At the end of the school year, I was talking to a newspaper student who had not been very good about turning in her work. She said she had thought staff members would be able to write anything they wanted. However, after seeing the entire process, she realized that with a small staff like ours, such a plan would have probably led to too much editorial and not enough news, feature and sports. Her comment intrigued me, though, and I began to think about how I can intercept that type of thought next year earlier.
Arizona Daily Star columnist Sarah Garrecht Gassen said an opinion writer is a good reporter first. She said the research is important and that facts "give weight" to an argument. Stressing that more with my newspaper staff could help those who consider writing news boring realize that it is a means to an end. If they want to write opinion pieces, they have to be able to tell the story first.
Cindy Reves
McKinley High School
Honolulu, Hawaii
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ReplyDeleteI encountered the same problem with some of my staff members last year. I had a brilliant student that only wanted to answer the "Dear Jane" responses providing her feedback, but did not want to write anything she had to report or research.
ReplyDeleteShe was in for a shock when one of the questions required her to do research and interview a counselor at our school as well as talk to administration. So Ms. Cindy, you are not alone.
Michelle Williams
San Antonio, TX
My students often do not believe that opinion pieces require reporting. They think it is just their opinion. I liked how Gassen kept returning to the idea that opinion pieces are based first on good reporting. I will continue to try and stress this with my students. I am considering creating an extra step in the writing process that will force the reporting.
ReplyDeleteLisa Shapiro
Northwest High School
Germantown, MD