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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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JOMC

FEATURE WRITING
JoMC 256: Val Lauder

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."
Sir Francis Bacon
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)

Links to quotes about the art & craft of writing

RESEARCH SOURCES & STRATEGIES
(Ways of becoming more exact)

  • Identify topic(s) related to your interest
     

  • Develop key words or search terms (This is called thesaurus building.)
     

  • Draft several search statements (Use synomyms and vary word(s) sequence.)
     

  • Create a timeline or time frame
     

  • Develop a list of names of authoritative people to interview
     

  • Locate local/state government agencies related to topic, if any
     

  • Explore online resources (You may search Google, just don't stop there; try databases.) http://eresources.lib.unc.edu/eid/
     

  • Keep notes or a log of your searches (You may need to repeat a search.)
     

  • Be aware of potential risks in research: results may be incomplete, incorrect, and/or out-of-date.

Instructor's Assignments:

  • Color Feature (a basketball afternoon or evening in Chapel Hill)
     

  • Interview Feature (interviewee is Greg Fishel of Channel 5) Bio brief, with photo.
     
    Also search InfoTrac Web -- Expanded Academic ASAP and/or America's Newspapers for articles about Mr. Fishel.

    Use such search terms as: Greg Fishel or weather forecasting or TV weather forecasters or "doppler dudes" or "weather wonks."

    Google -- images -- advanced is an interesting place to explore, but very difficult to verify/cite.

    Wikipedia has pages on WRAL, AccuWeather, and the National Weather Service. [Note: read Wikipedia's statement on citing its pages.]
     

  • Place/Travel Feature
     

  • Profile
     

  • The Wall Street Journal style feature ("A-heds"?)
    Consult book, "Floating Off the Page: the best stories from The Wall Street Journal's Middle Column." Written by Ken Wells. Park Library call # JH-wsj .W453 2002.

 

Other topic features:

Topic 1: Durham's "Festival on the Eno" [Note: newspaper articles on the earliest days of the Festival are requested.]

Key search term(s) for Topic 1: Festival on the Eno or Eno River Festival; Durham -- festivals.

  • Search Newsbank (online news database with full text archives of over 500 newspapers in Park Computer Lab), but be alert to the dates available for full text online access. [Note: Lexis/Nexis has very few local newspapers.]
     

  • Use Google's "advanced search" to see what is available. Check also Google's "Images" file.
     

  • Consult Durham Herald-Sun Newspaper Index (annual publication from 1982-1990) for articles listed by subject on "Festival on the Eno." (Located in Park Library stacks and in Davis Library and Undergrad Library). After identifying desired articles from the H-S Index, students must go to Davis Library's microforms department and request Herald-Sun microfilm for the dates selected. Note that prints can be made from the microfilm.
     

  • Identify names and contacts of people and agencies from the newspaper articles as possible contacts for interviews.

Topic 2: Daily Tar Heel editorial cartoonists

Topic 3: "Underage Drinking" (or false/fake IDs)
Key search term(s): underage drinking; teen-age drinking; binge drinking; illegal alcohol sales

Topic 4: "Hazing in Colleges & Universities"
Key search term(s): hazing; college OR university AND hazing; fraternity hazing

Topic 5: "Student Credit-Card Debt"
Key search term(s): student credit card debt; student credit scores; students AND financial literacy

Scholarly Integrity and Plagiarism

Questionable Resources

[NOTE: Interesting, provocative, maybe even useful at some levels of inquiry, but if you start with these resources, print or online, it is unwise to limit your research to these typically non-scholarly materials.]

Prepared by Barbara Semonche, Park Library Director
UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication
February 2008
   

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Copyright 2003 - The Park Library - School of Journalism School of Journalism and Mass Communication -
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill