Sample 1

Sophomore Zoe Zhu sits on a couch in the third floor of Benson. She’s donning a red Chinese National Ultimate Frisbee uniform from head to toe and heavily worn sneakers. She looks down at her computer overrun with assorted stickers. Her backpack rests by her as a Frisbee hangs from the bag by a clip.

Zhu is an international student who has been able to follow her passion for Frisbee all over the world. As Zhu takes over the helm for the Wake Forest Women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, she explores the beginnings of her career and aspects of the sport that keep her so dedicated.

How did you get started playing frisbee?

“I actually started playing frisbee here in North Carolina. In 2016, I went to a summer program with my school in Asheville and one of our counselors taught everyone how to throw a frisbee. I didn’t even know frisbee was a thing for human beings, i just thought it was for dogs (laughs).”

How’d you keep playing when you returned to China?

“We went back to China and we explored a lot on YouTube, then we started our own team and of the 30 classmates that went to that program,12 of us created the team. It was called Impulse.”

I heard your high school team made it to Youth Nationals,good how did you go from a completely new team to nationally ranked?

“So, for the first year we were not qualified to go because we were so weak. None of us knew how to toss or how to run the strategies. We went to some hat? tournaments, practiced by ourselves, and what we learned outside we brought into our team and tried to make the team better. It was 2018 when we were finally qualified to go to Youth National in China, which was amazing. We were ranked 5th.”

So how did you get involved with the Chinese National Team?

“I tried out, it was a hard time. The community in China is pretty small, not a lot of people even know that Ultimate Frisbee is a thing. I was invited to try out by someone because I was on a club team.”

What were the try-outs one word like? good

“For me, since I’m abroad and I’m so poor, I can’t go back to China, so I just videotaped everything. It was a hard time because some people even though they were studying abroad would fly back to China. They literally flew back to China just for that three day try-out.”

Did you ever think you would be involved so heavily in a sport like frisbee?

“My parents tried to develop me into a “traditional Chinese girl”. I started playing guzheng, which is a Chinese traditional instrument, since I was 4 years old, and I was performing Peking Opera which is also like very traditional like Asian Chinese thing and also traditional Chinese dance, but as I grew up I felt like I loved those things but that’s not really me.”

Why do you love frisbee? good

“It’s a team sport, and I feel like my whole life I’m doing things by myself.interesting Dancing, opera, it’s all by yourself. I’ve never experienced a team sport this much. I feel like it’s just the people who play, you cooperate with each other, and the joy you share when you score. It’s just like this culture, I really just love it.”

What’s one of your favorite memories from playing frisbee?

“Spirit circles with the other teams. In China, after every game, the two teams will mix up together and the captains will complement the other teams. We would cheer for each other which just makes the distances closer. It’s like a family.”

You are captain of the frisbee team, a choreographer for LIT, and an RA: how do you manage to keep going despite being so busy?

“My mom asked me to write down three things I achieved for the day, so I started and somehow I’m still doing that. I have so many tiny notebooks. Some days I don’t really know if it’s for the purpose of writing one of those three achievements, or if I am just doing it. For example, sometimes I don’t really want to do something, but then I would think about my little notebook and I would say, “If I do this, I can add it to my notebook.” Wow – like most Chinese students, she is driven in extraordinary ways I got that sense of achievement and then I would just go for it. I would literally tell myself in my mind, ‘it’s happening, it’s happening, I’m going’.”

Where do you see yourself with Ultimate in the future?

“I will definitely keep playing, but the thing is it can’t be my main job considering it’s so money consuming.nice (money consuming) You have to pay for everything, jerseys, tournaments, plane tickets, and membership. It still costs a lot of money.”

If Ultimate becomes an Olympic sport would you do it?

“I would do it. I would definitely do it.”

SAMPLE 2

Professor Luis Roniger has an understanding of his field that is hard to replicate.

Having grown up in Argentina during cycles of governmental oppression and military takeover, his first-hand experience is evident through his passion and knowledge in his teaching of Latin American studies and human rights.

His love for his subject radiates towards his students who describe classes with him as thought-provoking and eye-opening.

 What was it like growing up in Argentina during an era of political persecution? Good opening

I started primary school immediately after the coup against Perón. This was necessarily a period of repression, but I was totally unaware of that. Even under a democratic government there was violence and disarray.

