Stories 1-4

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Short News Stories

The lead, as you know, is the roadsign for the story: It summarizes the most important elements and tells the reader where the story (and the reader) are going. Technically, the “lead” (or “lede”) is just the first summary paragraph (or “graf”), but for our purposes, let’s make it the first few grafs, which get the story started.

The following provides you with four stories’ 5Ws and H, plus additional info. Your task is to take this information and organize it into the first, second and, if necessary, third paragraphs of a news story. Put all four stories in one document. At the top of each, start with the slug and your last name. Like this:

Nuke test
Pease

Then write your story with a short (one sentence, no more than 35 words) summary lead, followed by other info in logical order. Remember the inverted pyramid structure. REMEMBER THE FRED RULE! One (short) sentence per paragraph. Stop when you run out of info. If you wish you’d had other crucial info, note at the bottom in a memo to your editor (me).

Save your completed stories in a single Word.doc named

YOURLASTNAMEStories1.doc

and attach it to a Blackboard email to me by Thursday midnight. Questions, let me know.

—TedEd (Ted, your Editor)

~ ~ ~

1. Slug: Nuke test

WHO? A nuclear weapon with a yield equivalent to 150,000 tons of TNT
WHAT? detonated
WHERE? In the Nevada desert, 2,000 feet underground, beneath the surface of Pahute Mesa; 40 miles away, pacifists were holding a protest rally
WHEN?
WHY? to test the weapon
HOW? Not applicable
Other info: The test was conducted by the Department of Energy. DOE officials are the source; the protest was by more than 450 physicians, scientists and peace activists, protesting continued nuclear weapons testing by the United States.


2. Slug: Boy found

WHO? 7-year-old boy missing for three years
WHAT? found
WHERE? in Brick Township, NJ
WHEN?
WHY? not applicable
HOW? A neighbor recognized the kid’s picture when it was shown after the movie Adam: The Song Continues, about a kidnapping; she called the cops
Other info: New Jersey police arrested the boy’s mother, Ellen Lynn Conner, 27, on kidnapping charges from Alabama. She will be arraigned and extradited to Alabama later in the week; the boy is in foster care until his relatives are contacted.


3. Slug: NW Airlines jet

WHO? 40 passengers
WHAT? Evacuated from a Northwest Airlines jet (flight 428)
WHERE? at the LaCrosse, Wis., Municipal Airport
WHEN?
WHY? an airport employee in the landing tower spotted smoke coming from the wheels
HOW? not applicable
Other info: the flight from Minneapolis had just landed. There was no flame, and no injuries, as emergency chutes deployed and the passengers and five crew slid to the tarmac. Smoke apparently caused by hydraulic fluid leaking onto the hot brakes upon landing. Info from NW spokesman Bob Gibbons.

4. Slug: Car crash
NOTE: I’m tired of identifying the WWWWWH for you, so do it yourself, and then write the story.

From your notes: car crash, intersection of Main Street and Biscayne Drive in north (YourTown—you choose) at 4:27 p.m. (yesterday). A sedan turned left at the traffic light into the path of a northbound cattletruck hauling 8 steers. Sedan was rear-ended and shoved onto the sidewalk. Truck jackknifed into opposite lanes; no other collisions, but traffic stopped for an hour. Sedan driver: McKinney, Janice T., d.o.b 7/18/68*, 7500 Northpark Ridge Drive, Apt. #6, (Yourtown); had two kids in the car: Celeste McKinney, d.o.b. 9/22/05; and Anthony McKinney, d.o.b. 2/09/03. Driver injured and taken to (Yourtown) Memorial Hospital; kids in seatbelts and uninjured. Truck driver Cowbuddy, Joe, d.o.b. 11/19/48, of Pocatello, Idaho, was uninjured. No charges so far; investigation pending. (All info from (Yourtown) Police Department spokesman.)

* d.o.b.= date of birth

WHO?
WHAT?
WHERE?
WHEN?
WHY?
HOW?