November 2009

Check out Episode 28 – Journalism as a Career, an Interview with Dale Rice
Check out Episode 34 – Dale Rice on News Writing

November 2009

MEGHAN: Howdy Ags and welcome back to “Write Right.” Today we are continuing our conversation on journalism with Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies here at Texas A&M University.  In our last episode Mr. Rice discussed the steps to writing a news story. Today we are talking to him about the importance of deadline writing in the news business.

Here’s what Mr. Rice had to say about the topic of deadline writing.

MR. RICE: If you’re not going to be a good writer on deadline you’re never going to succeed as a journalist. That is going to be the primary way in which you are judged early in your career; how well do you write on deadline? And so, in class,  I’ve had people every semester say, ‘Well what happens if you don’t finish it by the deadline?’ That is not an option; you have to turn in the best job you can do by the deadline. It may not be the best job you can do if you had an extra fifteen minutes, an extra two hours, or extra two days, but if that’s the deadline for the story and it needs to be in the next day’s paper then you have to finish it by that deadline. And so, what you have to do as a deadline writer is say to yourself, ‘What is the best job I can do within that amount of time?’ So that may mean that you don’t have time to search for the absolute most clever way to say something, that you don’t have time to look for the interesting and varied ways to construct the story. You know, what you have to think about when you’re deadline writing—what are the most important facts? How do I just get them into the paper and get them there quickly? And I can give you in a sense a really good personal example of how critical that can become. The Dallas school board, when I was the education reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, was about to make one of its critical decisions on a new desegregation plan. And dozens and dozens and dozens of people showed up to the school board meeting and they talked and talked and talked for hours because they  all had the opportunity to get up as part of a public hearing. And that moved the board’s time for taking action from like eleven to eleven-thirty, from midnight to twelve-thirty, to one am. At a point in which, when I called the newsroom and said to the lone editor still on duty waiting for my story, ‘They’re going to take action as soon as they stop talking,’ he said, ‘Okay here is what we’ve had to do, we are holding the presses, and we are holding a ten-inch space for you, six columns across the top of page one, and you’ve got to give it to me within minutes of it happening.’ And so fifteen or twenty minutes later, when the board actually voted on the thing, I had to go in to the telephone, call, and simply dictate the story that would fit in that amount of space. And what do you do when you’re dictating a story like that? You do what you would do if you were going back and actually sitting at a keyboard and having time to write: you think about what are the most pertinent facts that I’m going to put in the lead; what am I going to support that lead with, in a couple of paragraphs; what am I going to say in my nutgraf, and then what are the very best quotes and supporting pieces of information I can give? And I’m thinking to myself, I have ten paragraphs, each one inch, each one just four lines long to do it. So you do that and you think about those things, and it become a way of thinking. If you’re going to be a good deadline writer that’s how you have to think; you have to think about how to compartmentalize what you’re working on and how to do it quickly and not to worry, ‘Gee, maybe I could of said that a better way.” You don’t have the luxury of worrying or second guessing yourself on something like that.

MEGHAN: What tips do you have for becoming a better deadline writer?

MR. RICE: On your way to the newsroom you have got to write that lead in your head, whether you’re walking several blocks back to a newsroom or driving a few minutes across town. You have to use that time to say, ‘Okay what is going to be the lead of my story? What is going to be the most important supporting information I’m going to use, and what am I going to say in that nutgraf?’ And you walk in knowing those kinds of things. You do not think about other kinds of things on your way back to the news room, sit down at a key board, and begin thinking there. You have to have done your thinking. And so, that’s one of the things to be a good deadline writer, you have to think on the go. You know, you always have to be thinking about and anticipating what am I going to be needing to do in ten minutes, in thirty minutes, in one hour?

MEGHAN: What tips do you have for organizing the information while you are reporting?

MR. RICE: Your at a meeting and dozens of people are talking, and of course you’re taking notes on what all of them are saying, but are you really going to use all of that information? On deadline, no you’re not. So you need to be thinking to yourself, ‘Ooh somebody just said something fabulous.’ What I would do, and I had my reporter’s notebook, I would fold the corner of the page when you know I’m madly writing, and I’m going, ‘Oh that’s great.’ I’d fold that page up, crease it, and go on to the next. So that when I knew that I had to go back and find four or five really good quotes to put in my story, and I had fifty pages of notes, I didn’t have to leaf through fifty pages of notes looking for it. I’d already marked where the good quote was so  I could go directly back to it. And those are little tricks you learn over the years as a journalist. And that’s one of the advantages that you have in journalism education, of if you’re taking a course from somebody who has been a working journalist. You get not just kind of the textbook example of what you should be doing, but you get a lot of the practical education that’s come from the experience of doing it over and over and over again.

