Journalism
How
will you decide what is interesting for a trends, investigative feature? Hmmmm.
We have written many different types of journalistic pieces in this class. Now it’s time to take all those writing formats and wrap them into one lengthy research topic, a trend story, or an investigation of a trend you have observed. A good way to pinpoint a worthwhile topic is to critically examine your world.[1]
A basic way to get you thinking about your world is to play the Question Game. Create a space for questions and carry it around with you always. Write down questions and observations you have about your world. The answers are not important. It is asking and/or observing that counts. It gets you thinking.
YOUR GOAL: Write down 50 questions and/or observations worth 1/2 point each = 25 points. Please do not be absurd. Your questions should all be potential topics of research!
SAMPLE QUESTIONS:
Do students have religious
faith?
How does the college
process create stress?
Why do students drink and
drive?
What’s the one Acts about?
How important in Sports
Nite to ___?
Who is checking to
determine if store owners are selling cigarettes to teens?
Why do teachers have different
late policies?
How do teachers feel about
giving 100s?
Why do boys show their
underwear?
Are teens dieting?
Do teens take steroids?
How do Schreiber kids deal
with divorce?
Why do girls wear high
heels?
Why is the Internet so slow
at school?
SAMPLE OBSERVATIONS:
You might skip the question and jump right into facts:
____________
is really important to me. Other people feel and think ______________ about it.
People
really ought to do something about ______________.
People
need to know that ________________ is happening all around us.
At
Schreiber, _______________needs attention.
In my
community (neighborhood, Schreiber, Port, etc.), ________ needs to change.
I am
really disturbed about __________.
I
would like to change ________ about the world.
I laugh
when I see ___________.
I
think it’s really great how ________ is happening. It wasn’t always like that.
Everybody here _______________ because ____________.
[1] If you already know what your topic will be, you may make observations or ask the questions around this topic. Open your mind and eyes.