10 Ways to Improve Election-Story Writring

Practical tips on how any newspaper can improve the writing of election stories.

Transcript

1. 10 ways to improve election-story writing Tommy Thomason
2. What are your concerns about election stories…
4. How have we done this before?
5. How have we done this before? How are other papers doing this?
6. How have we done this before? How are other papers doing this? What do the candidates expect?
7. How have we done this before? How are other papers doing this? What do the candidates expect? What do we have time to do?
8. And who gets left out?
9. readers
10. How can we make stories more reader-friendly? Four things to think about
11. Finding the news
13. Where’s the news?
14. Finding the news Reporting the news
17. Finding the news Reporting the news Writing the news
18. Which best describes your view of how you serve up the news?
21. Finding the news Reporting the news Writing the news Marketing the news
23. Writing the news
24. So give me 30 minutes and I’ll show you how to improve your writing about elections. This ain’t brain surgery.
25. Let’s look at 10 specific ways you can improve your election stories … starting now
26. #1 Figure out what the story is about. You can write the story without knowing.
27. What does [pick someone who isn’t a journalist] want to know?
28. #2 Leads are important: Be sure you’ve considered Step #1, keep leads short, and keep them to one sentence. If all you do is mandate one-sentence leads – and those sentences between 25 and 35 words, you can improve writing significantly
29. Adopting a “Measurable Period Policy,” in accordance with the Affordable Care Act, required approval during the Regular Meeting of the Smith County Commissioners Court January 13, 2016. The policy defines number of hours each employee works as “time” worked and classifies them as part-time, full-time or variable hour personnel. Accordingly, the Court made changes to the Employee Handbook to define regular, part-time and variable hour workers and related benefits for each category. Grade level according to read- able.com: 15.3
30. Adopting a “Measurable Period Policy,” in accordance with the Affordable Care Act, required approval during the Regular Meeting of the Smith County Commissioners Court January 13, 2016. The policy defines number of hours each employee works as “time” worked and classifies them as part- time, full-time or variable hour personnel. Accordingly, the Court made changes to the Employee Handbook to define regular, part-time and variable hour workers and related benefits for each category. The Smith County Commissioners Court revised its employee handbook Tuesday to bring it into compliance with Obamacare guidelines. The county had defined employees differently than what the Affordable Care Act mandates, making the change necessary.
31. Joe Bob Malloy has announced his intention to run for District Attorney for the district that includes Smith, Jones, and Randall counties. Joe Bob Malloy has served as Assistant District Attorney since August of this year when he was hired by current District Attorney Jim Bob Buskirk. Joe Bob Malloy said this week he wants to fight the increase in drug traffic if he is elected district attorney. Malloy announced Tuesday that he will be a candidate for the district that includes Smith, Jones, and Randall counties. He has served as assistant district attorney since August, when he was hired by current District Attorney Jim Bob Buskirk.
32. #3 The inverted pyramid still works – and readers love it.
33. Write the way your readers want you to, not the way that’s easiest for you. Here’s the hard part.
35. Experiential Informational
36. #4 Keep your grafs short.
37. Those paragraph rules were for English essays, not journalism.
38. #5 Handle quotes like a pro.
39. Quote basics Don’t quote what people said. Quote the best stuff they said. Don’t put boring crap in quotes, just because someone said it. Use paraphrases or paraphrases with direct inserts.
40. “I want to run because I just love this county,” the sheriff said. “I am a father myself, and I want to make sure that my children grow up in a safe environment. My opponent cannot make that kind of guarantee. Although he has good intentions, he doesn’t have the experience to manage a law enforcement agency amidst all the challenges our beloved county faces today. Jones said he is running to make sure his three teenage children grow up in a safe environment. “My opponent cannot make that guarantee,” he said. Jones said his Democratic challenger, Frank Smith, “doesn’t have the experience to manage a law enforcement agency amidst all the challenges [Smith County] faces today.”
41. Quote basics Use varied forms of quotes – directs and indirects. Use indirects to transition between speakers.
42. Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who are vying with Rubio for support from establishment Republicans in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, compared Rubio’s experience in the Senate to that of President Barack Obama, who also was a first-term senator when he was elected. “He simply does not have the experience to be president of the United States and make these decisions,” Christie said of Rubio. “We’ve watched it happen, everybody, for the last seven years. The people of New Hampshire are smart. Do not make the same mistake again.” Rubio said he had shown in the Senate that he could get things done, and he questioned Christie’s record. “I think the experience is not just what you did but how it worked out,” he said. “Under Chris Christie’s governorship of New Jersey, they’ve been downgraded nine times in their credit rating.”
43. #6 Don’t overwrite. Shorten stories. Use bulleted lists and info boxes. Almost all government/ politics/meeting/ election stories are too long