Do you have any particular memories of when you first realized the gravity of the political climate? Good folo

 With two fellow students I tried to publish a newsletter after the onset of the new military rule in 1966. We were called to the principal after we published it. The newsletter wasn’t subversive, it was simply pulling together some sarcasm and irony. We were high school students, and still we were admonished and told that we would be expelled from high school if we continued to publish.

 Was it in the school newspaper, or a local publication?

 It was in a local publication out of our own initiative, not regulated by the school. But now looking back, the school probably was afraid that it would be held accountable for “subversive” ideas that may somehow affect its future.

 While you were in school in Argentina, what were you studying?

I was studying sociology. I’m in the department of politics and international affairs here, but I am by formation a comparative political sociologist.

 What was it like studying political thought during a time of limited political expression?

The atmosphere in the university was that of a mixture of professors who were nationalist of the right, some were Peronists, and there were all sorts of beliefs. But, the atmosphere at the university was politicized to extremes.

How so? 

First of all, physically, in classes everywhere you saw graffiti, posters, and flyers of different groups, groups who would meet for very political discussions about the role of violence, the role of active militancy. Whenever there was a period of tension, militants would enter classes and stop class. The provost was elected by the professors, faculty, and students, so politics got easily involved in education from the bottom up.

What caused you to leave Argentina? Good pivot

I’m an avid reader, and accordingly I had many books about the thinkers I was studying that could have led me to be one of people who would later be defined as the desaparecidos. There were kidnappings, killings, and people were sent to concentration camps. The country was so politicized, so antagonized, and I knew there were cycles of repressions all the time, even under democracy. I was sure that something terrible would happen, I could sense it in the air.

Where did you decide to go? You obviously have ended up in the United States, but was there somewhere else you went first?

 I went to Israel and did graduate studies there.

Why did you choose Israel? 

I am Jewish. In parallel to the official public school, I went to Jewish School and I learned Yiddish and Hebrew from early on. I was able to study in a language that I knew and eventually perfected. My wife was Israeli also, but it was a combination of being Jewish, looking for a place to live, and also the family constellation.

 In addition to studying comparative political sociology, you teach about human rights. When was the birth of your love of the study of human rights?

I should go back to my childhood; I was a minority within a catholic country. I wasn’t targeted particularly for being Jewish. I had Catholic friends, but I witnessed the targeting the members of the Jewish community by extremist, radical groups of the right. Overall, it’s been a mixture of curiosity and antisemitism. I’m a humanist, I think of people as equals, even as they are diverse.

Do you feel optimistic about the future of respecting human rights? Interesting question

Many times, only after a major crisis do we feel the push, and we’re currently undergoing a major crisis. There is radicalism of religion and politics that is threatening western democracies. I’m not pessimistic, but we’re living through a period of regression with respect to what had been achieved.

What is it that you love so much about this field and why do you want to share it with students?

I resent discrimination, I would like to respect and be respectful of every person, not to place difference before equality. But still I’m a realist because I’m aware there are many sources of prejudice and discrimination. I think of our country, the USA, with so many problems even in 2019 with how people think of each other, how people are categorized, how racism is not the failure of the majority. Minorities discriminate  as well. There is so much polarization, and I know from my birth nation the consequences of being polarized and antagonizing. It’s crucial for the future of any society and for democracy.

SAMPLE 3

Sophomore Olivia Thonson is a dedicated spokesperson for women’s’ rights. She is a Women and Gender Studies and Political Science double major whose passions include improving sexual education, raising awareness on the concept of intersectionality, and fighting to protect women’s reproductive rights.

She is also president of the Intersectional Feminist Collective on campus, the creator of the “Sex Ed Done Right” speaker series, and a Sexual Wellness intern at the Women’s Center. Her reputation as one of the most passionate feminists on campus has led her to speak at multiple Planned Parenthood events and has made her a popular guest speaker in  campus classrooms.

1. What would you say you’re most passionate about right now, and how is that reflected in your involvements at Wake?

I think I’m most passionate about sex education, just because I think most people here haven’t had a proper one yet, and if they did it was abstinence-based.[that’s a fact] To address that, we’ve been holding the “Sex Ed Done Right” Speaker Series, a series of talks that are geared towards college students.that’s great, and needed For example, two of our speeches were “The Female Orgasm” and “Destigmatizing Sex Work.” I’m also developing a sex ed curriculum right now for new students during orientation, which would cover general sex ed – STIs, contraception methods.

