These are slides for a workshop for the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association.

1. Better Stories
on Any Platform
Steve Buttry
Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association
January 25, 2014
#awnasymposium

2. Saluting a Canadian friend
RIP, Bryan Cantley

3. Read more about it
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stevebuttry.wordpress.com
slideshare.net/stevebuttry
@stevebuttry
stephenbuttry@gmail.com

4. Plan for this workshop
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Technology challenges & opportunities
Ensuring accuracy
Developing story ideas
Organizing complex stories
Helping reporters improve stories
Making every word count

5. Technology challenges?
• Tool you’re not using effectively
• Something you’ve heard is important but
haven’t tried (much) yet (either too busy
or don’t understand)
• Concerned whether it’s worth the time
• Concerned about revenue potential

6. Common challenges
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Social media
Databases
Video
Community-submitted content
Community blogs
Interactive storytelling
“Protecting” print

7. Important accuracy advice

8. Path to accuracy
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Asking effective questions
Taking accurate notes
Audio, video recording
Gathering documentation
Questioning information
Verifying information
Fact-checking your story

9. Path to accuracy
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Asking effective questions
Taking accurate notes
Audio, video recording
Gathering documentation
Questioning information
Verifying information
Fact-checking your story

10. Whose story is it?
“If your sources are wrong, you are
wrong.” – Judith Miller, former New York
Times reporter

11. Whose story is it?
“If your sources are wrong, you are
wrong.” – Judith Miller, former New York
Times reporter
Bullshit. Your sources aren’t responsible for
the accuracy of your stories. You are.
Remember: Even honest sources usually
tell you their “semi-true story.”

12. Accuracy questions
• How do you know that (reporter asks of
source; editor asks of reporter)
• How to they know that (reporter & editor
ask of paper, digital sources where you
can’t ask directly)
• How else do you (they) know that?

17. Vetting & verifying
• Track back RTs, etc.
to source
• Look for clusters
• Location enabled?
• Evaluate the network
• Evaluate the history
• Links, photos?
• Take it old school
• Disclose, hedge,
repeat
• Be brave only in
correction
Tips from Craig Silverman, Regret the Error

18. Evaluating tweeps
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How long have they been tweeting?
Check previous tweets, interaction
Check bio, links
Check Klout score
Google name and scam, spammer
Contact & interview
Tips from Mandy Jenkins, Zombie Journalism

19. Use a checklist
Craig Silverman:
Pilots & doctors use
checklists to reduce
errors. Why not
journalists? (Try
Craig’s or mine.
Develop your own.)

21. Reporting checklist*
Ask sources to spell name & title; then verify
what you wrote
Record interviews
Ask for (& check) source for numbers
Ask “how do you know that?”
Seek documentation
Verify claims w/ reliable sources
Save links & other research
Ask sources what other reports got wrong
* Inspired by Craig Silverman’s accuracy checklist

22. Writing checklist*
Note facts that need further verification
Cut and paste (w/ attribution) quotes from
digital documents.
* Inspired by Craig Silverman’s accuracy checklist

23. Checklist after writing*
Numbers & Math
Names (check vs. notes & 1 other source)
Titles (people, books etc.)
Locations
Compare quotes to notes/recording
Check attribution (insert link for digital source)
Definitions
* Inspired by Craig Silverman’s accuracy checklist

24. Checklist after writing*
 Verify URLs (check & check whether cited content is
still there)
 Phone numbers (call)
 Spelling & grammar
 Spellchecker errors
 Have you assumed anything? (If so, verify, hedge or
remove.)
 If you have any doubts, recheck w/ original source.
 Where your understanding is weak, read final copy (or
section) to someone who does understand.
* Inspired by Craig Silverman’s accuracy checklist

25. One final step
Correct any errors you found in your archives,
databases or other resources you control (but be
certain you have verified the new information).
* Inspired by Craig Silverman’s accuracy checklist

26. Seek documentation
• Ask “How do you know that?”
• If answer is document, that’s what you
need
• Videos, photos (security, archives, public)
• Do journals, letters, diaries, emails
document actions, thinking, plans?
• Government records? Databases?

