Steve Klein sent this over for your consideration. Pay close attention to the last two paragraphs. This is why serious journalism is important.
Dan
Read All About It
by Steve Coll August 13, 2007
When there’s big news, the main story on the Wall Street Journal’s front page usually starts with a short, ringing sentence, such as the one that appeared last Wednesday: “A century of Bancroft-family ownership at Dow Jones & Co. is over.” On the left side of the page that day was another signature motif: an in-depth reconstruction of how Rupert Murdoch had triumphed in his four-month campaign to buy the company and the newspaper it owned—the Journal, one of the best papers in the world. The story was gang-tackled by six reporters and came furnished with the Journal’s mandatory scenes of business titans with murky motives negotiating in restaurants. The writers referred to their own company’s chief executive as Murdoch’s “dance partner,” and noted, on the front page, the possibility of a “big payday” for the boss following the sale.
In all, the Journal’s coverage of the sale was a kind of prideful and impressive demonstration to Murdoch of the values, the talents, and the daring of the editors and reporters he will now have on his payroll. The subliminal question that the coverage seemed to ask was, Will Murdoch destroy the Journal? Will he undermine the paper’s values and call that “investment”?
Many journalists, including some in the Journal’s newsroom, assume that Murdoch’s victory will lead eventually to the paper’s diminishment. In a sense, Murdoch has said as much. He favors what he calls “popular journalism.” He has mentioned that he finds long stories about complicated subjects to be rather trying. At his numerous other properties (which include the Post, the London Times, and the Fox network), he has no record of funding the relentless, risk-taking investigative reporting in which the Journal has specialized.
There can be little doubt that a Murdoch-owned Journal will be different, and that some of the changes will amount to loss. Murdoch has voiced skepticism, for example, about the Journal’s peculiar front-page feature stories known as “A-heds.” In this hyperlinked era of multimedia, the A-hed is an almost atavistic institution that relies upon wit and originality but offers no pressing connection to the news of the day. This was the headline stack on one classic: Listening to Prozac: ‘Bow Wow! I Really Love the Mailman!’ Some Are Pushing the Drug To Treat Pet Ailments; Scientologists Are Yelping
It would not be entirely fair to blame Murdoch for the prospective vanishing of such compositions, though—and perhaps, since they sometimes concern drug-addled animals, he will change his view.
Nor can it be considered a surprise that Murdoch succeeded in his quest to buy the Journal. At seventy-six, he is apparently still juiced by the adrenaline that flows from empire creation. He prepared his bid skillfully; he offered a high price in cash for a troubled company; and he had no competitors. The newspapers that Murdoch publishes and the television networks that he operates may be coarse, lacking in public-minded ambition, and craven about their owner’s political and business interests. None of this, however, disqualifies him from throwing money around as he pleases in a democratic marketplace.
The more regrettable aspect of the deal involves the sellers, the Bancroft family. The same civic marketplace that granted permission to Murdoch demanded responsibility from them. Over time, the Bancrofts failed their newspaper—not so much because they sold out as because they did not prevent the conditions that made Murdoch’s offer irrefutable. Their values may have been the right ones, but as a collective they lost focus, lacked vigor, and, in the end, could not resist the blandishments of a cunning suitor.
A decade ago, four American families regarded themselves, correctly, as guardians of public trusts, because they controlled independent newspapers, situated in America’s most influential cities, that were vital to the national discourse. They were the Sulzbergers, who control the Times; the Grahams, who control the Washington Post; the Chandlers, who controlled the Los Angeles Times; and the Bancrofts. Within their separate ranks, the families faced a common challenge: as generations passed and ownership became dispersed among siblings and cousins, it grew harder to act decisively. The Sulzbergers and the Grahams handled the problem by empowering a single leader; the Chandlers did the same for a time, but then fell apart; the Bancrofts never addressed it.
Defiant statements about civic duty issued by members of the Bancroft family during the struggle with Murdoch have made it plain that some of them had a rich awareness of their public role, and were prepared to make financial sacrifices to preserve the company’s independence. But the Bancrofts failed because they proved incompetent in the sphere that belonged to them as owners. This involved the adaptation of their inherited newspaper business model to support deep and independent reporting in the digital age.
