The Class Room

Rob Preiwe, head of the journalism department at Linn-Benton Community College, teaches one class that is specifically focused on learning to write news stories. This class provides useful information to students interested in learning how to write about what happens in the world around them.
One of the main aspects taught in this class is how to create a great lead. The lead is the first sentence in an article. It is intended to draw the reader or audience into the rest of the story. It is generally short and flashy, for it is meant to simply grab onto the readers focus.
The second part of a news story, also taught about in this class, is the nut graph. This sums up what the story is about. It generally groups together what the story is about, where it happened, who took part in it, and a few other things. After you finish with the nut-graph you are ready to write the rest of your news story.
This segues us neatly into the main point of how journalism works. It is a style called the inverted pyramid. This is a major rule or guideline when it comes to writing in a journalistic manner. This means, to put the largest and most important pieces of information near the top of the article and the less important details closer to the end.
Rob's class also covers how to prepare for an interview, what questions to ask, and how to take notes and quotes effectively. And that is all in a days work.