My Writing Buddy Experience

I found the experience of having a writing buddy as incredibly beneficial, for both of us. I think that we worked together well and found a balance between my role as an editor and his as a reporter, roles that initially, I don’t think either of us felt completely settled in. He helped me feel more confident as an editor, and in return, I offered him a new insight into his stories that I don’t believe he was getting elsewhere.

Advice that I would consistently offer to Faris was to choose to reword some phrases, and to check his sources constantly. Faris’ stories were at times full with sources, and at others, only contained one. I told him that he needs to find a balance between his sources, because it would make the story more authoritative and overall flow better. He also used a statistic from wikipedia in a story, which he was embarrassed about when I asked him where it was from, so I think that might have just been a typical Newswriting student attempting to bolster a story. He also needed some work with structure in his story, since sometimes when he was editing it himself, he would cut and paste things without re-identifying a source when necessary.

While he had some things he had to work on, I found that his work exceeded my expectations of a 621 student. He consistently chose topics that would warrant an expert to report, and he did so fluidly and authoritatively. I never once questioned his authority on a topic, which I think is a good trait to bring to the table, since many times, one will have to write on a topic that is completely unfamiliar. He had a great vocabulary, flowing writing, and a good understanding of the inverted pyramid, and the structure of a good story. One thing that impressed me was his leads, since they were both interesting and informative in many cases. He was able to convey the basics of the story in the lead, but with a creative twist that drew his readers in.

When I came into this experience, I was extremely nervous and felt unfit to edit my writing buddy’s work. I thought back to my own writing buddy, who seemed very calm and confident, and felt that I would never be able to reach that level of expertise. I think that this experience taught me to be confident in my own knowledge, and gave me the ability to defend my decisions. In class, when we’d edit a story, it was either right or wrong, but with Faris, it was not as clear cut. Each change that I chose to make, I would have to go over with him, and give him a good reason why I was choosing to change it. This practice forced me to be decisive and go with a gut feeling that something wasn’t right. By coming up with reasons to tell Faris, it gave me a better idea how to make decisions that can be defended. As an editor, sometimes I am going to have to do things that others do not like, but as long as I am confident in what I am doing, I will be able to get through any editing experience. I definitely benefitted from this, and I would recommend it to any Editing or Newswriting student coming through the program. It is definitely something to take advantage of.

Day 3

Item 1: In this case, I would not use Jake's name in the story. Another news station using it doesn't make it okay. He is still a juvenile and his name has not been officially released. Proving this later would just make us seem desperate that we were willing to print things through word of mouth.

Item 2: I would agree to use the alias. Being an illegal alien does not make her information less credible. I would, however, not reveal to my readers why I was using an alias. Some people just don't want their names in print, so there doesn't need to be any explanation beyond that.

Item 3: No. I will identify him as a juvenile, that's it.

Item 4: At this point, I would identify him. If an arrest has been made, and he is to be tried as an adult, there is no reason not to identify him. Of course, I'd be sure to write "arrested in connection with" and not "for the murder of..." I'm assuming that because we know that Mahoney has been arrested, his name has been put out there.

Item 5: I would own up to it. Nothing good can come out of hiding evidence, and it would be better to be up front about the bottle, than to keep it hidden. The truth would come out eventually, and it makes me look more credible by presenting it outright.

Item 6: I would fire her. She has tampered with evidence, lied to police, and implicated our newspaper with her actions. Keeping her on staff would not only make us look bad, but I don't think that I can trust a reporter that has put the paper in such a bad spot.

Item 7: I let them in. This is, considering, that I haven't yet brought forth the evidence. Not letting them in would just make us look worse, like we have something to hide.

Item 8: I wouldn't resign right away. I would look into the legal responsibility that I would have, possibly as an accomplice. I was not the one who directly stole evidence from the scene, but I suppose I did put it in my desk and keep it a secret. If public outcry really wanted me out, I would resign, although, I really don't think that I am the one who should pay for this.

Day 2

Another day, another story to get right. Our first reporter who discovered the bottle of gasoline did some great investigative reporting, but screwed up on many fronts in her conduct. The information she gathered shouldn’t be used. She crossed over police tape and a No Trespassing sign to get her evidence, which was already illegal enough, but then she didn’t tell the police what she had found, stealing evidence from the scene. It would be impossible and irresponsible to go to press with her information, since we would be keeping vital evidence away from the police in their case to use for our own benefit.

Good thinking on the photographer’s part, but we will not do anything with the photograph right now. Keep it on file in case the boy is charged or considered a suspect, but we will not print anything until we are certain he has a hand in this case. All signs seem to point to Jake Mahoney, we can all agree about that, but until he has been considered a suspect or charged with anything by the police, we shouldn’t run anything about him. We got his name as a suspect off the record from a police officer, but that was exactly what it was- off the record. We are not going to break ties that we have with the police for a fact that has only been confirmed off the record. We will be patient.

