Vids/Blogs/Tweets #2: The Roundup

Let's look at some of the groupings!

Sam: beyond coal video / blog / tweets #jrn200msuenergy General comments: Video: Watch your spellings! One video caption has a misspelling. Blog: Give each post its own headline, not just one that's the old post name, plus "continued." Also, don't use the same hyperlink in consecutive posts. Use new hyperlinks.

Breanna: cosmetics video / blog / tweets #organicvsconventional General comments: Video: What is the attribution for the information in your text slides? Don't forget attribution there! Also, watch your editing. A latter caption had text saying "text here" or something like that; there was also a span with no video. Blog***: EXCELLENT use of embedded video and hyperlinks. Tweets***: EXCELLENT use of hyperlinks!

Trisha: housing video / blog / tweets #toliveonoroff General comments: Video***: Good range of interviews.

Jessy: roommate conflicts video / blog / tweets #roommateconflictsstory General comments: Video***: Notice the back-and-forth use of sound bytes, where you talk to one person, then another, then go back to the first person. It's more conversational and generally preferable to using everything someone has to say all at once.

Darcie: protest video / blog / tweets #MSUsafety General comments: Video***: note the use of narration to help keep the story moving between sound bytes. Blog/tweets***: EXCELLENT use of hyperlinks to give people more information. See how each medium tells a story using basically similar content, but parsing that content in different ways?

Mattie O.: college housing video / blog / tweets #collegehousing General comments: Video***; EXCELLENT use of captions to introduce each subsection and nice b-roll, but where are the minimum two interviews with a human being? Perhaps you could have introduced sound bytes to explain some of the subsections instead relying solely on what was otherwise strong narration. Blog***: Insert hyperlinks into existing text as opposed to saying, "Watch this!" Tweets*** Strong hyperlinks, including link to video. But make sure your hash tag is truly unique unless you WANT to let your readers see related topic tweets beyond your own.

Ashley: inclusion video / blog / tweets #MRULESouth General comments: Video: B-roll would have helped break up the long interview segments. Tweets: You have some tweets that are quotes. If they are from someone else, you still need attribution. If they are your observations, then you don't need quotation marks; tweets are assumed to be from you.

Nick: cigar tax video / blog / tweets #jrncigars General comments: Video***: When you're doing a news story as opposed to an opinion piece, please refrain from interjecting opinion, like you did at the end here.

Julianne: restaurant video / blog / tweets #recordbreakingnoodles General comments: Video*** Nice use of b-roll and neutral experts! The latter turns what could have been a one-sided puff piece into something more analytical. Tweets:*** Nice mix of quotes and facts.

Nicole: keg law video / blog / tweets #kegtags General comments: Video: more b-roll would help break up the interview shots a bit. Blog: Hyperlink on text and don't create a "click here" link. For example, instead of saying "To see what the tag looks like, click here," just create a hyperlink on your first reference to the tag. Tweets***: It flows well, like a story would.

Stefany: speaker video / blog / tweets #takethepledge General comments: Video***: This was a tough assignment, in that you were reporting on a speech that already took place. Smart back-tracking in getting an interview with the speaker, reactions from people who were in the audience. Blog***: Smartly updates and evolves original post on he speaker by delving into one of the subtopics of the speech. Tweets***: A basic play-by-play rundown of the speech.

Mike: dorm water podcast / blog / tweets #hubbardwater General comments: podcast***: something different, but the same. Note the structure: you still have a (narrated) lede, you still have quotes (via sound bytes), you still have attribution. Blog: Give each post its own headline, not just one that's the old post name, plus "continued."

Bethan: LGBT community video / blog / tweets #bethanstory General comments: Video: B-roll would be helpful, even with a topic where visuals aren't obvious. The story is about individuals becoming part of a community; show them interacting with others, on their daily rounds, ect. Blog: Insert hyperlinks into the text, not into a separate line. So, instead of having a line at the end saying, "All of these groups have pages" and then offering links, instead put hyperlinks over the first reference to each group.

Alissa: online dating video / blog / tweets #loveisintech General comments: Blog: Give each post its own headline, not just one that's the old post name, plus "continued."

