Portfolio Help

[Katie]

Hey guys. I am taking a class that I hate, Writing for Media. I'm not a journalist, I hate writing in the style it requires, and I generally suck at Journalism, but this is a required class for my major, so I have to do it. We have a portfolio due by Monday, May 4th, and I need help doing some of the assignments... If any of you could at LEAST help me with one of these things, I'd be extremely grateful and would return the favor on assignment help.

Anyway, here's the list. The ones in bold are the ones I need help on. There's more information for a lot of these assignments, and I'll put them up in a minute or so:

1. Leads to Succeed (p. 44)—the summary lead, the delayed identification lead, the immediate identification lead, the anecdotal lead, the narrative lead, the scene-setter lead, the blind lead, the roundup lead, the direct address lead, the startling statement, the wordplay lead, and any others you want to try from what you read in The Morgue at the back of the book.Use your best example of each, which will be worth a total of 20 points.
2. Yoga instructor finds $300,000 brief (p. 63)—worth 20 points
3. Student survey of economic impact and brief on results—worth 40 points
4. Questions assigned to research and compute using math for journalists—worth 20 points
5. Chemical plant waste water brief—worth 20 points (you will find the information for this at newsu.org, Interviewing from the Journalism 101 courses) (Honestly just saying fuck off to this one)
6. Bad cheese makes kids sick brief (newsu.org, from the Reporter’s Game) OR your editorial—worth 30 points (Actually just thinking on doing an Editorial... Because I really don't feel like doing it on the stupid Reporter's game)
7. Fire brief from reporter’s notes (see pp. 216-221 in The Morgue, also) —worth 40 points
8. Interview of your person of interest, Q & A with introductory paragraph—worth 40 points
9. Writing a death notice for someone you know—a grandparent, great-aunt; does not have to be recent. —worth 20 points.
10. Writing an obituary for someone you know—a grandparent, great-aunt; does not have to be recent, but you should know something about the person or be able to interview those who do. Look at the death notices in the Times Picayune, and look at the obituary for Snooks Eaglin or Antoinette K. Doe to see the difference between a death notice and an obituary. Also, look at p. 211 and p. 239 in The Morgue at the back of the book. —worth 40 points

10. Sports coverage—look at pp. 240-243 in The Morgue. —worth 20 points
11. Review of music, art, theatre or food OR cover the speech (p. 102) in The Morgue on pp. 280-283. —worth 40 points
12. Feature story of your choice. —worth 50 points (Actually, I would just like an idea for this, maybe... I was thinking something involving RPing.)
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[Katie]

Info going with assignments:

Yoga Instructor Info:
*Laura Lynn Hardy is 19.
*She’s a yoga instructor with red hair
*She lives in Locust Valley, 10 miles west of Lincoln, in an old farmhouse.
*She ate lunch in Lincoln on Friday, Dec. 24, with her ailing grandfather.
*After lunch, while cycling past Lincoln Gederal Savings, she saw a thick manila envelope on the sidewalk.
*She was in a hurry, so she stopped, put it in her backpack and bicycled home.
*When Hardy opened the envelope at home, she found it contained a total of $300,000 in cash and checks made out to Fenster Ford.
*Fenster Ford is owned by Fred Fenster. It’s the area’s largest car dealer.
*Hardy immediately phoned the bank and told them about the envelope.
*She rode her bike back to Lincoln.
*It was snowing. A total of six inches of snow eventually fell by morning.
*Around 5 p.m., Hardy arrived at the bank. Xavier Mooney, president of Lincoln Federal Savings, was there. So was Fred Fenster.
*They thanks Hardy and shook her hand while posing for photo.s
*Hardy rode back home.
*When contacted by phone, Hardy said, “It’s enough just to do the right thing.�
*When contacted by phone, Fenster said, “She’s a great little girl, the kind of girl we in Lincoln should be proud of.�
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Student Survey Stuff: Pretty much, we were asking students at school if they or people that they knew were being effected by the economic downturn, and how.
Delgado Student Survey – Affected by economy? 203 total responded

Affected Directly:
108 – 46 Males, 62 Females

Not Affected Directly:
95 – 53 Males, 42 Females

Spending less: 20
Increased costs of living: 23
Lost jobs: 22
Pay/hours cut: 15
No jobs: 13

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The questions: Pretty much, this thing is about changes in student enrollment, New Orleans population change, and budget cuts at our school.

