Assignment #4: Profiles

Find a stranger who might make for an interesting profile. Interview this person, in person (ideally) or on the phone (less ideal). Write a lead and nut graf for the profile. Then give a brief bullet-point outline of how the rest of the profile might flow.

Tina wrote:

Dale Walters walked down the hall with a guard on each side. He was excited to see his family waiting for him outside the prison walls. As he approached the door, he paused to say a prayer. “Dear lord, I’m very thankful that this day has arrived. I never thought that I would be walking through these doors a free man.” The guards had befriended Dale and were glad to see him go.

With new shoes, a crisp navy blue pin stripped suit, and a white shirt, Dale pushed open the door and proudly yelled, “I’m free.” The first people he saw were his wife and kids. “There must have been twenty people outside waiting for me. Some I had never met. I had nieces and nephews that I didn’t know about. I was so glad to see everyone.”

After many tears and introductions, Dale was ready to leave. He had not been outside the prison gates in eleven years.

Dale Walters was charged and sentenced to twenty years for arson. Something he has always claimed he did not do. “I had left a business meeting late on January 30, 1997, and on my way home I had a flat tire. It took me about thirty minutes to change it. I arrived home and when I opened the door I smelt smoke. I called 911, but by time the fire was put out the damage had been done. My wife and children had been out of town. Thank God no one was hurt. When the inspector did his report he said the fire had been set intentionally. This could not be true. No one had been home. I was eventually arrested and charged”

The years went by and Dale did what ever he could to get a new trial, but nothing seemed to go his way. Until on day his sister meet a man that she eventually married. She told Bob the story and he wanted to help. He did some investigating and found that there had been a know arsonist that had been living in the area at the time. He was now in jail for burning down a grocery store, so Bob went to see him. It wasn’t long before this man was confessing to burning down the house. He said that he had been jealous of Dale and wanted to see him suffer.

It took Bob several years to convince the courts that this was a case that needed to be reviewed. It took two more years to get a trial date. Once the judge saw the confession, he signed the release papers and Dale was to be a free man, but even then it took several months before Dale would walk out of prison.

Dale almost passed out walking to the car. His legs were weak and he was tried. He had lost a lot of weight by worrying about his family and not sleeping right. “All I wanted was a hot shower and sleep in a real bed. The drive home was surreal. The sun was out and everything was in bloom. So many things had changed, things that I could never imagine. The town where we lived was not the same. Big buildings took up the space where the park use to be and restaurants on every corner.” When they pulled into the driveway, Dale could not believe it. The house was exactly the way it looked the night it caught on fire. “When I walked inside I knew I was home and this whole nightmare was over.’

Teacher’s comments

S. James Snyder, Posted: Jun. 22nd

Hi Tina!

What a compelling opening - the day a man is freed from prison. You've put us right there.

I think if you kept building this, moving forward, you'd want to construct a few of the key scenes that Dale dealt with along the way. I'd want to know about the day he was wrongly convicted, maybe his low-point while in prison, his feeling of exoneration when the judge finally agreed to let him out. I'd want to know more about that car ride home.

But as you've constructed it here, this is wonderful. It's dramatic, and informative, and there's a flow and an arc to it....this is life-and-death, truly-compelling stuff. Are you hoping to work with it moving forward at all??? Great job!

Assignment #3: Reporting

Relocating to the Caribbean was once a dream for most people, but it’s becoming more of a reality everyday. More and more people are moving to the Caribbean for the quality of life. Every year thousands of people are leaving the hectic life back home for the laid-back life style and the stress free living the Caribbean has to offer. I moved to the Caribbean over seventeen years ago and the number of retirees’ verses young people was huge. It’s not just for those that are retiring anymore. The younger generations are finding that working and living in the Caribbean is obtainable at an early age. When I moved to Ambergris Caye in ‘97, I found the average age of ex-pats, living on the island, were fifty and older. That has changed in the last several years. Now the age of people moving to the Caribbean is thirty-five and up.

