Due dates: Meeting story to be announced. Speech story to be announced. Interview story to be announced.
Tone: Each outside story should be written as a news-feature or hard-news piece, not a personality sketch, commentary or review.
Preparation: Each should be no longer and no shorter than three double-spaced pages. Please prepare them according to the �Copy Preparation Guidelines� in the syllabus. Points will be taken off if the length does not ahere to these guidelines.
Construction: Pay close attention to Associated Press style, grammar, syntax and spelling, as you have in class exercises.
Quotations: Quotes should be recorded verbatim. Do not add what you think the source was trying to say. Do not fix a source�s grammar. Use parenthetical inserts only for crucial information � if the quote will not be understood without it.
Example �That is one of our biggest problems,� she said.
�(Truancy) is one of our biggest problems,� she said.
Interviews: Do not interview your friends or family members. Part of being a reporter or communicator is getting out there -- on the street -- and approaching sources and witnesses. Avoid anonymous sources. If you have a story on a sensitive subject, see me about naming sources. Oftentimes, people who don�t want to be named aren�t the best sources for the story. You want your readers to consider you a credible information source.
Attribution: If the words you are including in your story are not you own, then they must be attributed to whomever spoke them! GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE. Feel free to use information taken from other written materials -- but you must cite those sources. I will check on you. Those who do not credit sources will be prosecuted according to university policy.