What we will use for this coverage are the quotes from Sally’s husband, Bob (without the ones about how he will kill Jake Mahoney) about his wife and how he is not sure if she is going to make it. The reporter who talked to the Red Cross should use that information to write a story on the families who have been displaced because of the fire. This would make an interesting, touching piece, and will suffice for now, since our information is still a little shaky. In the main story, we will mention that the fire is being investigated as an arson (not naming names) and offer a number for people to call with anymore information on the fire. If the police know more, then we will know more.

I am concerned that my reporters will want to jump the gun and print something before it is ready so we will have a good story. While I’m all for breaking news first, I think there are a lot of risks that are being taken in this case, such as stealing the bottle of gasoline, and printing the name of a minor who has not officially been considered a suspect. These kinds of things can get our paper in a lot of trouble. Bottom line: We’re holding the story until it’s confirmed that we can go ahead. Other than that, we have to be patient, and wait it out.

Day 1

Alright everyone, we’ve got to get to the bottom of this. We have a nice bit of information so far, but a lot of it isn’t 100% certain, and there is a still a long way to go. I want you guys to go out and talk to a few key people. I want you to talk to a firefighter to get more information about the fire- what they think might have caused it, what kind of damage they encountered, and what condition the women may be in. Then talk to some medical staff- find out what hospital the woman was taken to, her current condition, and if there was any evidence of injuries not related to the fire. Don’t get too excited though. Before we explore any leads regarding her history with being abused, we need to get some more information. Don’t take anything at face value. Ask around a little more about the abusing, but do not push it. This could be an interesting angle, but we can’t report on it unless we’re absolutely certain it’s true.

As for my photographer, I want you to get a picture of the house in ruins. Something powerful, and attention grabbing. For the rest of you, I want some information on this kid. Talk to the police and see if they have any inclinations as to how the fire started, and if it was intentional or accidental. Ask around a little more about Jake Mohoney, and see if he might be the same kid who ran from the scene once the fire started.

My concerns with this article involve jumping on information too quickly without getting our facts right. There are a lot of sketchy and skeptical things going on with this situation, and we want to be absolutely sure before we report on them. Lighting a house on fire is a serious crime to accuse someone of, as well as wife-beating. I want all these allegations checked, and rechecked, so if we decide to report on them, we can be 100% sure that we are reporting something accurate.

Let's go do some reporting!!!

Pulitzer Prize Winner "The Wreck of the Lady Mary"

The 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner for Feature Writing went to Amy Ellis Nutt of the star-Ledger, Newark N.J., for “her deeply probing story of the mysterious sinking of a commercial fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean that drowned six men.”

Her five-chapter series, titled “The Wreck of the Lady Mary” went above and beyond a normal level of reporting and writing. There is a level of detail that is not normally found in a news story, with active descriptions that make it seem like the reporter was actually there. Even though five out of the six fishermen died, Nutt managed to find sources in their wives, men on nearby ships, mothers, fathers, girlfriends, and other people that managed to paint the picture of what these men’s lives were like and how the event transpired.

I think this project was worth spending so much time, money, and care on because this tragedy must have fascinated many people, and my guess is that the tragedy was surrounded by many rumors as to why and how this happened, and by having an extensive story like this, it must have clear breakdown of how this happened. I think that this project goes beyond a typical news story and brings its readers into the moments that are not typically reported on. It goes beyond a news story describing the who, what, when, where, and why of a story. It takes each of these aspects and expands in every way possible, drawing its readers in completely and giving them the whole story. This article goes beyond what is expected with reporting and benefits its readers by giving them insight into this tragedy, and allowing them to understand everything.

I think this series of paragraphs captures the cosmic moment in the project because it explains that there is a larger force that is affecting the safety and rights of fishermen that was at the bottom of why this tragedy happened:

“This story is about a tragedy no one lived to tell — except Arias, the only crewman plucked from the ocean alive, but who was asleep below decks when the sea suddenly began to swallow the boat. But from the tormented memories of its sole survivor, hundreds of pages of Coast Guard documents, the analyses of more than a dozen marine experts and the Lady Mary’s own ghostly remains, a picture has slowly emerged.
No single event doomed the six fishermen, rather a cascade of circumstances set in motion years earlier by a slip in penmanship on a vessel safety form, compounded by a clerical error. Darkness, deteriorating weather, a tired crew and an open hatch contributed to the vessel’s vulnerability. Then, a floating behemoth 10 times the size of the little scalloper came plowing through the fishing ground at nearly full throttle.

The men of the Lady Mary were like thousands of others who earn their living from fishing, toiling in a Wild West sort of world, in hazardous, ever-changing conditions with scant safeguards and few legal protections.

