For Friday’s lesson, the class should discuss the inverted pyramid structure again regarding mobile media. Pyramids such as this, and the last we saw a few chapters ago, lay out how journalists should format their media. To cater to the public, one must begin with the most important or “newsworthy” details and then get more niche on the way down due to declining attention spans.
An additional item the class should discuss is the integration of multimedia into today’s news. While this class primarily focuses on the written aspect, journalists must recognize what obtains the attention of more audiences. Outreach can mean using videos, audio, blogs, various social media platforms, etcetera. Newsrooms must work to apply themselves in many formats for the variety of ways audiences retain information and churn out stories quickly and effectively. Curiously, changing the structure or tense of the sentence changes when in different formats. An intriguing attribute to specific mediums, particularly with “said” and “says” is when changing from print to broadcast. Journalism appears to use many different writing rules compared to how students learn to write nowadays. It is somewhat unusual for someone who has never written this way, so how does one remember all these rules and minor or major formatting variations?
Read the wrong chapter – here’s chapter 10!
For Friday’s lesson, the class should discuss the formatting of narrative journalism. The structure provided on page 194 outlines how journalists should format their storytelling media. To cater to the public, one must begin with the most important or “newsworthy” details to rope the viewer in and then move into the more niche details on the way down due to declining attention spans.
An additional discussion item is the limitation of description, analogies, and adjectives in today’s news. Because this class focuses on the written aspect, journalists must recognize what retains the attention of their audiences, and sometimes it includes omitting excessive description or abstract concepts. Newsrooms must work to create action in a narrative to engage the readers. It is stated that many hard news stories lack a mood or tone in their delivery, an intriguing choice since action can typically display the mood of an event regardless. Journalism is a form of storytelling and should be treated as such, but the stories are factual. A journalist’s duty is to accumulate and present unusual and fascinating stories to the public. Attention-grabbing headlines and reports may be better disposed to be spread by audiences on social media platforms, thus gaining wider outreach.
Chapter 10 in our textbook covers the techniques of features and storytelling in journalism. This chapter had many interesting points, especially as an intersection between crafted reporting and narrative storytelling. For example, the chapter made the point on page 188 where the author says, “Narrative writing combines show-in-action description, dialogue, plot, and reconstruction of an event as it occurred”(188). I also noticed the chapter mentioned one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Joan Didion, who I have been thinking a lot about during this class. The ability she and others mentioned have in what the chapter calls “reading to write” is super important – appreciating the techniques through reading other works and analyzing tone, characters, scenes, etc., can help storytelling in the news or magazines take on that novel-like feel but is entirely factual. Another section within this chapter that I found helpful was the structure of the feature or the story, which has more choices than hard news arranged chronologically. A feature or a narrative story could be topically or even a literary structure with a plot form of beginning, middle, and end. The bullet points on page 194 helped me to visualize this form I know so well in other forms of writing but less so with journalism, such as connecting to the lede or nut graph and looking to the future at the end of the piece, which hones in on the significance of the story.
During our discussion about this chapter, I would like to talk about the proper line between narrative writing and journalism, and more practical advice on how to achieve the perfect mix of these two styles of writing. The example of the writing of French seemed to have achieved this balance, as he writes about the murder of Karen Gregory. He explains the whole story as if it is a fictional story, but it is all true. The amount of work that must have gone into getting all of this information, including the specific dialogue, to be accurate is astounding. I am curious as to how this might be done, and the do’s and don’ts of dramatizing a story such as this one. The textbook provides some information, such as avoiding certain adjectives and using analogies, but I think a class discussion on this topic would be beneficial for all writing we will do in this class and beyond.
In our class discussion about WaRN Chapter 10, I think it would be very interesting if we talked about the use of narrative writing in journalism, since I think it’s a writing style that resonates with readers for many reasons. I was intrigued when the chapter briefly mentioned the difference between writing a narrative, and using narrative writing in journalism, because there are many rules between the two styles that don’t overlap, which could make it difficult. However, I think it is this balance that one has to master in order to catch the reader’s attention that makes it so interesting.
I also think we should talk about what being a “good reader” means in the context of journalism, and how being a good reader (of the news or otherwise) makes a good journalist. In addition to this, I think mentioning concepts like “show, don’t tell” and going into detail about seemingly small things could be helpful for this discussion, especially since it’s small techniques like these that can make or break a good story.
Journal #6: Report on 2 interesting elements of the chapter and help explain why those elements are important?