2. Have you always been passionate about these issues? If not, what sparked your interest?

I really became passionate in high school when my friends and I started an organization called “This Means War,” which was for women who were victims of assault and rape. Through the organization, we provided free self-defense classes for people after school. We also tried to revamp our sex-ed curriculum within our school district. That was the first time I really became passionate about sex education reform. When I came to Wake Forest, one of the orientation seminars involved putting a condom on a banana. I immediately thought to myself, “Everyone knows how to do that. We learned all that in high school.” Then I started talking to people who were saying, “Oh, we didn’t have sex ed.” That was really shocking for me, and it made me passionate about making a difference here. She has identified a major lapse in health ed on our campus.

3. How, if at all, has being a student at Wake Forest changed your perspective on these topics?

I’m from L.A., which is a very progressive community. My high school was very open with talking about sex education, so coming to Wake Forest made me realize that people come from all different backgrounds; not everyone had access to the same knowledge  I have about sex. A lot of people didn’t get that education from their parents or guardians, either. The experience kind of broadened my horizons in a way, as cheesy as that sounds.

4. If you had to pick one person, who has been your greatest inspiration as a young adult?

I’m absolutely obsessed with Angela Davis. She was a communist member of the Black Panthers during the 1970s and a professor in the UC System. I learned about her in high school, and she instantly became my social justice warrior. She really inspired me.

5. In your opinion, how are issues such as feminism perceived by other Wake Forest students and faculty?

We have a very progressive faculty, and most of them are very open to the idea of having a feminist club. I’m a WGS and Poli-Sci double-major, and both of those departments are pretty open to the idea of intersectional feminism on campus. However, I don’t think the student body is like that at all. I think they mostly perceive it as a group of “feminazis” or “manhaters.” Interesting; where does she see the sorority culture fitting into all this…?

6. Why do you think that is?

I think it’s mostly where they were raised. A big factor is who they hung out with in high school and who their parents are. Another part of it is media; most media only portrays really extreme feminists, and I think that always seeing that could influence people’s perception.

7. If you could change or implement one policy in America, what would it be and why? Interesting question

I think it would just be mandatory sex education in all high schools, but not just focused on the biology and anatomy; I think it should be a comprehensive sex education that includes sexual pleasure and consent as well. I know a lot of Northern European countries start teaching students about consent at a really young age. Beginning consent education in kindergarten is much more effective than beginning it in college. Good answer, especially with the easy access online to so much raw and exploitive content

8. How do you plan on incorporating these passions into your life after college? Do you think your career will reflect your current interests?

I actually want to write sex education curriculum for a living. Actually, not a living; I couldn’t make enough money from that. But I really want to work with nonprofits that work with school districts to help develop sexual education curriculum. Good for her.

9. Out of all of your experiences concerning female empowerment, does one particular moment stand out to you as the most rewarding?

I think it would be last year when I was doing the “Sex Ed Done Right” speaker series for the first time. One of the speeches I organized was “The Female Orgasm,” and I was shot down by a lot of people on that, especially by the administration. In the end, over a hundred and twenty people showed up. We completely filled the auditorium we were in, which just proved to me that the topic holds more interest than people think. No real surprise there…

Reporting Index

Annelise Brigham – Email interview

Zack Potter – Email interview

Olivia Thonson – Interview

The Q&A profile:

1. Alternative form of storytelling.
2. Give a sense of hearing the subject talk by capturing accurately the language of their answers. (Use a tape recorder for your main interview).
3. Create a story with a beginning, middle and end.
4. You can edit your questions so that they are sharp, on point, or set up the answer in the best way possible.
5. You must edit the answers so that they don’t run on too long.
6. You can shuffle the order of the questions from when you asked them. You are not sending me a transcript of your interview. The idea is to tell a story. You are in charge. Organization — and focus— is essential. Ask yourself: what is this Q&A about? Don’t veer off in several directions with your questions. Go deeper and deeper.
7. The intro – No more than 100 words. This is really your nut graf. You want to introduce not only your subject, but the focus or theme of the story. This is not a biography. It is a snapshot. Keep it relatively focused. Make it sound like a coherent, revealing conversation that tells a story.
8. You want your first question and answer to be compelling enough to get the reader to the second one. Identify your final answer before your start and build your Q&A in that direction.
9. Length — 900 words total, with about 100 for your intro. On average, you need between 8 and 12 questions. Keep answers concise and on point. No wordy questions or answers.
10. Reporting Index: You must interview at least two people familiar with your profile subject to help you prepare for your main interview. Include any additional web research.
11. If you can: Include a photograph.

