Institute for Nanoscale Technology & Youth

1. Institute for Nanoscale Technology & Youth FlexTIM Critical Thinking Seminar Module #1a Writing an Article

2. Character Education – Critical Thinking View Video Clip - “The Other Wes Moore” What does he mean when he says, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine and the tragedy is that my story could have been his.” Wes Moore Complete Nurture vs. Nature Exercise

3. Character Education – Critical Thinking OPTION # 2

4. Character Education – Critical Thinking This clip is from the obituary of World Heavyweight Boxing Champ - Joe Lewis • What does his story teach us about the impact we can have on the lives of other people? • What do you want to be remembered for?

5. Today’s Thought Question “The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” – Charles Dubois Are you willing to sacrifice who you are for who you could become?

6. Beginning of Lesson Module #1a Writing an Article

7. Creating a News Story? Creating a News Story using the Five "W"s and the "H“

8. Learning Objectives Students will be able to: Understand how to create an article; Define the 6 basic questions; Answer the 6 basic questions; and Explore the ethical issues in an article.

9. Lesson Materials, Labs & Quizzes Materials Needed for this Lesson: • Reading - How to Write a News Story • Exercise - How to Evaluate a News Story

10. Creating a News Story Here's something very few people realize: Writing news stories isn't particularly difficult. It does take practice and not everyone will be an expert but if you follow the guidelines on the next few slides should be able to create effective news items without too much stress.

11. Creating a News Story Using the Five "W"s and the "H“ Collectively they represent the crux of all news – when writing or evaluating a news story you need to focus on six things: Who?   What?   Where?   When?   Why?   How? Any well designed news story provides answers to each of these questions.

12. Components of a News Story

13. Creating a News Story • Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are the supporters? • Open a Document in word and call it “Article”, create a heading called “Who” and write a paragraph (e.g., 2 or 3 sentences) that describes the who in your story. • (See Example)

14. Creating a News Story • What sport do they play? What is the competition? Edit the Document called “Article”, and create a heading called “What” and write a paragraph (e.g., 2 or 3 sentences) that describes the what in your story.

15. Creating a News Story • Where is the competition? Where is the team normally based? • Edit the Document called “Article”, and create a heading called “Where” and write a paragraph (e.g., 2 or 3 sentences) that describes the where in your story.

16. Creating a News Story • When is the competition? How long have they been preparing? Are there any other important time factors? • Edit the Document called “Article”, and create a heading called “When” and write a paragraph (e.g., 2 or 3 sentences) that describes the when in your story.

17. Creating a News Story • Why are they entering this particular competition? If it's relevant, why does the team exist at all? • Edit the Document called “Article”, and create a heading called “Why” and write a paragraph (e.g., 2 or 3 sentences) that describes the why in your story.

18. Creating a News Story • How much training and preparation was required? How did they develop a winning strategy? • Edit the Document called “Article”, and create a heading called “How” and write a paragraph (e.g., 2 or 3 sentences) that describes the how in your story.

19. The Inverted Pyramid This refers to the style of journalism which places the most important facts at the beginning and works "down" from there. Ideally, the first paragraph should contain enough information to give the reader a good overview of the entire story. The rest of the article explains and expands on the beginning.

20. Be as Concise as Possible A good approach is to assume that the story might be cut off at any point due to space limitations. Does the story work if the editor only decides to include the first two paragraphs? If not, re-arrange it so that it does.

21. More Tips It's About People • News stories are all about how people are affected. In your sports story, you might spend some time focusing on one or more individuals, or on how the team morale is doing, or how the supporters are feeling.

22. More Tips Have an Angle Most stories can be presented using a particular angle or "slant". This is a standard technique and isn't necessarily bad - it can help make the purpose of the story clear and give it focus.

23. More Tips Have an Angle Examples of angles that could be used in a sports story: "Team Tackles National Competition""Big Ask for First-Year Coach""Local Team in Need of Funds"

24. More Tips • Keep it Objective • Be completely impartial. If there is more than one side to the story, cover them all. • Don't use "I" and "me" unless you are quoting someone. Speaking of quoting...

25. More Tips • Quote People • For example: "We're really excited about this competition," says coach Bob Night, "It's the highest target we've ever set for ourselves".

26. More Tips • Don't Get Flowery • Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Don't use lots of heavily descriptive language. • When you've finished, go through the entire story and try to remove any words which aren't completely necessary.

27. Critical Reflection What have you learned today, if anything?

28. Today’s Assignments • Exercise - How to Evaluate a News Story

29. That’s All Folks

30. End of Lesson Module #1a Writing an Article Return to Main Menu

31. Character Education – Critical Thinking • Food for Thought - The Other Wes Moore • Food for Thought - Joe Lewis Funeral • Food for Thought - The Bucket List • Food for Thought - A Raisin in the Sun • Food for Thought - Finding Forester