Packing up and moving to the Caribbean takes research. Being unprepared about the place where you chose to live can be very disappointing. Paradise is in the eye of the beholder. Every country, in the Caribbean, has its advantages and disadvantages from collecting rainwater to medical care, and the language they speak. The best way to get to know a place is to visit for a period of time. If you do it right it can be very rewarding. Getting to know the infrastructure, the people and the way they live will help you make the right decision. Finding the right place for you can be fun and exciting. You have a lot to choose from. You have places like Mexico to Panama, which or land locked. Then you have places like Ambergris Caye and Puerto Rico. Ambergris Caye is a small island verses Puerto Rico a large island. It all depends on what you are looking for.

In the Caribbean things move at a much slower pace and you need to have a lot of patience. On smaller islands you get to know the community and your neighbors become family. On the bigger islands you may never meet your neighbors and you blend in.

My first trip to the Caribbean was to St Croix the USVI. I fell in love with the place. It was beautiful and the attitude, of the people, was welcoming. I stayed 2 weeks, flew home, took care of my belongings and back to St Croix I went. It was not hard to relocate to St Croix because it’s a big island and since it is part of the US, it was not hard to find work, and everyone spoke English. I met my husband after being on the island two months. Tim, being a Boston boy, moved to the island and never went home.

“It’s to cold up there and I hate the fast past, but living on an island has its’ challenges. The island’s electricity is generated so the power goes out a lot, and we have to collect our own rainwater. Those are two things I never thought I would get use to.” Tim commented.

We loved traveling the islands. One day a friend came up to Tim, “would you like to take a trip to Belize with me and check it out?” Of course I do” Tim replied. Tim never missed a chance like that.

A few days went by and the phone rang. “You need to come to Belize and see what I plan on purchasing”? Tim was very excited about this place he called paradise. “I’ll be on the first flight out tomorrow”. I hung up the phone and booked my flight.

I arrived at the airport in a little fishing village know as San Pedro. After being on the island a few days I could see why this was where Tim wanted to be. The people were wonderful, the town was small and everyone knew each other. The downside was that the average age was fifty-five and older, but I liked it because everyone I passed had a smile and a wave. The motto here is “no shirt, no shoes, no problem”. The down side was that I had no one my age to hang around, but we bought a piece of property and planned on building within the next year.

Building on an island can be challenging. This is where patience comes in handy. Everything that you need or want has to be brought in by barge. At that time, the electric was generated and that made building even harder. Now our electric comes from Mexico. So many things can go wrong. In the last few days our power has been off more than it has been on, in some areas. It’s hard to take care of business when we have no power. When we have no power, we have no water. So the best thing to do is collect your own rainwater. Where there are problems there are solutions.

We have been living on the island now for twelve years and I have seen a lot of growth. We have more young people on this island than ever before, and more moving down every day. The population in 2000 was only 4499. In 2007 the population grew to 10445. As the years went on, the older generation started leaving and the younger generation moved in and now it is a great balance. We have a great community that works together.

We can always tell the newbie’s from the expats. The newbie’s are always in a hurry and want to change things, and get frustrated when things don’t go their way. The expats go with the flow and have already tried to change things, but instead you are the one that changes. So the expats just set back and wonder how long a newbie will last. You either learn to have patience or you move on.

The beautiful thing about living in the islands is that it is a slower pace and people live long because they don’t have any stress. Even after the hurricane in 2000, when a lot people lost their homes and all of their belongings, the locals still had a smile and a wave. “I can’t believe these people can still be this happy. I just lot a lot of things and these people don’t have a care in the world. Then on day I realized that they were happy to be a live.” Tim realized that it was the stress free attitude the people in the Caribbean have is what makes these people who they are.

If you plan on relocating to the Caribbean make sure you do your research. Look for a place where you will fit in, because you will not change the place the place will change you. Make sure you can adapt to your surroundings and make friends before you make the move. Make sure that you can deal with the infrastructure that is in place and have patience when things don’t go as planned. It can be a wonderful experience if you don’t expect to much and enjoy it for what it is.

____________________

Critics

Hi Tina:

Let's take a look at the fun facts:

1. I did not know this - that you can pick a longitude, and there will be varying degrees of warming....

2. The word that jumped out at me here was "earthquakes." Are we saying more earthquakes due to climate change??? That would be a HUGE story - particularly given the recent earthquake issues....