The first point that stood out to me from Chapter 10 was on page 183 under the Writing Tools section where it states “The better you are as a reporter, the more you will struggle as a writer deciding what information to use”. This is a very true statement. Although I do not consider myself a journalist I have had to do many interviews on the field and in a studio for video projects, live broadcasts and also for podcast projects. While doing these interviews I have had a lot of trial and error and have ended up on both sides of the spectrum sometimes with too much Information and sometimes not enough. I will say from experience as annoying as it is, IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO HAVE TOO MUCH INFORMATION THAN NOT ENOUGH. A phrase that I say quite frequently to my friends and family is that “it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it” I try to remind myself of this phrase frequently and it can be applied to journalism, hiking,skiing,camping, roadtripping, moving houses or almost anything else you can think of. It is always better to over prepare you can always edit stuff out or throw stuff out later. A good analogy that relates to this too much information or not enough dilemma is when you’re cutting your hair. Once you cut your hair short there is no quick way to make it grow long again but if you cut your hair only a little you can always cut it shorter later if you don’t like it. Therefore the more information you have or in the case of my analogy the more hair you have the more freedom you have to make creative decisions.
The second quote that stood out to me from this chapter was on page 193 under the storytelling structure section where it states “when you write the ending first, then when you go back to the top of the story and start to write it, you know what your destination is. You know where you’re going.” This quote also reminded me of my podcasts and interviews that I’ve done. Going into my podcasts and interviews I’ve had a general idea or script going into recording. But Interviewing and making podcasts from my experience can be very unpredictable. You can have an idea of the sounds you want to capture or the way that you want someone to respond to a question and when it comes time to record it all goes to shit. I’m not saying to go into these things without a plan but just don’t be too upset when things don’t go according to plan because most of the time working in the field they don’t. So what I have found works best for me is to go in with lose guidelines but a general idea of what i’m looking for and then after recording the video or audio going back and seeing what I was able to capture and then I choose the theme or tone of the interview/podcast based off of what I already know I have to work with.
While reading this chapter, I found myself taking notes on the dos and don’ts of writing a Feature story. Chapter 10 covered some techniques that we have already talked about in class but also pointed out some writing tools I found helpful. Writing a feature piece means having to put yourself in the mindset of a reporter which comes with a different style that most aren’t used to. I found page 194 helpful because it broke down the structure of storytelling. For example, writing the end of a story first gives a destination that needs to be reached. From there, you can go back and fill in the rest of the details because you know what the end goal is. It’s important to include key details but not drown the article with fluff; avoiding adjectives, action words, and physical characteristics will save space for other details and keep the readers engaged. Feature stories should be descriptive but not filled with decorative words; young writers are so used to trying to reach a high word count by adding unnecessary words but what happens when they have to slim their piece down to fit a news collum? I also found some elements of features that may help me in my writing process such as having a focus or theme to stay on topic and providing history because not everyone is as versed in the topic as the writer. A reason and the impacts should be incorporated to explain why the conflict is happening and who it’s affecting. Finally, giving a future perspective and developments is a good way to close an article. I noticed most of the example pieces in the textbook were easy to read in the sense that the stories were divided with a logical breakdown. This is another element I hope to practice because getting all the details is easy but forming them in a way that readers can digest is the challenging part.
One of the topics I believe that we should discuss is the reporting tools that must be known when writing a story. In the story the author shows an image of the ladder of details. “…Envision a ladder with rungs leading from general to specific.” (Pg 182 Par 2). The reason I find this useful is because when it comes to writing I’ve always said it’s like climbing a mountain. You rise and build up the story until you get to your climax, then you go back down when you get to your resolution. Another topic that I believe we should discuss in class is the “Limit Physical Descriptions” section. “Avoid stage directions — descriptions of people’s gestures, facial expressions and physical characteristics inserted artificially as though you were directing a play. You don’t need to describe what city commissioners are wearing at a meeting or how they gesture unless their clothing and movements enhance what they are saying and doing” (pg 184 par2).
For the discussion I think we should talk about the proper line between narrative writing and journalism and ways to be able to to mix these two writing styles together. I think this would be helpful in order for it to help the class writing skills. I also think we should talk about what it really means to be a good reader in the journalism field and how it can help you be better. By showing techniques of a good reader in journalism it would help us become better journalists as journalists need to be educated in what they are writing about.
