Meeting Draft!

Working on my meeting story I learned that gathering information and conducting interviews was easier than organizing a story into something comprehensive. At first I thought I knew what I was doing when I compiled all my notes and background information. I wrote up what I had and then checked for grammatical errors. My story had what it needed a news lead, sub lead, nut graph, and my sources were fully attributed. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the way my news lead and nut graph were written. I felt that my news lead could be a little shorter and I just wasn’t sure how to reword it without loosing its content. As for my nut graph I had no idea whether or not I did it correctly, since I haven’t written very many of them.

Before attending my reporting class, I decided to pay Professor Daley a visit during office hours. We went over my article together to see what was wrong with it. She told me I was a good reporter and I a lot of work went into my story. The problem was my sentences weren’t direct enough (or convoluted) and I had too many unnecessary words, which would probably lead most readers astray. I felt a little relieved when to hear that most of my classmates had the same problems with their stories.

I was glad to see Professor Daley had marked up and left comments on my paper like she did before, it would give me something to refer back to the next time I write an article. During class I had made some side notes on some changes I should make for my article so that I don’t forget what to edit. Having the right sources and accurate information isn’t enough was another thing I learned working on my meeting story. If the readers can’t understand what is going on in the story than all my sources and background information would become irrelevant to them. I will try to soak in my reporting professor’s comments and hopefully get a better grade on my final draft.