Thursday, December 10 reported speech

 

Learning Target: I can recognize and correct weak news leads and add in effective quotations.

Before beginning the assignment, take a look at three leads that exemplify how quotations are inserted after the lead.

Note: tomorrow you will be selecting  your personal news story topics!

On Tuesday, you refreshed yourselves with the review exercise on direct quotations. If you need, check back on the rules. At this time I should have received everybody's work. Late assignments are worth 75 points, much better than the zero.

What you have below is today's work on paraphrasing and direct quotes.  This is a continuation with working with quotations.

 This time you are simplifying, paraphrasing, using reported language and correcting 6 leads.  Read carefully. Yours might not look like your neighbor's.

Send along as usual. Due by midnight, unless you receive extended time............ Thank you.

Before beginning the assignment, let's take a look at three leads that exemplify how quotations are inserted after the lead.

1. Hilton woman gets traffic ticket from a place she's never visited

Claire Cleare

Hilton, N.Y. - It's one thing getting a traffic ticket if you know you're guilty. But that's not the case for a Hilton woman. Kim Rogers said there's no way she's guilty as charged.

A baffled and frustrated Rogers is trying to make sense of a traffic court notice she got in the mail on Monday.

"I was so just, like, flustered," Rogers said.

The traffic bureau claims Rogers' car inspection expired in September. But according to the inspection sticker on her 2003 Volvo, she has until the end of November.

The notice has the correct license plate number and other information.

"When I read it, I thought, what? What are they talking about?" she said.

She questions the ticket because it’s from Nassau County on Long Island, a county she claims she, nor her car, have never been to - a place now slapping her with a $170 fine for the violation.

“I was never there. I didn't even know where it was. I had to look it up,” Roger said. “I never had invalid registration or anything.”

Rogers called the agency to try and get things straightened out.

2. Avon first grader's assembly performance is an internet hit 

by Matt Molloy

 AVON, N.Y. -- A little girl with a big voice from Avon has thousands of new fans on Facebook. Her performance at a school assembly has made her an internet hit. Ifyou ask 6-year-old Quinn Kenyon’s mother there is little doubt, she was born to sing.

"One of the nurses at Strong hospital said when she was screaming in the nursery, we've got a singer on our hands,” Miranda Kenyon said. Quinn, a first grader in Avon, is in two choirs and she isn't shy about her talent.

"I like singing because I have a beautiful voice,” said Quinn.

When she was given the opportunity to perform at the school's Veterans Day assembly, there was no hesitation.

"I held my breath the entire performance,” said her mom, Miranda.

"That's actually the first time I've sung on a real stage,” said Quinn.

There was no stage fright for this 6-year-old star. She practiced the national anthem for just a week before her big performance.

"Everybody is like, 'you did a great job. I want to have your autograph,'” said Quinn.

"I cannot even describe and put into words how proud both my husband and I are of her and how courageous she was,” said her mother.

 3. Trump makes multiple false claims in first campaign rally since election loss

BY  Grace Segers

In a rambling, unfocused speech on Saturday, President Trump aired grievances about the November election during a campaign rally ostensibly meant to boost Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue ahead of their runoff elections on January 5. In his first campaign event since losing the presidential election last month, Mr. Trump continued to deny President-elect Joe Biden's victory, instead peddling falsehoods about voter fraud and baselessly claiming the election was rigged.

Mr. Trump began the rally by incorrectly saying that he won the state, and was going to win the election, even though results have been certified in Georgia and several other states for President-elect Joe Biden.

"We won Georgia, just so you know," Mr. Trump falsely said. "We never lost an election, we're winning this election."

"They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we'll still win it," Mr. Trump falsely said, while still encouraging voters to turn out for the runoff. "And they're going to try to rig this election too."

*****Paraphrasing

When paraphrasing information, attribute it to a source at the beginning or end of a sentence.

Example: Several factors could determine how quickly a fire engulfs a resident’s room, Frederick said.

Important rule: It is always said. Don’t use pointed out, claimed or any other verb that could be perceived as biased.

A person’s name or a pronoun always precedes said.

Always attribute information that came from a source and is not general knowledge.

DIRECT QUOTES

If the quote is one sentence, attribution for direct quotes goes at the end of the quote.

Example: “Shouting is not going to help,” McCaskill said.

If the quote is more than one sentence, the attribution goes after the first sentence and before the rest of the quote.

Example: “My job is to represent the people of Missouri,” she said. “Period.”

INSTRUCTIONS: Rewrite the following  five quotations more simply as paraphrases. Also correct any errors in grammar and  punctuation. Correct for jargon, difficult vocabulary, long sentences and wordiness. Note that Associated Press (AP) style allows for contractions.

1. “To tell you the truth, I would, uh, I’d be disinclined to recommend buying any shares of General Motors at this, uh, present moment in time,” the financial planner said.  
2.   “I want to tell you that, like, uh, you know man, what we’re aiming for is to get everybody to realize that, uh, suicide is never an acceptable option for anyone under any circumstances, not even like, uh, the terminally ill,” she said.
3. “My brother was driving down this road and, uh, at first I didn’t know what happened. Like I wasn’t watching the road or nothing and didn’t know what the hell it was.  Then, uh, so I looked out the back window and saw this kid lying all bloody and dead on the road.  Then I knew what we’d hit,” he said.
4. “In the end, there will be winners and losers in any sporting event, but the new rules on taunting are much needed to prevent winners from creating a negative atmosphere in sporting contests. Spiking a football in the end zone or raising one’s arms in triumph is one thing, but it is another, as many people on this panel have pointed out, to stand in front of someone taunting them or throwing the ball at them and cursing at them. Referees and officials need to control the game and these new rules are designed to help them do just that,” the commissioner of the NCAA said.
5. “Although there have been advances in finding a vaccine for HIV, there are still too many cases worldwide and not enough effort by the industrialized nations to fund research to defeat this scourge. It will take the combined efforts of many nations to make the medical breakthroughs necessary to overcome this disease,” the representative of the World Health Organization said.