In Chapter 10, the book describes storytelling and feature techniques. In this chapter, I found the portion about narrative techniques interesting. For example, the part where it talks about narrative techniques and how to ask the correct questions to be able to write a good narrative. I would want to talk more about that, just because I feel as though the topic deserves more scrutiny. Another interesting part was the part where it goes through observation and gathering details. I think that there should have some time dedicated to it, as it isn’t a skill that comes naturally. Specifically, I’d like to know more about how to see things from that detail-oriented perspective, as well as how to record them quickly enough, as I find I can often lose details from my observations while attempting to keep up with recording a live event. I also generally would like to talk more about establishing a generally interesting and easy to follow narrative while still remaining factually accurate and concise. I feel like the two goals are somewhat at odds, where you can either create an interesting/intriguing story, or have a grounded/factual reporting of it, but there isn’t much in between the two. I’d like to just discuss how to stay true to the facts while simultaneously creating a interesting narrative and not embellishing the facts/details.
Narrative writing I think is an important style of writing. It is very informative and has a thorough reporting and gives the experience a story-like feel. Which puts the reader into the shoes of the person the narrative is happening to, makes it more captivating and emotionally able to connect on a deeper level. I personally am more likely to actually read the whole article if it is written in this style. The facts get tied in to the narrative writing. Giving the event life and a way to report on it that gives the reader something that fuels the need for a story fonted piece that is factual. I think it is important to note that narrative writing is not fiction and that it is factual. I think that narrative writing in journalism gives a more storytelling and realistic approach with emotions versus just a standard, completely factual toned article.
As someone who writes a lot of fiction and reads quite a bit, I love descriptive language. It’s the type of thing that can bring people into a story, really get them drawn in, or something that turns people away before they even get past the first paragraph. The precarious line between putting enough in to get your point across, and paint an adequate, appropriate picture, and absolutely dousing your reader in adjectives is a fine one at times. The creativity, and, in the case of journalism, preparation, required to paint that kind of picture is so impressive. I already tried to do that with the recent class report with Dominic’s class testing, writing down random mannerisms and habits that he had that I probably won’t use. But it’s probably best to have them just in case, especially now after reading this article. Another important feature is the idea that in journalism, you don’t actually have to describe everything that’s going on in the story. In fiction writing I’m used to trying to paint as vivid an image as I can for the reader, and while the same is true for writing, now you’re writing about real people. Real people have actual ideas and thoughts and mannerisms outside of your influence as a writer. Plus, you’re dealing with real events that discuss events that have topics that are potentially even more sensitive than the people involved in them. You want to do them justice in journalism; they shouldn’t be reduced to “tawny brown hair and bright blue eyes”.
This week from our textbook we read from chapter ten which was forced on the components of storytelling and feature techniques. An important detail I found pretty early on in the chapter was the quote “The literary journalists immersed themselves in a subject and wrote their stories with characters, scenes, dialogue and plot. These were factual stories written like fiction. Journalists often think storytelling techniques are limited to feature stories, but as you will see, you can apply this kind of writing to news about crime and courts and many other news stories” (182). I found this to be an important idea for a possible discussion because I find this to be something I struggle with when it comes to feature writing, struggling with the facts and storytelling balance.
This chapter is about narrative writing and how to make a narrative writing piece the best piece it could possibly me. Narrative writing is writing through reporting as well as descriptions to explain what’s happening in the story. The chapter as well talks about how important dialogue is in a story. In chapter as well talks about three important tools in both writing and reporting. The reporting tools help with capturing the important details and setting up how and when each detail should be mentioned and there importance. The writing tools help with taking the information that was found and organized and putting them into one piece. The writing tools talked about are the theme and descriptive techniques. The books dive more into descriptive techniques by talking about a lot of different aspects including avoiding adjectives. The book also goes into narrative techniques that help with the description and dialogue in the essay. One of the main techniques talked about was making sure you create tone in the essay. Tone is the mood of the essay, and the chapter helps with identifying the tine of whatever piece that is being written. It also talks about the different types of tones and how each essay’s tone plays a major role.
What I am most interested in from this chater is telling a composing story and how we can use some creative writing tools to help us out when writing a news story. I believe that this is beneficial to those who strugge with repeat words and phrases that would be deemed unnecessary. I think that writing is a very important part of journalism as a whole and if you cannot tell a good story then you cannot report news with the same strength as someone who uses their writing in a more engaging way to the viewer. The second piece that stood out to me is how you have to be extremely observant in journalism. This comes into play whne giving an interview, because if you arent completley focuses on your interviewee’s manurisms and body language as well as what they are saying then you may not get the effect that you may want from that person. This may also lead to a false portrayl of someones character and one thing that i know for sure is you dont want to be caught spreading fake news.