MEGHAN: As college students, we are used to writing papers last minute, but with deadline writing, procrastination is not allowed. You usually only have a few hours to come up with a story idea, do research and conduct interviews, and write the story. In Dale Rice’s Media Writing I and II, you will gain experience deadline writing.  Each day, you will be expected to research an issue, report on it, and write a 400-600 word story by the end of class.

Even if you don’t plan on going into a career in journalism, learning how to write on deadline can be helpful in improving your overall writing skills.  Writing on deadline teaches you to organize your ideas quickly, write clearly and concisely, and revise your work in a timely manner.

In our next episode Dale Rice will discuss the difference between hard news and feature news writing.  Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Write Right, we’ll see you next time.

Episode 28 – Journalism as a Career, an Interview with Dale Rice
Episode 35 – Dale Rice, Writing on Deadline

November 2009

MEGHAN: Howdy Ags! We are back today with Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies here at Texas A&M University.  In our last episode Mr. Rice discussed journalism as a career. Today we’ll be talking with him about how to write a news story.

Here’s what Mr. Rice had to say about news writing.

DALE RICE: If we’re going to talk about news writing in general, the first thing that I would say about news writing is, it is a very different form of writing than a student has been used to before. If you come into my classes and you are taking the media writing course, one of the things that I’m going to force students to do is, in a sense, leave a lot of the kinds of things that they have learned at the door. And one of the best examples of that is conclusions. You know, most times when you are writing in college you are really leading toward a conclusion that you are offering. In news writing the exact opposite occurs. If you put a conclusion in there, which is opinion no matter how well supported, it will be to the detriment of your grade. Because that is one of the most important things that you end up having to learn as a journalist, is that you need to leave your bias out of the story and try and be as fair and impartial as you possibly can be. So, you think about that, and you think about well we’re dealing with a bit of a different writing style. Earlier, I alluded to that with the fact that in a news story, especially, we right with the idea with getting, in a sense, top loading the story with all of the really vital facts. And within those vital facts are those five “Ws” – the who, what, where, when, and why – and we want to get those high into any story. And then we want to expound on those with less important information as we move through the piece. Within news writing, our introduction to a story we call a lede. And in a lede we want to get the reader’s attention. We want to tell you the most important, essential, element, right there, and we want to do it relatively succinctly. We don’t want to give you 80 or 100 word summation if we can give you a 25 or 30 word summation, so the emphasis is on how well can we do it in a brief succinct way that will let you understand the very essence of what we’re going to talk about in the story. So you want a good lede put on to a story, and then within the business we have something we call the nutgraf, which is a paragraph that has all of the context of the story, that tells you the bigger picture aspect of the story, and why as a reader I should continue to read on. What is there about this subject that should make me continue to read this story? And that’s a paragraph that usually comes in somewhere between the third and sixth paragraphs of a story that kind of pulls everything together and gives the reader that necessary context.

MEGHAN: And what goes in between the lede and the nutgraf?

DALE RICE: Now really the lede can be followed immediately by the nutgraf, and then what you do is you have, in a sense, all of the, if you think about any good story, is going to be filled with supporting facts. And it’s going to have the quotes, for example, of people that are involved in the issue. It’s going to have other pertinent aspects that may be less important than the summation that you have in the lede, but they give you a good indication or give you additional information about what’s happening. For example, I guess one perfect local example right now: Bryan is in the search for a new police chief. At some point there’s going to be an announcement, ‘Here is the new police chief in Bryan.’ So what are you going to do in that lede? You’re going to say that the city has selected a new police chief and you’re going to give the name of that person. In the next couple of paragraphs, as supporting information for that lede, you’re going to tell who made the decision and why that happened. You’re going to move on to a nutgraf and that’s going to give you some context, so you’re going to say, ‘Well this is going to be the seventh police chief for Bryan in seven years, and the city has been looking to end a lot of turmoil and trying to do it with the selection of the new person.’ And then, for the rest of the story, you get to quote the city manager and the mayor and the new police chief and the citizens about what they think this person, the kind of job, this person will do. You get to put the background information in about the person; you’re going to tell your going to tell what background in policing is and probably some personal details about his education and his family life and where he grew up and other cities he’s worked in and those kinds of things. And then you’re going to finally wrap up with probably some of the least important information, which is again the reaction of people who are only tangentially involved and what they think about it. But that I hope gives you a little bit of an illustration of how you work through a story from the specifics, to really key elements, to less important things that are part of that.