The urgency of this mission has been clear since at least the mid-nineteen-nineties. As newspaper circulation fell, computing and telecommunications merged, and the Internet arrived with all the subtlety of a supernova. The business readers and the financial-market participants crucial to Dow Jones lived and worked at the forefront of these changes. Yet for years the Bancrofts coddled a chief executive at Dow Jones, Peter R. Kann, who, although he was a likable man and a talented journalist, could not find a winning strategic path.
As the Bancrofts dozed and Kann floundered, Michael Bloomberg erected a skyscraper of a company on Dow Jones’s front lawn. He did this by pioneering the use of new technologies to profitably speed up and deliver business information. Dow Jones might have recovered from any number of mistakes, but it could not overcome its failure to dominate the profitable sale of electronic financial data. This ultimately laid the company bare for Murdoch, a master of technological change. Crawford Hill, a member of the Bancroft family who works as a biology teacher, summed up this background acutely in an e-mail to others in the family, reported last week by the Journal: “We are actually now paying the price for our passivity over the past twenty-five years.”
No railroad family could forestall the automobile, and no newspaper family can prevent the eventual end of newspapers in their old, accustomed form. Reporting without fear or favor arose from newspapers but is not inherently tied to them or even to the search for a well-turned sentence. Most of what matters about the coming media age is already being decided outside of traditional newsrooms, on YouTube and countless other Web sites, or in the advertising agencies that calibrate Google search results with the mouse-clicking habits of young consumers. Perhaps Google or its ilk will find it profitable or desirable to fund independent, expert foreign correspondence; or to support investigations of corporate and government power; or to train the sort of journalists who feel free to call out their employers’ pay packages on the proverbial front page, although there are no signs of this yet. Or perhaps the Sulzbergers and the Grahams can adapt their public trusts successfully to the new technologies. And even if their efforts fail to become profitable these families might still preserve their newsrooms’ independence by converting them into nonprofit foundations, similar to what the Poynter family did with the St. Petersburg Times, in Florida.
The tenets and the traditions of unfettered journalism are marrow in our constitutional system. The Journal matters most of all because it has been a rare American incubator of the values and the skills necessary to carry out independent reporting, and because the newspaper has continually demonstrated through its stories how the First Amendment is supposed to work. Rupert Murdoch’s vanquishing of the Bancrofts reminds us that even small outposts of besieged values are worth fighting for if the alternative may be their extinction.
August 26, 2007
August 23, 2007
Says v. Said -- The Battle Continues
Chip Scanlan at the Poynter Institute has another gem of an article on word usage.
For my bread and butter writing in commodities and for features the "says" format works and is appropriate. For straight news stories: I have to go with "said." (So this ought to be fun this semester while I teach Writing Across Media and Feature Writing.)
What's your take on this?
Dan
Here is the link to the column: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52. You might want to consider linking this for your students.
And here is the colum itself.
PoynteronlineChip On Your Shoulder
THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2007
Says vs. Said.
Hi, Chip, We have an inquiry from a coworker who uses "says'' in stories. It drives me up the wall, cuz I was taught that it's "said" all the time, unless it's a very specific situation, like a totally fluffy feature story. So I'm wondering what the rule is.
All the best.
Sebastian MoragaCashmere Valley (Wash.) Record
--------------------------------------------------
Sebastian,
Ah, the says vs. said debate continues, pitting present vs. past tense verbs of attribution, also known as dialogue tags.
My take: feature writers, myself included, often choose "says" over "said."
The first, we believe, gets us closer to the goal set by the late John Gardner, novelist and writing teacher: to convey dramatic action, as in a scene, that creates a "vivid continuous dream" and keeps a reader reading, especially when the story represents a narrative reconstruction of events.
When I wrote a "day in the life" story about a blind child, present tense underscored the story's conceit, that readers were watching the action unfold before their eyes. (As you'll see, I didn't remain faithful to present tense. More on that later.)
Some editors and other critics abhor its familiarity, considering it the kind of overindulgence that feature writers revel in.