This chapter had a lot of information and great ideas on features and storytelling in journalism. I think for class we should discuss the idea of narrative writing in journalism and how to become effective at using it in our writing. This interested me because I’ve always enjoyed narrative writing I’ve always felt comfortable with it and to see that you can use a journalistic writing and narrative writing together was interesting because I thought that interlapping the two would be difficult. I think the importance of this is huge to a writer though because having the ability to write in both formats is only going to help you connect with your audience more and gain more of a following from readers. Another aspect that I think we could talk about in class is about tone and how to use different tones in your writing. The chapter talked about tines and what tones to use in different writing pieces and that was something I found interesting.
I think we should discuss narrative writing. I think it’s important to differentiate this kind of narrative writing from the kinda that somebody might do in other classes or even in their free time. The importance here, as always, lies in objectivity. Limiting physical descriptions, gendered or racial language, and adjectives, helps to bring a writer’s opinion out a piece and to focus on the details that are frankly more important than this. Other techniques that are outlined, that I think are interesting, are to seek more unusual stories to create a more lively piece without relying on language for readers to stay engaged.
I think we should discuss the narrative writing style and how it can be implemented to journalism. I think this can be helpful because creating a story for the audience to engage with is important. Telling a good story helps a journalist report better on what happened.
An idea that I found interesting was the balance between narrative writing in journalism and normal hard news writing in journalism. I found it interesting because I personally have always enjoyed narrative writing and I was unsure how that and the hard news writing that we have been working on could go hand in and once I saw it mentioned in the reading. I was interested when the chapter mentioned the differences between writing a narrative and using that narrative writing technique in journalism and finding way to overlap the techniques or styles. Another important aspect of the chapter that I thought was interesting, was the section on tone and how important tone can be to your writing. I found it interesting how it talked about the difference in tones when writing and how the tone of the writing will dictate how the overall flow of the writing will be.
19 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 6”
For Friday’s lesson, the class should discuss the inverted pyramid structure again regarding mobile media. Pyramids such as this, and the last we saw a few chapters ago, lay out how journalists should format their media. To cater to the public, one must begin with the most important or “newsworthy” details and then get more niche on the way down due to declining attention spans.
An additional item the class should discuss is the integration of multimedia into today’s news. While this class primarily focuses on the written aspect, journalists must recognize what obtains the attention of more audiences. Outreach can mean using videos, audio, blogs, various social media platforms, etcetera. Newsrooms must work to apply themselves in many formats for the variety of ways audiences retain information and churn out stories quickly and effectively. Curiously, changing the structure or tense of the sentence changes when in different formats. An intriguing attribute to specific mediums, particularly with “said” and “says” is when changing from print to broadcast. Journalism appears to use many different writing rules compared to how students learn to write nowadays. It is somewhat unusual for someone who has never written this way, so how does one remember all these rules and minor or major formatting variations?
Read the wrong chapter – here’s chapter 10!
For Friday’s lesson, the class should discuss the formatting of narrative journalism. The structure provided on page 194 outlines how journalists should format their storytelling media. To cater to the public, one must begin with the most important or “newsworthy” details to rope the viewer in and then move into the more niche details on the way down due to declining attention spans.
An additional discussion item is the limitation of description, analogies, and adjectives in today’s news. Because this class focuses on the written aspect, journalists must recognize what retains the attention of their audiences, and sometimes it includes omitting excessive description or abstract concepts. Newsrooms must work to create action in a narrative to engage the readers. It is stated that many hard news stories lack a mood or tone in their delivery, an intriguing choice since action can typically display the mood of an event regardless. Journalism is a form of storytelling and should be treated as such, but the stories are factual. A journalist’s duty is to accumulate and present unusual and fascinating stories to the public. Attention-grabbing headlines and reports may be better disposed to be spread by audiences on social media platforms, thus gaining wider outreach.