MEGHAN: Now that you have been given the structure for writing a news story, how about some practice?  Sign up for Dale Rice’s Media Writing I and II classes where you will learn how to write a new story on deadline.

Speaking of deadlines, in our next episode, Dale Rice will discuss the importance of being able to write on deadline.  Thanks for tuning in to this episode of “Write Right” we’ll see you next time.

October 2009

Dr. Scott Austin and editor Sylvia Allsup-Edwards talk about Aletheia, the new undergraduate journal of philosophy at Texas A&M.

October 2009

Editor Sylvia Allsup-Edwards talks about her experience with preparing and publishing the journal.

October 2009

Editor Sylvia Allsup-Edwards and philosophy professor Dr. Scott Austin discuss the origin and purpose of Aletheia, the undergraduate journal of philosophy at Texas A&M University.

Check out our What Not to Wear Handout.

October 2009

Meghan: The way you dress for an oral presentation has a big effect on your audience, positive or negative. Dressing professionally helps you act and feel professional.

For women, proper dress can include business slacks, button-up shirts, and jackets. Also acceptable is close toed flats or heels, knee length skirts and blouses. Jeans with holes in them, tank or tube tops, miniskirts and flip flops are unprofessional and should not be worn.

Women should also avoid flashy jewelry, big hair, and too much makeup. Makeup should be natural looking, jewelry modest and not distracting, and hair combed or styled and kept out of the face.

For men, proper dress includes slacks and button-up shirts, with a jacket and tie optional, depending on the speech and audience.

Men should avoid t-shirts —especially those with inappropriate graphics — shorts, and flip-flops. Dirty or visibly worn out clothing should not be worn, and hats and sunglasses should be avoided as they can become distracting during a presentation. A clean shaven face or well kept facial hair is also important in achieving the proper look.

The way you act during a presentation can also effect the audience’s perception of you.

Dressing inappropriately may cause you to act in a way that is distracting to the audience. For example: fiddling with your jewelry; tugging at strapless tops; fixing a fallen strap, or brushing hair out of your face are all behaviors that will prevent your audience from focusing on what you’re saying but rather what you’re doing.

It’s also important to maintain good eye contact with your audience. When you engage your audience, they become engaged in your topic.

Proper hand gestures are important. Don’t leave your hands in your pockets; this can make you appear awkward and uninterested. But avoid using too much hand movement; it can be distracting and appear artificial. If you use your hands correctly they can help you emphasize your points and connect with your audience.

Finally, avoid leaning or bracing yourself against the podium, this can appear stiff and awkward. Calm and natural movement around the room is good, but avoid becoming too relaxed and casual during a formal presentation.

Giving a successful presentation is a very rewarding experience. With the proper planning and practice, you can achieve success and engage your audience.

October 21, 2009

MEGAN: Howdy Ags, and welcome back to Write Right, the student podcast of the Texas A&M University Writing Center. This episode will continue our discussion of English articles- knowing which articles are appropriate, and when. In the last episode, we looked at the indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an,’ so today, we’ll focus on the definite article ‘the.’

The definite article is used when a noun is specific to both the speaker and the hearer, or the writer and the reader. Unlike indefinite articles, ‘the’ may precede both singular and plural nouns. Consider the statement, “I have the book (or I have the books) you asked for.” In this case, the speaker has a specific book, and the hearer has asked for it. ‘The’ is used because they are talking about the same book. Notice how the sentence could change to “I have a book you asked for,” if the hearer has asked for more than one book, and thus does not know which one the speaker is about to give him. In both of these sentences, either ‘a’ or ‘the’ can be used and the sentences will still be grammatically correct. Many times, the ideal use of the definite article depends on what you want to say. However, there are still general guidelines we can follow:

The Writing Center at Rensselaer University points out several contextual and grammatical structures that trigger the use of the definite article:

