See edited version of Violent Crime at this link on my Dropbox account.
NOTE: I am seeing some good editing, but I am also seeing errors the result of a lack of focus. focus. Here is rule to live by. When you think your are done, STOP and go back through your copy word by word.
Which ARE correct?
You have to be aware of your surroundings because crime can happen anywhere.
You have to be aware of your surroundings, because crime can happen anywhere.
Because crime can happen anywhere, you have to be aware of your surroundings.
Because crime can happen anywhere you have to be aware of your surroundings.
“It’s a trend that reinforces that, at all times, you have to be aware of your surroundings,” he said. Because crime can happen anywhere.”
“It’s a trend that reinforces that, at all times, you have to be aware of your surroundings,” he said, “because crime can happen anywhere.”
Which is better?
The report compared crime from January to June this year with crime from January to June in 2005.
The report compared crime from January to June this year with crime same period in 2005.
Which ARE correct?
Robberies increased according to the annual report.
Robberies increased, according to the annual report.
According to the annual report, robberies increased.
According to the annual report robberies increased.
“Sgt. Keith Kameg, of the Gainesville Police Department,” is probably better than “Sgt. Keith Kameg, with the Gainesville Police Department,”
Which is correct?
He highlighted three reasons for the increase in local crime – increases in population and increases in awareness.
He highlighted two reasons for the increase in local crime – increases in population and increases in awareness.
Edit this:
The overall goal of the department is to bring all the crime numbers to zero, though a lot of that effort starts with residents being more cautious and protecting themselves, Kameg said.
Which is correct?
… said Sgt. Keith Kameg of the Gainesville Police Department.
… said Sgt. Keith Kame of the Gainesville Police Department.
Inconsistent spelling that I need to fact check or ask the reporter what correct spelling is.
Fix this: He said there also has been an increase in juvenile crime.
When you see Department or Office at the end of an agency – such as the Centre County Sheriff’s Department – and you are not familiar with the agency, what do you do?
Which is better?
In Gainesville, the only category that saw a decrease this year …
In Gainesville, the only category that decreased this year …
Which is correct?
The City of Gainesville saw …
The city of Gainesville saw …
Which is better (think concision)?
The City of Gainesville saw …
Gainesville saw …
Why is this logically unsound? = He highlighted two reasons for the increase in local crime, including increase in population and awareness. (See this link)
What is wrong here? In every other category - overall violent crime, murder, robbery, aggravated assault, property crime, burglary, theft and arson, Gainesville saw at least …
You can go to Sakai and review all your edited work.
True
False
Which is correct?
U.S. Army Sgt. Keith Kameg
U.S. Army Sergeant Keith Kameg
Which is correct?
Gainesville Police Department Sgt. Keith Kameg
Gainesville Police Department Sergeant Keith Kameg
Where do you find in AP the answer to the above two questions?
Every newsroom has ’em: Reporters who come up with their own stories, and reporters who don’t come up with their own stories. The job is much easier – and enjoyable – if you’re a story hunter rather than a perennial assignment receiver.
Funny, it’s usually the reporters who don’t come up with their own stories who grumble about the assignments they receive and the ‘news’ value of such stories. “Half of what we cover isn’t news!” a perennial assignment receiver might protest.
Story hunters – whether they be reporters or editors – usually always have a slew of ideas. Perennial assignment receivers can change into story hunters. . . . with a little effort. If you’re having trouble getting your own story ideas, try these 50 tips. They’re simple. They’re effective. And they should virtually guarantee that you will start to get in the habit of hunting for your own ideas.
1. The Internet: Check out your local Internet service providers’ websites. Most ISPs host free web space for members to have their own websites. Usually, you’ll find people with simple websites about their hobbies, family, groups, etc.
2. The grocery store: Scan those bulletin boards.
3. Veterinarians’ offices: The public loves animal stories. And there’s no shortage here. I once spotted a photo of a badger in a vet’s office. I asked about it, knowing the animal is virtually extinct in Ontario , Canada . Turns out, the animal was found injured only kilometres away and was being rehabilitated.
4. Cable television station: Most run a community events service. Check it out. (And don’t forget your own newspaper’s community events listings)
5. Health department website: It’s interesting what officials will sometimes post on their websites, yet not send press releases to the media. For example, our health department will post notices about beach closings on its website, but will not issue press releases about closings.
6. Start Googling: Google names, Google town names, Google organizations’ names. You’ll be surprised what you find.
7. Arena bulletin boards: Association news gets posted here.
8. Church bulletins: We have a staffer who routinely gets tips from church bulletins.
9. Community signs: Be alert when you’re driving and read community signs. What are people publicizing to other people?
10. Rezoning notices: You see these posted on properties where there is a proposed zoning change. Read them. There’s information there about development happening in your community.
11. Classified ads: People sell items. They look for items. And then there are the oddities such as a cemetery plot for sale. . . you never know what you’ll find.
12. Ads: Don’t confine your reading to the classified ads. Check out the other ads in your paper. Businesses and organizations use ads to announce events.
13. Club notes: Many newspapers print club notes from various organizations and clubs. It’s amazing what groups will bury in these hand-ins. Once, a local club buried an item about the coming visit of a Belgian prince. In another item, a Women’s Institute formed in 1918 announced that it was folding due to declining membership.