1. Your story length is 800-900 words (slightly longer than previous assignments, if needed). The deadline is 10 a.m. Friday, April 17.
2. Your story is of a very unique nature given these highly unusual times. As we’ve discussed, your story will focus on the pandemic as it affects some aspect of your community or family. You all have good story ideas, so trust your news judgment. Tell a great story.
3. You are allowed to use first person in this story, but are not required to use first person. That said, you should not be the focus of the story. First person will come more from observations and insights, especially if writing about family experiences.
4. Please be consistent with verb tense throughout your story. Because many of you are writing feature stories, present tense is something to consider throughout. It makes the story feel more immediate.
5. I am giving you permission to take risks in both your style and form of writing. This is dramatic story telling at an unprecedented moment. Each of your stories has built in emotional elements and tension that you are reporting on, observing and/or experiencing. Use all of your senses in the descriptive passages of your story.
6. Please remember the fundamentals: a compelling lead; support for your lead; short paragraphs; proper placement of attribution in quotes; accurate punctuation of quotes; conversational language and tone; a strong ending or end quote; keep your opinions out as much as possible.
7. Each story MUST have a nut graf (fourth or fifth paragraph) that puts your story in a broader context, as we’ve discussed. PUT YOUR NUT GRAF IN BOLD.
8. Include a photo or two, if possible.
9. You should have at least three interviews you’ve conducted yourself. You can pull quotes from other published sources; be sure to cite that source — as we’ve discussed.
10. Reporting Index required as always.

STORY 3 GREEN WEEK

1. Story length 700 minimum, 800 words maximum. Deadline: 10 a.m. Friday, or earlier. Because of our Green Weeks lectures and discussions, your stories must focus on an issue related to sustainability, environmental protection, climate change.
2. Audience: Regardless of your topic or issue, remember that you are writing for a campus audience, and that your story must be connected to campus activities, resources, sources and/or student reactions.
3. You can start with a basic news lead, but I urge you to be more engaging and creative in starting your story. Support your lead. Use a good quote early that pushes your story along. If you can, include at least one paragraph of description — observation, sound, emotion, etc. This will not be possible for some of you.
4. You must have a nut graf. This may come anywhere after the third or fourth graf, but not much lower. Be sure to put it in bold so that I know you know you have one. As discussed at length, your nut graf or grafs must tie into the larger mission or goals of mitigating global warming or promoting sustainability.
5. You must have at least four sources in your story — at least three people quoted along with research, observation, etc. Ideally, you will have more.
6. Think of your story as having a beginning, middle and end. Be creative, but do not make anything up.
7. No first person writing. No exceptions.
8. Try to end with a good quote. Do not end with a personal summary or opinion. Avoid advocacy.
9. Photo optional. Use one if you can find one. Place it in the Word doc or send separately.
10. A Reporting Index, as spelled out in the syllabus, is required at the end of your story in the same file. List all the people you interviewed, all your research online or elsewhere, even if it doesn’t appear in your story. You index should have at least five bullet points. No Reporting Index, no grade.
11. Write a headline for your story. Then save your story as Last name Story 3.docx and send to me as an email in Word. No Google docs, please.
12. Reminder: Set all quotes off as separate paragraphs. Failure to punctuate quotes correctly, or place attribution accurately, will result on a  grade deduction. Please consult the textbook if you need to. FOLLOW AP STYLE.

Example 1

Wake Forest Stands Out Relative To America In Climate Changing Understanding

Congratulations Wake Forest, you understand it. But your parents might not, and they might
not even want to.

For a campus which is conservative relative to most other colleges and universities in the
United States, there is still a clear consensus at Wake Forest: climate change is real and it’s
happening.

“I’ve been here for 10 years,” said Chief Sustainability Officer at Wake Forest University Deedee
Johnston with a smile telling of years of progress, “and in those years not a single student has
ever told me they don’t believe that our climate is changing.”

(nut graf) While young, educated students and faculty on college campuses have proven to be some the strongest acknowledgers of the presence and severity of climate change, the United States still lags behind the rest of the world in coming to terms with the reality of climate change. A Yale study on “Climate Change and the American Mind” revealed that 14% of Americans don’t believe in climate change and one in four don’t believe that human actions are having drastic effects.

