Report

Report
Status:
Version:
Base:
Source:	Report
l10n:	missing
Contributors
ThePerturbator

Report allows students to write newspaper articles, insert photos, and load them to a blog.

Technical Notes

Rajesh Ramakrishnan at Columbia University provided a few technical notes:

- This works for build 595
- The wordpress module is =in the ./wordpress directory and needs to be setup through ./wordpress/setup.py install
- The install script works as per expectation: ./setup.py dev
- The blog feature works to some extent, but it currently only grabs the text [The AbiWord module needs to be modified to somehow spit out data in a better format]
- No implementation work has been done on the plan tab.
- The username and password to the blog have been hardcoded to post to http://olpcjam.wordpress.com

Guide

See [1] for the original rtf.

Content

What's This?...Tutorial/Example

Topic

A topic is what the news article is about. Think of something that happened that you want to share with other people. What do you want to write about?

Examples: There was a new road built.

There was a holiday celebration or someone got married.

Headline

A headline is the title of your story. It is short and tells the reader what the story is about. It is the first thing readers see, so try to catch their attention.

Examples: Lots of Fun at the Wedding

Big Storm Causes Damage

Sub-head

The sub-head describes your story in one or two sentences. It is under the headline and before the actual article. It makes readers interested in your topic.

Examples: A new road now connects our village to the neighboring town

Many houses and trees fell down due to bad weather

Lead

The lead is how you start your article. The first sentence should make readers want to read more.

Examples: It was the best wedding ever.

The storm was terrifying.

Byline

The byline tells the reader your name and other information you want to include about yourself.

Example: Mary John, age 8

John Mary from New York

Description of Event

How do you tell readers what happened? To help tell the story, answer these questions.

Who is involved?

What happened?

Where did it happen?

When did it happen?

Why did it happen?

How did it happen?

Quotes

People like to read what other people said about the topic or event.

Example: “I am so happy that I am married,” said the bride.

Numbers

Numbers are important because they can help you prove something.

Example: One hundred trees fell down because of the storm.

Context

Every story is more complicated than it seems. The context is why the event happened the way it did. Exploring the context makes the story more interesting. Here are some questions to help you write about the context.

Has anything like this happened before?

Example: There were five big storms last year.

What are the causes for the event?

Example: People were unhappy about the old road and had been complaining for years.

Effects

Effects include reactions and consequences. What happened as a result of the event? Here are some questions to help you write about the effects.

How did people react?

Example: Everyone was happy that the couple got married. The mother cried in joy.

Did the event lead to more events?

Example: A nearby village wants a road now too.

What will happen next?

Example: The government might give money to rebuild houses.

Conclusion

The conclusion is the ending of the article. It should close your story.

Ethics

When you write a news article, you report on an event. Reporting means that you tell readers what truly happened. Readers will usually believe what you write, so you have a responsability to write true and fair articles. To do so, follow these guidelines:

- Check your facts. For example, if you are reporting on a storm that caused damage, and you think that two trees fell down, check whether this is true before writing it down. Readers trust you and expect to read correct information.

- Write correct quotes and indicate who said them. Imagine, for example, that you said: "my friend annoys me sometimes", but that the journalist wrote that you said "I hate my friend". You wouldn't like that. It is important not to transform what people say.

- Show the different sides of the story by talking to different people. For example, imagine that your toy is broken. You say that your sister broke it, but she says that you did it. If a journalist spoke to your sister only, the readers would only learn her side of the story. If the journalist speaks to both of you, then readers know both sides of the story. When you write a story, remember that it is fair to present different opinions.

AND MORE TO COME ON:

Writing an article - structure - link words

What an outline is and why it is useful

What to do once the outline is completed

What is a news article

UI

Dan Sutera at Columbia University has made some mock-ups of how a UI could integrate this content with the existing software (see the gallery below).

History

More background can be found at Journalism Jam New York/Results.

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