• If the noun has already been mentioned in the conversation, it is definite by context. If you say “John found a dog, but later the dog ran away,” you use ‘the’ at the second mention of the dog. We know you’re talking about the dog previously mentioned.
• If superlative or ranking adjectives modify the noun, they are emphasizing a specific noun. For example, you say “the largest piece of fruit” “the second half of the game” and “the smaller slice of the two.”
• Other modifying words and phrases may have the same function as well, such as “the girl who lives next door,” and “the building that has five stories.” However, these phrases will not always use the definite article. You could be talking about any building that has five stories. Once again, the correct article depends on whether or not the speaker is communicating something specific.
• Nouns also use the definite article if they are describing a unique person, place, or thing, such as in the sentence, “The earth revolves around the sun.” ‘Earth’ and ‘sun’ are specific by meaning.

In all these examples, the main thing to be sure of is that the speaker and hearer have the same situation or context in mind.  While knowing when to use the definite article can be confusing, following these guidelines and looking into additional resources will help you work through all the rules and exceptions.  For example, some noun categories, such as languages, nationalities, sports, and academic subjects, don’t use articles at all.  You can refer to our website, at writingcenter.tamu.edu, for links to more comprehensive explanations and examples of the correct use of articles.   Thanks for tuning in to the last two episodes, and we’ll see you next time, on Write Right.

October 21, 2009

MEGAN: Good morning College Station! I’m Megan Dortch, and welcome to Write Right, the student podcast of the Texas A&M University Writing Center. As you know, Write Right is designed to provide useful tips and ideas in all areas of the writing process. These next two episodes will focus in on a specific grammatical concept- English articles and when to use them.

If you’re a native English speaker, you’ve probably used the articles ‘a,’ ‘an,’ and ‘the’ correctly your whole life, without giving it a second thought. Their use comes naturally to you as part of your first language, so you never really needed to learn the rules behind them. But if you’re an English as a Second Language, or ESL student, you probably know that articles can be one of the trickiest grammatical concepts to learn. In that case, these podcasts aim to provide you with some concrete rules and examples of which articles are appropriate, and when.

Articles can be defined as the part of speech used to indicate nouns and specify their application. They precede nouns in English and can be classified into 2 categories: the indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an,’ and the definite article ‘the.’ These categories have different functions, and in some cases, an article is not required at all. In this episode, we’ll look specifically at indefinite articles.

An important concept to consider when using indefinite articles is whether or not the noun is countable. The Writing Center at Rensselaer University defines nouns as countable if they can be made plural, usually by adding ‘s,’ or another form of the plural ending. Examples of countable nouns are objects and people, such as ‘apple to apples,’ or ‘child to children.’ The Oxford Dictionary indicates whether or not nouns are countable, so you can look up specific words you’re unsure of.

The English indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ are used with countable nouns in their singular form. For example, you say ‘a child’ and ‘an apple.’ Rensselaer points out that because ‘a’ and ‘an’ are derived from the word ‘one,’ they are not used with plural nouns, meaning, you don’t say ‘a children’ or ‘an apples.’ You can use modifying words like ‘some’ or ‘many’ to specify how many children or apples there are, but the fact that they’re plural means they can’t use the singular indefinite articles. Furthermore, there cannot be “one” of something that is uncountable, so you don’t use ‘a’ or ‘an’ with certain concepts, like love either.

The difference between whether to use ‘a’ or ‘an’ lies in the pronunciation of the noun following it. If the pronunciation of the following noun begins with a consonant sound, use the article ‘a.’ If the pronunciation begins with a vowel sound, use the article ‘an.’ For example, you say ‘a dog’ and ‘a unique idea,’ because of the sounds ‘d’ and ‘yuh.’ Even though ‘unique’ begins with the letter ‘u,’ it’s pronounced with the consonant ‘yuh’ sound, which requires the article ‘a’. In contrast, you say ‘an umbrella’ and ‘an honor’ because of the vowel sounds ‘uh’ and ‘ahh.’ Similarly, even though ‘honor’ begins with the letter ‘h,’ it’s beginning sound is the vowel sound ‘ahh.’

For more resources, examples, and even quizzes on indefinite articles, please visit our website, at writingcenter.tamu.edu. Also, stay tuned for our next Write Right episode, where we’ll look at the definite article ‘the.’ We’ll see you next time!