27. A documentation tale*
* with an Alberta angle

28. Your story ideas
What story would you like to do (or have a
staff member do)?
• Enterprise, investigative, feature
• Haven’t started work on it yet OR
• Struggling with it
• No big scoops you can’t share here

29. Developing story ideas
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Write at the idea stage
Make ideas timely, specific, relevant
Consider context
National comparison or local impact
Brainstorm avenues of inquiry
Brainstorm digital tools to use
Be open to the joy of discovery

31. Brainstorm a story idea
• Choose a story one group member wants
to do
• Brainstorm avenues of inquiry
• Considerations: Timely, specific, relevant,
national vs. local
• Brainstorm digital tools

32. Storytelling
Start to Finish
Steve Buttry
Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association
January 25, 2014
#betterstories

33. Saluting a Canadian friend
RIP, Bryan Cantley

34. Read more about it
•
•
•
•
stevebuttry.wordpress.com
slideshare.net/stevebuttry
@stevebuttry
stephenbuttry@gmail.com

35. Plan for this workshop
•
•
•
•
•
•
Technology challenges & opportunities
Ensuring accuracy
Developing story ideas
Organizing complex stories
Helping reporters improve stories
Making every word count

36. Organizing complex stories
• Think of story as a process, not
necessarily a product
• Ask “what’s the story about?”
• Write as you report
• Consider structure (text, images, print &
digital)
• Outline notes & materials
• Write without notes

37. Driving questions
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Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?

38. Questions & story elements
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Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
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Character
Plot, action
Setting
Setting, scene
Theme, conflict
Resolution

39. Other driving questions
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How much?
What happened?
So what?
What’s next?

40. Other driving questions
• How much?
• What happened?
• So what?
• What’s next?
Verification: How do you know that?

41. Consider digital tools
• Videos
• Photos (galleries &
with sound)
• Data (data viz &
interactive
databases)
• Timelines (Timeline
JS or Dipity)
• Maps (Google,
Crowdmap)
• Curation (Spundge,
Storify, RebelMouse,
Newspeg)
• Interactive (quiz,
Prezi, Thinglink
• NewHive, Scrollkit

42. Inverted pyramid
Image from Wikipedia

43. Martini glass
• Inverted pyramid top
• Olive intrigues, starts
narrative
• Narrative
• Strong ending
Image from drinksmixer.com, term from Don Fry

44. Narrative arc
Image from J-Storytelling.com

45. Other story structures
• List
• Liveblog
• Tweet (or series of
tweets)
• Video
• Q&A
• Timeline
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Audio w/ slides
Series
Serial narrative
Sidebar
Graphic
Animation
Map

46. It’s not your story
• Reporter learns more by doing the work
• Reporter has what you need to make the
story better
• Editor improves story better through
good questions & challenges than in
editing the reporter’s words

47. Learn how reporter works
• Improving writer’s processes improves a
writer’s story
• Share this writing advice from William
Forrester:

48. Help the reporter focus
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What’s the story about? (6 words)
Write a headline
3 words: subject, verb, object
Tell someone about the story
Summarize story in a tweet

49. SEO can help focus
• What would you type in Google if you
had questions this story would answer?
• Can you write a good lead or nut graf
around the search term(s)?

50. Challenge the story
• What shouldn’t be in the story (or at
least the main story or text story)?
• What digital tools can help organize &
tell this story (or part of it)?
• What’s the most important W?
• What’s best story element?
• Should this be a narrative (doesn’t have
to be long)?

51. Plan to write tight
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Discuss scope, focus
Consider reader (ask)
Make stories useful
Break story up (video, sidebar, chart,
timeline, database, etc.)

52. Watch for the suitcase lead
After spending Wednesday morning at a prestigious
think tank discussing a report about what could
happen in the aftermath of a catastrophic terrorist
attack on Congress, then taking nearly two hours at
the White House presenting the report to Vice
President Dick Cheney, University of Miami
president Donna Shalala addressed the issue
capturing the attention of thousands across the
nation – conference realignment in college sports.
(66 words, Miami Herald)

53. Watch for the suitcase lead
Jerry Falwell, 73, a Southern Baptist preacher who
as founder and president of the Moral Majority
presided over a marriage of Christian beliefs and
conservative political values – a bond that bore
prodigious fruit for the Republican Party during the
past quarter-century – died May 15 of congestive
heart failure after he was found unconscious in his
office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. (65
words, Washington Post)

54. Challenge suitcase leads
Several organized crime figures have been
arrested as part of a federal investigation
into a series of unsolved crimes, including
the 1978 Lufthansa robbery at Kennedy
International Airport, according to a
racketeering indictment unsealed Thursday
morning. (36 words, NY Times in National
Post yesterday)

55. Challenge suitcase leads
A private seniors’ residence that burned
down in L’Isle Verte early Thursday
morning – killing at least three people,
with 30 other unaccounted for – was found
to be in violation of fire-code regulations
during a 2011 inspection, The Gazette has
learned. (40 words, Postmedia News in
National Post yesterday)

56. Challenge suitcase leads
A private seniors’ residence that burned
down in L’Isle Verte early Thursday
morning – killing at least three people,
with 30 other unaccounted for – was
found to be in violation of fire-code
regulations during a 2011 inspection, The
Gazette has learned. (40 words, Postmedia
News in National Post yesterday)

57. Lighten the load
A private seniors’ residence that burned
down in L’Isle Verte early Thursday
morning failed a 2011 fire inspection. (18
words)

58. Ways to lighten the load
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Make just one point
Look for words, phrases that can wait
Change comma to period
Eliminate parenthetical phrases
Explanation can wait
Subtract numbers
Can attribution wait?