Climate change denialism clearly still pervades factions of American political thought. Whether
or not the intensely fortified roots of this belief can be quashed will be a determining factor in
the world’s success in fighting off the damage humans have already caused.

“Your politics are what predicts your accepting of science, which of course shouldn’t make any
sense, but perfectly makes sense when you look at the psychology of it,” remarked Dr. Adrian
Bardon of the Wake Forest Philosophy Department laughing at the paradox. “If people know
that their group, where they’re from, their community, or their political party needs to insist
that its not true, they’re going to go along with it.”

The tribalism of climate change denial that Bardon explored may not be felt on Wake Forest’s
campus but is a reality in many of the communities which its students come from.
Particularly in communities whose livelihoods depend on the use of the land, water, and their
resources, the acknowledgement of climate change and the subsequent actions taken to
address it would mean a temporary collapse of their way of life.

“The last time I was in church back home the preacher said that climate change was an aspect
of the liberal agenda to get people to pay more tax dollars,” said sophomore Reece Adams. “I
grew up in a small town in North Carolina where a lot of people work for oil companies, and
they don’t want to believe in climate change because of what it means for their jobs.”

However, students who have grown up with an environmentally conscious education claim that
even in their young lives there have been palpable changes which motivate them to take action.

“I grew up in the suburbs of Boston, which is a pretty clean city,” said sophomore Amanda
Mosher, “but in the past 10 years you can sense the worsening of the air quality, especially
when you go from the city to the suburbs. And in the news, climate change is everywhere if you
look for it. How could seeing rainforests on fire and icecaps shrinking not make you want to
take a stand.”

Evolutionary psychologists suggest that one of the largest contributors to denialism is humans’
innate fear of mortality. As humans gain an increasing understanding of the world around
them, the reality of their own demise leads them to cling to ideas that insist that everything will
be okay.

“One of the biggest conclusions of the research into climate change denialism is that it’s not a
literacy problem,” added Bardon. “With regard to climate science as a conservative, the higher
level of your literacy, the more likely you are to be engaging in denial. There comes a point
when the amount of education someone has stops making a difference.”

Bardon, frustrated by a sense of impending doom, mentioned that it’s nearly impossible to re-
educate people on an issue they feel they understand. There are then really only two options:
make environmental concerns a main focus of youth education throughout America, or wait
until the crisis forces people to feel the immediate effects first hand.

Unfortunately for the environment, the severity of the crisis coupled with the psychological
need for drastic effects to be seen before action is taken could mean that the world’s climate
will reach the point-of-no-return with regards to what has been deemed normal throughout its
existence.

“The problem isn’t that humans don’t understand the science, it’s that they don’t want to,”
concluded Bardon.

Reporting Index

Background Research:
 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/07/us-hotbed-climate-change-
denial-international-poll
 https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/10305
 https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-
mind-december-2018/2/
 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/11/two-thirds-of-us-students-
are-taught-climate-change-badly-study-finds

Interviews:
 Dr. Adrian Bardon, Wake Forest Department of Philosophy
 Deedee Johnston, Office of Sustainability
 Anna Lummus, sophomore
 Sara Vigiano, sophomore
 Sofia Braunstein, sophomore
 Dexter Peters, sophomore
 Ethan Lewis, sophomore
 Alec Warring, sophomore
 Ashwin Singh, sophomore
 Matt Desoutter, junior
 Amanda Mosher, sophomore

Sample 2

Drone Technology and Environmental Conservation of the Future

What comes to mind when you hear the term ‘environmental conservation’? Recycling? Shorter showers? Even planting trees?

In the broader conversation about how best to combat detrimental human behavior with regard to the environment, academics and scientists alike have acknowledged that technologically savvy and forward thinking solutions need to play a larger role.

(nut graf) One such solution, particularly with regards to imaging and remote sensing, are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), otherwise known as drones. Because of its ability to nimbly navigate shorter spaces and thus take higher quality photos than those of satellites, many conservationists are turning towards this technology to enhance their ability to gather and analyze information.

 Using drones originally developed on campus, the Wake Forest backed Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA) has detected threats such as illegal gold mining across the Peruvian Amazon since 2016. According to Alicia Roberts of Wake Forest News, these drones produce “high-resolution satellite imagery that helps scientists and policymakers determine the extent of the damage caused by mining – and devise sustainable solutions to address it.”