Maddie F.: MSU entertainment video / blog / tweets #iloverha General comments: nice job all around.

BriAnn: dodgeball fundraiser video / blog / tweets #SKPhilanthropy General comments: Video***: Good use of janky-free b-roll and nice use of yourself as an on-camera narrator. But remember as journalists we need to present ourselves neutrally, which means don't wear a Greek shirt when doing a NEWS story about Greek life. Tweets***: a play-by-play of the event that complements -- but doesn't overlap -- the vid and blog.

Julia: holiday creep video / blog / tweets #christmascreep General comments: Blog***: nice use of an initial overview, then a post on reaction. Also, nice link to your own video. Tweets***: make sure your hash tag is truly unique unless you WANT to let your readers see related topic tweets beyond your own. Which, in this case, might be kinda useful.

Kevin: MSU entertainment video / blog / tweets #uabmsu General comments: Video***: your b-roll of the sales stuff would have been better used while the co-owner was talking, so you can show and tell at the same time.

Connor: Dorm security video / blog / tweets #msudormsecurity General comments: Video: a little more b-roll, pleez! Blog: Posts are a bit on the long side; you may have been better off in breaking up your two posts into four or five shorter posts.

Carly: Greek life video / blog/ tweets #missgreek2011 General comments: video: nice use of b-roll, but you only used one source when the assignment required at least two. Plus, unauthorized use of copyrighted music.

Maggie: Fan violence video / blog / tweets General comments: blog: Hyperlinking is best done when embedded in ordinary text passages, as opposed to at the end of all text. Tweets***: nice overview where the tweets collectively read like a story.

Ethics: The 9/11 Falling Man, Ect.

There's a fine line between showing readers the brutal truth of a situation so that they understand the powerful truth of any story, and showing readers a truth so brutal that readers ignore the point you were trying to make and instead question your judgment.

I can think of no better example of this than the so-called Falling man photo, taken by an Associated Press photographer during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and published by The New York Times the next day.

This remarkable article from Esquire Magazine in 2003 offers a summation of the complex and contradictory forces at play in deciding if running the image was the absolute right thing or the incredibly wrong thing to do.

If you were an editor on Sept. 11, what would you have done? And why?

Likewise, what would you do if you were a photographer covering an African famine and you came across a starving girl being stalked by a vulture? That was a real-world decision for one photog, and it may have led to his own unfortunate end.

Let's talk it out.

Out Of Class #2: More Published Work!

Is campus water safe to drink? Michael is on it!

Bored at MSU? Maddie is on it!

How can it be Christmas already? Julia is on it!

Does MSU have a new dance team? Kevin is on it!

Out Of Class #2: Extra Credit Reminder ...

. . . because it never hurts to get extra credit:

FOR GETTING AN OUT-OF-CLASS STORY PUBLISHED, I will replace your out of class story grade (which is the average between your original version and your rewrite grade) with the higher grade. If your grade was the same with both versions, I will add up to o.5 to your grade, up to the grade becoming a 4.0.

For me to count your extra credit, you need to submit to me a published copy of your work or email me a Web link to your work, along with an email request to have it applied to extra credit.

FOR DOING A FOURTH OUT-OF-CLASS STORY, I will apply points up to that equal to an out-of-class story to your final grade. (An out-of-class story is equal to about 12 percent of your final grade in this class.)

FOR DOING AN OUT-OF-CLASS MINI-STORY -- which can be between 400 and 600 words, with a minimum of two human sources, in which you can cover ANY sort of event (subject t my approval) like a student group meeting or a speaker on-campus -- I will replace your two lowest practice story grades with 4.0s.

FOR GETTING THE MINI-STORY PUBLISHED, I will replace two more lowest-scoring practice stories with 4.0s.

I will also consider other extra-credit projects on a case-by-case basis. Please see me during my office hours to work out other extra-credit assignments.

THE COMMON DENOMINATOR IN ALL EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENTS is that you are demonstrating to me that you can now correctly apply skills learned in this class that at one time you did not apply as well; that you went above and beyond what we are learning in this class to further educate yourself in journalism; and/or you are demonstrating ability learned on your own prior to this class but applicable here. You can expect any ad hoc extra credit beyond the assignments listed here to include at least one of those components.

