Chapters 9, 10, 11, & 12

Chapter nine focuses on other ideas of ways to write a story besides the inverted pyramid. A journalist has an array of options when writing a story, rather than just using an inverted pyramid. Some examples that are used in the book are chronology, which just means that the reporter writes the story in chronological order if necessary, or focus structure, which tells a story of one individual which is supposed to represent an entire group. Both are alternatives to the inverted pyramid, and both are necessary to use at certain times.

Chapter ten introduced me to a way to write obituaries. Although, I have no desire to write obituaries, the fact of the matter is that oftentimes a journalist is called upon to write things they do not want to write. Therefore chapter nine taught me a lot about how to write life stories and obituaries in a respectful and clear manner. One of the main things I learned about writing obituaries is that often the cause of death is left out and it is actually not an essential part of the story. I was not aware of this before.

Chapter 11 was all about how to write a story when one receives a news release about the story, and also the different kid of news releases there are. Often reporters are emailed, mailed, or telephoned a story and that is where news releases come in. Reporters must be able to decipher what important facts they should put in the story from the new release, and they also need to figure out how to make it an interesting story. There are a variety of ways a news release can come in, but the most important thing is what a writer does with that news release when he or she receives it.

Chapter 12 also informed me about a lot of things. As a reporter there will be many times when I have to cover speeches, news conferences and the like. Thus chapter 11 was all about preparing me for that. It is extremely important to get the context correct when covering something like that and that is why it is often recommended that reporters have recorders so they can stay away from misquoting the person. It is also extremely important to make a note of the audience and little things like that, which I did not know was so important until this chapter.