Track Schedules 2012

For up-to-the-minute schedule changes, results, and other news, go to scisl.blogspot.com

Basketball
Game	JV & Varsity	Date	Opponents		Time
1	JV	14 February	CLC vs. CC	SCIS vs. SCCS	3:30PM. Girls 4:30PM. Boys
1	Varsity	16 February		SCIS vs. SCCS
		27 February	CLC vs. CC
2	JV	23 February	SCIS vs. CLC	SCCS vs. CC
2	Varsity	24 February	SCIS vs. CLC	SCCS vs. CC
3	JV	28 February	CLC vs. SCCS	CC vs. SCIS
3	Varsity	1 March	CLC vs. SCCS	CC vs. SCIS
4	JV	6 March	CC vs. CLC	SCCS vs. SCIS
4	Varsity	8 March	CC vs. CLC	SCCS vs. SCIS
5	JV	13 March	CLC vs. SCIS	CC vs. SCCS
5	Varsity	15 March	CLC vs. SCIS	CC vs. SCCS
6	JV	20 March	SCCS vs. CLC	SCIS vs. CC
6	Varsity	22 March	SCCS vs. CLC	SCIS vs. CC

Basketball Semi-Finals and Finals

JV April 10^th and April 12^th

Varsity April 17^th and April 19^th

Track and Field
Meets	Dates	Times	Venue
VARSITY 1	March 12^th March 16^th	3:30- 5:30Pm 2:30 – 5:30 Pm	SCCS (Field Events) Tahuichi Aguilera (Track Events)
VARSITY 2	April 13^th April 16^th	2:30 – 5:30 Pm 3:30- 5:30Pm	Tahuichi Aguilera (Track Events) SCCS (Field Events)
JV Mini Olympics	March 23^th	2:00- 6:00pm	SCCS

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Formulas for News Writing

How To Write Anything

Every piece of non-fiction writing can be thought of as having two parts – an opening or introduction, followed by the main part of the article or paper. For convenience, we’ll call the first part the “top,” and the second part the “bottom.”

The top is fairly brief – no more than 20 percent of the entire piece, and rarely more than three or four paragraphs even in a fairly long paper. Often it’s a single paragraph (or two). However, it is very important. This is where you get your reader to read the rest. In it you must accomplish three things:

P Get the reader’s attention, usually with the opening sentence.

P Tell the reader what the story is about (that is, what is your “thesis”)

P Explain why it’s important, or interesting, or funny, or whatever it is that makes it significant and timely, and therefore worth reading right now.

Sometimes you can accomplish two of these at once. For example you can get the reader’s attention and tell what the story is about at the same time by starting with a sharp, clear, pithy statement of your theme. But often you´ll want to start with an anecdote, a fact, or a description. And then make a graceful turn into the paragraph explaining what the article is about, followed by the explanation of its significance.

There may be other things that you need to get done at the beginning. You may want to acknowledge that there is some information that conflicts with your thesis, and either deal with it or promise to do so later. Or you may want to specify what you are going to cover.

The bottom is the part where you give the reader the information you promised in the top. Here the exhortation to “write from a suitable design” becomes all important. You want to plan – often by writing it out – the order in which you are going to cover the relevant subtopics. They should follow logically. Anytime you can make the bottom into a “narration” (i.e., a story told in chronological fashion) you’re better off. A story, remember, has to have a beginning (a situation), a middle (a complication, or problem), and an end (a resolution of the problem). It should be tightly focused, and the principal theme should run through it like a skewer through a pacamuto. This doesn’t mean you leave out important people or information. You bring them in at the point where they are needed to compare and contrast with your central thesis.

A handy device is to set up a page with two columns. In the first is your basic design for the story. In the other you write down, in shorthand, the things you want to be sure to get in. Then you draw lines from the things you want to get in to the place they fit in the design. When you combine the two columns in this fashion you end up with a comprehensive plan, or outline, for writing your story.

When you get to the end, come up with a snappy conclusion that wraps things up if you can. This is a nice touch, but it is not always essential.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Usings "5Ws and an H" Opening

This is just a handy way of constructing the start (or "lead") of a news story when you are under deadline pressure, or when the story does not merit greater effort. In this case you get the reader's by telling him or her what they want to know in the fastest and most efficient way possible.