I don't care if you messed up earlier; show me you can get it right now and I'm happy to replace earlier grades with something more accurately reflecting where you are at NOW.

I just want to be clear on this one point regarding extra credit: extra credit will be applied to replace the grades of assignments you have actually done, including fataled assignments.

Extra credit will NOT be applied to assignments that you did not turn in, or in which you had a time fatal.

So if you were thinking of skipping an assignment or two toward the end of the semester by pre-emptively turning in some extra credit, that plan won't work.

Out Of Class #2: Fatals Suck

Just a reminder to double-check things, folks. Unfortunately, two of you are getting that reminder the hard way.

One of you fataled by referring to the energy drink Four Loko as Four Loco. That is a different name, so that is a fatal.

Another one of you alternately referred to Consumers Energy as Consumers Power. Consumers Energy is the power company here in Michigan. Consumers Power is a small utility in Oregon. One is not the other.

I hate to see fatals on such a heavily-weighed assignment. But whether it's a story big or small, we have to be sure that we check our facts, and that we use our facts correctly.

And we have to work on taking our lumps and learning our lessons now (when it's just a grade on the line) and not later (when it may be your internship or job in question).

Sorry, guys.

Neutral Experts: Sometimes You Don't Need To Find One ...

... sometimes, they'll find you!

Last week, I got this email via a college media advisers list serv:

If your students are working on Penn State, Joe Paterno stories -
please feel free to have them contact me with questions concerning fan
reactions, etc.

My expertise is in fan reactions to/judgments of athlete behaviors
(and by extension, administrators, teams, programs) - fan identity,
socialization, and motivation. Our new edited anthology on sports
fandom entitled "Sports Fans, Identity and Socialization: Exploring
the Fandemonium" is due out at the end of this month.

Students can email me directly at acearnheardt@ysu.edu and I will
provide the best number to call.

Thanks!

Adam

--
Adam C. Earnheardt, Ph.D.
Youngstown State University
Department of Communication

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/adamearn - @adamearn

Ohio Communication Association, Executive Director
http://www.ohiocomm.org

Rookery Radio, Advisor
http://www.rookeryradio.com

Again, let me remind you there is a neutral expert for everything. And those experts are probably on a campus somewhere.

Twitter: How To Tweet A Non-Breaking News Story

Tweeting a breaking news story is easy, as you've learned. Just type what you see, as you see it. But how do you tweet something that isn't breaking? Like a trend story, or something about a topic without a specific time peg or an actual event associated with it?

Actually, that's easy, too!

That was a situation a student in one of my past JRN 200 classes faced. She was doing a story about a rash of concussions among student-athletes. And here's her tweet stream, which I reversed so that you see her first tweet first and her last tweet last; the opposite of how it would appear on Twitter. Here we go:

#concussedathletes Over 300,000 sports related concussions occur each year, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.

#concussedathletes The NCAA, the nation's largest college athletic association, has no guidelines for treating athletes with head injuries.

#concussedathletes The Big Ten is trying to implement its own regulations to deal with concussed athletes.

#concussedathletes Michigan State University is not pushing for the Big Ten to have the regulations.

#concussedathletes MSU soccer goalkeeper Liz Watza has had five concussions and said "The NCAA should create guidelines."

#concussedathletes Sports Specialist Dr. Homer Linard said the main concern with letting injured athletes back in the game is brain injury.

#concussedathletes Suffering a second concussion shortly after the first one can be deadly, according to the Brain Trauma Research Center.

#concussedathletes Incoming freshmen athletes at MSU are given a specific concussion test, called ImPACT. impacttest.com

#concussedathletes Athletic Clinical Coordinator Brian Bratta said "ImPACT assesses memory, cognitive ability and function of the brain."

#concussedathletes Once a concussion occurs at MSU, the athlete takes ImPACT again to gauge the severity of the injury.

