You are a journalist who is sent to report on the death of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. You should include background information on the conflict between the two families, and describe the fighting and the rioting that has taken place recently on the city streets. Explain who Romeo & Juliet are, include brief interviews with Benvolio, Friar Lawrence (who maybe claims to know nothing?!), or any other characters you wish. This will be a news article. You will need to include the following: Remember to submit your work by clicking on the Unit 4: Writing Assignment link above. Common newspaper names to create your alliteration: By Joe Student January 24 St. Paul A 15-minute operation involving a forklift, 20 firefighters, seven police officers and one scared pig ended a two-hour traffic delay on Interstate 94 Sunday morning. The wild pig, whom the fireman affectionately nicknamed Tailgate, apparently wandered onto 1-94 around 8 a.m. and fell asleep in the middle of the two-lane freeway. St. Paul resident Geoffrey Saint was the first to come upon the 200-pound animal. He practically took up the whole road, Saint said. I barely slammed on my brakes in time. Saint said the cars behind him followed suit, each stopping short after reaching speeds of up to 70 mph. Saint stayed in his car and phoned area police, who responded at 8:20 a.m. Lieutenant Terry Frank was the first officer on the scene. I couldnt believe my eyes, Frank said. Here was this huge, sloppy pig, just napping in the middle of the road, oblivious to what was going on around him. Frank said she attempted to rouse the pig by poking him with a stick. He just kept on snoring, she said. By 9 a.m., three fire trucks and four patrol cars had responded to the sleeping pig call. We just sat there and wondered what in the world we could do, Frank said. Hard news articles are written so that the reader can stop reading at any time, and still come away with the whole story. This is very different from an essay, which presumes that the audience will stick around to the end, and can th
erefore build to a finish. There is no need to put a conclusion on a news story. Each individual reader will end the story whenever he or she gets bored. A particularly interested reader (and your teacher) will keep reading to the end. Convey the general message in as many words as will fit (usually quite a small space). A headline should be informational, and can be clever, as long as the cleverness does not interfere with the information or earn groans from readers. The lead, or the first sentence of the story, is arguably the most important part of the article. Based on the content of that first sentence, a reader will either look deeper into the story, or move on to the next one. · The who, what, when, where, how, why lead. · Experimental leads. If you answer the 5 ws and one h on the second or third sentences, you can be more creative with the first. The results can flounder and die, or have a great impact. Some examples for the pig story: o o Quotes breathe life into a story, but can be abused. Dont quote material that isnt quote worthy. For instance, if Frank had said, Officers arrived on the scene at about 9:00 a.m., you wouldnt quote that. If she had said, That huge pig just sat there with tears running down his face and I thought my heart would burst, well, thats far more quote worthy. Here is where you could use what Frank had said and rewrite it: Officers arrived on the scene around 9:00 a.m., Frank said. No quotes needed, but the information still needs to be attributed to Frank shes the one who said it. In a straight news story, its best to get the most important information in your story up to the top. Readers will often stop reading after the first few paragraphs, so its important that they have a good grasp of the story. Follow with the older or less important information. Omit unnecessary information. This is different from a term paper for English class. Keep your paragraphs short (one to four sentences) and make each of your points concise. Readers grow tired of big blocks of text, so its best to break it up a bit.