Introspection — due Friday, Aug. 8

Hey Scholars!

This will be our final blog posting, as some of you are finishing your internships TODAY. Hard to believe! (But I will send out a few more e-mails to our group.) My question is a simple one: What do you know now re: journalism or your job/paper or yourself that you wish you had known at the start of your internship?

Signed,

Your Career Coach-with-the-emphasis-on-career!

Sourcing — Due Friday, Aug. 1

Hey Chipsters!

We know that the more sources contributing to a story, the richer and more accurate the story is.  The hard part is working them all into a story that’s only 10 inches or 50 seconds  long. Do your papers/eds require a minimum number of sources per story? Do you go beyond the min. no. in your reporting? Do all the people you talk to find their way into your story? How do you get the maximum sourcing bang in such a short space? Examples from your own work? Coach Col.

  

Multimedia — Due Sunday, July 20

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Hey Chipsters!

Please share a tip or question involving the practicalities of multimedia.

Examples of tips: When I’m recording, I try to make sure to ask questions that get my sources to elaborate rather than “yes-no” questions. And: When I’m shooting video of something that involves a process (an emergency drill; a county/state fair animal/plant/mineral judging, etc.), I try to make sure I get footage of each step in the process.

Examples of questions: When I report for an audio slide show, how/when do I switch among notebook, camera, recorder? And where do I physically put the two that I’m not using at the moment? And: Can anyone direct me to an example (or Web site) of a particularly excellent journalistic audio slide show and/or video?

If you can answer a colleague’s question as this thread goes along or elaborate on a tip (including the above), please do! That’s the point of this thread. Thanks! — Your Coach

SOS — Due July 14

Good morning, Chipsters!

We’ve got some requests for help:

– “I thought it might be helpful if we exchanged tips on how to stay organized in a hectic news environment. Usually I’m really good at this sort of thing and people come to me for advice. But now I’m struggling to keep everything straight in my head and on paper. I think it’s super important to have some sort of system to organize stories, contacts, important dates, etc. I feel like I’ve veered off the organization path and could use a few bread crumbs to find my way back.”

– “I’ve been having some major anxiety/stress/paranoia about making errors. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve made a mistake more than three times. I always double check my stories and I’ve told my editor that I am concerned and I’m not just trying to blow it off, but I’m afraid that it’s starting to make a bad impression with my editor. My editor has told me that people are human and make mistakes, but they should be avoided. I have gathered tips from other reporters and my editors about fact checking. I know that I can only do my best, but I’m really starting to doubt myself.”

– “I’m not sure how to come up with enterprise story ideas. Every time I come up with one, I think of at least three reasons why it isn’t an idea. Can you talk about finding good ideas and the process of seeing them through to story form?”

What advice or suggestions can we offer “Hansel/Gretel,” “Doubting” and “Following Through”?

Enterprise — Due Monday, July 7

Hello Inkslingers and Snapshotters!
Our jumping-off point this week is this Scholar’s condundrum: “I usually can get creative about enterprise stories. But often I have trouble following through on them. I struggle with letting myself get into long enterprise pieces. I am afraid that I will put tons of time into it, and it will never run. Or I’m afraid that it will end up consuming me.”

Who else feels this way? What have you done to overcome this feeling — or what can you imagine yourself doing that might help in overcoming it? How are you doing with balancing your assigned stories with your enterprise work? — Coach Col

Ledes…Due Friday, June 27

Hey Chipsters! Four weeks down for some of you – and a good time to review your goals. I’ll be sending individual e-mails this week reminding you of your goals.

Two questions for our blog this week: One — please share a lead you wrote that you really liked — and tell us why you liked it. (Russel,  please do the same with a photo.) Or tell us about an experience you had about finding and/or revising a lead. 

Two: Some folks are considering going to UNITY — but are concerned about costs and the time away from their internships. Any advice for these Chipsters (esp. if they’ve just graduated and will be looking for a job)?   

Story ideas — due Friday, June 20

Hello Scholars!  This week, please share one lesson you’ve learned in connection with pitching a photo or story idea. Your lesson could involve telling us how you came up with the idea, how you researched it, how you pitched the story or photo to your editor, etc. — and it can stem from a successful or unsuccessful effort (remember, the most lasting/valuable/important lessons often come from our setbacks — and if we’re pushing ourselves, we’ll have more  than a few of these in life!). Deadline — end of the day on Friday, June 20.  

