The Other Wes Moore; Interview; Magazine Project: Day 3

The Other Wes Moore: Chapters 1-4

These human interest story chapters give you a good model and example of the human interest feature. In between each part of the book so far (part 1 & part 2) Wes Moore provides an edited and cleaned up version of his interview with his subject (the other Wes Moore).

At its core, the book deals with choices that we make and the environment or factors that help shape who we are and why we do the things we do.

Today, before you go back to magazine writing, please find a partner you don't know well. Do not choose someone you sit next to or have worked with in the past 1-2 months.

When you have your partner, take a few minutes to write down 3-5 questions on any of the following themes (found also in the book The Other Wes Moore):

• Family Death: (for example: Describe a family member's death. How did this death impact you?)
• Fathers
• Mothers
• Home or neighborhood
• Breaking the law or rules
• Loss
• Expectations

Interview your partner and take notes on what he/she says. Learn to listen and remember, write down key information. You might choose to use this interview to create your own article for your magazine, but you don't have to. The exercise is in conducting and participating in an interview. Writers do this a lot. Talking to people is a great way to develop characters or ideas for stories.

After your interview, retire next door to work on your magazine. Again, I suggest you write your articles FIRST, then worry about lay-out and design of your magazine. If you need assistance ask your partners (or me, if you are working alone).

In the lab: Continue writing and working on your magazine project. If you can't write today, read the homework.

HOMEWORK: Please read Chapter 5 of The Other Wes Moore. If you are behind, please try to catch up. If you have not yet conducted your interview for your human-interest feature article, please plan to complete this by next week!

Today's Class

Please look at and read the entries for December 7th below.

• Instructions for the magazine project
• Helping you create interview questions (types of questions)
• What makes news? Ideas for what to put into your articles or what to write about.

December 3 post:

• Instructions on the Human Interest feature

Today in the lab, begin your magazine project. You will need to write a human interest feature, so if you did your homework from last class, please work on that.

HOMEWORK: Continue reading chapter 4 of The Other Wes Moore.

Magazine Project Instructions!

You will be writing your own magazine. You may work with up to two other people for your magazine or you may work alone, but each member of the magazine will be required to complete various articles and features. See rubric below for length details.

 

The magazine you are writing for should be more intellectual and studious than a simple advertising magazine, sports or fashion magazine. Aim more toward The Atlantic, Harper's, Time, or The New Republic and less on GQ or Teen.

 

First you have to decide on your target audience. Who are you writing for essentially? What genre will your magazine cover? Will this be a travel magazine, or a health magazine, or a news magazine, or an artsy-fartsy magazine, etc.? This will help determine the kind of feature articles and advertising or photographs you can use.

 

Your magazine must:

• Have a front and back cover.
• Your cover page must have the title of the magazine, a eye-catching dominant graphic (often showcasing what feature(s) are in this issue) and might include eye-catching text.
• The back cover is typically an ad, but you can also use the space to include information about the next issue or include another dominant graphic.
• Your first page should be a table of contents indicating title, page #, and name of the author of each of your feature articles. Your title page could also include a photo or advertisement. [generally ads appear wherever there is space to put them]. 
• Each magazine author should contribute 3 feature articles. One of these will be your human interest feature. The other two can be chosen from the other types of features.
• Each feature article should be between 1,000 - 3,000 words in length
• Each feature article should include an interesting, clever headline
• Each feature article should include the writer's by-line 
• Each magazine should include at least 1 shorter article (if there are three people in your group, that's 1 each, or 3 shorter articles). Shorter articles can be about practically anything appropriate to the magazine. Short articles should be between 300-500 words.
• Articles can be informative, narrative, persuasive, editorial, or best of
• Each magazine should include one of the following per writer (up to 3):
• poetry
• an interview script
• a short story or vignette
• music, game, theater, or movie review
• advice column
• puzzle (crossword, for example)
• jokes or cartoon
• advice column
• editorial
• recipe
• fashion tips or how to tips (remember your audience!)
• Each page should include a header/footer with page #'s and the title of the magazine
• White space should include advertisement. Use graphic and text boxes for photographs, pictures, scans, etc.