#concussedathletes Despite new technology, the biggest indicator is the presence of symptoms, said Bratta. http://tinyurl.com/6cq9dx

#concussedathletes When a head injury occurs, MSU athletes are immediately given SCAT, the Standardized Concussion Assessment Test.

#concussedathletes SCAT is a checklist of common symptoms and tests balance, said MSU Certified Athletic Trainer Yume Nakamura.

Now, please notice a few things. Look at the first four tweets. Each could be a lede, right? For many of you, in writing a story -- especially trend stories -- you may find that you have more than one good lede option, but you can only choose one lede. But in tweeting the news, each lede option can become its own tweet.

Second, the tweeter took telling quotes and made each a tweet, like that of teh player giving her opinion on the subject. Just like a quote in a story, it's not YOUR opinion; it's what somebody who is a subject of your story thinks.

Third, interesting facts are offered as tweets, like those on what the effects of a concussion can be.

Fourth, a mini-series of tweets are used to explain a nuance of the story, like the half-dozen tweets that in total detail how MSU deals with concussed athletes.

Fifth, hyperlinks are offered via tweet. Notice the tweet that uses a bit.ly link. Bit.ly is a URL shortener that will take a long URL and convert it into a shorter one that better fits on a character-restricted service like Twitter.

Let's take a look at what bit.ly can do for you, via this link.

Blogs/Tweets: Let's Look At 'Em!

Here are some blog/tweet pairings for your first assignment. Let's see how things worked! As long as you showed technical proficiency in this assignment -- using the minimum number of tweets and blog hyperlinks, and not fataling (though for Twitter, given that it's a speed-based social medium, I will relent a bit for minor typos that do not change meanings of things) then you received a 4.0 that's worth two practice story grades. If you missed a major component -- like failing to include the minimum number of hyperlinks -- then you received a grade point reduction.

Let's take a look at how you guys did:

Mike/TV show: Blog/tweets #himym

Connor/game: blog/tweets #phivschi

Mattie O./class: blog/tweets #seewhatimeancas111

Kevin/play: blog/tweets #actitout

Maggie/football blog/tweets #footballfail

Trisha/talk show: blog/tweets

Darcie/TV show blog /tweets #othtime

Jessy/Sing-off blog/tweets #jrn200singofftweets

Nick/football blog/tweets #nfljrn200

Nicole/TV show blog/tweets #legendary

BriAnn/misc. blog/tweets #sigmakappaordie

Stefany/house blog/tweets #livinginasororityhouse

Breanna/TV show blog/tweets #mtvtruelife

Alissa/TV show blog/tweets #cosbyrerun

Sam/TV show blog/tweets #gleekout

Julia/misc. blog/tweets #8amproblems

Bethan/ blog/tweets #bethanwatchesglee

Carly/dancing blog/tweets #dwtsfanatic

Maddie F./Sportscenter blog/tweets #sportscenteraddict

Julianne/school days blog/tweets #badcaseoftheTuesdays

Ashleigh/TV show blog/tweets #theoffice

Videos: Let's Take A Look ...

Okay, so your first video is done. Congrats! The good news is that by showing me basic skills such as shooting interviews and interspersing b-roll, you'll get a 4.0 grade worth one practice story on this exercise.

That is, unless you fataled or missed your deadline. I will be checking things like caption info, ect. for factual accuracy. It's a different medium, but the same rules apply: we have to get it right, and on time. Every time.

I'll comment on vids as we go. Here we go:

Darcie

BriAnn

Maggie

Jessy

Sam

Mike

Trish

Nicole

Breanna

Mattie O.

Bethan

Connor

Stefany

Julia

Ashleigh

Kevin

Alissa

Maddie F.

Carly

Nick

Julianne

What did you guys think?

Video: If You Need Some B-Roll ...

Then we've got that B-roll!

Blogs: Blogs Are Easy

Blogs are easy. But a blog may not be what you think.

A blog can be something that's snarky and opinionated. But it doesn't have to be, in the same way a newspaper can be the National Enquirer but it doesn't have to be.

And a blog for news shouldn't be opinionated. What we do is different in approach, but with the same intents as in traditional journalism.