Check out Episode 34 – Dale Rice on News Writing
Check out Episode 35 – Dale Rice, Writing on Deadline

September 2009

MEGHAN- Howdy Ags, I’m Meghan Wall and Welcome to “Write Right.”  Today we’ll be talking to journalist Dale Rice about his experience in the news business as well as gaining tips for students interested in pursuing a journalism career.

Dale Rice graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in journalism.  He then worked 35-years in the newspaper business for well known papers like the Dallas Times Herald and the Austin American Statesman.  Rice has worked in every facet of the news business from being a general assignments reporter, to covering education, city hall, business, working as a bureau chief, a features editor, and most recently a restaurant critic.  He has covered issues ranging from school desegregation, to murder investigation, the legislature, and great places to eat.

Rice retired from the news business last year and came to A&M to teach journalism courses in media writing and political blogging.

DALE RICE- My first job was really a fluke in a way because I got the journalism degree with no intention of ever using it.  That sort of whole idea of the kinds of things journalist do, you know, call people up to ask them how they feel about someone who just died, and things like that made me go oh-my-word I’m not sure I really want to pursue this, although I really enjoyed all of the courses, especially the writing courses I had took.  But I was in graduate school planning on getting a masters in economics and at the end of the first semester I ran out of money.  And so I guess you might call it a desperate move.  I called the editor of the newspaper in Syracuse and asked if by any chance they were looking for any reporters and he said yes and invited me to come in for an interview.  So I trotted down to the newspaper with my clips in hand, because I had written for the student newspaper at Syracuse University.  And got in, and he did a full-fledged interview that included having me write a story on deadline right on the spot.  He had me interview him as though he was a police chief talking about a crime that had just happened.  So I had to ask him all the questions and sit down and write the story and hand it in to him. And low and behold to my shock he hired me.

Again those first few months it was like, do I really want to do this? And then I was handed the education beat and just a few weeks after I was handed the education beat the city got hit with an order to desegregate the public schools and from that moment on my job became, as far as I was concerned, became one of the most fascinating jobs in the world and it stayed that way up until I retired last year.

Well, I think there are two reasons to go into a career in journalism.  One is a personal reason, and that’s because you love the idea of reporting and writing and being, what I think is the second reason, a very critical component for democracy.  I think freedom of the press is a cornerstone of any good democracy, and so I think that it is so incredibly important to have good journalists out there, not only covering what’s going on but really looking for the underlying reasons that things are happening.  And so, I think if you want to be a part of that sort of work then it’s a great reason to head into journalism.

Well, and there are all kinds of writing for newspapers too.  I mean, not only would there be the writing about politics and government but of course there is feature writing, there is sports reporting, and business reporting so there are all sorts of kinds of writing.  Beyond writing for newspapers, the magazine industry in the last couple of decades has in fact grown substantially.  There is all kinds of niche publications and huge numbers of them have full time professional writers as well as using part-time freelance writers as well.  And so right there there’s a lot of room.  And then you have television and radio, and while a lot of television or radio stations would be looking for someone with a broadcast degree,  others might be willing to take a chance on somebody who just has a pure journalism degree, but who has the background for knowing how to do interviews, how to ask the right questions, how to get at the heart of the story, and how to do a good job reporting that in a way that’s understandable.

Well right now a student at A&M can minor in journalism, we hope to have a major in the future but right now it’s a minor.  And you can take the writing courses we offer as part of the journalism minor and you look for other related courses that would be amazingly useful to you as a reporter.  A good example of that would be taking the public opinion course in political science that talks about opinion surveys and how those statistics are often incorrectly manipulated by the media.  So one way that you could become a particularly well informed journalists is by taking a course such as that.

Within the journalism program, I think our concentration really is on the writing side of journalism, and of course totally paired with that is reporting, because you don’t just simply sit down and write a story with no preparation.  You actually have to go out and do the reporting as well and so you learn a lot of reporting skills: including interview skills and how to approach a subject, how to ask the right questions, and really to think about what are the right questions and all of the kinds of information that you should be gathering before you sit at that computer to begin writing.  But, I would say all of our writing courses, we call them writing courses, but you can’t ignore that there’s in fact a big reporting component in there as well.

MEGHAN- Dale Rice teaches Media Writing I and II, which are listed as W courses.  For more information on these courses and to look at a syllabus, check out our website at writingcenter.tamu.edu.

Tune in next time where Mr. Rice will discuss how to write a news story.  Thanks for listening to “Write Right!”  Goodbye!