Text Story Guide

This guide will help you stay on the right track as you work on your stories and polish them for publication. For each of the bulleted points, you should be able to place a check mark on the slot on the right to indicate that you’ve met the requirement.

Newsworthiness

  • Have you done a search of your organization’s website using keywords to avoid doing a story that’s already been done before? ______
  • Does the story have one of the traditional news values? Your story should have at least one value from the following list, but the best stories usually have multiple values: timeliness, proximity, relevance, prominence, unusualness, conflict, or human interest. ______
  • Is the story conceptually relevant? Do not waste time doing stories that are too obvious, such as exercise being good for you. People already know that. If you do pursue a story in an area of common interest like this, be sure to find a very specific new angle (example: a new type of exercise or equipment that’s getting remarkable results or is dangerous and being implemented by campus athletics programs). ______
  • Does the story consist of original reporting? Do not do a story in which a substantial portion comes from a preexisting report.Similarly, do not do brochure-style writing to promote awareness of something.If much of the useful information is available on the Internet or some other place on campus, it's not your job to make everyone aware of it as if you're advertising for an organization.The audience should get something original from your report that they couldn't get anywhere else. ______
  • Is the story on a past event? Future stories can easily turn into PR, so avoid them unless it serves a useful purpose. If there is a really newsworthy future event, such as an anticipated campus visit by a prominent public figure or important policy decisions at upcoming meetings, that’s fine. ______

Sources

  • Do you have a minimum of 3 (for most stories) human sources? Briefs might have fewer, and investigative or in-depth stories might have many more. A two-source story would be considered weak for most articles. You have to get out there and talk to people. Don't rely on email interviews unless it can’t be done any other way.You’ll likely get more spontaneous, “real” answers in person, which is better than contrived email responses. Also, a good reporter is sensitive to the environment and can pick up useful information by being in someone's presence, seeing their expressions, noticing body language, hearing vocal inflections, etc. Here’s the priority chain: in person, by phone, through email. ______
  • Is it clear in your writing how each of the sources is relevant to the story? Remember, we do not want random sources. ______
  • Have you interviewed the most obvious sources? For instance, if a story includes or hints at any allegations, have you gone to the groups or individuals being criticized for their perspectives? ______
  • Have you diversified your sources? Be sure to get interviews with different types of people. For example, if all your sources are from the same organization, that’s inadequate for thoroughly and fairly exploring the story. Another common mistake is to just get all students, all faculty members, or all administrators (unless there’s a very clear, compelling reason). ______
  • Are your sources appropriately attributed? For people, it should be their first and last name on first reference, and only their last name on subsequent references. For non-human sources such as polls or research studies, you should give the name of the organization and date. ______
  • Does your story have adequate use of non-human sources, if necessary? Documents, either in print or electronic form, are used to support your stated facts. You must cite them in your story when included. This will help readers do further research on the topics in your story if they’re interested. ______
  • Are your sources appropriate? No conflict of interest, please! ______

Headline

  • Does it clearly convey what the story is about? Can the reader glance at the headline and tell what the story is about, or is it too confusing? ______
  • Is it interesting? Does it grab the readers’ attention? ______
  • Does it have a subject and verb? ______
  • Is it in present tense? ______
  • Is it in AP style? ______
  • Have you consulted our headline guide to make it better? ______

Lead (or lead plus nut graph for feature stories)

  • Is the lead no more than 1-2 sentences? ______
  • Does the lead capture the essence of the story? ______
  • Does the lead capture the readers’ interest and give them a reason to keep reading beyond the lead? ______

Structure & Flow

  • Is the most important information at or near the top? ______
  • Does the structure make sense and flow smoothly? Avoid jumping around from topic to topic since that tends to confuse the reader. ______
  • Are the paragraphs relatively short? It’s even fine to have a one-sentence paragraph at times, especially if the sentence is very powerful. ______
  • Have you avoided redundancies after an idea is initially mentioned? Don’t repeat something. ______
  • Does each paragraph clearly relate to surrounding paragraphs? ______
  • Do you use effective transitions? ______
  • Is the story free of irrelevant information? Just because you have some information doesn’t mean all of it needs to go into a story. You have to carefully decide what details make it into the story and what’s better to leave out. ______
  • Does the story conclude effectively? ______

Writing Style

  • Does the writing paint a vivid picture?Does it take the readers right into the story, as if they were there at the scenes that you’re covering?Use descriptive, multi-sensory language to capture the essence of a story and put the reader in a “dream” where they experience the story rather than just read it (especially for feature stories). However, keep the language tight, focusing on the most important details, rather than becoming overly descriptive or wordy. ______
  • Does the story avoid opinion statements? Do not editorialize in any story, including captions and headlines. Save your views and passion for opinion columns, editorials, and reviews of things like books and movies. ______
  • Have you avoided exclamation marks and hyperbolic language such as "always," "never," and "ever?"It's fine if this is inside quoted text, but it shouldn't come from you. Your task is to be a level-headed journalist.______
  • Have you avoided redundancy in wording? Check your stories to see if you’re using the same words over and over again. Sometimes, you might even discover that you’re used a particular word more than once in the same sentence. This can be irritating to the reader, so be sure to diversify your word choice. ______

Writing Technique

  • Is the story free of grammatical errors? ______
  • Is the story free of spelling errors? ______
  • Is the story free of punctuation errors? ______
  • Does the story follow AP style or other established organizational rules? ______

Law, Ethics & Taste

  • Consult the legal guide in the AP stylebook for quick answers on common matters. If you can’t find an answer or need clarification, please consult with the Editor in Chief and adviser. ______
  • Check all major facts to avoid libeling anyone. ______
  • Check the tone of your language as well as the context in which descriptions are presented to make sure you accurately represent someone or something. Even if all the facts are technically correct, it’s possible to present unfair or inaccurate representations if you don’t consciously go over the tone and context of your work, including any associated headlines, captions, images, etc. Also, make sure you haven’t left out any important information which changes the nature of the story and how it could be interpreted. ______
  • Is the work in good taste? Please take your audience into consideration. Some things that would be perfectly fine in other communities may be considered offensive here. This doesn’t mean that you should avoid controversy. It just means that you have to be very thoughtful when approaching sensitive topics. Have a good reason for your choices in reporting and writing. If there are organizational policies on something, such as the use of profanity, stick to it. ______