Indentify your audience:

1. Most school papers are scanned due to the fact that students thumb through in search of their names or the names of their friends. Being mentioned in a publication impiles a person has achieved status within the school regardless of the subject.

2. Three things needed to create news is a message, an audience, and interest.

3. - Watch and  listen, what serious issues are people talking about ?
- What are teacher and sdministrators dealing with on a regular basis?
- What is the local media covering? Are there ways to localize national and international stories?
- Look for stories in not so obvious places: science fairs, academic competitions, vocational classes, special ed etc...

4. Three excuses students use are as the following:
- There's nothing to write about
- We tried to write about a story but by the time the paper came out the whole thing was over
- We know our stories are boring, we want to write about interesting stuff but our administrators won't let us

5. C is true - A feature story is very different from an essay

6. A  is true - Short item news should be third party

7. 5 things used to write an interasting lead:
-  Description of a scene
- Description of a person
- An excellent quote
- A starting statement
- A clever play on words

8. 5 things to avoid in a lead:
-  The name of a team or group
- A generality many, most, several
- The name of a school, mascot
- There are, there is, will be, there was
- This year, last year, next year

9. 10 news or journalistic values:
-  Clarity
- Accuracy
- Brevity
- Relevance
- Attribution
- Fairness
- Balance
- Indenification
- Objectivity
- Truth

10. The 8 elements of news
- Timeliness
- Currency
- Proximity
- Consequence
- Prominence
- Oddity
- Conflict
- Human Interest