14. Your local ISP’s forums: Local Internet Service Providers usually operate discussion forums on their websites. These forums are usually very locally based and feature chatter about all sorts of issues and newsworthy items.
15. Anniversary notices: Read ’em! It’s how you’ll find terrific human interest stories such as Mae and Jack celebrating 75 years of marriage.
16. Graduation notices: These can be a treasure trove of story ideas. Learn about the local high school grad who’s going to university in Australia, or the university grad who’s starting a new career in Hong Kong as an ambassador’s assistant, or the young woman who’s becoming a police officer.
17. Obituaries: There are nuggets buried (pardon the pun) in obituary notices. Nuggets like the person who once taught in a one-room schoolhouse, or the soldier who landed on the beach on D-Day, or the fellow who was a prospector. All stories waiting to be told.
18. School newspapers: Students will publish all kinds of breaking stories about their school in their newspapers. Find out what events are upcoming, what trips are planned, and about staff and student accomplishments.
19. Sports association websites: Find out how teams are doing, what tournaments are scheduled, get association news.
20. Hydro poles: People aren’t supposed to staple notices to hydro poles, but they do. Sure, some notices tout stuff like ‘Lose 10 pounds in 10 Days’, but others may advertise a giant neighbourhood yard sale or a rock concert by an up and coming young band.
21. Sports hand-ins: There are some human interest gems in those writeups that parents and coaches slide through the mailslot late at night at your office: little Johnny who scored six goals in one hockey game, or the basketball game where Jenny netted 47 points.
22. Eavesdrop: Eavesdrop at the grocery store checkout. Eavesdrop at the coffee shop. Eavesdrop at the arena or sports field. Learn to listen to what people are talking about.
23. School websites: Learn about staff news, alumni news, policies, upcoming events and happenings.
24. Blogs: Search for bloggers online in your community. What are they talking about?
25. Meeting minutes: Government organizations (councils, committees, school boards, conservation authorities) usually post notes from their meetings. If you weren’t at the meetings, it’s a quick way to review what was discussed and stay on top of newsworthy decisions. Also, look at agendas before meetings.
26. Tourism websites: Find out what’s being promoted as tourism destinations, and find out what’s being overlooked. Get a list of festivals. Find out who belongs to your local tourist association. Learn where the association is going to promote tourism.
27. Radio, TV: Most have a community events board. Just because a citizen didn’t call you about an event, it doesn’t mean they didn’t call competing media. Find out what the competition has that you don’t.
28. Nature / environmental groups: Most communities have these organizations. Find out about their projects, their issues, unusual animals sightings, field trips, etc.
29. Trends: Get up to date on the latest trends and find out how they’re impacting your community. It might be the hottest new toy for kids. Or it might be something more sinister such as an illegal drug.
30. Cemeteries: Read inscriptions on tombstones. One reporter here noticed a tombstone with the inscription that the man died in Buchenwald concentration camp. With a little digging (sorry for the pun), it turned out the man was a spy for the allies who was caught by the Nazis.
31. Your newspaper’s ad reps: These co-workers walk the business beat on a daily basis. They hear gossip. Ask them what they’re hearing on the street.
32. The What Happens Next factor: Look at stories that have appeared in your paper in the past two weeks. Read them again. And then ask yourself: What happened next? If it hasn’t already been followed up, find out what’s happened.
33. Crime statistics: Talk to police about what trends are happening, what are the most common crimes, get stats on break-ins, car thefts, drunk driving charges, 911 calls, etc.
34. Weather, weather, weather: From your local weather office, monthly stats are readily available on temperatures, snowfall, rainfall, etc. It’s no secret that readers love weather stories.
35. Other newspapers: Read their stories. Look for buried leads. Look for angles that they missed. Look for advancers that tip you off to upcoming events that you were unaware of. Consider how you can give the story a different twist.
36. Use the ‘Is there anything else happening?’ question: When you’re talking with people, or interviewing them, at the end of your conversation, throw in the ‘is there anything else happening that might be newsworthy?’ It’s a simple interview-ending technique that can lead somewhere else.
37. Demographics: Research statistics compiled by sources such as Statistics Canada. You’ll find community populations, age breakdowns, income, etc. How does your community compare with national averages?
38. The Barber / hairdresser: Fifteen minutes chatting while in the chair can produce several leads. Don’t laugh. If it’s happening in the community, a barber or hairdresser has likely heard about from someone sitting in his/her chair.
39. Community centre: All kinds of organizations post information at these places. All kinds of activities take place here.
40. Year in Review: Most newspapers publish a Year in Review every January. Print it off and refer to it throughout the upcoming year. Many stories can be updated.
41. Police briefs: In press releases, police give the media a few paragraphs on crimes that can often be expanded into stories. Also, be alert for multiple briefs over several weeks that show crime patterns.
42. Read magazine covers at the grocery store checkout: No, we’re not talking about the headlines that scream Aliens Cry Foul Over TV Show Mork & Mindy. We’re talking about the magazine covers that try to lure readers with theme statements such as Bicycle Helmets: Should they be mandatory for adults too? Or Skin Cancer: Are you at risk? These theme statements can help you generate localized stories on topical issues.