3. I feel as if I sort of knew this one...

As for your angle, yes, I feel like you could definitely move forward with this in mind. It might depend what kind of publication you're writing for - since this is a very specialized idea - but a how-to guide for island-dwellers and climate change could be quite compelling....maybe you'd want to structure a feature to show how one group of citizens on islands would prepare totally differently from people living at the same longitude, but onshore.


You could definitely move forward on this front. The key to take away from this assignment, though, is the realization that for any topic, there are a plethora of unexplored angles. Your goal as a feature writer is to look at a familiar topic in an entirely new way - to illuminate an angle that thus far has gone unexplored.

S. James Snyder, Posted Jun. 17th

Hi Tina!

I really appreciate the tone here - clearly, you've gone the more personal route, and decided to approach the assignment more as a memoir than as a news-based feature. Which is all perfectly well and good. Given the goal here, I really think you found a strong narrative voice. I felt as if I had the inside track on the tale, and not that I was an outsider, trying to desperately to peer inside.

There's also a cleary "how-to" approach the story that is both risky, but effective. One must always be careful to keep the story moving - to keep the narrative fresh and lively. And sometimes, a "how-to" story can choke the flow, making things into more of a list than a story. But you've skillfully avoided this (just something to remember for draft number two, if you keep working with this)

What I like most about what you've done is balance the story - explaining the beauty, but also balancing that with some of the hardships, such as electricity and building and the average age of your neighbors.

If you decide to work with this more, as we approach the second Booth, there are four things I'd really like you to focus on:

First, build your story around scenes, and not necessarily around chronology. Don't start your story with a large statement, but go small and specific right off the bat. Create the scene of the day you first went down to visit your future home, or paint the picture of a night without electricity. Drop us right in the story, and use two or three distinct scenes/stories to tie together all the other components.

Second, give us more dialogue. It's great to hear things described, but a few quotes can really add personality to the story - and dialogue, even better, gives those quotes an added spark.

Third, give us a fact or two. It's hard for a reader to trust a writer if there are no numbers to back up a claim. Whether it's the number of ex-pats in Belize, in your neighborhood, on the island, in the Caribbean, globally - really, any number will do.

And finally, give us some visual details. I want colors, and ladscapes and scenes. If one is going to write a detailed travel article about such a lovely, renowned locale, you simply must give the reader some sumptuous visual details! That's what we're all imagining!

All this being said, it's a great topic, your passion comes through clearly, and I think you do a wonderful job of balancing your personal, first-person perspective with some greater critical commentary. I hope you continue working with this moving forward - you're certainly an expert on the topic! Great job!

Nicole Flussi, Posted Jun. 16th Great work. I liked listening to your adventures and am envious. I thought the content could be more specific to the angle of the story. I was expecting to hear more information around young vs. old lifestyle.

Pearl Chin, Posted Jun. 16th I could see this piece fitting very well in a travel magazine as an advice column or memoir. I would agree with one of the previous comments that you probably need more of the elements of an article and more description rather than telling to make the piece more like a feature article. It's clear that I should contact you before making any travel plans to the Carribean.

Jason Townsend-Rogers, Posted Jun. 15th Very interesting piece about life in the Caribbean; as my mom has family in Jamacia, I have often considered what life would be like had I chosen to live there. While it is unlikely that I will leave the comforts of America behind, your piece gave me all the information that I needed should I choose to make such a trip.

Angela Mickelis, Posted Jun. 14th Tina, Nice job on the article. You make great points on the topic of moving to the Caribbean, making it a potential dream come true by sharing your experience. The only area that I felt could be shifted a bit is to broaden the audience. What I mean is to begin the article with something more emotionally gripping such as Make your dream vacation your life....or You really can live a dream....something like that. If that corny? Any way, I really enjoyed reading the article and especially enjoyed your experience shared. Warmly, Angela

Stephanie Adams, Posted Jun. 13th Great topic. I have friends that travel to Belize quite often and they plan to retire there eventually. I enjoyed reading how you and your husband met and eventually moved to Belize, it added a bit of drama. It would have been nice to compare the infrastructure we are accustomed to here in the states to those on the island, to see what those differences are: hospitals, grocery stores etc. Good job!