For example, your writing voice is conversational in a blog, as opposed to something more formal in a news story. You talk like you're talking to your friends in a more natural woulda-coulda-shoulda voice and first-person references, as opposed to talking to people in a lecture-like tone. But you do it to relay information, and not your opinion.

In a blog you use hyperlinks to link to related background information, instead of putting in a bunch of background like a news story would. But in both cases you're doing it to provide factual evidence to your audience and to show and not just tell them stuff.

In a blog a story may be told in a series of short posts instead of a single story like in print. But that's okay; the blog (and not individual blog posts) is the consumption unit as part of a single ongoing and never-ending story. So instead of writing one long post once you've done all your research, you write many short posts, with the next one updating the last one. Each post is like a part of a news story, and not the whole.

In a new blog you still try to write about things that are relevant, interesting and useful to your audience, and not just you.

A news blog is a different style, not a different intent.

I think you may be able to get a sense of how you can turn a news story into a blog by looking at this Gawker.com blog post based on a news story you may have heard about on your own: Michigan's ban a while back on energy drink/alcohol mixes. Oh, and whaddya know, this blog links to -- and even credits -- The State News!

Take a look at the blog and its style and how it presents information, and then look at the State News story and its presentation method. See similarities? Differences? How alike goals are accomplished in differing ways? And see how helpful hyperlinking is to provide background without cluttering the blog or breaking its conversational tone?

Tweets: Tweets Are Easy

Many of you already use Twitter, but you may wonder how to use it for news.

That's easy, actually.

As you probably know, in Twitter you communicate in bursts of text no longer than 140 characters. So you're trying to say a little in a lot of space.

But that's less of a challenge than you may think.

That's because you're not limited to just one tweet. You can do as many tweets as you'd like!

So a single tweet is not a single story. Rather, a collection of tweets are. One tweet may be like sort of a lede, where it sums up the main point. following tweets are like the body of a story, with one tweet offering an update and another some relevant stats, and yet another a quote.

And that's the most basic value of Twitter -- it's another way to relay events live and as they happen to an audience who may not be near a TV or radio or whatever. You can essentially "broadcast" live, just using text sent to mobile devices of readers.

A collection of related tweets are unified by a hashtag; that is, the hashtag symbol on your keyboard (the thing that looks like a criss-cross fry; it's the number 3 key when under shift lock) followed by a unique phrase. For example, tweets at the convention I recently went to were joined by the hashtag #ncmc11 (short for National College Media Convention 2011).

You can supplement your tweets with links to a photo uploading site, like yFrog, which can help tell the story beyond the 140 characters allowed in a tweet, and beyond simple words.

You can also link to anything on the Web with the aid of a URL shortener, like bit.ly. What the service does is take a URL and replace it with a much shorter one. Using a bit.ly link here gives you more room to write text without the URL taking up so much space.

Ideally, the best tweet streams can be put in reverse order and read just like an inverted-pyramid news story, with (timewise) your first tweet summing up what happened, and the following tweets filling in details and offering a chronology as something unfolds.

Here -- again, in reverse order, with the tweets in order of when they were posted -- is the State News' sports Tweet stream just before and from the press conference announcing Coach Dantonio's heart attack a while back:

Report: Football head coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack but is OK.

There is a "important football-related press conference" scheduled for 1 p.m. It is unclear if it is related to reports of Dantonio's health

MSU: Dantonio will remain at the hospital for a few days for monitoring. Return to sidelines at a later date.

MSU: Offensive coordinator Don Treadwell will manage day-to-day responsibilities of head coach.

MSU: Dantonio had "symptoms consistent with a heart attack."

MSU: Dantonio had a cardiac catheterization procedure early Sunday morning.

AD Mark Hollis said Dantonio will not be on the sidelines for the Northern Colorado game Saturday.

Hollis: "This is a time for the Spartan nation to come together, to rally."

Dr. D'Haem of Sparrow Hospital said a full recover is expected.

Dr. D'Haem said procedure is very routine and happens often. Also said he expects no long-term negative impact. Return yet to be determined.

Dr. D'Haem said Dantonio began feeling symptoms around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Dr. D'Haem: Heart attacks are never good...but I would classify this as a rather small heart attack.