 For Max Messinger, Director of the Unmanned Systems Lab at Wake Forest, the advent of drones in environmental conservation has been revolutionary. His company, Linn Aerospace LLC, builds and sells unmanned aircrafts.

While the technology is not yet fully developed yet, Messinger is excited to see how improved Artificial Intelligence (AI) in conjunction with drones will improve environmental research.

“This has a lot of potential to revolutionize and get a lot more information out of the environmental data that we have,” he says, “It’s like going from a kite to a 747.”

Additionally, several members of Wake Forest’s Department of Computer Science have also become involved in research surrounding drones, particularly related to the positive environmental impact that they can make.

Dr. Paúl Pauca has spent time analyzing images taken from the air by drones and says that its images have been invaluable, particularly when compared to lower resolution satellite photos.

“There are a bunch of problems we’ve worked with, such as making images clear, or more recently, finding things in those images,” he said. “Depending on what you want to find, the different modality of imaging and objects can give you more information than another.”

“Drones can be used for just about everything,” said Professor Sarra Alqatani, who, in her first year at Wake Forest, has continued her previous academic research on drone usage in combating deforestation and illegal mining.

Currently, she is focused on using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to allow drones to learn from and adapt its previous behavior offline, with the end goal of creating a “smart” drone that needs little to no direction from a human operator.

According to Dr. Pauca, the difficult aspect of working with drones is often figuring out how best to tailor its finding towards what humans want.

“When you try to extract information, you’re also trying to extract human intent, and what the human wants out of these images,” he said. “It’s much harder for a computer to be circling around that idea of how to use contextual information and be better understood by humans.”

Despite the significant role that new technology, specifically drones, can play with regards to conservationism, the fact of the matter is that they only represent a small part of what is needed.

“The part that is missing from [conservationism] or from climate change is the action in response to goals and information…That’s always been the sticking point,” said Messinger. “Information is rarely the limiting factor in conservation. That’s definitely a big obstacle that needs to be overcome.”

Pauca largely agreed with Messinger’s characterizations.

“What we can do is more efficiently extract and capture knowledge, and make that knowledge more visible to government and local agencies so they can take action,“ Pauca said, noting that this process is already occurring.”

Messinger also noted that most drones, at least for now, only have a core skillset with which it operates, rendering them sometimes one dimensional when it comes to environmental conservation.

“There are more things that they [drone technology] are bad at than they are good at. It’s nothing more than a tool, and you don’t try to put screws in with a hammer,” he said.

Reporting Index:

Paúl Pauca, Interview

Maxwell Messinger, Interview

Sarra Alqahtani, Interview

https://www.wfu.edu/stories/2018/the-new-gold-rush/

http://linnaero.com/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749116307163

READ CAREFULLY, please

Story 2 guidelines

1. Your story is a topic or issue of your choosing, but can’t be a repeat of Story 1. Most of you will be doing a localization, which we have discussed at length in class.
2. Write in a Word doc. Story length should not exceed 650-700 words. You want a beginning, middle and end. SAVE your story as Last Name Story 2.docx. Deadline: 10 a.m. Friday (Stories that miss deadline will get a grade reduction).
3. Remember that you are telling a story, so as long as you are sticking with the facts of your reporting, be detailed and even creative in your storytelling.
4. Make sure you are clear on what your story is about and stay focused.Opt for depth rather than skimming the surface to cover more ground. Do this with good quotes, vivid observations, summarizing of major points, interesting source reaction.
5. Your story must have a nut graf— the So What? graf — that helps put your story in a broader context and explains what’s at stake, why the story is important, why the reader should care. In a localization, the nut graf will focus on the timely issue or event to which you are getting reaction. BE SURE TO PUT YOUR NUT GRAF IN BOLD.

Also, your should should contain elements of OBSERVATION and DESCRIPTION. Put those elements in BOLD, too.

4. Your story should contain a minimum of four quotes from at least three difference sources. Be sure to punctuate your quotes correctly. Grade reduction for quotes punctuated incorrectly. Check the textbook if you are uncertain.
5. Follow AP Style throughout — titles, numbers, abbreviations, times, etc.
6. EVERY story you write this semester MUST have a Reporting Index at the end of the story. We discussed this in class, and there is an example on the blog in the Story 1 sample. You will lose a letter grade if you do not have a Reporting Index.
7. PHOTO REQUIRED that is related to your story. I want you to take the photo. Embed in your Word doc at a low resolution, or attached as a jpg. Be sure to include a cutline (caption) that describes the photo.