They argue for the second choice, stressing that stories, wherever they appear in a newspaper, occur by temporal default in the past, and thus call for the verb tense that conveys summary narrative. The first shows, the second tells. Perhaps that's why "said" won the battle when I wrote this news feature for The Providence Journal. (Excerpts of these two articles are available here.)
Bottom line: It depends -- on your intent, your paper's style, your editor's preference and how those verbs of attribution sound on the page.
The debate over says vs. said is less contentious in broadcast writing. "Use present tense, but don't belabor it," writes Laurie Lattimore on JPROF, University of Tennessee professor Jim Stovall's Web site on teaching journalism. "Not every story must sound as if it just happened moments before the newscast."
Anticipating a "That's a big help," I decided to find out where editors and writers I admire come down on the says vs. said debate.
I started with Mary Lynn Plageman, managing editor for features at The Columbus Dispatch. (I recently led online writing workshops at the paper.)
DON'T WEAR IT OUT
I don't mind the use of the present-tense "says," but, as you noted, it can be overused.
Maybe more important: It strikes me as a pitfall of sorts for some writers, because they inevitably fail to sustain it. (In such cases, "said" creeps into the storytelling/scene-setting somewhere in the middle of the piece.) (Note from Chip: You'll notice that happened in the Jed Barton story.) Used well -- and I've seen strong writers use it well -- I like what it does for immediacy in a well-done feature/newsfeature.
"Said" will always work and is perfectly functional, but I would never say never to "says." Tense -- like punctuation, word choice, paragraphing and any number of other things -- is a writing tool that writers should be allowed to pull from the toolbox. ...
Next I turned to Chris Wienandt, business news copy chief at the Dallas Morning News and president of the American Society of Copy Editors.
CONSISTENCY COUNTS
I'm not hard-core about this. If a feature writer wants to use "says," that's OK by me -- if he or she uses it consistently. I'm really not even bothered if one story goes one way and another goes the other. Maybe I'm getting old.
As far as news writing is concerned, I'm a little less flexible. "Said" works best for quotations, both direct and indirect. "Says," in my book, should be reserved for a sentiment that the subject expresses as a generality (this is by definition a little hard to pin down): "Ms. Smith says training your dog is a hefty responsibility." But that's not a situation you run into all that often.
Which brings me to forms of attribution other than "say." Practically any other word used for that purpose -- continue, note, explain, insist -- drains attention away from the quote. I'm particularly bothered by "add," not least because that's usually not what the person it's applied to is doing. ...
Third on my list was Jan Winburn, special projects editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who has edited Pulitzer- and ASNE Award-winning narratives.
KEEPING READERS IN THE MOMENT
In a feature story, particularly one in which a reporter is writing in scenes and describing the actions and thoughts of a character (as opposed to quoting a source), I think any technique that helps keep the reader immersed in the moment is useful. And I think the present tense is one strong method for doing that. So "says" would be applicable, as would present tense throughout. It makes the use of active verbs come easily. And active verbs are the muscles of good writing.
I heard a writer recently say that she was taught that "says" made a story sound less newsy. Softer and perhaps not as important.
It seems like a chicken-and-egg debate to me. Doesn't "said" just sound more newsworthy because we've long preferred its use in news stories? Would our news stories sound more immediate if we sometimes used says?
Last, but certainly not least, I turned to one of my favorite writers, Ken Fuson of the Des Moines Register. He relied on present tense in his ASNE Award-winning series, "A Stage in Their Lives," a six-part serial narrative for The Sun in Baltimore, edited by Jan Winburn, that chronicled a high school production of "West Side Story."
A QUESTION OF IMMEDIACY
I've never understood why it drives some people crazy to use "says," but it certainly does. We had an editor here a long time ago that basically banned it.
To me, the issue is immediacy. "Says" sounds like it's being spoken right now, in real time. "Said" sounds like it was said in the past. Like it's already happened.
If you're doing a narrative, or even a daily feature in which you want the reader to have a sense of being there, as the action is taking place, I think you want to use "says." For example:
She kicks the ball.
Goal.
"Great job," her coach says.
That sounds like you're watching the scene. Compare that to:
She kicks the ball.
Goal.
