Write a News Report

Write a News Report. CLICK HERE for the instructions.

The Style of a News Report

A few things about news reports:

-key information comes at the beginning (the 5 w's +h)

-the most important information comes in the first sentence or two (the lead)

-the information is presented most to least relevant

-the reporter is not part of the story (the reporter writes using 'he,' 'she' or 'they' NOT 'I' or 'me').

-the reporter gives as many facts and details as possible.

-reporters try to include either direct or indirect quotations

Pick a News Report that interests you. Cut and paste the details of news reports from above (in red) into a new blog post.

Create a hyperlink to it for your blog reader

Cut and paste examples from your news story into your blog post in order to demonstrate each of the details.

Paragraph Editing--Corrections

Mark DeMontis

Courage Canada founder Mark DeMontis, a 23 year old blind hockey player, inline skated from Toronto across five provinces and 5,000 km to Vancouver to raise awareness about blind hockey. He founded Courage Canada with the vision of bringing the blind to the ice. One reader of Mark's story said, "I felt that this story is moving and will contribute to people being aware of blind hockey." Mark Demontis has courage because he is blind and he skated from Toronto to Vancouver. He had the courage to move on through the weather, through the pain and made it to Vancouver. He raised money to help those in need and I feel that is courageous.

My News Report

The News Report

One of the requirements of this course is demonstrating the same skills that are tested on the OSSLT. Consequently, we will be looking at news reports for the next few days.

Please take some time to answer the following questions and complete the activities on your blog.

1) What is the purpose of a news report and where are you most likely to find them?

2) Who writes news reports and who are they written for?

3) What do you remember being taught about how to write a news report?

4) Check thestar.com or other online newspaper and find a news report you are interested in. Read it. Make a hyperlink from your blog to the article.

5) If you were given the article to read as a handout in class, would you recognize it as a news report? Why or why not?

6) Compare your news report to another piece of writing you have completed (or are completing) for this course, such as your autobiography, your short story or your film review. What are some of the key differences? (Hint, consider the tone and point of view)

Paragraph Editing

Copy and paste the following paragraph into your blog. Find and correct as many spelling, punctuation and usage (grammar) errors as you can.

Mark DeMontis

courage canada founder Mark DeMontis, a 23 year old blind hockey player, inline skated from Toronto across five provinces and 5,000 km to Vancouver to raise awareness about blind hockey. he founded Courage Canada with the vision of bringing the Blind to the ice. one reader of mark's story said I fell that this story is moving and will contribut people to get aware blind hockey. Mark demontis has courage because he blind and he skated from toronto to vancouver he had the courage to move on through the weather through the pain and made it to vancouver. he He had raised money to help those in need and i fell that is courage.

Journal # 7 - Progress

Since early progress reports and parent-teacher night all happened within the past week, take a moment to discuss how happy you are with your performance so far? Are you still working toward the same goals you set for yourself in September? Have you kept on top of your assignments or are they piling up on you? What changes, if any, do you plan to make before the end of the semester?

Journal #6 - Education

Imagine you were made the principal at Stamford, and you were given unlimited resources to make changes. What sort of changes would you make? How would you help students learn better? What materials would you buy? How would you make school more fun? What new rules would you make? What rules would you get rid of?

Homonyms

One reason writers make mistakes is because they write a word that sounds like the word they want to use rather than the right one. Practice your commonly confused homonyms by using each pair in a sentence correctly.

there/their/they're
where/were
write/right
which/witch
its/it's
meet/meat
threw/through
definitely/defiantly
tale/tail
hole/whole

to/too/two

E.g. for weak/week: "I felt weak for a week."

Comma Uses

Copy the following reasons to use commas in your blog. For each reason, create 2 of your own examples.

1) ITEMS IN A SERIES. Use commas to separate items in a list, e.g. "I packed my cheese, sandals, umbrella and sunscreen for my trip to New York." Some writers will debate whether a comma is necessary before the and. Either with or without is acceptable as long as your writing is consistent throughout.

2) TO SEPARATE PARTS OF AN ADDRESS. E.g. "The Prime Minister of Canada lives at 24 Sussex Dr., Ottawa, Ontario."

3) TO MARK OF AN INTRODUCTORY WORD OR PHRASE. E.g. "Yes, I'll have some cheese." Or "Glad you are here, can we please get started?"

4) DIRECT ADDRESS. Put commas before and after a person's name as appropriate when they are being referred to directly. Consider the difference between, "Let's eat, Mark." and "Let's eat Mark."

5) TO SEPARATE PARTS OF A DATE. E.g. "Everyone will remember theevents of Tuesday, September 11, 2001."

6) TO INDICATE AN APPOSITE PHRASE. Apposite is just a fancy word for beside.' Advanced writers often include extra information in apposite phrases which enables them to combine short choppy sentences. E.G. "Helium's founder, Mark Ranalli, often contributes to the website's community boards."

7) TO MARK OFF AN ADVERBIAL PHRASE. Generally speaking, a phrase that establishes time or place of the main clause, or how it is carried out, is an adverbial phrase. E.g. "When your work is finished, you may play outside."

8) TO MARK OFF AN INTERRUPTION. E.g. "London Heathrow Airport, you'd have to see it to believe it, is Europe's busiest."

9) BEFORE A CO-ORDINATE CONJUNCTION. A co-ordinate conjunction is a conjunction (like and,' but,' although,' or however') that joins an independent clause to the main clause. An independent clause is a phrase that could form a sentence on its own. e.g. "I would like to buy you dinner, but I forgot my wallet."

10) TO INDICATE A NON-RESTRICTIVE PHRASE. Only about 1% of the population will ever master this one. A restrictive phrase is one that limits a referent. E.g. "The man who had seven cars offered me a ride." The phrase who had seven cars' limits the meaning to the man with seven cars as opposed to the man with one car or the man with two cars. In the sentence "The man, who had seven cars, offered me a ride" the phrase who had seven cars' is non-restrictive because of the commas. It is merely a way of including extra information.

11) TO MARK OFF A PARTICIPLE PHRASE. A participle is like a noun made out of a verb, such as having' which is the present participle of to have.' E.g. "Having walked more than twenty kilometers, I was very tired."

12) TO INTRODUCE A QUOTATION. E.g John said, "Commas aren't so tough."

Free Write

Every fourth journal topic will be a "free write." Free writing involves writing on whatever topic you want to write about and saying what you want to say, instead of what you think your instructor may wish to hear. This can lead you into some very unexpected territory, but it can also be very valuable insofar as it allows you to give careful consideration to a topic that may be important to you. Free writes can make you smarter!

For some people, free writing is easy and natural. For others, free writing is tougher than having an assigned topic. If you aren't sure what to write about, you might consider:

-something you've seen recently

-your life

-the future

-something that bothers you (warning, there can be therapy in doing this and you may end up feeling better!)

-talking to me, occasionally I get inspired.

Enjoy

Sentence Combining

Connecting Words: therefore, however, so, and, because, while, when, who " , " +ing

Substitute Teacher

The students enjoyed Mrs. Fletcher, the substitute teacher from England. Her teaching involved language games and writing contests. The room was filled with the laughter of students who were competing for prizes. Mrs. Fletcher also enjoyed the students, wanting to return to teach them again.