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in mid-air by Magic C Dwight Howard(notes). Rose fell on his left wrist trying to break the fall and had to sit out Friday’s game in Miami. An MRI exam showed nothing more than a bruise, but Rose has been waiting. He may try to play against Philadelphia on Saturday.
• F Luol Deng (right calf strain) was injured during the March 9 loss to Utah and is expected to miss a few more weeks, but there is no timetable for his return.
• C Joakim Noah (plantar fasciitis, left foot) sat out seven games surrounding the All-Star break to rest a sore foot. He returned to play in four contests, capped by a 27-minute performance against Portland on Feb. 26. He was scheduled to sit out until March 24, but suggested recently he might try to play on Saturday at Philadelphia.
• C Jerome James(notes) (torn right Achilles’ tendon) hasn’t played since early last season when he was with the Knicks. No one is counting on any contributions from him, but he’s vowed to get healthy and play sometime this season. He’s running again, but needs to pass a fitness test before he’ll be allowed to practice.

Your assignment for Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 7....

OK, as we have been discussing in class, on Tuesday, Nov. 7, you will do another "live" reporting assignment, talking to people after they have voted that day.

You do not have to come to class that morning, so that you can go straight out to a polling place and do your interviews. However, I will be in the classroom if you feel like you need to come in and talk over the assignment further. Or you can call me from the field on my cell phone, (949) 378-3898, which hopefully will have reception in the classroom.

Now, for the details of the assignment, step-by-simple-step:

1) You need to chose your location for voting. Go to either the Los Angeles or Orange County sites we used in class today and use them to find a pollin place near you. I would strongly suggest that you identify a second, nearby site, too, in case your first choice lacks enough voters for you to get enough good interviews. As discussed in class, you may want to pick a location near CSULB so that your odds of finding chatting students, staff and faculty are increased.

2) That accomplished, you need to select a theme for your story so that you can prepare your background material and a strong line of questioning for the assignment. DO NOT try to wing it on election day -- you will not be successful.

3) Your theme or topic can be broad. An example of that kind of topic if you were J-school students, say, in Iraq, might be like this: Asking voters what direction the country will be headed after it's determined whether the Shias, Shiites or Kurds win power in parliament. You would need to know the background of this broad line of questioning -- if the Shias win, what likely will happen, if the Kurds, etc. You will find this background here in California by reading background articles in the databases. And it will be extremely helpful to you at this point in the campaign, if you simply read every election story in the paper every day. As members of the election blog, of course, are doing as we speak.

4) Your theme can be narrow. Again, back in Iraq, you might choose to focus on a single ballot measure, Proposition 007, which says you can shoot anyone who seems kinda jumpy. You would need to know the background on Proposition 007 -- who supports it, who opposes it, its possible impacts on people if it passes or if it fails, etc. Again, this information, as always, is at your fingertips, in the databases, the newspapers and voter information online via the state or county voting offices.

5) Now it is Tuesday, Election Day, and you are at your polling place. Pick a spot on the sidewalk or parking lot, not too close or far from the entrance to the polling place. And wait for people to come out after voting. Use all the skills we have practiced in the interviewing exercises the past few classes -- be polite, friendly, confident, poised, etc. Introduce yourself and explain what you are doing. Start your interview and try to build rapport with the person. Take lots of notes, get lots of quotes. Don't forget the basics: name, age, city, political party, phone numbers or e-mail addresses.

6) If you get shot down, don't sweat it, just wait for the next person. BE PERSISTENT! Talk to at least five people -- but make sure that they are five worthwhile people, not people who blew you off after a yes/no answer -- not that any of you will be asking yes/no questions, though, right?

7) After you feel you have enough info, you can leave the polling place. Or go to another one if you feel this one did not provide enough material. When are finally done with interviewing, as soon as possible, preferrably immediately after you are done, send me a short e-mail with the names of your three best sources and their one best quote. You don't need to dump your entire notebook into the e-mail, just give me a little taste of what you got while it's fresh.