1. What was Delgado's total enrollment for Fall 2008? Fall 2007?
Fall 08: 14,450. 2007: 13,217

2. What was the percent increase or decrease between Fall 2007 and Fall 2008?
9.3% increase

3. What was Delgado's total enrollment for Spring 2008? Spring 2009?
Spring 2008: 13,179. 2009: 14,678

4. What was the percent increase or decrease between Spring 2008 and 2009?
11.3% increase

5. What was the population of New Orleans/Orleans Parish in 2000, the last census?
484,674

6. What are the best estimates for the present population of New Orleans/Orleans Parish?
239,124

7. What is the percent increase or decrease between 2000 and the present?
50.6% decrease.

8. If Delgado Community College's budget could be cut from 15 to 30 percent in fiscal year 2009, and the amounts that would be cut are $6 million to $11 million, what approximately is Delgado's projected budget that would be cut these amounts? (show your work, and remember that numbers are rounded up or down for better readability in the same way that you round up or down on the figures for your income tax preparation)
It’s about 40,000,000.
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Info on the fire (and I'm pretty sure that the ones I underline are the ones that would be underlined):
Covering Disaster, Reporter’s Notes
You see black smoke curling into the sky and follow it to its source uptown.

• An abandoned warehouse on Tchoupitoulas and Felicity is on fire.
• You are there ahead of the fire trucks. Circle all of the following choices that you would do:
a. Go inside the building to see what you can see.
b. Stay a safe distance and take pictures to show the fire and damages.
c. Talk to the neighbors who may have seen or heard anything related to the fire, but hide your press credentials and don’t identify yourself as the media.
d. Wear your press credentials in full view, identify your media affiliation and speak with the neighbors.
e. Don’t do anything at all until the fire officials get there—once you get the official report, half of your work is done.
• The neighbor across the street, 68-year-old Harold Burns, heard an explosion around 10:30 that morning, then saw flames and smoke inside the building. He called 911. It’s now 11 a.m. “I heard a big BOOM! and my windows rattled. And then the next thing, I smelled smoke, so I called for help, but it ain’t here yet,� Burns said.
• The warehouse was last used by Murphy Oil Company to store surplus equipment, including empty oil drum barrels, according to the Fire Marshall’s report.
• Another eye witness to the fire on the scene, 15-year-old Skip Class, spoke off the record that he “saw a couple of people hanging out in the warehouse.� When you ask him if they were smoking, he says he did see one with a cigarette.
• It took three fire trucks over two hours to get the fire under control.
• The Fire Marshall said that although the building was officially unoccupied, there was evidence of break-in and occupation, with two burnt mattresses, some kitchen utensils, cans of food.
• The cause of the fire is under investigation, but preliminary evidence points to a fire set by trespassers which caught the wooden floor on fire, according to the Fire Marshall.
• When asked what would have made the loud boom noise, the Fire Marshall said, “One of the empty oil drums in the fire exploded from the heat expanding the air trapped inside, not unlike an aerosol can, only bigger and louder.�
• The warehouse was originally a cotton warehouse built in 1858 out of heart pine, according to the Preservation Resource Center’s records.
• The air is thick with black smoke and ash.
• Visibility on Tchoupitoulas is so limited that traffic is blocked off and re-routed until further notice between Annunciation and Felicity Streets.
• Damage to the warehouse is estimated at 50 percent, according to the Fire Marshall’s report.
• The warehouse was under contract as part of local developer Shep Pokorow’s plan to build mixed affordable housing.
• Shep Pokorow is on the scene to watch his building burn, and makes a public statement:
“This is a set-back, but I think we can still go forward. We may not meet our original deadline, but that’s the nature of the renovation schedule anyway. The main thing we want to do is make affordable places to live in this neighborhood.�
*Address of the warehouse: 1328 Tchoupitoulas Str.
*Size of building: 250 feet by 100 feet
*Building’s worth: $2,500,000
*Amount of damage: Over one million dollars’ worth.
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[Hoot]

So for the majority of these you have to write a report as if it was going to be published in the newspaper or something, and include all of those details?

Like...I don't know. Sorry, I'm not sure if I can help with this. Maybe show us what you've got for those and we can help think of creative ways to add more or improve or something.
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