44. How long should a newspaper story be? long enough to tell readers what they want to know short enough not to waste their time and a lot shorter than most journalists would like to write
45. Writing short is harder than writing long
46. I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
48. #7 Pay attention to what we know about how to make writing readable.
49.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos
50.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos  Sentence length
51.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos  Sentence length  Sentence structure
52.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos  Sentence length  Sentence structure  Put the subject near the beginning of the sentence – don’t back in
53.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos  Sentence length  Sentence structure  Put the subject near the beginning of the sentence – don’t back in  Put the verb close to the subject
54.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos  Sentence length  Sentence structure  Put the subject near the beginning of the sentence – don’t back in  Put the verb close to the subject  Limit the number of ideas/fact chunks
55.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos  Sentence length  Sentence structure  Put the subject near the beginning of the sentence – don’t back in  Put the verb close to the subject  Limit the number of ideas/fact chunks  Limit vocabulary and prefer shorter words to longer
56.  The look of the piece: graf length, overall length, subheads, bulleted lists, boxes, photos  Sentence length  Sentence structure  Put the subject near the beginning of the sentence – don’t back in  Put the verb close to the subject  Limit the number of propositions  Limit vocabulary and prefer shorter words to longer  Don’t turn perfectly good verbs into nouns
57. Don’t write like Caesar
58. Don’t write like Caesar Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
59. Don’t write like Caesar Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account. I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
60. Jones said he was in receipt of the document.
61. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document.
62. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document. Jones said he is supportive of the mayor’s position on the bond issue.
63. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document. Jones said he is supportive of the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he supports the mayor’s position on the bond issue.
64. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document. Jones said he is supportive of the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he supports the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he would be in attendance at the meeting.
65. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document. Jones said he is supportive of the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he supports the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he would be in attendance at the meeting. Jones said he would attend the meeting.
66. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document. Jones said he is supportive of the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he supports the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he would be in attendance at the meeting. Jones said he would attend the meeting. Jones said he would go to the meeting.
67. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document. Jones said he is supportive of the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he supports the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he would be in attendance at the meeting. Jones said he would attend the meeting. Jones said he would go to the meeting. The law is applicable to executive sessions.
68. Jones said he was in receipt of the document. Jones said he received the document. Jones said he is supportive of the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he supports the mayor’s position on the bond issue. Jones said he would be in attendance at the meeting. Jones said he would attend the meeting. Jones said he would go to the meeting. The law is applicable to executive sessions. The law applies to executive sessions.
69. #8 Don’t write like a bureaucrat. Write in English. Speak the language your readers speak.
70. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbgnieG9Z4g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m- GA1i3BWs
71. #9 Be fair to all sides. Avoid bias. Keep your feelings and preferences out of the story.
72. Sources of bias in our stories
73. Sources of bias in our stories  Bias by omission, either intentionally or because of space/time deadlines
74. Sources of bias in our stories  Bias by omission, either intentionally or because of space/time deadlines  Bias by story selection  Bias by selection of sources
75. Sources of bias in our stories  Bias by omission, either intentionally or because of space/time deadlines  Bias by story selection  Bias by selection of sources  Bias by placement within a story
76. Sources of bias in our stories  Bias by omission, either intentionally or because of space/time deadlines  Bias by story selection  Bias by selection of sources  Bias by placement within a story  Bias by sloppy attribution – including not covering all important sides of an issue
77. Sources of bias in our stories  Bias by omission, either intentionally or because of space/time deadlines  Bias by story selection  Bias by selection of sources  Bias by placement within a story  Bias by sloppy attribution – including not covering all important sides of an issue  Bias by fear – slanting a story to avoid pissing off an individual or a group
78. #10 Edit for grammar and AP style.