43. Employment listings: Who’s hiring in your community? Tell your readers about the factory that’s seeking 10 workers due to an extra shift being added. Sometimes a story about the flood of applications for a single job can be a telling story about the employment prospects in your community. And don’t forget about government employment listings. Taxpayers always like to know how their money is being spent to hire staff at municipal offices.
44. Welfare agencies: Who’s helping the poor in your community? Government agencies that distribute welfare payments will keep statistics on how many people are receiving aid. Food banks also keep statistics on how many people are visiting for food. These types of statistics can be reported on a regular basis throughout the year.
45. Member of government websites: Visit the websites of your local member (MP or MPP) of government. Obviously, there will be lots of news releases touting the ‘great work’ they do, but read between the lines and you’ll have lots of conflict-based story ideas: Politicians fighting with groups, rival politicians, policies, legislation, etc.
46. Variety stores: Frequently on a store counter, you’ll find donation jars for various causes or benefits. Occasionally, there are even petitions hoping to attract the signatures of customers.
47. Notices on storefront windows: these windows can feature a mish-mash of notices, everything from community events to legal notices about a business being shut down.
48. Community newsletters: For example, Ontario Power Generation publishes a newsletter for employees and the community. Sure, it’s a public relations vehicle, but there are story tips. Get on the mailing list of companies which send out such newsletters.
49. Go for a walk: Go for a walk through your downtown and ask people and retailers what folks are talking about in town? What’s happening that’s newsworthy? What are some issues? What’s the best thing that’s happening? Who would make a good human interest story?
50. Letters to the editor: They offer additional viewpoints on subjects, possibly other angles for stories. The writers are also commonly Average Joe Citizens bringing to light an injustice, a complaint or opposition/approval of an impending decision by government.
This used to be at: http://www.notrain-nogain.com/Train/Res/Report/50places.asp
Valdez, Alaska -- A bald eagle satisfied its hunger at a Valdez gas station when it snatched up a small dog and flew away, leaving the dog's owner screaming in horror.
The chihuahua-like dog had been let out of a motor home to run around in the station's parking lot while the owners, an unidentified couple from Georgia, cleaned the vehicle's windshield.
Witnesses said the pet was about 5 feet away from the RV when the eagle swooped down from a perch in a nearby tree. Before the owners could react, the eagle circled up and away, heading off toward the city's harbor clinching the pooch tightly.
"It was the damnedest thing I ever saw," said Dennis Fleming, a gas station attendant. "The dog gave one yelp and that was it."
The woman owner clutched her hands to her face and cried, "Oh, my God," while Fleming tried to console her.
Her husband, however, didn't appear to take the dog's departure too seriously. Fleming said as the man walked around the side of the motor home, out of sight of his wife, he began to grin and chopped his hands in the air and exclaimed, "Yeah! Yeah!”
Case Study
Group discussion followed by class discussion:
As homework: Write this up and post to your blog: What kind of questions would you ask the reporter and what would you say to the editor who gave the OK to publish this story. But, go beyond mere description and rudimentary analysis. Instead, use description of case as a jumping-off point to extrapolate about the issues of journalism in general. Here you should know I grade these case studies and your blog posts on your readings both on the editing and the exposition of deep thinking on your part. Here is the basic rubric from which I work:
A flawlessly edited case study or abstract that is description only would garner 70 points.
Description with some basic analysis would get you 80 points.
But generalization to the issues of journalism based on your own knowledge drawn from experience or your readings in and out of class will garner 90 to 100 points.
Edit this and post to your blog. Then after class, add case study to end. Slug it Linking Case Study.
Chicago Murder Trial Begins for Suicidal Blond
Former Model Killed 3 Beloved Musicians With Car in Bid to End Her Life, Prosecutors Say
They probably never saw her coming.
It was July 14 2005. Lunch hour in Chicago.
Three local musicians who worked day jobs together at an audio electronics company we’re stopped at a traffic light in a Honda Civic in a suburb north of the city.
At a speed authorities estimated at 70 miles per hour, a former model whom, police said, was trying to kill herself ran three red lights and slammed them from behind in her red Mustang convertible.
Both cars flew airborn on impact, witnesses said, each landed crushed upside-down on the pavement.
The three young men died. The suicidal woman walked away with a broken ankle.
Today, more than two years later, her murder trial begins this week.
"The one thing that would have brought this thing to closure would have been had she been successful in what she set out to do that day,'' said Dave Meis, older brother of victim Douglas Meis, referring to the alleged suicide attempt by an ex-model named Jeanette Sliwinski, then 23.
Sliwinski's lawyers have denied that she was attempting suicide. Her current attorney did not return a call seeking comment on the case.
The suicidal crash and subsequent arrest brought Sliwinski internet infamy. Many blogs and Web sites have posted modeling pictures of Sliwinski since she was arrested. (Click here for pictures.)
The country's top writing coaches have harped on the subject long enough to make it conventional wisdom. Newsrooms lack an adequate writing lexicon. That shortcoming cripples conversation between writers and editors, limits creativity and restricts us all to a few tired story forms.