Hollis said he spent the night at the hospital until about 5:30, the returned to hospital this morning at 8.

Dr. D'Haem: "Stress doesn't cause coronary heart disease, but very stressful events can be a trigger."

Coach Treadwell on players' reaction: "They're handling it as well as they can. They love their head coach."

Hollis: "(Dantonio's) thoughts went immediately to his family and then to the football program."

Treadwell said the fact staff has been together for a number of years will make this process easier from a football point of view.

Dr. D'Haem said timetable for Dantonio's return will be taken week-by-week.

There's a lede. There's a nut graf. There's supporting details. There are quotes. There is background. It collectively qualifies as a journalistic story. And you did it within the confines of social media.

This is exactly how The Associated Press wire service has always filed breaking news stories as a story is breaking: line-by-line, with the idea the lines can be pasted together into a story. It allows the writer to push out a story (and an editor to edit copy) much faster than if he or she waited to have a mass of information combined into a story, and yet a reader still ends up with all the information they need to consider the package in its totality.

So really, tweets are just a way of applying old journalistic skills in a new way.

Now, it's your turn. Your assignment is to live-tweet anything -- the latest episode of your favorite TV or radio show; a sporting event you're attending; your roommate eating dinner; whatever -- and send me a link to your Twitter account (which must be open to the public), with a deadline of the start of class Wednesday.

You will need to send a minimum of 12 tweets, with a unique hashtag applied to each. For this first assignment, I don't care what the news value is of your topic. I simply want to see your technical proficiency in live-tweeting something happening, as it happens.

Stats: A Lot Of Youze Guys ...

... were thrown off by the press release starting so heavily with background about the survey before moving on to what the survey found.

That led many of you to offer generic background on the survey -- it's been conducted since 1942, it polls 50,000 households, ect. -- ahead of what the survey found regarding Internet use -- most households now use computers, and the number has drastically grown over the past few decades.

And it led some of you to lede with the fact a survey was taken, rather than what the survey discovered!

All because something is first in a press release -- or a city council meeting, or a football game -- doesn't mean it's worth prominent mention or a lede. Your lede is based on the Peanut Barrel values we've discussed all semester (and in that case, it's not, Hey! A survey was taken! right?) and where you rank information is based on most relevant to least relevant, and not necesarily the order in which things were presented.

Don't fall for the sequence trap. Rank information on value to the reader and support for your story's central premise.

Stats: Watch Your Math

Be careful with numbers. Make sure you say what you mean, and you mean what you say, and that you understand what you say.

For example, let's look at this passage:

The U.S. Census Bureau ... (found) 61.8 percent have computers, an increase of almost 54 percent since 1984.

This is a fatal.

How is that? you may say. It went from 8.2 percent in 1984 to 61.8 percent now. The difference is 53.6 percent!

That's because the difference in percentage points is 53.6 percent. But the difference in percentage growth is actually 653.6 percent!

Here's what I mean:

In 1984, 8.2 percent of 100 percent households had computers. If 100 percent is 113.1 million households, that means 8.2 percent is around 9.2 million households.

Today, 61.8 percent of that 113.1 million households have computers. 61.8 percent of 113.1 million is around 69.9 million.

So the percentage increase isn't 8.2 to 53.6; it's roughly 9.2 million to somewhere around 69.9 million. And that's an increase of over 650 percent. If the 9.2 million only went up just over 53 percent, we'd be talking about a total of around 14 million or so.

What I think you meant to say was that the percentage of households with computers has risen 53.67 percentage points. Which it did. But that's not what you said.

If you're not sure, check with your sources to make sure your math is correct and in proper context.

Nw, I understand math is hard. That's why many of us went into writing; to get away from math, right?

Still, we have to know how to accurately calculate percentage change, and these day it's never been easier with the Internet. Just do a Google search for "percentage change calculator" and you'll find dozens. That's how I did my math.

By the way, this isn't an isolated mistake. In my class last fall someone made the exact same mistake as you did here.

So don't fret. Do work on remembering the lesson, and not repeating the mistake.