59. Consider a g-string lead

60. Consider a g-string lead
Nothing falls quite as quickly as a loonie
caught in the cross hairs. (Gordon Isfeld,
Financial Post, in National Post yesterday)

61. Consider a g-string lead
Bruce Dale answered the phone after the
third ring. (Joe O’Connor, National Post
yesterday)

62. Instead of a suitcase lead …
Several organized crime figures have been
arrested as part of a federal investigation
into a series of unsolved crimes, including
the 1978 Lufthansa robbery at Kennedy
International Airport, according to a
racketeering indictment unsealed Thursday
morning. (36 words, NY Times in National
Post yesterday)

63. … consider a g-string lead
Feds have finally charged a mob figure in
the 1978 heist made famous in the movie
“Goodfellas.”

64. Consider a g-string lead

65. G-string lead can be serious
Jennifer’s tiny heart gave up.
But no one else would.

66. G-string lead can be serious
Forty seconds, five lives.

67. Issues with g-string leads
• Keywords in leads help with SEO. Can
you write g-string lead w/ keyword?
• If not, be sure web headline uses
keywords (head is more important).
• G-string lead on great story can
increase social sharing.

68. Try a simple sentence

69. Try a simple sentence
In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth.

71. A rule and a guideline:
The rule: If your lead is over 30 words,
explain to your editor why it’s so good
that it needs to be that long.
The guideline: If your lead won’t fit in a
tweet, try rewriting.

72. Some long leads work
When the crime was committed, when four
girls lay blasted to death in the shattered
basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church,
Bobby Frank Cherry was young and strong and
confident that his world, one of white robes
and closed minds, would turn forever. (Rick
Bragg, 44 words)

73. Perfect use of a long lead
Selma Koch, a Manhattan store
owner who earned a national
reputation by helping women find
the right bra size, mostly through a
discerning glance and never with a
tape measure, died Thursday at
Mount Sinai Medical Center.

74. Perfect use of a long lead
Selma Koch, a Manhattan store
owner who earned a national
reputation by helping women find
the right bra size, mostly through a
discerning glance and never with a
tape measure, died Thursday at
Mount Sinai Medical Center. She was
95 and a 34B. (Douglas Martin, NY
Times)

75. Challenge the simple lead

76. Challenge the simple lead
First of all, God made
everything.

77. Rewrite with your head
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Read aloud
Know your weaknesses
Challenge verbs
Challenge imprecise words
Consider attribution
Challenge phrases

79. Rewrite with your head
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Challenge inflated words
Challenge quotes
Watch for echo quotes
Redundant words, facts
Say what is, not what isn’t
What’s the story about?

80. Challenge vague phrases
It was shortly after midnight Thursday
when Francine Boucher’s husband
woke her, yelling that the seniors’
residence across the street was on
fire. (National Post yesterday)

81. Give “it” up
It is one of the weakest ways you can
start a story. It has a pronoun with no
antecedent. It has the weakest verb in
the English language. It seems some
writers can’t resist it. It’s used way too
much. It is a lead that starts with “it
is,” “it’s” or simply “it.”

82. Challenge vague phrases
It was shortly after midnight Thursday
when Francine Boucher’s husband
woke her, yelling that the seniors’
residence across the street was on
fire. (National Post yesterday)

83. Challenge vague phrases
Shortly after midnight Thursday
Francine Boucher’s husband woke her,
yelling that the seniors’ residence
across the street was on fire. (National
Post yesterday)

84. There are better leads
There is no weaker verb in the English
language than the verb “to be” – is, was, are,
etc. There’s no vaguer word than “there”
when you’re not pointing. There are few
weaker ways to start your story. There are few
“there are” leads that don’t get tighter and
stronger when you challenge them.

85. No arbitrary rules
If you write a lead this good, leave the
“it was” alone:

86. No arbitrary rules
If you write a lead this good, leave the
“it was” alone:
It was the best of times;
it was the worst of times.

87. No arbitrary rules
If you write a passage this good, leave
the “there is” alone:

88. No arbitrary rules
Don’t rewrite by arbitrary rules. If you
write a passage this good, leave the
“there is” alone:
There is no joy in Mudville.

89. Make Every Word Count
The right word makes all
the difference.