A lexicon is simply a collection of terms that apply to a particular skill or field of study. The fuller the lexicon, the richer the communication. You can't talk about a subject if you don't have the words. And, some psychologists would argue, you can't even think about it. At least not very productively.
All of which came bubbling to the surface when the team leaders met to consider the paper's use of anecdotal leads. The concern was that we were slipping into the habit of topping too many hard news stories with soft leads. The participants came armed with examples.
As the discussion proceeded, one thing became obvious. The examples represented a broad range of featurized approaches to news stories. And, as Jacqui Banaszynski pointed out, "It appears that we're calling everything other than a straight news lead an anecdotal lead."
That poses several problems, most of which illustrate the value of an extensive writing and editing lexicon. For one thing, while one kind of featurized lead may be inappropriate for a breaking news story, another may be just right. For another, choosing the perfect lead for a story presupposes familiarity with many possibilities. But "straight lead" and "anecdotal lead" don't frame a terribly broad range.
Here is a list aimed at improving our lexicon of leads:
Straight Leads
1. Summary Leads:
The University of Oregon must move more women into higher-level faculty jobs or face federal sanctions. (12/24/92, B1)
This is the spring from which all journalistic waters flow. Summary leads summarize (what else?) the most important idea in the story. They often top inverted-pyramid news stories, the most traditional form. Because a good summary lead makes meaning instantly clear, it's often the preferred form for breaking-news and issue stories.
2. Blind Leads:
The state's land-use planning agency on Friday chose a former city planner from Eugene to be its new director. (5/6/89, D4)
A blind lead is a summary lead that leaves out potentially confusing detail. The lead cited here omits the name of the planning agency (the Department of Land Conservation and Development) and the city planner, who was relatively unknown statewide.
A "catch-all graf" immediately follows a blind lead. The catch-all includes the specific detail omitted from the lead.
3. Wraps:
Thursday's storm caused the deaths of a Salem woman who broke her neck in a fall, a Bend man who had a heart attack while shoveling snow and a Eugene teen-ager struck by a skidding car.
An editor's order to "wrap it" means to combine several items. The reporter usually packages the items under a lead that refers to all of them.
4. Shirttail Leads:
"A man taking photographs of Portland's skyline about 2:15 a.m. Sunday apparently was struck by a car and knocked into the Willamette River off the Interstate 5 ramp to Interstate 84...."
"Another accident Friday, this one involving a hit-and-run driver in Southwest Washington, left a Lynnwood, Wash., man in serious condition...." (10/8/90, B3)
The shirttail is the alternative to the wrap lead. The reporter writes a summary lead focusing on the most newsworthy element in the wrap. Then he hangs the remaining items, each with its own lead, from the first element's "shirttails."
Shirttail leads are traditional on meeting stories. The first lead targets the most important item on the agenda. The remaining items are introduced with an "in-other-business" transition.
Feature Leads
1. Anecdotal Leads:
Richard Leakey likes to tell about the day in 1950 when he was a 6-year-old whining for his parents' attention. Louis and Mary Leakey were digging for ancient bones on the shores of Lake Victoria, but their little boy wanted to play. He wanted lunch. He wanted his mother to cuddle him. He wanted something to do. "Go find your own bone," said his exasperated father, waving Richard off toward scraps of fossils lying around the site. What the little boy found was the jawbone -- the best ever unearthed -- of an extinct giant pig. As he worked away at it with the dental picks and brushes that served for toys in the paleontologists' camp, he experienced for the first time the passion of discovery. (Kathleen Merryman in the Tacoma News Tribune)
Here's a true anecdotal lead, as opposed to all the other kinds of feature leads. As an anecdote, the lead takes the form of a short narrative with a beginning, middle and end. The end is particularly important. It's analogous to the punch line in a joke -- it wraps up the story with a flourish that brings things to a apt conclusion.
An anecdotal lead should illustrate the story's central theme. Kathleen Merryman's anecdote, for example, explains something central about her subject, Richard Leakey.
2. Narrative Leads:
They pulled the car to the side of the road, turned off the motor and waited silently as the memories washed over them in a series of gentle waves.... (Tom Hallman, 3/8/90, B1)
A narrative lead simply launches an action line. It's not part of an anecdote, necessarily. But it puts central characters into a scene and begins telling the story that pits those characters against some kind of complication. Narrative leads are -- surprise! -- most appropriate to narrative stories. But they work on other kinds of stories, too. The bookend narrative, for example, begins with some relevant action, turns to standard news-feature style for the middle of the story and completes the narrative for the story kicker.
3. Scene-Setter Leads:
A woman with tormented eyes talks to herself as she plays a battered piano in Ward D's dayroom. Other psychiatric patients shuffle on the beige linoleum or stare from red-and-green vinyl chairs. A bank of windows opens to a fenced courtyard. Outside.... (Brian Meehan, 10/27/93, D1)
Scene-setters open with description. They may contain some action, as is the case here. But the main point is to create a stage on which action can unfold or to give a sense of place important to the focus of the story. Brian Meehan's story concerned conditions at Dammasch State Hospital. So a description of those conditions was an appropriate way to begin.