Chapter 10 in our textbook covers the techniques of features and storytelling in journalism. This chapter had many interesting points, especially as an intersection between crafted reporting and narrative storytelling. For example, the chapter made the point on page 188 where the author says, “Narrative writing combines show-in-action description, dialogue, plot, and reconstruction of an event as it occurred”(188). I also noticed the chapter mentioned one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Joan Didion, who I have been thinking a lot about during this class. The ability she and others mentioned have in what the chapter calls “reading to write” is super important – appreciating the techniques through reading other works and analyzing tone, characters, scenes, etc., can help storytelling in the news or magazines take on that novel-like feel but is entirely factual. Another section within this chapter that I found helpful was the structure of the feature or the story, which has more choices than hard news arranged chronologically. A feature or a narrative story could be topically or even a literary structure with a plot form of beginning, middle, and end. The bullet points on page 194 helped me to visualize this form I know so well in other forms of writing but less so with journalism, such as connecting to the lede or nut graph and looking to the future at the end of the piece, which hones in on the significance of the story.
During our discussion about this chapter, I would like to talk about the proper line between narrative writing and journalism, and more practical advice on how to achieve the perfect mix of these two styles of writing. The example of the writing of French seemed to have achieved this balance, as he writes about the murder of Karen Gregory. He explains the whole story as if it is a fictional story, but it is all true. The amount of work that must have gone into getting all of this information, including the specific dialogue, to be accurate is astounding. I am curious as to how this might be done, and the do’s and don’ts of dramatizing a story such as this one. The textbook provides some information, such as avoiding certain adjectives and using analogies, but I think a class discussion on this topic would be beneficial for all writing we will do in this class and beyond.
In our class discussion about WaRN Chapter 10, I think it would be very interesting if we talked about the use of narrative writing in journalism, since I think it’s a writing style that resonates with readers for many reasons. I was intrigued when the chapter briefly mentioned the difference between writing a narrative, and using narrative writing in journalism, because there are many rules between the two styles that don’t overlap, which could make it difficult. However, I think it is this balance that one has to master in order to catch the reader’s attention that makes it so interesting.
I also think we should talk about what being a “good reader” means in the context of journalism, and how being a good reader (of the news or otherwise) makes a good journalist. In addition to this, I think mentioning concepts like “show, don’t tell” and going into detail about seemingly small things could be helpful for this discussion, especially since it’s small techniques like these that can make or break a good story.
Journal #6: Report on 2 interesting elements of the chapter and help explain why those elements are important?
The first point that stood out to me from Chapter 10 was on page 183 under the Writing Tools section where it states “The better you are as a reporter, the more you will struggle as a writer deciding what information to use”. This is a very true statement. Although I do not consider myself a journalist I have had to do many interviews on the field and in a studio for video projects, live broadcasts and also for podcast projects. While doing these interviews I have had a lot of trial and error and have ended up on both sides of the spectrum sometimes with too much Information and sometimes not enough. I will say from experience as annoying as it is, IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO HAVE TOO MUCH INFORMATION THAN NOT ENOUGH. A phrase that I say quite frequently to my friends and family is that “it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it” I try to remind myself of this phrase frequently and it can be applied to journalism, hiking,skiing,camping, roadtripping, moving houses or almost anything else you can think of. It is always better to over prepare you can always edit stuff out or throw stuff out later. A good analogy that relates to this too much information or not enough dilemma is when you’re cutting your hair. Once you cut your hair short there is no quick way to make it grow long again but if you cut your hair only a little you can always cut it shorter later if you don’t like it. Therefore the more information you have or in the case of my analogy the more hair you have the more freedom you have to make creative decisions.
The second quote that stood out to me from this chapter was on page 193 under the storytelling structure section where it states “when you write the ending first, then when you go back to the top of the story and start to write it, you know what your destination is. You know where you’re going.” This quote also reminded me of my podcasts and interviews that I’ve done. Going into my podcasts and interviews I’ve had a general idea or script going into recording. But Interviewing and making podcasts from my experience can be very unpredictable. You can have an idea of the sounds you want to capture or the way that you want someone to respond to a question and when it comes time to record it all goes to shit. I’m not saying to go into these things without a plan but just don’t be too upset when things don’t go according to plan because most of the time working in the field they don’t. So what I have found works best for me is to go in with lose guidelines but a general idea of what i’m looking for and then after recording the video or audio going back and seeing what I was able to capture and then I choose the theme or tone of the interview/podcast based off of what I already know I have to work with.
