Introduction: You can’t just “go do a story” on one of these topics. Instead, it takes a lot of deep thinking and forethought. So we’re going to practice deep thinking and idea development here.
Learning objectives:
- Practicing the concept of saving string
- Looking deeply at what’s been done before
- Developing questions
- Developing a process for answering them
Steps to completion:
Background:
- Watch research video (which you may have seen before):
- Find one archival story about your high school (I suggest using NewsBank for this one) from 2009 or before and write a short blog summary in the coursework category using the “schooldays” tag by August 29.
- Read Clark’s Writing Tools Part IV. Write a short blog post in the coursework category explaining how you keep track of material you need for a story, particularly in light of what Clark calls doing your homework and composting/saving string. If you don’t have an established method, describe how you plan to keep up with such material in this class and beyond. Tag your post “string” and publish it by August 29.
- Read all three parts of John Branch’s piece Derek Boogard: A Boy Learns to Brawl. As you read, keep count of the sources cited. Also, keep track of the source types (friend or family member, teammate, coach, official, doctor, other expert, public record, private record, etc.) Type up your list in a Dropbox Paper document and share it with me by August 31.
Reflective:
- Class discussion August 30: Research and organization
- Class discussion September 1: Boogard and story development
Exploratory
- Take the issue or topic you considered above for your personal story and how you might formulate the questions that could drive your reporting. Using LexisNexis and NewsBank, find five stories that have been written about this topic between 2010 and 2015. Write the questions and summarize the stories in a post in your personal category using the tag “background” by August 31.
- Come up with at least five story ideas for your personal story (one paragraph per idea) and post in your personal category using the tag “brainstorming” by September 2.
- With your team, develop a story budget with one or two questions that each member will explore through reporting and post in your team category by September 2.