Deadline will be discussed in a class or two. The more you use your lab time effectively, the more time you will be able to use the lab. If the class isn't working, your deadline will be earlier than you might expect!

 

 

Interviewing Tips: Writing Questions

Interviewing and coming up with the right kind of questions:

When you write a human interest feature, you will most likely talk to your subject(s). In order to do that effectively, you should go to an interview with your subject prepared with questions to ask.

NOTE: These should NOT be done during the interview--although follow up questions can be asked after you hear an answer.

For your feature and for your interviews, come up with a list of questions to ask your subject. Try to include at least 1 of each type of question.

What Makes News?

What Makes Something Newsworthy?

Factors Journalists Use to Gauge How Big a Story Is by Tony Rogers:

Over the years editors, reporters and journalism professors have come up with a list of factors or criteria that help journalists decide whether something is newsworthy or not. They can also help you decide HOW newsworthy something is. Generally, the more of the factors below that can be applied to your feature or story, the more newsworthy it’s bound to be. 

Impact or Consequences

Generally, the greater the impact a story has, the more newsworthy it is. Events that have on impact on your readers, that have real consequences for their lives, are bound to be newsworthy. An obvious example would be the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In how many ways have all of our lives been affected by the events of that day? The greater the impact, the bigger the story.

Conflict

If you look closely at the stories that make news in any given day, chances are most of them will have some element of conflict. Whether it’s a dispute over banning books at a local school board meeting, bickering over budget legislation in Congress, or the ultimate conflict – war – conflict is almost always newsworthy. 

Conflict is newsworthy because as human beings we’re naturally interested in conflict. Think of any book you’ve ever read or movie you’ve ever watched – they all had some type of conflict. Without conflict, there would be no literature or drama. Conflict is what propels the human drama. Conflict is so interesting to us as humans that it can even make an otherwise dull-sounding story – the passage of a city budget – into something utterly gripping. And the ultimate conflict – war – is always a huge story.

Loss of Life/Property Destruction

There’s an old saying in the news business: If it bleeds, it leads. What that means is that any story involving loss of human life – from a fire to a shooting to a terrorist attack -- is bound to be newsworthy. Likewise, nearly any story that involves property destruction on a large enough scale – a house fire is a good example-- is also bound to be news.

Many stories have both loss of life and property destruction – think of the house fire in which several people perish. Obviously loss of human life is more important than property destruction, so write the story that way.

Proximity

Proximity has to do with how close an event is geographically is to your readers or viewers. A house fire with several people injured might be big news in your hometown newspaper, but chances are no one will care in the next town over. Likewise, wildfires in California usually make the national news, but clearly they’re a much bigger story for those directly affected.

Prominence

Are the people involved in your story famous or prominent? If so, the story becomes more newsworthy. For example, if an average person is injured in a car crash, chances are that won’t even make the local news. But if the president of the United States is hurt in a car crash, it makes headlines around the world.

Prominence can apply to politicians, movie stars, star athletes, CEOs – anyone who’s in the public eye. But it doesn’t have to mean someone who’s famous worldwide. The mayor of your town probably isn’t famous, even locally. But he or she is prominent in your town, which means any story involving him or her is likely to be more newsworthy. Prominence can apply on a local, national or international level.

Timeliness 

In the news business we tend to focus on what’s happening this day, this hour, this minute. So events that are happening now are often more newsworthy than those that happened, say, a week ago.

Another factor that relates to timeliness is currency. This involves stories that may not have just happened but instead have an ongoing interest to your audience. For example, the rise and fall in gas prices is something that’s been happening for several years, but it’s a story that’s still relevant to your readers, so it has currency. 

Novelty

Another old saying in the news business goes, “When a dog bites a man, no one cares. When the man bites back – now that’s a news story.” The idea, of course, is that any deviation from the normal, expected course of events is something novel, and thus newsworthy.

Magazine Project: The Human Interest Story; The Other Wes Moore

Today we will read/listen to the first chapter of The Other Wes Moore. Before we crack open the book (you should have already done that by reading the introduction to the book for last class's homework...) let's take 2 minutes to hear from Wes himself.