4. Scene-Wraps or Gallery Leads:
A man claiming to be a Catholic priest sits in a Santa Claus suit in a wheelchair outside a Southeast Portland supermarket, collecting money for the "Holy Order of Mary Inc."Across town, a supposed South African visitor asks a holiday-spirited shopper for directions to a local church. The South African then launches into a complicated tale that soon has the Portlander withdrawing $2,000 from the bank.... Elsewhere, a boiler-room telephone sales company.... (Jim Long, 12/13/91, B1))
Scene-wraps illustrate trend stories. They show that the same thing is happening in a variety of places. Because they consist of a series of pictures, they're also called "galleries."
5. Significant Detail Leads:
Hidden beneath a heap of inner-tubes in a tiny storeroom on an island in the middle of the Vistula River is the statue of Lenin that stood for decades inside the Gdansk Shipyard. (6/18/91, A3)
As you might expect, this story explored the continuing influence of Communism and central planning on the operation of the shipyard and the economy of Poland. The statue of Lenin -- hidden, but still in the neighborhood -- perfectly symbolized the story's central theme. And it perfectly illustrates the use of a significant detail to craft a lead.
6. The Single-Instance Lead:
For five days, Alice's husband, high on drugs, threatened to kill her. He hit her and abused her. Terrified, Alice fled the house when she finally got the chance and ran to a local business to call the police. "He would kill me. He's very scary," Alice said. "He would walk through walls if he had to." The police advised her to contact the Domestic Violence Resource Center in Hillsboro, and Alice found her way there. (12/7/89, WM1)
The single-instance lead uses one example to illustrate a larger topic. For that reason, single-instance leads are also called "microcosm leads." In this case, Alice's story was a gateway to a larger story on the Domestic Violence Resource Center.
Single-instance leads are a mainstay of magazine writing. In fact, they're almost required for stories in the most popular women's magazines. They've spread rapidly into newspaper writing, to the point that some critics now complain about their overuse.
7. Word Play Leads:
In Michael Crichton's previous novel, "Jurassic Park," a tropical island has been transformed into a zoo whose denizens are dinosaurs brought to life by a group of greedy, irresponsible scientists who have been cloning around. (2/1/92, D2)
Word-play is essentially lighthearted. Word-play leads therefore work best on less-than-serious stories. They're popular in sports and entertainment, but they can succeed at grabbing and delighting readers in other forms as well.
Dangerous Leads
1. Question Leads:
What's black and orange and the worst nightmare for teams headed to the state football playoffs? (10/28/95, C1)
Some editors simply ban question leads, reasoning that readers want answers, not questions. But George Orwell assures us that the only rule in writing is that there are no rules. So let's concede that question leads occasionally work, for all the right reasons.
They often fail because they seldom perform the basic function of a lead -- stating the central theme that organizes and explains the entire story. Furthermore, they can be irritating. Readers probably do resent frivolous questions when what they really want is news.
Still, some stories deal with fundamental questions. So a question lead can be appropriate. Nonetheless, question leads seldom represent the best solution. It pays to be especially cautious when using them.
2. Quote Leads:
Quotation leads were banned in some newsrooms, too. The rationale was similar to the justification used for banning question leads: The chances that a quote was the best way to express the story's theme were awfully slim.
But quote leads can work wonderfully well, too. Consider the famous Saul Pett lead for a 1963 AP Newsfeatures story on Dorothy Parker: "Are you married my dear?" "Yes, I am." "Then you won't mind zipping me up." "Zipped up, Dorothy Parker turned to face her interviewer, and the world." Or this intriguing opener from a Jeanie Senior story: Michael H. Walsh calls it it "teaching the elephant to dance." "That's his term for making the enormous, historic Union Pacific Railroad Co. competitive and profitable in the 20th century. (5/28/89, D1)
3. Topic Leads:
More than 40 environmentalists and developers debated before the Portland City Council on Wednesday on the future of wetlands areas in the Columbia South Shore area. (3/9/89, B4)
BOARDMAN -- The prospect of tripling this town's population with a 3,000-inmate prison was the subject of a hot debate Tuesday. (9/27/89, B1)
Orwell notwithstanding, topic leads probably should be banned. The point of a news story is to tell us what happened, what the outcome was. In the case of a meeting story, the important thing is not that the meeting took place, but the consequence of the meeting. What was the key decision? Why is that important? Where do we go from here?
Topic headings, in other words, should be restricted to information. It's hard to imagine that they can ever be an appropriate way to introduce news
Jimmy is 8 years old and a third-generation heroin addict, a precocious little boy with sandy hair, velvety brown eyes and needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin brown arms.
He nestles in a large, beige reclining chair in the living room of his comfortably furnished home in Southeast Washington. There is an almost cherubic expression on his small, round face as he talks about life -- clothes, money, the Baltimore Orioles and heroin. He has been an addict since the age of 5. His hands are clasped behind his head, fancy running shoes adorn his feet, and a striped Izod T-shirt hangs over his thin frame.
"Bad, ain't it," he boasts to a reporter visiting recently. "I got me six of these."
