How to extend print coaching practice to online media in the newsroom.

1. Coaching Writers
Print & Online
Michael Roberts, The Arizona Republic

2. Choose a suitable design and hold to it. A basic
structural design underlies every kind of writing.
Writing, to be effective, must follow closely the
thoughts of the writer, but not necessarily in the order
in which those thoughts occur. This calls for a scheme
or procedure…planning must be a deliberate prelude
to writing. The first principle of composition, therefore,
is to foresee or determine the shape of what is to
come and pursue that shape.
-- William Strunk, E.B. White, The Elements of Style

3. Most editing books work on the assumption that any
editor can change any story in any way, and that
reporters can improve their work by reading the
changes in the paper the next day, intuiting the
concepts behind them and applying them in the next
story. Missing from this scenario is one human being
talking to another. Coaching involves nothing more
than talking with writers in certain ways.
-- Roy Peter Clark and Don Fry, Coaching Writers

4. The good editor is prepared for the copy’s arrival. He
or she will have worked with the writer planning and
conceiving the idea, monitoring the reporting, and
collaborating on possible approaches to the writing.
-- Carl Sessions Stepp, Editing for Today’s Newsroom

6. Coaching: 5 Stages of a Story
Idea Report Organize Draft Revise

7. Inverted Pyramid
Most important information
Next most important
Less important
Less important
Least important

8. Block
Overview / Central point
Sub-point 1
Sub-point 2
Sub-point 3
Summary

9. Layer Cake
Scene
Background info
Scene
Background info
Scene
Background info
Scene
Background info
Scene conclusion

10. Wine Glass
Summary of entire story
Begins at the end
Segues to start
Start
Next
Next
Next
Next
Next
Next
Ending / Kicker

12. Coaching: 5 Stages of a Story
Idea Report Organize Draft Revise
Organize

18. CUTLINE 1: (Petri dish)
Take a rare tour inside an anthrax lab. Northern Arizona University has the world's largest
collection of anthrax with about 2,000 strains. This photo shows gray colonies of Bacillus anthracis,
the bacterium that causes anthrax.
CUTLINE 1 REVISED: (Keim and vial)
Professor Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University played a key role in analyzing anthrax from the
2001 letter attacks, the worst biological attacks in U.S. history. Twenty-two people were infected
and five died. Keim’s work made his NAU laboratory one of the leading anthrax research centers in
the world. Keim is moving to a new NAU lab in 2008 that will allow him to expand his research on
other dangerous germs. Keim is pictured here with a magnified photo of a vial that contains a
sample of spinal fluid taken from a Florida photo editor who died of anthrax in the 2001 attacks.

20. Play Slide Show

21. Deer Valley HS JROTC

22. Deer Valley High School's Air Force JROTC program offers students a chance to learn
military customs, discipline, leadership skills and teamwork. This year 85 students enrolled in
the elective program, some with the goal of joining the military after graduation. The program
can be demanding and not everyone makes it to the end. Here cadets march in the Heart of
Valor Veterans Day parade in Phoenix, including Jake Suss (front), Michael Campos (left),
and Ethan McMannis (right).

23. Video story forms
Event Guide Profile
Slice of life Man on the street

24. Video story forms
Event: One-time event. Ongoing, recurring event.
Guide: Tour. Orientation. Consumer or participant
information. How-to.
Profile: Person. Place. Organization.
Slice of life: Sights and sounds, often of the familiar.
Man on the street: Quotes and views from people.

25. Morning Morning
Advance News Post Update Update Print
Story 1-2 graphs Story (A) Story (A) Story (B)
Photo Photo (new lede)
Video Photos Photos Photos
Alt story form Slide show Slide show Alt story form
Video Video Online links
Blog Blog Poll results
Alt story form Alt story form
Link set Link set
Live feed Live feed
Guestbook Guestbook
Poll Poll

26. Example: Arizona Urban Land Institute
Advance News Post Update Update Print
Advance 2 graphs Story (A) Story (A) Story (B)
(new lede)
Twitter Twitter Link set Link set Alt story form
Blog Blog Online links

30. By Catherine Reagor
The Arizona Republic
Metro Phoenix's real-estate recovery is
further off than expected.
Top analysts and economists at Urban
Land Arizona's annual conference
Thursday said that the Valley's real-estate
market will continue to slow this year and
in 2010. A significant increase in home
prices and sales likely won't happen until
2012.
Here's why a recovery will take longer
than a year or two: The foreclosure
problem won't go away this year and will
continue to push down home values. And
the Valley's dependence on the three
industries that led the nation into
recession -- construction, housing and
financial services -- will make any
recovery more difficult.

31. Example: Cardinals return from Super Bowl
Advance News Post Update Update Print
Advance Story (A) Story Story Story (B)
(no parade) (huge crowd) (huge crowd)
Poll Poll Poll Online links
(on parade) Photos Slide show
Live video Live video

37. Exercise: Your stories
Advance News Post Update Update Print
Anticipated story
Enterprise off the news story