8) Then, as your homework for Thursday, write a story based on your interviews. Be sure to organize it on the particular theme you selected (see above), and use all the proper style and grammar we use. Write a nice, clear lede and use your good quotes while paraphrasing the boring ones. This should be a minimum of one-and-a-half pages double spaced.

9) If you have any questions or confusions about this assignment, DO NOT HESITATE OR WAIT until Tuesday rolls around. E-mail me or call me on the cell phone listed above. Or on Friday and Monday, at my direct work line, 714-796-7787. I am happy to talk you through this so that you have a good time with it and succeed!

10) There is no tenth step, but it seemed a shame to stop at No. 9. Have a great weekend, and do great work!

PL

Our guest on Thursday....

Here's the deal: On Thursday, Nov. 2, we will have a guest in class, my pal and co-worker Katherine Nguyen.

Her intentionally vague bio includes these facts: She's in her mid-20s, went to Cal State Fullerton and has worked at the Register since she got out of college -- actually even before.

She's covered everything from murders to models, dating to dogs, but mostly she does fashion and trends.

Your assignment, as discussed in class Tuesday, is as follows:

1) Database her byline and familiarize yourself with her recent stories. Or dig deeper and pick a few that catch your fancy. Proquest works best for the Orange County Register, and you all remember, of course, that it's listed under "Newspapers" in the library, right? Right?

2) Think about the stories and think about the vague bio I provided above, and then make yourself a list of questions you want to ask her after she talks for a bit in class. You can go for personal stuff (her age, where she grew up, etc.), practical stuff (how'd she get into the business and work her way up to her current job), or professional stuff (questions about stories she's reported and written about).

3) Finally, your homework on this assignment over the weekend is to write a story about her, based on what you learned in class and complemented by what you learned by reading background stories.

4) This is the "real" finally: please remember that your semester grade includes a sizeable amount of points based on your participation in class. For this assignment, I'd like to see/hear everyone ask at least one question during the Q-and-A session that will follow her opening chat - I'll be keeping a list, so speak up!

The Interview: background and questions

As we discussed in class today, an interview requires you to think of questions and then more questions and then more.

Here's brief recap of what you need to remember:
-- Don't ask questions that might get a yes/no answer ("Did your cat survive? isn't as good as "What happened after you took your cat to the vet?")
-- Don't stop after the first general answer to your question. Ask a follow-up question. ("Why'd you rear-end the guy? I was changing CDs.") Press for specific details ("What CD? Britney Spears.")
-- As for questions that will elicit thoughtful responses, or the subject's feelings or emotions or beliefs, etc. ("How did you grandmother feel about being separated from her parents in a strange, new country?")

And while we didn't cover this too much in class today, another very important part of the formal interview is preparation. Before you interview anyone on almost any topic, it's good to do your homework. Make sure you know the topic as well as you can, so you can keep the interview going as long as possible.

So here's your homework for Thursday:

1) Pick one of these three topics. I've chosen them because they're "talkers" -- things in the current news that everyone has heard about and is talking about.
-- The controversy over North Korea's claim to have conducted a nuclear test.
-- The scandal around U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and how it may or may not affect the November congressional elections.
-- The question of whether or not U.S. citizens feel more or less safe today than they did at 9/11.

2) Once you've picked your topic, research it in the library databases (Nexis, Proquest, Factiva). Make sure that you really know what has happened recently on these topics and you also know what kinds of opinions people (real folks, politicians, pundits, etc.) have on your topic.

3)Then, using the research you've done, imagine that I'm your editor, and I've assigned you a story on what people around our town are saying or thinking or feeling about your chosen topic. Come up with a list of at least six questions that you think might be good starting points for an interview with an Average Joe or Jane.

4) Bring your questions and background research to class with you on Thursday so we can discuss it all.

Kill 'em off, and then write it up!

