As we move forward, I look forward to seeing a story from you every two weeks! Make sure you check for feedback via replies and email in case Nick or Russell need rewrites before a story is published.

Assignment Instructions:

1. When your story is ready, post your article to this blog and categorize it as 2nd Beat Story.
2. Tag your article with relevant keywords that TMN can use to help readers find the story on the TMN blog.
3. Be sure to include source information and, if you have any, relevant hyperlinks.
4. If you can get a picture to go along with your story, add it to your post. If not, try to find a workable picture from Pixabay, something that can give us a visual understanding of your story.
5. When you post your article to this blog, be sure to include a link to your story record.
6. EMAIL us a link to your post: gmloggins@fhsu.edu, rwheitmann@fhsu.edu, njschwien@fhsu.edu
7. Keep monitoring your email and any comments we make to your post until it is published on TMN.
8. If we ask for updates, just edit your original post for this first beat story and be sure to let us know when you are done editing it.
9. Once it is published, add that TMN link to the bottom of your original story post.

Story Record Instructions:

1. First, make a copy of the example story record.
   • The easiest way to copy a Google document is to use the “Make a Copy” button. As you can see below, it’s the fifth item under “File.”
     
2. On your record, be sure to note:
   • The relevant dates (Event Date, Due Date, & Submission date)
   • Contact and/or retrieval information for your sources.
     • Who are they and how can they be contacted or accessed?
     • You should always have at LEAST two interviews.
   • How many separate quotes and paraphrased comments you include from your sources.
   • Where is your visual from?
     • Let us know if you created the picture, if you got it from Pixabay, or if it’s from somewhere else.
     • If it’s from somewhere else, look for copyright information.
       • Provide documentation or a link to show that we can use the picture without violating copyright.
   • What are the 5 W’s and the H for your story?
     • You might outline complex answers to that on your own.
     • Here, we should normally have no more than a few words to answer each question.
     • If you need more than a sentence to list a W or H, you need to re-evaluate the true focus of your story.
3. If we ask for revisions update your record.
   • Did we ask for big changes or small changes?
   • Did we ask for more information (Y/N)
   • Once you are done, list the new submission date under the last one. If you have additional sources or quotes add them on the same line.
     • If you added new quotes or attributions, use a “+” sign to let us know how many you added.
   • Keep repeating this until your story is posted or you are ready for it to be graded, even though it will not be published.

Grade Evaluations:

90-100  Your article was published with little to no revision, broke a story before other news sources, or was a really excellent story. In addition, it was submitted before the module deadline and published when the news was still quite relevant.

80 – 89 Your article was submitted before the module deadline and eventually published, but it needed extensive revision or lacked interesting news values.

70-79 Your article was submitted on-time and revised as requested within a day. However, it was not revised further as requested or never got published.

60-69 Your article lacked clear news value.

0-60 Your article was inappropriate, unedited, exceedingly late, or never posted.

 

If you haven’t started on Craft & Davis (2016) yet, head on back to Module 2 when you are ready.