Story Org — deadline Sun., June 15

Hello Scholars!

Hope your weeks are off to a good start. This week’s topic: Organizing stories (hang in there Russel, I’m sending out a photo-related e-mail just for you).

 As CQ Coach Mary Ann Hogan says in her column, there are no right and wrong ways to organize stories. And you can use different approaches, depending on story type, topic, length. What follows are a few approaches, along with an exercise that I’d like you to respond to by Sunday.   

 – Approach 1, from Mary Ann:  http://www.chipsquinn.org/skills/ask/ask.aspx?id=569

– Approach 2:  Generally keep “like” information together in a story. If you’re writing about an issue and its pros and cons, group the pros together and the cons together and link them with a transition sentence or graph or two. Or let’s say you’re writing about someone’s appointment to head up a local org or agency and the appointment is controversial. Think about the story in chunks: person’s background and qualifications; what the critics say; what the supporters say; what the person’s plans are for the agency; info about the agency itself (budget, employees, etc.) Write your lead, then see how it makes sense to arrange the chunks, paying attention, of course, to your transitions.

– Approach 3: Figure out what your focus/lead (including off-lead, if there is one) is. Write it. Read it and ask yourself: What’s the most urgent, immediate question that this sentence raises?  The answer to that question will be your next sentence. Then read what you’ve written and ask: What question does this new sentence (or combination of sentences) raise? Lay down the answer as your next sentence, etc. This method not only helps the story unfold in a logical way, it also can result in good strong transitions between sentences and paragraphs. 

So, using this last approach, consider the following sentence:

“The Cottonwood School Board narrowly voted last night to slash in half the funding for the high school’s football team, effectively ending a program that has produced seven state champions in as many years.”

What’s your next sentence? (Again, as a reader, what question do you most want the answer to, right now? That answer is your next sentence — feel free to invent the facts you need as you write this sentence.)

So — one sentence from all. By Sunday, June 15. 

(We won’t share the sentences until they’re all in — so if you want to say something else in connection with this thread, please write out a separate comment under this post. Thanks!)

Speed — Deadline Sat., June 7

Hello Scholars! Welcome aboard, Princella and Elida, Candace and Chloe, and Sharahn and Brian. I think with this week, everyone in our group has started — anyone not? I wish you a rockin’ start with the stories!

For our first blog discussion, I’d like you each to share one thing that you do — reporting- , editing-, writing-, photography-, research-wise — that saves you time and makes you more efficient on the job. (Chloe, you can resend the great tip you e-mailed us last week.) Also, for the scholars who are starting this week, please also tell us what skill(s) you’d like to work on this summer.

Deadline: Saturday (because we’re getting a late start this week). If someone else has already taken your tip for working quickly, you gotta think of another one. No repeats!
Have a great week! Colleen

Welcome CQS Spring 2008 Class!

 Hello Scholars! This is our place to discuss — with each other and with me – reporting, writing, editing, photography, storytelling, navigating newsrooms and other general principles that arise during your internships. Participating at least once a week (and hopefully more) in this space is required during your Chips Quinn internship, as we discussed at orientation.

Please respond to this welcome post no later than the Thursday of the week in which your internship starts — and feel free to jump in sooner. First topic: What skill(s) will you start working on immediately and why?

Deadline: Thursday of your first week

Thanks — safe travels to your internships and great good luck on Day 1!

Coach Colleen

Colleen Fitzpatrick of Simsbury, Conn. (email), has been a career coach for the Chips Quinn Scholars program since 2000. Previously, she was managing editor of Fine Gardening magazine and had a variety of editing and reporting jobs at newspapers nationwide. Her jobs ranged from reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Mass., The Fresno (Calif.) Bee and The Providence (R.I.) Journal to national reporter at The Detroit News. She also has been a bureau manager at The Providence Journal, city editor at the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., and assistant news editor with Knight Ridder in Washington, D.C. She began her career in 1980 as a science-reporting intern at the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. She is a graduate of Stanford University and is working toward a master’s degree at Wesleyan University.