Site Still Alive?

The great thing about WordPress as a site for blogging and website creation, is that you can always go back in and add a new article, post or photo at any time, even many years after you created the blog. As I am doing here. I’m going to experiment with a few other features of this new posting exercise.

Experimenting with adding Media

This posting is simply my attempt to play around with links, photos, and anything else I want to add to a site, so I can explain it to my students who will be blogging shortly for this semester’s Review Writing class.

OK, let’s try a link. Here’s a tip sheet from Oxford Dictionary on how to write a review:

en.oxforddictionaries.com/…/top-tips-for-writing-a-review

How about adding a photo from what’s on file:

Now let’s try adding photos from the web using free photo library:

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Person of the Week

   For your fourth formal writing assignment, you will choose someone in your community to profile as the “Person of the Week.” The person does not have to be a public figure, but he or she does have to be doing something, (or have done something) that would qualify as newsworthy, and worthy of being highlighted.

    After selecting a worthy candidate, you will need to make arrangements to meet with this person to conduct a one-on-one interview. Do not do this interview over the phone, as you will need to observe the physical features of this person (appearance, mannerisms, setting, etc.) in order to produce a solid profile. In the interview process, you should cover all aspects of this person’s life, past and present. Be sure to come prepared with a list of questions, knowing that you may veer off the list as the conversation gets rolling.

    You will need to interview at least two other people who know this person, or who might have something to say about this person. You can find other people by asking the profile subject, or by talking to people in the community who might know him or her. (These can be done by phone.)

 

   In writing your story, you profile should have a central theme that defines the essence of this person and why they deserve being the focus of a profile. You will probably go with a soft news lead, starting off with some aspect of the person that speaks to this overall theme that you will establish in the course of your piece – perhaps a description of the person doing what they do, or an anecdote they share with you from their past. From there, you will provide a nut graph fully introducing the person and what makes them newsworthy at this time (and therefore deserving of the Person of the Week title.) What is most important about this person? What makes him or her tick? How is he or she perceived in the community and why? These are the kinds of questions your profile should answer– which you will need to develop in detail, using descriptions, background, quotes, comments from others and context.  Be sure to use colorful quotes, both from the subject profile and the others you will speak to.

    As with the last assignment, you will be posting this piece on your community blog, as well as submitting a hard copy to me for grading.

    The piece should be a minimum of 600 words and should be posted and submitted by Thursday, November 19^th.

 

Assignment: Election Day blog

As we move from reporting in the urban environment to the community environment, this will be your first assignment that you will be writing to your community blog. The idea it to take a measure of your community on an important day when most communities are abuzz with action: Election Day.

 To write your piece, you will need to spend some part of Tuesday, Nov. 3^rd (Election Day) in your chosen community, observing the settings you are in and talking to people to get a sense of where the community is at on Election Day. You should choose to go to a place that either reflects the day itself: a polling station (where you should also go in and vote!); a rally by one of the candidates, a corner where leaflets are being handed out, etc., or a place where people gather and talk: the local coffee shop or diner, a barbershop  or hair salon, a playground, the downtown commercial district, etc.

 In writing your blog, you will be expected to capture the mood and atmosphere that is unique to your community on Election Day, as well as the voices there, threading them together with a cohesive theme. This will mean interviewing people. You should have at least three voices in your piece, beyond your own.  The writing can reflect some of your own style and can include personal observations, as long as it also depicts the community at large on this day.

 I am sending you a link below to a similar story I did for the New York Times last year leading up to Election Day, which was a pulse of the state, rather than an individual community. This will give you some idea of how to blend in various voices and observations while threading a theme.

 Your blog should be a minimum of 500 words long. It must be posted by Thursday, Nov. 5^th, and you will need to bring a hard copy to class on that day as well for grading purposes.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/nyregion/new-jersey/26voicesnj.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Anna+Hamed&st=nyt

Welcome to Community Blogging!

As October draws to a close, our journalism class will now be switching gears from Urban Reporting, where the main focus of our reporting and writing was on Camden, New Jersey (an ideal Petri dish for understanding all that ails urban America) to individual communities. I guess you could say we are moving from “Urban Reporting” to “”Suburban Reporting” or “Community Reporting.” Either way, many of the same issues we looked at in covering Camden, also apply to outlying municipalities.

To get started, I am asking each student to create a blog about whichever community they choose to focus on — preferably one that you have a close connection to, such as your hometown, or an institution, club, organization or business that  you are a member of and feel comfortable writing about in blog format.

In addition to picking  your target community, I’d like you to select a catchy title, and to post an initial blog to get started. Also, you will be selecting a design format for your blog, choosing amongst those made available through WordPress. We will do this in class on Thursday. If you are familiar with some of the more advanced aspects of blogging, you are welcome to insert links, photos, and even include a personal avatar that will help identify your blog. While the focus of our class will still be largely centered on reporting and writing, as opposed to the art of blogging, by using this format to share your work I hope to expose you to a new (for some) form of communication. For some, I hope, it will open up an avenue that you may wish to keep up beyond this class. For your community, it may open up a new opportunity for others to join in the conversation and contribute news and opinions that are not currently being voiced in any public forum.

Good luck and I look forward to reading each of your posts.