At its core this book is definitely a human interest story. You may not think it, but people like to read about real people in real adverse situations. It confirms the survival of our species and is hard-wired into us. Perhaps the bigger tragedy in our society is that we often forget that books and reading help us become civilized human beings. TV, the Media, and Film can sometimes help, but its not a substitute to the kinds of things we read. People who don't read or don't like to read or don't have the skills to read are generally seen as inferior human beings.

Human interest stories are also called "soft news". Human Interest features feature the following parts:

• The focus of the book or article or feature is on a human subject
• Typically, human interest features report on a person or people's success at overcoming great odds (local human interest stories do not always have to be big issues...just human ones)
• There is often a historical or political element to these stories, but that is not a requirement. One needs to explain the terrible setting, controversy, or problems that the human subject is overcoming, but may or may not go into depth
• Often these human interest stories do not wrap up nicely. The situation causing conflict may not be resolved, but the writing outlines or stresses the "hope" of its subject that things will get better
• Human interest stories often have similarities to the PERSONALITY feature or the PAST EVENTS feature as they often deal with a person or his/her past history and the historical or political events in the subject's life

As you read along with the first chapter, please find textual examples as to how this book fits the Human Interest category or genre. Use the graphic organizer if you'd like and turn in at end of chapter for participation credit.

A note about the construction of the book:
Writers need to consider the FORM and STRUCTURE of a book, play, story, poem, or feature article. It doesn't just happen. Good writers think about how many scenes, parts, chapters are needed to tell their story effectively.

Moore divides his book into 3 distinct parts, representing the three phases in our coming of age. Interspersed between the 8 chapters (the # of years that had significant impact on the two Wesses) are the interview notes between Wes Moore and Wes Moore.

Wes Moore's official website can be found here. If you like his book stay in touch with him by tweeting, facebook, or email. He is very open to working with youth and would probably love to hear from you.

In the lab: Please complete the following pre-writing work:

Goal: You will write a human interest feature article. This article will be longer than the ones you've been writing. Follow the steps below to prepare your writing and get an idea for your subject:

1. Find good source material! Brainstorm, mind-map, list, sketch, outline some possible people in your life who might make good source material for this project.

2. After you have a list of potentials, consider if the person you want to feature in your article is newsworthy. Is there something about this subject that will draw your readers in? Will you be excited writing and researching topics connected to this subject? Think and plan before you decide.

3. Determine who your audience is. This will help you ask the right kind of questions and to find out the right kind of information that your READER will most likely be curious about. Remember the golden rule: why should your reader care about your subject?

4. You will need to find source material for your subject. This might be (and most typically is) conducting an interview, writing letters, getting to know your subject, taking pictures of your subject's living space, emailing, looking at photographs, internet research, talking to people who know your subject, following your subject around for a bit and taking notes, etc.

5. Before you rush off to interview your subject, write down some notes about what you already know about the subject and/or your own connection to this person (if possible). If you know a person lived through a particular time period in history or important event, research this so you know what questions to ask your subject. Hit the internet and gather some background information about your subject. Most people can find out about each other by typing a subject's name into Google. Try it. Jot down important notes/info that might be used for your feature.

HOMEWORK: Please read Chapter 2 & 3 (complete Part 1) of the book (pages 3-62) The Other Wes Moore. We left off in class on page 25!) Make a final decision about your subject for your Human Interest Feature. You may even start researching, outlining, and communicating with your subject. Take accurate notes--you are a journalist!

Feature Articles & Magazines

EQ: What are the characteristics of Feature Articles?

FEATURE ARTICLES are creative articles that deals with real events, issues, and trends. However, unlike the news articles you have been writing, the emphasis is placed on the people involved rather than on just reporting the facts of the news. Think "human interest" stories. Feature articles are often longer than the 300-400 word articles you've been writing. Most magazines include feature articles along with columns and shorter articles (depending on the magazine and its audience). 