Stats: Flip The Lede

Some of you had god ledes that would have been great ledes if you flipped the lede; that is, switch positioning of attribution and substance to highlight the latter.

Here's one lede that could have used a flip:

According to the Current Population Survey conducted each month by the United States Census Bureau, Internet use among households is common in over half of all American homes.

Nice lede, but see how it starts with the attribution before getting to the gist of the story? You can reverse that order like this ...

Internet use among households is common in over half of all American homes, according to the Current Population Survey conducted each month by the United States Census Bureau.

... and you emphasize what is being said over who is saying it. Please note in this case I did not change, add or eliminate any word you used in your lede.

I simply flipped the order.

Stats: Writing With (AP) Style

Is it internet with a little i, or Internet with a capital I?

It's Internet, with a capital I.

Some of you may have missed that because the listing in AP Style for Internet doesn't say in the text to capitalize it. But in the heading and throughout the definition Internet is indeed capitalized.

The headings for each listing is more than a heading; it also shows the form in which the term is supposed to be used. Things that are lower-cased like international date line are listed as such, in lower case. Things that are usually capitalized are also listed as such, like Internet.

Also, one of the oldest AP Style rules we have around here is that you spell out percent instead of using the percent symbol. No excuse for not knowing that by now. Yet, some of you are still repeating that mistake.

Lawsuit: The Fatals Rundown

Yet another reminder it's the little things ...

... like, spelling IQ and IG.

... like, listing the school district as the Ingham County School District. In fact, it was the East Lansing School District being sued in Ingham County Circuit Court.

... like, spelling Marvin Ferrell's last name as Ferrel, with only one l.

Again, this class isn't about writing. It's about information organization and affirmation. Make sure you give yourself just as much time to understand the information you have and then review what you've written as you do actual writing.

Lawsuit: Allegedly

Like we've discussed before, in a lawsuit anyone can allege anything. So it's extra-important to note things are alleged.

The district didn't fail to adequately educate James Dowdell. They allegedly failed to adequately educate Dowdell. We won't know whether that's true or not until the trial takes place and evidence is presented.

Lawsuit: Plural vs. Possessive

When you are talking about the Dowdells as a family unit, it's plural, as in Dowdells; e.g., the Dowdells demand a jury trial.

When you are talking about a single Dowdell in the possessive form, then it's Dowdell's; e.g., Dowdell's IQ score was 94.

When you are talking about a group of Dowdells in the possessive, then it's Dowdells'; e.g., the Dowdells' lawsuit.

Losta problems with apostrophes and s's in this one.

Lawsuits: Legal B.S.

Did you need to say the Dowdells demand a jury trial of all issues triable as of a right by jury?

What the hell does that mean, anyway?

It just means they are asking for a jury trial. So it would have been enough to say the Dowdells demanded a jury trial.

Likewise, did you need to say the lawsuit targeted both the defendants jointly and severally, for the compensatory damages in the amount of $500,000?

No. More legal B.S. You could just say the lawsuit targeted the defendants for $500,000.

Now, I didn't knock your grade for your inability to navigate legal mumbo-jumbo, unless it changed the meaning of things. This is the sort of stuff you'll get the hang of when you actually start covering court cases.

Still, if you're not sure of the meaning of what you're writing, you should ask a source for a layman's translation.

JRN 200: We Have Some Published Journalists In Here!

Happy to see people in here are starting ot get their work published. At Spartan Edge, one of you got in a story on the rape culture at MSU. Another person is an author for their work on preparations for the Izzone campout this fall. And a third person's examination of study abroad programs at MSU is also the cat's meow.

Now, each of these people have at least one clip for their portfolio. (Yes, that means you need to print out a copy of your story to go with your resume.) And on your resume, you can put down that you were a contributing writer for the MSU student-run news Web site spartanedge.com for the fall of 2011.

And that's pretty important. Journalism is a field of demonstrated ability; that is, editors want to see what you've done, and not just what your grades indicate you may be able to do in the future. They want a sure thing, and there's nothing more sure than someone who has already demonstrated their ability in other media.

Don't forget: for me to count your published work as extra credit, you must send me an email making the extra credit request and including a link to your story.