MS

Ms. Gokturk

The Trend Piece or Informative News Story Phase One: Compiling Research

The Trend Story or Informative News Story may also be referred to as the In-Depth Report. This type of story offers insights on society and the way we live. Informative features of this kind may focus on many subjects – what is important is that the subject be of interest to society or a local community. SOUND RESEARCH is vital to this type of story. Trend stories document, explain, and analyze new developments in society. They often articulate and explain movements that have not been so clearly noted before. You have your general topic already established. Yippee! Before you can write a truly sound piece, you must RESEARCH: you must really know your topic before you undertake interviewing, polling, and writing.

YOUR MISSION:

You will write a 800-1000 word mini-research paper. You should have AT LEAST three different sources. You will be required to hand in, in this order:

three annotated websites with annotations/summaries (DUE Wed 11/12)
one news article from within the past month that is somehow related to your topic (DUE Friday 11/15)
Index cards with five subtopics clearly labeled. [Your task is to find five general subtopics within your topic. These will act as the backbone to your research. In other words, these five areas will be sections of your research paper that elaborate on your topic.] Each subtopic should include quotes or paraphrases from your sources with sources clearly delineated so that you may cite appropriately later. Minimum of 15 cards. Some subtopics may include background/history, statistics, and/or future expectations… (DUE _________)
outline (DUE _________)
800-1000 word research paper with proper “journalistic” citations. “According to a CNN poll…” or “President Clinton was recently quoted in The New York Times as saying…” or “Newsweek indicates that one in five Americans is lazy…” (DUE _________)

SOURCES:

Vary your sources, please. You should have three different sources, at the very least.

v Library databases. Databases contain articles with abstracts from gazillions of sources. This is a great place to start. Go to pwpl.org and type in 22025000726654 as a password to get into to search the databases. Proquest is an excellent place to start.

v Internet homepage (this is any site you find while using a search engine such as Google) – it may be a personal site or an organization’s site, not including newspapers. Make sure it is legit.

v A newspaper or news site. Go to newyorktimes.com, cnn.com or newsday.com and run a search for your topic. A hard news story may often lead to a feature story, which may develop into an In-Depth report. Hard news stories make excellent examples when you write your piece. Television sources. Stations such as pbs.org and nbc.com will have links available to documentaries on topics they have aired. This is a great resource for timely and interesting topics.

v Other?

FOR YOUR CARDS --Citing Electronic Sources:

Although your paper will not use footnotes as most research papers do, you must demonstrate that you a) know how to cite and b) be sure to remember where you got information. As a general rule of thumb, follow this order.

Last Name, First Name of the author/editor/ compiler (if available and relevant). "Title of work in quotation marks." Title of Website or Publication (underlined or italicized). Name of any institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the Web site if available. Electronic address, or URL. Date when the researcher accessed the source.

If the source is a print source: Last name, first name. “Title of Work.” Publication name. Place of publication: Publisher Name, Date.