MLissa Sampson, Posted Jun. 13th Tina, I enjoyed your article and learning a bit about what it may be like to live this Caribbean lifestyle. It would be great to have a few quotes from perhaps others who have made the move to the islands. To highlight how they felt when they moved and/or why. Also, would love to get more of a description of the area. I've never been there and it would be great info for me as someone who may want to imagine what it'd be like to visit. Thanks.

Ayub Mwampela, Posted Jun. 12th Hallo Tina, You impressed me with your article because it was really from experiences you went through and the people you came across in the Caribbean. You made a good chronicle of the events on the area. That was great! I have few observations to make here. This work seems to be more a memoir than a feature. May be I have not grasped well your point. Another observation is on the lede. I tried to look for the nut graf but I could not. This led me to find it difficult to get the transition of the story as I went on reading. Stephanie, your work is still very touching especially for many of us who happen to be relocating to places.

John Pepper, Posted Jun. 12th Tina: This is a great topic for a book. I first visited the Cayman's about 12 years ago, and every time I go back I ask myself how I could make a living there. You don't really have to draw people into this story, it does the work for you. I like the lead. It's simple but clear and as it ends I want to know the rest of the story: how moving to the Caribbean is done. I thought you did a fairly good job of telling your reader about some of the major drawbacks and benefits of life in the Caribbean. What I would like to see more of is the nuts and bolts. Do you have to find a job before you get to the island, or have a fixed address, and how do you know? Are there agencies that will find you jobs and apartments? Do you need to have health insurance? What kind of retirement income is adequate? Maybe you could give that information for just one island that you're familiar with.

Barbara Pentlicki, Posted Jun. 11th I found your piece had a very interesting view of island living. Sounds like a great place to live. In the reading of your piece my suggestion would be to work on making the paragraphs flow together more cohesively. The end of one paragraph should lead the reader to the next group of thoughts smoothly sort of like an into to the next paragraph if that makes any sence. The work was nice

Dee Anne Barker, Posted Jun. 11th What an interesting article Tina. I've been to Ambergris Caye before and found it quite fun and beautiful. So, it was wonderful for me to read about your experience relocating and now living in Belize. You have so many different stories and angles to focus on that it would be great to continue to dig in one direction. I especially found the information about collecting one's own rain water quite fascinating. Perhaps that could be another angle. How does one collect the rain water? How often? What local has the best method? Overall, I found your article fun to read. My only other suggestions would be to check the spelling as well as to modify the article to third person. Otherwise, you've got yourself great material and a fun feature.

Melissa Gette, Posted Jun. 10th hi Tina. This was a great idea for an article. The lede is a good one. Being a middle-aged woman living in a cold city, I definitely want to know how people my age are making it possible to live in the Caribbean. I think before using the term "ex-pats" you might want to explain it a little. The idea that one needs to research such a big move and be aware of some of the possible drawbacks is a great angle. This piece might benefit from a few more quotes. Maybe a look at it from the view of a "newbie" or talk to someone else who has watched the population change to a younger group of people. Great piece. Thanks.

Rebecca Chamaa, Posted Jun. 10th Tina, this was a very informative article. I think you could make this topic into several articles if you wanted. One could be a travel article, one could be a relocation article, and of course you could get several features out of relocating, building,etc. I enjoyed reading this and I felt like it was packed with information. One thing I would suggest is to include more quotes, scenes and characters, that will make your work really come to life. Thanks!

Assignment #2: Anatomy of an Article

Pick one of these general topics:
1. - Global Warming
2. - Celebrity Obsession
3. - Family Life

Do some research on the selected topic. Tell me three fascinating facts or details about this topic. Find things most people don’t know. Also, give me an idea for an angle on this subject. Bonus points if you actually contact an expert.

_____________________________

The atmosphere is warming faster in subtropical areas – around 30° north and south of the equator – than anywhere else in the world, according to a study of more than 25 years of satellite data. And the process appears to be driven by climate change.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9229-global-warming-stretches-subtropical-boundaries.html

Already one of the most disaster prone regions of the world, the vulnerable Caribbean islands will be exposed to hurricanes and the associated storm surges and wave actions, earthquakes and the tsunamis they generate, volcanic eruptions, land and rock slides, flooding and drought, local climate change scientists predict.

