Tuesday 9th March Extended Project Meeting

It todays lesson I started off by going around and asking the class about what everyone was doing and helping people with their problems. For example, for a while now people have been asking around about the questionnaire and I realised I had been sent it by Mike on the computer the day before. I reviewed it and then gave it to Sam. After this I decided it would be wise to get James and Tim to work together and combine their articles (as they are both related to Wikipedia).

Me showing Kirk and Tara the email I sent to Jenny:

I was asked by Kirk at one point what everyone was doing. I was quite shocked by this as he was the schedule manager and he didn't know what was happening, so I had to get my notes and go through most of the people's allocated articles with him. After this he set off putting the writers all into groups and making them go to the right tables so they could bounce ideas off each-other.

I spoke to the other two people (Ash and Dave) who were doing (online, downloading etc) video game related articles. We sat down and decided that we would make one feature relating to online communities. I gave Dave my piece of work so that he count integrate it as best he could into his work on online forums and their communities and Ash's work on gaming online and what it means to be able to download games.

Dave's Session on Newspaper Articles

When writing an article in a newspaper you have to ask yourself; 'Do we need this article?'. Will it be enjoyable and interesting to read? Writing is another very important part though. Dave mentioned that an article can have quite a boring topic but be made to look interesting and seem important. 'If someone takes the effort to write it then there should be someone who takes the effort to read it.' E.G. The articles must be interesting!

A journalist doesn't need to know everything. However he needs to come over as being well-informed on any topic. The key to this - and writing an effective article - is to do the following:

Research

• Wikipedia is always a good start and provides basic knowledge on pretty much anything you may need to know.
• Use the title's of people you know, for example 'Pete Fraser, Chief Examiner'. It makes the article and what goes into it much more impressive and professional to a reader.
• Find experts in the area you are reporting. This is important for fresh and up-to-date information.

Angle

• Look at other articles of a similar topic.
• Come up with a fresh angle for the article that you're writing.

Tone

• Think of the variety of articles you can have in your piece:
• News
• Opinion pieces
• Features
• Interviews
• Advertorial (These look like articles, but are funded by third-party clients and promote the product in question. They are adverts.)

Features are a useful thing to use. They can "break the rules of your own magazine. You can change the font, you can change the layout" and they are a good way of bringing variety to the magazine/newspaper.

All good articles are written in a certain way. The highest paid journalists provide everything the reader needs to know, such as the story of the article, in the first paragraph. The rest of the article is just content, and events leading up to the 'incident'.

The web has its own layout that greatly differs from a magazine or newspaper. There will be lots of text and the odd picture on most information websites. Along-side this when on the internet people tend to read from the top of the page down, however with newspapers and magazines everyone has their own way of reading them. Some people may start at the back, others may skim through until something catches their eye etc.