Jimmy's is a world of hard drugs, fast money and the good life he believes both can bring. Every day, junkies casually buy heroin from Ron, his mother's live-in-lover, in the dining room of Jimmy's home. They "cook" it in the kitchen and "fire up" in the bedrooms. And every day, Ron or someone else fires up Jimmy, plunging a needle into his bony arm, sending the fourth grader into a hypnotic nod.
Jimmy prefers this atmosphere to school, where only one subject seems relevant to fulfilling his dreams. "I want to have me a bad car and dress good and also have me a good place to live," he says. "So, I pretty much pay attention to math because I know I got to keep up when I finally get me something to sell."
Jimmy wants to sell drugs, maybe even on the District's meanest street, Condon Terrace SE, and some day deal heroin, he says, "just like my man Ron."
Ron, 27, and recently up from the South, was the one who first turned Jimmy on. "He'd be buggin' me all the time about what the shots were and what people was doin' and one day he said, 'When can I get off?'" Ron says, leaning against a wall in a narcotic haze, his eyes half closed, yet piercing. "I said, 'Well, s . . ., you can have some now.' I let him snort a little and, damn, the little dude really did get off."
Six months later, Jimmy was hooked. "I felt like I was part of what was goin' down," he says. "I can't really tell you how it feel. You never done any? Sort of like them rides at King's Dominion . . . like if you was to go on all of them in one day.
"It be real different from herb (marijuana). That's baby s---. Don't nobody here hardly ever smoke no herb. You can't hardly get none right now anyway."
Jimmy's mother Andrea accepts her son's habit as a fact of life, although she will not inject the child herself and does not like to see others do it.
"I don't really like to see him fire up," she says. "But, you know, I think he would have got into it one day, anyway. Everybody does. When you live in the ghetto, it's all a matter of survival. If he wants to get away from it when he's older, then that's his thing. But right now, things are better for us than they've ever been. . . . Drugs and black folk been together for a very long time."
Heroin has become a part of life in many of Washington's neighborhoods, affecting thousands of teen-agers and adults who feel cut off from the world around them, and filtering down to untold numbers of children like Jimmy who are bored with school and battered by life.
On street corners and playgrounds across the city, youngsters often no older than 10 relate with uncanny accuracy the names of important dealers in their neighborhoods, and the going rate for their wares. For the uninitiated they can recite the color, taste, and smell of things such as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, and rattle off the colors in a rainbow made of pills.
The heroin problem in the District has grown to what some call epidemic proportions, with the daily influx of so-called "Golden Crescent" heroin from Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, making the city fourth among six listed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as major points of entry for heroin in the United States. The "Golden Crescent" heroin is stronger and cheaper than the Southeast Asian and Mexican varieties previously available on the street, and its easy accessibility has added to what has long been a serious problem in the nation's capital.
David G. Canaday, special agent in charge of the DEA's office here, says the agency "can't do anything about it [Golden Crescent heroin] because we have virtually no diplomatic ties in that part of the world." While judiciously avoiding the use of the term epidemic, Canaday does say that the city's heroin problem is "sizable."
Medical experts, such as Dr. Alyce Gullatte, director of the Howard University Drug Abuse Institute, say that heroin is destroying the city. And D.C.'s medical examiner, James Luke, has recorded a substantial increase in the number of deaths from heroin overdose, from seven in 1978 to 43 so far this year.
Death has not yet been a visitor to the house where Jimmy lives.
The kitchen and upstairs bedrooms are a human collage. People of all shapes and sizes drift into the dwelling and its various rooms, some jittery, uptight and anxious for a fix, others calm and serene after they finally "get off."
A fat woman wearing a white uniform and blond wig with a needle jabbed in it like a hatpin, totters down the staircase announcing that she is "feeling fine." A teen-age couple drift through the front door, the girl proudly pulling a syringe of the type used by diabetics from the hip pocket of her Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. "Got me a new one," she says to no one in particular as she and her boyfriend wander off into the kitchen to cook their snack and shoot each other up.
These are normal occurrences in Jimmy's world. Unlike most children his age, he doesn't usually go to school, preferring instead to hang with older boys between the ages of 11 and 16 who spend their day getting high on herb or PCP and doing a little dealing to collect spare change.
When Jimmy does find his way into the classroom, it is to learn more about his favorite subject -- math.
"You got to know how to do some figuring if you want to go into business," he says pragmatically. Using his mathematical skills in any other line of work is a completely foreign notion.
"They don't BE no jobs," Jimmy says. "You got to have some money to do anything, got to make some cash. Got to be selling something people always want to buy. Ron say people always want to buy some horse. My mama say it, too. She be using it and her mama be using it. It's always gonna be somebody who can use it. . . .
"The rest of them dudes on the street is sharp. You got to know how many of them are out there, how much they charge for all the different s---, who gonna buy from them and where their spots be . . . they bad, you know, cause they in business for themselves. Ain't nobody really telling them how they got to act."
In a city overflowing with what many consider positive role models for a black child with almost any ambition -- doctors, lawyers, politicians, bank presidents -- Jimmy wants most to be a good dope dealer. He says that when he is older, "maybe about 11," he would like to "go over to Condon Terrace (notorious for its open selling of drugs and violent way of life) or somewhere else and sell." With the money he says he would buy a German Shepherd dog and a bicycle, maybe a basketball, and save the rest "so I could buy some real s--- and sell it."