The "Five Ws" are who, what, when, where, why. Memorize them. They will be on a quiz or test. The "H," which is not always included, is for how. (In fact, why is also sometimes omitted from the lead paragraph if it is too complicated, or if it goes without saying.)

To think of it another way, the opening paragraph should tell the reader who did what, when, where, why and, sometimes, how.

It may become clearer if we look at real example from a kind of story we will be covering (games in the Santa Cruz Interscholastic Sports League):

Who? The Cooperative School boys varsity soccer team

What: Defeated Cambridge 11-0

When: Thursday afternoon

Where: The Jaguars' home field

Why? To open the season with a win

How: By outplaying the Cambridge Knight on offense and defense

This might all come together, with some embellishments, as follows:

The Cooperative boys varsity soccer team opened its season in impressive fashion with a decisive 11-0 win over Cambridge in a game played on the Jaguars' field Thursday afternoon. The Jaguars scored early and late, dominating play at both ends of the field.

You can always start a news story with a five W lead, though you may often be able to think of a better way to get the reader's attention. But even when you do you should answer the basic questions signalled by "The Five Ws and an H" by the second paragraph (or at least the third).

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Fri., Jan 20

This class could be called "Introduction to Interviewing," and we will keep things fairly simple. Later you will be assigned (or choose) a more interesting interview assignment.

In class we will first create individual weblogs. Everything you write for the class should be posted on the weblog, starting with the interviews of classmates which will be the second part of the class. The weblog will be assessed just before the end of the quarter and you will get a grade equivalent to a test based on its content (80%) and appearance (20%).

The interview written about you by a classmate should go, after being corrected and approved (by you and me) into the right hand column as a text "gadget," underneath (if possible) a nice picture of you. The interview you write about a classmate should be posted in the main column, with a headline on it.

Headlines are very important in this class. Give your blog a clever and engaging name, and write an interesting explanation of it underneath. (To do this go to "DESIGN" and edit the "Header.")

There will also be assigned reading on interviewing for next class (pages 83-93 of "Writing Across the Media.)

Ex-Journalist tells all

David Boldt was born at a very early age in New York City shortly before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor (although the events were not otherwise connected). He spent a largely uneventful childhood in the suburbs of New York located in the state of Connecticut, where he graduated from St. Luke’s School for Boys, a small private school (yes, even smaller than SCCS) located in New Canaan, Conn. He later graduated from Dartmouth College, in Hanover, N.H., in 1964 “with distinction in the major field of history.”

He immediately went to work for The Wall Street Journal in New York, and later, Los Angeles. He spent four years with the Journal, sandwiched around two years with the US Army Signal Corps stationed in Tehran, Iran, an experience that would later prove important to him in his journalistic career. He switched from the Journal to The Washington Post in 1968, and spent four years there, mainly covering the US Congress He was there during the time the Post broke open in the Watergate scandal, and actually sat at the desk next to Carl Bernstein, one of the principal authors of that investigation.

Boldt moved next to The Philadelphia Inquirer, which was then experiencing a renaissance under editor Eugene Roberts, who is quoted frequently in your textbook. During his thirty years at The Inquirer he was a member of a reporting team that won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for covering the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. The Inquirer took advantage of Boldt’s knowledge of Iran by sending him to cover the Islamic Revolution there in 1979, for which he received a special citation from the Overseas Press Club.

He edited the Inquirer Sunday Magazine from 1976 to 1986, during which time stories and photographs in the Magazine won three Pulitzer Prizes. Subsequent to that he was editor of the editorial page at The Inquirer and an Op-Ed columnist, winning awards in both assignments. He retired in 2000 and moved to Bolivia, where he has not been heard of since, though it is rumored that he teaches English and media writing there at the Santa Cruz Cooperative School.

Boldt has been married to the former Kelly Clark for over 20 years, and they have a daughter, Julia, 14. Boldt’s first wife, Fereshteh, died in 1989. His son from that marriage, Thomas, lives in Los Angeles with his wife Alanna, where he practices traditional Chinese medicine.For amusement Boldt enjoys swimming, horseback riding, tennis, travel, and reading, among other activities. He tried to learn how to play the guitar, but failed. Boldt both bats and throws right-handed.