cmat346 final lecture

1. REPORTING PRIMER
DR. JENNIFER COX

2. DATA STORIES
• Check your CMAT club participation!

3. LEDES
• Be clear
• Be concise
• Get people interested
• Introduce the news values

4. NUT GRAFS
• Mainly necessary if you use a feature lede
• If you use a summary lede, make sure you explain the “why
should I care” up high in the story
• Tell me what this story is about
• Tell me why I should care
• What is the impact?
• Numbers often equal impact
• The storm damage cost residents $40,000.
• Use specific information
• Marry the rest of the story to the nut graf for better
organization

5. NUT GRAFS

6. BASIC WRITING HINTS
• Don’t begin sentences with days/dates
• Use one or the other!
• Maintain balance – represent both sides in the lede/nut graf &
beyond
• Inverted pyramid – most to least important
• Numbers = impact
• Conflict? Oddity?
• Work in your news values up high!
• Remove the words “however” and “very” from your writing
• Story organization: statement-evidence-quote

7. STORY FORMAT
Board member Jill Thomas introduced the
proposal to ban weapons on college
Statement:
campuses.
Thomas argued weapons have no place
on campus. She pointed to recent
Evidence:shootings as patterns of violence
increasing at universities causing students
to feel unsafe.
“We need to do better for our students,”
Thomas said. “We need to make sure they
Quote:feel they can learn in a safe, secure
environment.”

8. STORY FORMAT
Some staff members feel diversity on
campus has improved, but there is still much
Statement:
work to be done.
Physics Professor Mary Smith is the only
Evidence:African American in her department. Smith
said she would like to see more professors
of color in the hard sciences.
“Students need a diversity of viewpoints, even
in concrete areas like science,” Thomas said.
Quote:“Because of my cultural background, I bring a
different perspective to the table.”

9. IN CLOSING…
• DO NOT end with a “moral of the story”
• DO NOT end with your opinion on the subject
• DO NOT end with an essay conclusion
• DO end with a quote that summarizes the main
points of the story
• DO end with where people can go to find more
information

10. IN-CLASS EDITING WORKSHOP
• Get at least two people to look over your paper
• I want to see:
• Lede
• Nut graf
• Lede quote
• Get rubrics filled out from each partner

11. ANNOUNCEMENTS
• Grades will be up-to-date after tomorrow afternoon
• Data story and last participation quarter
• Check your club participation, and let me know if I missed
anyone
• Final presentations Wednesday, 4 p.m., TE 219 –
• No PowerPoints
• Bring snacks to share, if you want
• Quick presentations, then class wrap-up discussion