There are seven types of feature articles. NOTE: Most feature articles have elements of more than one kind--so note please that as a writer you can combine these basic types. [The following information is adapted from Webster’s New World High School Writer’s Notebook:]

THE HUMAN-INTEREST FEATURE

• This is the most common type of feature article.

• This type typically reports on someone’s success in spite of great odds.

• It may recall a tragic predicament (like Hurricane Katrina, etc.) but the angle of the article is to show how human endurance or adaptability overcomes tragedy.

• It may share or expose a continuing struggle against adversity, supported only by human hope and faith.

THE PERSONALITY FEATURE


• The subject of the article may be someone famous or not so famous, but someone who has done something of interest 
  

  to others.

• This type of feature usually shows how a person gained recognition or why this person should be noticed or recognized.

• The personality feature is very much like a character sketch.

“THE BEST” ARTICLES


• The Courier-Journal has a column that publishes reviews of the “best” products of all kinds.

• This type of article usually includes the writer’s personal experiences with the product in question (computer games or tech devices, appliances, cars, tools, music, food items, clothing, etc.)

• It includes proof and examples that the product is the best of its kind.

• The article includes information about where to get the product and how much it costs.

THE NEWS FEATURE

• The article usually has a catchy title.

• This type of article brings a human-interest focus to breaking news.

• It adds personal involvement to what may otherwise be a distant, seemingly unimportant event.

THE HOW-TO FEATURE

• This article explains how to do something – usually a complex process that most people would not know how to do.

• The best how-to articles begin by telling the reader why it is important or beneficial for him or her to know how to do this.

• The article explains the steps of the process in enough detail so that another person can do this process.

• This article also includes a list of all of the materials needed to do this process.

THE PAST EVENTS FEATURE

• This article focuses on an historical event or historical celebration.

• The article typically includes research. The article serves as a human interest history lesson.

• This type of writing usually puts a “human face” on history. In other words, it lets the reader know something about the people who were part of history.

THE INFORMATIONAL FEATURE

• This type of article shows insightful coverage of a topic.

• It gives detailed information focused on one aspect of a given topic.

• The article often refers to sources of research but is not like an encyclopedia report. Instead, the writer makes a personal connection to the subject and includes his/her voice.

How to Tell if an Article is a Feature (suggestions to use for writers of feature articles)

• Anecdotes Examples/Non-examples

• Vignettes Tables/Graphs/Charts

• Descriptions Facts

• Comparison Contrast

• Snapshots Pictures/Drawings

• Reasons Quotations

• Flashback Foreshadowing

• Imagery 

• Headings

• Fonts

• Subheadings

• Bullets

• Offsets

• Text Boxes

• Photography/graphics

• Color Ink

• Italics

• Bold Font

• Underlining

• All Capital Letters

As you search and read feature articles, notice how writers include various ways to use details and description in an article or feature.

7th period lab task: please check out the following 3 websites. For each site, find and identify one feature article. Choose the article that sounds the most interesting to you. Use examples and textual evidence from the article to support your answer as to what type of article this feature could be classified as (see list of 7 types above) for full credit. Turn in your answers at the end of period 7 before we move to the library. On your paper, please include the title, author, and short 2-3 sentence summary of the feature, along with your reasons for classifying it as one of the 7 types of features.

• The Atlantic
• The New Republic
• Harper's Magazine
• Utne Reader

8th period library task: 

Then, let's head down to the library to do two things: 

A. Analyze a magazine (see the following steps)

1. Choose a magazine from the library.  

2. Identify the specific target audience for the magazine: look at ads, departments, articles, features, and "letters to the Editor" for clues. 

3. Read the magazine cover to cover, flip through, read at least 1 feature article for step #4. 

 4. Complete the questions and graphic organizer for the article/feature you chose to read carefully. Turn this in at the end of class today. 

B. Pick up and check out our next non-fiction feature memoir:  The Other Wes Moore by ... Wes Moore.

HOMEWORK: Please read the introduction (pages xi-xiv) in The Other Wes Moore. We will read the first chapter together next class. Please bring your books back with you Thursday. If you missed an assignment, (see blog posts assignments below) please complete and turn in late for partial credit.