Summary of today's class Thursday, March 5, 2009

The hardest thing about writing a news story is to avoid just "telling a story". Your news story needs to be exciting, unusual or dramatic to be a news story. Make sure these questions are answered early in your news story:
Who?
When?
Where?
What?
How?
Why?

Spend some time on the headline. Your headline needs to make the reader want to read your news story. It also needs to sum up what the news item is all about. Here are some examples of headlines:
Woman forgets life savings on Gothenburg tram
Well-endowed thief in late night condom raid
Woman baffled by 10 billion kronor banking mistake

You also need to condense the information in a news story. You normally need to get as much information as possible in a few lines. Here is an analysis of the news story we read in class. I have highlighted my comments in bold writing. I have also marked all of the verbs in the past tense.

Woman forgets life savings on Gothenburg tram
Published: 1 Mar 09 12:05 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.se/17918/20090301/

An elderly Swedish woman lost her 500,000 kronor ($56,000) life savings when she left them on a Gothenburg tram on the way to the bank. (This part answers the questions: who = an elderly Swedish woman, what= lost her life savings, where = on a Gothenburg tram, how= she left the savings on the tram.)

The 83-year-old retired seamstress, identified only as Birgitta, had for years kept her savings in a desk in her home in Gothenburg in western Sweden.The elderly woman finally decided it would be safer to put the cash in a bank account, the Aftonbladet daily reported. (This part answers the question: why=she was 83 years old. Why=she thought it would be safer to put the money in the bank. It explains what happened before the incident. It also provides more background information to what happened. It also states the source of the information = Aftonbladet daily)

On February 19th, she filled a paper bag to the brim with 10,000-kronor piles of bank notes before taking a tram to the centre of town."I was going to the bank to deposit the money," she told the paper. (This part answers when it happened = On February 19th. It also answers the questions what and how = she filled a paper bag with money and took the tram. Where? = to town. It also has a quote from the woman. She was probably asked what she was going to do with the money.)

But when she got to her stop, she forgot the bag and got off leaving her life savings behind. Birgitta was too embarrassed to tell her family what had happened at first, and when they finally contacted the tram operator the money was long gone. (This part provides more details of what happened and how it happened. Who else was involved is also answered here: her family + the tram operator.)

"I don't think there is a chance I'll get the money back, but if someone does return it they will of course receive a finder's fee," she told Aftonbladet. (This part is a quote. It makes the article come alive and provides information about the woman's thoughts after the incident. It also states the source once more.)

Gothenburg police were more optimistic however, pointing out that surveillance cameras on the tram could help them identify who had taken the bag of money. (This part brings an optimistic touch that points to a possible solution. It answers the question: what will happen next? = the police will investigate the theft with the help of the surveillance cameras on the tram)

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In class we read two more news stories to practise pronunciation and to study the structure of a news story a bit more.

In class next week we will go back to argumentative writing.

Please note: I am quite disappointed, and surprised, that some of you still choose (beacuse it IS a choice) to be late for class - or not show up at all. I really don't get it. Like I said last time: I have had it with excuses. The truth is: You are missing out on A LOT!!! Ultimately it will affect your grade in this course.