His mother doesn't view Jimmy's ambitions with alarm, perhaps because drugs are as much a part of Andrea's world as they are of her son's.
She never knew her father. Like her son, Andrea spent her childhood with her mother and the man with whom she lived for 15 years. She recalls that her mother's boyfriend routinely forced her and her younger sister to have sex with him, and Jimmy is the product of one of those rapes.
Depressed and discouraged after his birth ("I didn't even name him, you know? My sister liked the name Jimmy and I said 'OK, call him that, who gives a fu--? I guess we got to call him something, don't we?'") she quickly accepted the offer of heroin from a woman who used to shoot up with her mother.
"It was like nothing I ever knew about before; you be in another world, you know? No more baby, no more mama . . . I could quit thinking about it. After I got off, I didn't have to be thinking about nothing."
Three years later, the family moved after police discovered the shooting gallery in their home, and many of Andrea's sources of heroin dried up. She turned to prostitution and shoplifting to support a $60-a-day habit. Soon after, she met Ron, who had just arrived in Washington and was selling a variety of pills, angel dust and some heroin. She saw him as a way to get off the street and readily agreed when he asked her to move in with him.
"I was tired of sleeping with all those different dudes and boosting (shoplifting) at Woodies. And I didn't think it would be bad for Jimmy to have some kind of man around," she says.
Indeed, social workers in the Southeast Washington community say that so many young black children become involved with drugs because there is no male authority figure present in the home.
"A lot of these parents (of children involved with drugs) are the unwed mothers of the '60s, and they are bringing up their children by trial and error," says Linda Gilbert, a social worker at Southeast Neighborhood House.
"The family structure is not there so they [the children] establish a relationship with their peers. If the peers are into drugs, it won't be very long before the kids are, too. . . . They don't view drugs as illegal, and if they are making money, too, then it's going to be OK in the eyes of an economically deprived community."
Addicts who have been feeding their habits for 35 years or more are not uncommon in Jimmy's world, and although medical experts say that there is an extremely high risk of his death from an overdose, it is not inconceivable that he will live to reach adulthood.
"He might already be close to getting a lethal dose," Dr. Dorynne Czechowisz of the National Institute on Drug Abuse says. "Much of this depends on the amount he's getting and the frequency with which he's getting it. But I would hate to say that his early death is inevitable. If he were to get treatment, it probably isn't too late to help him. And assuming he doesn't OD before then, he could certainly grow into an addicted adult."
At the end of the evening of strange questions about his life, Jimmy slowly changes into a different child. The calm and self-assured little man recedes. The jittery and ill-behaved boy takes over as he begins going into withdrawal. He is twisting uncomfortably in his chair one minute, irritatingly raising and lowering a vinyl window blind the next.
"Be cool," Ron admonishes him, walking out of the room.
Jimmy picks up a green "Star Wars" force beam toy and begins flicking the light on and off.
Ron comes back into the living room, syringe in hand, and calls the little boy over to his chair: "Let me see your arm."
He grabs Jimmy's left arm just above the elbow, his massive hand tightly encircling the child's small limb. The needle slides into the boy's soft skin like a straw pushed into the center of a freshly baked cake. Liquid ebbs out of the syringe, replaced by bright red blood. The blood is then reinjected into the child.
Jimmy has closed his eyes during the whole procedure, but now he opens them, looking quickly around the room. He climbs into a rocking chair and sits, his head dipping and snapping upright again, in what addicts call "the nod."
"Pretty soon, man," Ron says, "you got to learn how to do this for yourself."
Had things happened differently, we may never have learned Janet Cooke's name. Fact is, we do know who she is, because on Sept. 28,1980, The Washington Post ran a front-page story she wrote about an 8-year-old heroin addict named Jimmy.
The words she wrote -- more than 2,000 of them -- were compelling reading, so much so that they garnered the attention of the committee that awards Pulitzer prizes. According to a 28-page ombudsman's report written by Bill Green for The Washington Post, Cooke received a phone call from her editors on April 3, 1981, informing her that she had won a Pulitzer for her story. On April 14, less than a day after the awards were publicly announced, the report says, Cooke confirmed to her editors what they suspected was true, and agreed that she wouldn't accept the prize.
Jimmy never existed.
How is it that the story got past the sharp eyes of copy editors and made it to print? That's the question posed by William G. Connolly, a former senior editor at The New York Times who developed a comprehensive policy on ethics and conflicts of interest for the paper's news department.
"It is a cautionary tale for all newspaper editors, especially copy editors," Connolly said.
Eighty people, during two sessions at the ACES national conference in Long Beach, were invited to examine Cooke's story as it appeared in print and discuss the problems they found in it.
Participants found that quite a few elements of the story did not make sense:
Why didn't any of Jimmy's teachers notice the heroin tracks "freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin brown arms"?
Why would someone shoot up the boy, knowing he couldn't pay for his habit himself?
Could Jimmy really be an 8-year-old fourth grader, considering his truancy from school?
Why does his mother's English seem to fluctuate between "street speak" and proper English – within the same sentence?