While reading this chapter, I found myself taking notes on the dos and don’ts of writing a Feature story. Chapter 10 covered some techniques that we have already talked about in class but also pointed out some writing tools I found helpful. Writing a feature piece means having to put yourself in the mindset of a reporter which comes with a different style that most aren’t used to. I found page 194 helpful because it broke down the structure of storytelling. For example, writing the end of a story first gives a destination that needs to be reached. From there, you can go back and fill in the rest of the details because you know what the end goal is. It’s important to include key details but not drown the article with fluff; avoiding adjectives, action words, and physical characteristics will save space for other details and keep the readers engaged. Feature stories should be descriptive but not filled with decorative words; young writers are so used to trying to reach a high word count by adding unnecessary words but what happens when they have to slim their piece down to fit a news collum? I also found some elements of features that may help me in my writing process such as having a focus or theme to stay on topic and providing history because not everyone is as versed in the topic as the writer. A reason and the impacts should be incorporated to explain why the conflict is happening and who it’s affecting. Finally, giving a future perspective and developments is a good way to close an article. I noticed most of the example pieces in the textbook were easy to read in the sense that the stories were divided with a logical breakdown. This is another element I hope to practice because getting all the details is easy but forming them in a way that readers can digest is the challenging part.
One of the topics I believe that we should discuss is the reporting tools that must be known when writing a story. In the story the author shows an image of the ladder of details. “…Envision a ladder with rungs leading from general to specific.” (Pg 182 Par 2). The reason I find this useful is because when it comes to writing I’ve always said it’s like climbing a mountain. You rise and build up the story until you get to your climax, then you go back down when you get to your resolution. Another topic that I believe we should discuss in class is the “Limit Physical Descriptions” section. “Avoid stage directions — descriptions of people’s gestures, facial expressions and physical characteristics inserted artificially as though you were directing a play. You don’t need to describe what city commissioners are wearing at a meeting or how they gesture unless their clothing and movements enhance what they are saying and doing” (pg 184 par2).
For the discussion I think we should talk about the proper line between narrative writing and journalism and ways to be able to to mix these two writing styles together. I think this would be helpful in order for it to help the class writing skills. I also think we should talk about what it really means to be a good reader in the journalism field and how it can help you be better. By showing techniques of a good reader in journalism it would help us become better journalists as journalists need to be educated in what they are writing about.
In Chapter 10, the book describes storytelling and feature techniques. In this chapter, I found the portion about narrative techniques interesting. For example, the part where it talks about narrative techniques and how to ask the correct questions to be able to write a good narrative. I would want to talk more about that, just because I feel as though the topic deserves more scrutiny. Another interesting part was the part where it goes through observation and gathering details. I think that there should have some time dedicated to it, as it isn’t a skill that comes naturally. Specifically, I’d like to know more about how to see things from that detail-oriented perspective, as well as how to record them quickly enough, as I find I can often lose details from my observations while attempting to keep up with recording a live event. I also generally would like to talk more about establishing a generally interesting and easy to follow narrative while still remaining factually accurate and concise. I feel like the two goals are somewhat at odds, where you can either create an interesting/intriguing story, or have a grounded/factual reporting of it, but there isn’t much in between the two. I’d like to just discuss how to stay true to the facts while simultaneously creating a interesting narrative and not embellishing the facts/details.
Journal #6
Narrative writing I think is an important style of writing. It is very informative and has a thorough reporting and gives the experience a story-like feel. Which puts the reader into the shoes of the person the narrative is happening to, makes it more captivating and emotionally able to connect on a deeper level. I personally am more likely to actually read the whole article if it is written in this style. The facts get tied in to the narrative writing. Giving the event life and a way to report on it that gives the reader something that fuels the need for a story fonted piece that is factual. I think it is important to note that narrative writing is not fiction and that it is factual. I think that narrative writing in journalism gives a more storytelling and realistic approach with emotions versus just a standard, completely factual toned article.
As someone who writes a lot of fiction and reads quite a bit, I love descriptive language. It’s the type of thing that can bring people into a story, really get them drawn in, or something that turns people away before they even get past the first paragraph. The precarious line between putting enough in to get your point across, and paint an adequate, appropriate picture, and absolutely dousing your reader in adjectives is a fine one at times. The creativity, and, in the case of journalism, preparation, required to paint that kind of picture is so impressive. I already tried to do that with the recent class report with Dominic’s class testing, writing down random mannerisms and habits that he had that I probably won’t use. But it’s probably best to have them just in case, especially now after reading this article. Another important feature is the idea that in journalism, you don’t actually have to describe everything that’s going on in the story. In fiction writing I’m used to trying to paint as vivid an image as I can for the reader, and while the same is true for writing, now you’re writing about real people. Real people have actual ideas and thoughts and mannerisms outside of your influence as a writer. Plus, you’re dealing with real events that discuss events that have topics that are potentially even more sensitive than the people involved in them. You want to do them justice in journalism; they shouldn’t be reduced to “tawny brown hair and bright blue eyes”.
