Q NEWS STORY ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS OVERVIEW This assignment will test your performance in news style writing, taken from Rich’s text and covering use of the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. INSTRUCTIONS Write a 300-word News Story using the provided Fire Fact Sheet and the Inverted Pyramid Checklist under the News Story Assignment Resources section. Write the story as if the incident has just occurred and you are a local news reporter. You should only use facts and information provided in the Fire Fact Sheet. You must demonstrate principles from your reading in the Rich text to compose your story. Once you have composed your story, create a Twitter message to promote the story. Include it at the bottom of the News Story. Be sure to create and include a hashtag for the Twitter post. Twitter now allows 280 characters (vs 140 previously). See the tips in Chapter 3 for effective tweets. Inverted Pyramid Structure Use the inverted pyramid structure for your story. Remember, the inverted pyramid style means that the most important information comes first and is followed by paragraphs arranged in descending order of importance. See Chapters 2 and 9 in Rich’s text. Develop a good, strong, concise lead using Rich’s guidelines (Chapter 2). Remember, as a reporter, you must make a judgment about what to put in the lead on the basis of the information provided in the Fire Fact Sheet. Develop the following paragraphs that embody the next most important information. The body will provide more information, supporting evidence, context, and illumination in the form of more details, direct and indirect quotes, and other descriptions. Transitions Use transitions to help get the reader from one point to another smoothly. See Chapter 8 in Rich’s text for tips. Fairness and Accuracy Make sure your reporting is fair and balanced. Show more than one side of the story. Suspend your judgment and do not draw conclusions from the facts provided. You must speak to the facts. Make sure that names are spelled correctly. Be sure to identify dates and record locations correctly. Correct your own Story See the checklist on page 142 in Rich’s text to revise and correct your own work for solid writing. Tweet Twitter now allows 280 characters, versus the 140 it allowed previously. It is still important to write like a headline: strongest words at the beginning, strong verbs, cut words such as “and” and “the.” Hashtags are used to generate conversation around a topic and congregate voices and information. Your hashtag should be useable and unique to your story. Format Use Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1.5 line spacing and include a word count at the end. Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool. 1