And why would someone let a reporter watch him get a child high?
"It seems to me," Connolly said, "that there is little that's impossible here, but there's a lot that's implausible."
Where were the copy editors to ask these questions?
The ombudsman's report suggests that the sharp level of skepticism with which editors are taught to approach stories may have been dulled in Cooke's case.
Her editors had asked Cooke to reveal neither Jimmy's nor his mother's identities. The report says that the dozens of stories she submitted before "Jimmy's World" were lauded by her supervisors.
Editors may have more readily believed the story because Cooke had black skin, a fact that may have gotten her more access to such a story than white reporters would find. A reporter's track record of turning in accurate, brilliantly written stories shouldn't mean his or her newest one will be flawless, Green's report says. And Connolly said the process by which the story was printed is not essential to know.
What is worth considering is that all an editor – regardless of his or her level of experience – needs to see is the copy itself. Anyone able to think critically should be able to see the conflicts and contradictions presented in Cooke's story, Connolly said.
Consider what would have happened, Connolly said, had things been done differently. Perhaps Cooke's piece would have been held, for a day, while she "checked out" some of the discrepancies. Perhaps she would have had trouble finding Jimmy, and would, therefore, be unable to ensure her "facts" were right.
Perhaps she would have gotten another assignment, effectively sending Jimmy's story to the back of a drawer, where it would have gotten buried and forgotten.
Perhaps disaster could have been averted.
Editors are there to be skeptics. Acutely aware of, as Connolly said, things that "do not compute." They must see the forest and the trees, watching that both the details and the bigger picture make sense.
"They should think about how critical it is that they be good at what they do and pay attention to it," Connolly said in an interview before the conference. "Copy editing can save the world if it's done well enough."
a.Ray La Hood, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary, said …
b.Ray La Hood, U.S. Department of Transportation secretary, said …
2.Which IS/ARE correct?
a.The U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood said …
b.The U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary, Ray La Hood, said …
c.The U.S. Department of Transportation secretary, Ray La Hood, said …
d.The U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Ray La Hood said …
e.U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood said …
f.U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Ray La Hood said …
3.New data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show that since 2001, both biking and walking trips have increased by 25 percent since 2001.
ß FYI: IF YOU DON’T USE THE ALPHABET SOUP TITLE LATER IN STORY, YOU DON’T NEED TO USE IT ON FIRST REF.
4.What is the clause beginning with surpassing called: Pedestrian fatalities dropped by 12 percent and injuries dropped by 17.8 percent, surpassing one of the goals in the 1994 report. You have a link on lab sked to this.
Edit the following. Keys: dead constructions, extra verbiage (concision), AP style. You don’t need to rewrite completely. Use proofreader marks:
5.There is still work to be done in order to make walking and bicycling safer and more convenient transportation options.
6.There is still much more work to be done in order to make walking and biking safer.
7.There is still a problem facing the agency in fulfilling the targeted goal.
8.Secretary La Hood recently announced that a policy change was made to promote bicycle and pedestrian opportunities.
9.the U.S. Department of Transportation established two goals: To reduce the number of bicyclists and pedestrians killed or injured in traffic crashes by 10 percent.
10.It went from 1.7 billion to four billion during the same period.
11.It went from 1.7 million to four million during the same period.
12.However, in 2008, there were 4,378 pedestrians and 716 bicyclists killed in roadway crashes.
13.The number of reported walking trips has more than doubled since the first survey–from 18 billion in 1990 to 35 billion in 2009.
14.Q. Do you place report titles in quotation marks?
A. Yes, we would use quotation marks around titles of reports. 2007-05-16 (Source: AP’s Ask the Editor, Punctuation)
15.Here is why percentages often tell us nothing and why we need concrete numbers.
16.New data from the Federal Highway Administration show that both bicycling and walking trips have increased by 25 percent since 2001. WHAT YOU NEED HERE IS SOME CONCRETE NUMBERS FROM WHAT TO WHAT
17. In its 1994 National Bicycling and Walking Study, the DOT set two goals: to reduce the number of bicyclists and pedestrians killed or injured in traffic crashes by 10 percent and to double the percentage of walking and biking trips. FROM WHAT TO WHAT ?
18.From 1993 to 2008, bicycle fatalities fell by 22.3 percent, and injuries fell by 14.7 percent. Pedestrian fatalities dropped by 12 percent, and injuries dropped by 17.8 percent, surpassing the goal in the 1994 report. DO YOU SEE HOW THESE PERCENTS ONLY GIVE PART OF STORY – NEED CONCRETE NUMBERS FROM WHAT TO WHAT
26.FYI: New data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) IF YOU DON’T USE AGAIN DON’T USE HERE
27.FYI: The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) IF YOU DON’T USE AGAIN DON’T USE HERE
28.Compare quote and paraphrase. What one thing is wrong with the paraphrase?
QUOTE: "Americans want and need safe alternatives to driving. And by making biking and walking safer and more accessible, we’ll be able to provide Americans with more choices and help foster more active, livable communities."
PARAPHRASE: Americans need safer alternatives to driving, and by making biking and walking safe and accessible, we will help foster more active, livable communities, LaHood said.