Sea levels in the Caribbean region are expected to rise 30 to 50 centimeters (11.8 to 19.7 inches) in the next 50 years, significantly higher than average world levels.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2001/2001-06-04-02.asp

The year 1999 was the fifth-warmest year on record since the mid-1800's; 1998 being the warmest year. According to Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center (NOAA), the current pace of temperature rise is "consistent with a rate of 5.4 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit per century." By comparison, the world has warmed by 5 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit since the depths of the last ice age, 18,000 to 20,000 years ago.

http://www.ecobridge.org/content/g_evd.htm

An angle on this would be, how to prepare for global warming if you live on an island in the Caribbean. Most of the smaller islands are at sea level so building your first story up off the ground would be a start.

Teachers comment

Hi Tina:

Let's take a look at the fun facts:

1. I did not know this - that you can pick a longitude, and there will be varying degrees of warming....

2. The word that jumped out at me here was "earthquakes." Are we saying more earthquakes due to climate change??? That would be a HUGE story - particularly given the recent earthquake issues....

3. I feel as if I sort of knew this one...

As for your angle, yes, I feel like you could definitely move forward with this in mind. It might depend what kind of publication you're writing for - since this is a very specialized idea - but a how-to guide for island-dwellers and climate change could be quite compelling....maybe you'd want to structure a feature to show how one group of citizens on islands would prepare totally differently from people living at the same longitude, but onshore.


You could definitely move forward on this front. The key to take away from this assignment, though, is the realization that for any topic, there are a plethora of unexplored angles. Your goal as a feature writer is to look at a familiar topic in an entirely new way - to illuminate an angle that thus far has gone unexplored.

Ist Assigment of Article Writing

Write down 3-6 angles on a subject that could make for a good feature.

Be sure it's a realistic angle for a feature - something that you could actually research and deliver, if assigned by an editor.

I wrote:
Relocating to the Caribbean was once a dream for most people, but it’s becoming more of a reality everyday. More and more people are moving to the Caribbean for the quality of life. Every year thousands of people are leaving the hectic life back home for the laid-back life style and the stress free living the Caribbean has to offer. I moved to the Caribbean over seventeen years ago and the number of retirees’ verses young people was huge. It’s not just for those that are retiring anymore. The younger generations are finding that working and living in the Caribbean is obtainable at an early age. When I moved to Ambergris Caye in ‘97, I found the average age of ex-pats, living on the island, were fifty and older. That has changed in the last several years. Now the age of people moving to the Caribbean is thirty-five and up. Packing up and moving to the Caribbean takes research. Being unprepared about the place where you chose to live can be very disappointing. Paradise is in the eye of the beholder. Every country, in the Caribbean, has its advantages and disadvantages. The best way to get to know a place is to visit for a period of time. If you do it right it can be very rewarding. Getting to know the infrastructure, the people and the way they live will help you make the right decision. Finding the right place for you can be fun and exciting. You have a lot to choose from. You have places like Mexico to Panama, which or land locked. Then you places like Ambergris Caye and Puerto Rico. Ambergris Caye is a small island verses Puerto Rico a large island. It all depends on what you are looking for. On smaller islands you get to know the community and your neighbors become family. On the bigger islands you may never met your neighbors and you blend in. Living in the Caribbean can be very challenging, from collecting rainwater to medical care. One thing you need is a lot of patience. If you don’t have it now, you will after moving to the Caribbean. Things move at a much slower pace.

Teacher comments:

S. James Snyder, Posted: Jun. 2nd

Hi Tina: I'm definitely intrigued by your comment regarding patience. The way that movie isn't just a change of geography, or even a change of language, but a change of mindset. Maybe you could find people who reflect the two extremes, the go-go Americans and the more relaxed expatriots.

The key here is access, and taking the time to really write a smooth, refined story. You need to find the right people who can give voice to the topic, and then take the time to really help us to feel and see this story. It can't be a superficial glance, but rather a well-developed sense of place and personality.

But I'm thinking it could be extremely interesting and entertaining. I certainly hope you work with this going forward, for your Booth piece! Great job!