On today’s oceans, endangered whales have more protection than fishermen, though scores are killed each year.

And when fishermen die at sea, their deaths often remain unexplained, their bodies never found and their lives soon forgotten by the public.

As one mariner said, "There are no skid marks on the ocean."

I think what sets these stories apart from other ones in terms of success is the level of reporting and the creative way that the reporters display their ideas. The way that the story is reported makes it seem like the reporter was actually there, and the delve into the most personal and intimate of feelings to round out the story. The writing is beautiful, descriptive, and captivating. The story’s opening is an example of this, reading:

“Riotous waves pummel José Arias. In the frantic scramble to abandon ship, he zipped his survival suit only to his throat and now the freezing Atlantic is seeping in, stealing his body’s heat.

The cold hammers him, a fist inside his head.

Seesawing across the ocean, he cannot tell east from west, up from down. At the top of a wave the night sky spins open, then slides away. Buckets of stars spill into the sea.

"Sálvame, por favor. Sálvame."

Save me. Please save me, he prays to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This kind of writing is beyond the normal lead. It is descriptive, and terrifyingly so; it gives us images that are hard to be imagined. It puts you right in the moment and I think that is the best part about these stories. We get to know the men who died, their stories, their families, and a chilling account of how they died.

Writing Buddy Meeting #3

I had my third meeting with my writing buddy, Faris, last Thursday. After a long discussion trying to figure out when to meet, we realized that I would be reading his story anyway for The New Hampshire, and that he usually came in so that his editors could go over the story with him. We figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to meet up and discuss his story. For the paper, he wrote about a UNH professor who had recently received a grant that would allow him to travel to Alaska with a team to research the effect of global warming on the Arctic rivers and oceans. I thought that the story was very well done. He had a good blend of quotes and news, and did a good job of making a confusing topic understandable. Faris is a fantastic writer and has a very good voice that comes through with his stories. It is very authoritative, and he sounds like an expert with most topics he covers. His lead was particularly strong. It conveyed the hard news side of the story, yet in a creative way that attracted readers. If I recall correctly, he wrote "This summer, somewhere in the northern reaches of Alaska, UNH scientist Will Wollheim will wade through rivers, thanks to funding from politicians in Washington D.C."

I did have some advice to give to Faris regarding his story. He had some very confusing phrases and statistics that did not make sense or fit into the context. He got some of these facts and figures from wikipedia, which I initially told him wasn't a reliable source, but he confirmed them on other, more reputable sites. He had three sources in total, however, only one was a quotable source that he had talked to. Although technically, his websites counted as sources, I told him that he should get more people to quote since the quotes were only from one person and made the story appear to be one sided. I asked him who he would have liked to talk to to bolster his story, and he mentioned that he might want to find an expert on global warming or fish. He didn't know about the UNH Experts list, so I pulled it up on the computer and showed him some people he could talk to in the future when he was looking for local experts.

I think that this experience has been beneficial for both Faris and me. It helps him put together better stories, and it has given me good experience with the other side of editing: talking to the reporter. I think it is easy to assume that editing will just be going through a story with a red pen and marking off all the stuff that you deem wrong, but it's easy to forget that the other half of the job is defending your choices, explaining your choices, and working with the reporter to come to a compromise between the two opinions.

Writing Buddy Meeting #2

Faris and I met up on Friday March 25 for our second meeting, once again in Union Court. For the first part of the meeting we mostly talked about our spring breaks and our terrible first weeks back at school. Faris did not have a new story for me to edit, so I looked over the story he was working on last time about Arabic classes. I felt guilty for doing this, but I almost wanted it to be a train wreck so I would have something to say. I went through the story and felt slightly panicked because if I didn't have any constructive criticism or advice to give him, I thought that I would seem incompetent as an editor. Fortunately, I did pick up on some AP style errors and some structural parts of his story that could have been improved. I pointed out a habit that Faris seemed to have in his writing of not directly identifying his speaker of a quote, either because he forgot to or he thought it was implied. There was also a part of his story where some random speaker named Jake was talking about the need for Arabic classes and that speaker had never been previously identified. As it turns out, Faris had cut out a good portion of his story, and Jake's first quote had gone with that.

Other than those few errors, there was very little to edit in the story. He had a good number of sources and very good quotes. He was initially worried about sounding biased, and compensated by constantly comparing the two sides. He wanted to know if that was a good tactic, and I relayed a story of an experience I had in 621 about writing a story on the legalization of marijuana and how I was told to do the same that he did by Sandy.

Faris and I have plans to meet up sometime this week. He is hopefully going to email me his story for class or TNH in advance so I can spend a fair amount of time editing it, and then we will meet in person, where I will go over what I thought of the story and things that he can do to improve it. I feel like this tactic will be more beneficial to him and myself, since he may be able to improve his grade through my editing, and I will have some kind of stake in editing the story.