It's an old newspaper cliche: the new kids have to write the obituaries.

And while that's not exactly true, there's good value in the art of the obit: you're basically writing a profile, and the lessons learned in doing that will stand you well in any kind of writing you do.

For this homework assignment, the main goal is to keep practicing good backgrounding skills, using Lexis and/or Proquest through the CSULB library.

Here's what to do:

1) Go the Los Angeles Times obituary page and read a few random obituaries to get a sense of the style they use.

1a) Or, amuse yourself and/or learn from an obit I wrote recently. Here's the web version which was done quickly to get online. And here's the longer version, that ran in the paper the next day.

Basically, in the lead you want to say that So-And-So, who was famouse/noteworthy for this-and-that, has died. And in a separate short sentence, how old he or she was. Or, as you'll notice in my second version, you can make it a little more feature-y at the top, and get the death/age into the third graf or so.

2) Then pick someone from the list below, complete with fake death and location, and research their background on Nexis or Factiva.

3) Then put it all together in an obit of at least six paragraphs -- the lead and five or more grafs of background/profile material.

Remember to read some obits on that Web page to get the style down, and also that even though I've given you some absurd ways to die you have to write this as straight news.

Your Candidates for Death include:

-- 50 Cent; fell over board while bass fishing on Lake Okeechobee and drowned.

-- Woody Allen; hit on the head by a gargoyle that fell off his Manhattan apartment building.

-- Long Beach Grand Prix winner Paul Tracy; crashed during practice laps after water balloon hits his windshield.

-- Paris Hilton; took overdose of pills at her home in Beverly Hills after another scandalous sex tape appeared online and nobody noticed.

-- Keith Richards; natural causes, in his sleep at his country house in England.

-- Nick Nolte; car crash on Malibu Canyon Road.

-- David Hasselhoff; heart attack while sunbathing on vacation in Cannes, France.

-- Roger Clemens; side effects from steroids, while watching the playoffs.

-- Tommy Hilfiger; complications during face lift surgery in Beverly Hills.

Any questions, call or e-mail me, and have fun!

The UnReal World: Using Arrest Reports and Background Clips

In March 2005, Johanna Botta, a member of the cast on the Real World: Austin, was arrested. The arrest report and some information that can be found at www.thesmokinggun.com.

Your assignment is to read the arrest report at Thesmokinggun.com and then use Nexis and/or ProQuest to find other examples of Real World cast members being arrested for fighting, drinking and other annoying things they may have done. You may also use sites such as The Smoking Gun to find other original arrest reports and quote those documents directly.

Please don't use Google or general Web sites for this -- we've covered those pretty thoroughly over the last week and the point of the exercise is to polish our skills at using "real" clips -- articles archived in Nexis, Factiva and ProQuest -- and "real" documents -- like the arrest reports presented on TSG.

Once you've found at least three other examples of Real World people getting busted -- there are more than that, but get at least three! -- write a story of at least five paragraphs that includes the arrest of Botta as well as background on other contestants on the show getting popped for their bad behavior.
Use proper attribution (for the arrest details and the background. And list your sources for the background at the bottom of the story.

One final note: Write the story as if it is the day after Johanna got arrested and ignore any Real World arrests that have happened since then (though I'll give you a couple of bonus points for finding any and listing them at the bottom of the story -- and I know there's at least one!)

Assignment is due at start of class on Thursday, Sept. 28*

Have fun!

*(Note: Anyone providing proof of arrest and night spent in jail before then will be granted automatic extension until Tuesday, Oct. 3.)

More AP Style Tips

Michael S. Sweeney -- that's his smug mug at the left -- is the guy to blame for the first 30 questions on your AP Style test. He's got a bit of a thing for AP Style, and his tip sheet highlights some of the most common style issues you'll encounter.

You can find it on his website at Utah State University. It's worth checking out, especially in that he focuses on some of the most common style issues you'll face.