This week from our textbook we read from chapter ten which was forced on the components of storytelling and feature techniques. An important detail I found pretty early on in the chapter was the quote “The literary journalists immersed themselves in a subject and wrote their stories with characters, scenes, dialogue and plot. These were factual stories written like fiction. Journalists often think storytelling techniques are limited to feature stories, but as you will see, you can apply this kind of writing to news about crime and courts and many other news stories” (182). I found this to be an important idea for a possible discussion because I find this to be something I struggle with when it comes to feature writing, struggling with the facts and storytelling balance.
This chapter is about narrative writing and how to make a narrative writing piece the best piece it could possibly me. Narrative writing is writing through reporting as well as descriptions to explain what’s happening in the story. The chapter as well talks about how important dialogue is in a story. In chapter as well talks about three important tools in both writing and reporting. The reporting tools help with capturing the important details and setting up how and when each detail should be mentioned and there importance. The writing tools help with taking the information that was found and organized and putting them into one piece. The writing tools talked about are the theme and descriptive techniques. The books dive more into descriptive techniques by talking about a lot of different aspects including avoiding adjectives. The book also goes into narrative techniques that help with the description and dialogue in the essay. One of the main techniques talked about was making sure you create tone in the essay. Tone is the mood of the essay, and the chapter helps with identifying the tine of whatever piece that is being written. It also talks about the different types of tones and how each essay’s tone plays a major role.
What I am most interested in from this chater is telling a composing story and how we can use some creative writing tools to help us out when writing a news story. I believe that this is beneficial to those who strugge with repeat words and phrases that would be deemed unnecessary. I think that writing is a very important part of journalism as a whole and if you cannot tell a good story then you cannot report news with the same strength as someone who uses their writing in a more engaging way to the viewer. The second piece that stood out to me is how you have to be extremely observant in journalism. This comes into play whne giving an interview, because if you arent completley focuses on your interviewee’s manurisms and body language as well as what they are saying then you may not get the effect that you may want from that person. This may also lead to a false portrayl of someones character and one thing that i know for sure is you dont want to be caught spreading fake news.
This chapter had a lot of information and great ideas on features and storytelling in journalism. I think for class we should discuss the idea of narrative writing in journalism and how to become effective at using it in our writing. This interested me because I’ve always enjoyed narrative writing I’ve always felt comfortable with it and to see that you can use a journalistic writing and narrative writing together was interesting because I thought that interlapping the two would be difficult. I think the importance of this is huge to a writer though because having the ability to write in both formats is only going to help you connect with your audience more and gain more of a following from readers. Another aspect that I think we could talk about in class is about tone and how to use different tones in your writing. The chapter talked about tines and what tones to use in different writing pieces and that was something I found interesting.
I think we should discuss narrative writing. I think it’s important to differentiate this kind of narrative writing from the kinda that somebody might do in other classes or even in their free time. The importance here, as always, lies in objectivity. Limiting physical descriptions, gendered or racial language, and adjectives, helps to bring a writer’s opinion out a piece and to focus on the details that are frankly more important than this. Other techniques that are outlined, that I think are interesting, are to seek more unusual stories to create a more lively piece without relying on language for readers to stay engaged.
I think we should discuss the narrative writing style and how it can be implemented to journalism. I think this can be helpful because creating a story for the audience to engage with is important. Telling a good story helps a journalist report better on what happened.
An idea that I found interesting was the balance between narrative writing in journalism and normal hard news writing in journalism. I found it interesting because I personally have always enjoyed narrative writing and I was unsure how that and the hard news writing that we have been working on could go hand in and once I saw it mentioned in the reading. I was interested when the chapter mentioned the differences between writing a narrative and using that narrative writing technique in journalism and finding way to overlap the techniques or styles. Another important aspect of the chapter that I thought was interesting, was the section on tone and how important tone can be to your writing. I found it interesting how it talked about the difference in tones when writing and how the tone of the writing will dictate how the overall flow of the writing will be.