"Great job," her coach said.
That breaks the spell, it seems to me. You're no longer watching something as it happens. You're watching something that has already happened. That makes it harder, in my view, to get "swept away" in the story.
Thanks for asking, Sebastian. Thanks for answering, Mary Lynn, Chris, Jan and Ken.
For my bread and butter writing in commodities and for features the "says" format works and is appropriate. For straight news stories: I have to go with "said." (So this ought to be fun this semester while I teach Writing Across Media and Feature Writing.)
What's your take on this?
Dan
Here is the link to the column: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52. You might want to consider linking this for your students.
And here is the colum itself.
PoynteronlineChip On Your Shoulder
THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2007
Says vs. Said.
Hi, Chip, We have an inquiry from a coworker who uses "says'' in stories. It drives me up the wall, cuz I was taught that it's "said" all the time, unless it's a very specific situation, like a totally fluffy feature story. So I'm wondering what the rule is.
All the best.
Sebastian MoragaCashmere Valley (Wash.) Record
--------------------------------------------------
Sebastian,
Ah, the says vs. said debate continues, pitting present vs. past tense verbs of attribution, also known as dialogue tags.
My take: feature writers, myself included, often choose "says" over "said."
The first, we believe, gets us closer to the goal set by the late John Gardner, novelist and writing teacher: to convey dramatic action, as in a scene, that creates a "vivid continuous dream" and keeps a reader reading, especially when the story represents a narrative reconstruction of events.
When I wrote a "day in the life" story about a blind child, present tense underscored the story's conceit, that readers were watching the action unfold before their eyes. (As you'll see, I didn't remain faithful to present tense. More on that later.)
Some editors and other critics abhor its familiarity, considering it the kind of overindulgence that feature writers revel in.
They argue for the second choice, stressing that stories, wherever they appear in a newspaper, occur by temporal default in the past, and thus call for the verb tense that conveys summary narrative. The first shows, the second tells. Perhaps that's why "said" won the battle when I wrote this news feature for The Providence Journal. (Excerpts of these two articles are available here.)
Bottom line: It depends -- on your intent, your paper's style, your editor's preference and how those verbs of attribution sound on the page.
The debate over says vs. said is less contentious in broadcast writing. "Use present tense, but don't belabor it," writes Laurie Lattimore on JPROF, University of Tennessee professor Jim Stovall's Web site on teaching journalism. "Not every story must sound as if it just happened moments before the newscast."
Anticipating a "That's a big help," I decided to find out where editors and writers I admire come down on the says vs. said debate.
I started with Mary Lynn Plageman, managing editor for features at The Columbus Dispatch. (I recently led online writing workshops at the paper.)
DON'T WEAR IT OUT
I don't mind the use of the present-tense "says," but, as you noted, it can be overused.
Maybe more important: It strikes me as a pitfall of sorts for some writers, because they inevitably fail to sustain it. (In such cases, "said" creeps into the storytelling/scene-setting somewhere in the middle of the piece.) (Note from Chip: You'll notice that happened in the Jed Barton story.) Used well -- and I've seen strong writers use it well -- I like what it does for immediacy in a well-done feature/newsfeature.
"Said" will always work and is perfectly functional, but I would never say never to "says." Tense -- like punctuation, word choice, paragraphing and any number of other things -- is a writing tool that writers should be allowed to pull from the toolbox. ...
Next I turned to Chris Wienandt, business news copy chief at the Dallas Morning News and president of the American Society of Copy Editors.
CONSISTENCY COUNTS
I'm not hard-core about this. If a feature writer wants to use "says," that's OK by me -- if he or she uses it consistently. I'm really not even bothered if one story goes one way and another goes the other. Maybe I'm getting old.
As far as news writing is concerned, I'm a little less flexible. "Said" works best for quotations, both direct and indirect. "Says," in my book, should be reserved for a sentiment that the subject expresses as a generality (this is by definition a little hard to pin down): "Ms. Smith says training your dog is a hefty responsibility." But that's not a situation you run into all that often.
Which brings me to forms of attribution other than "say." Practically any other word used for that purpose -- continue, note, explain, insist -- drains attention away from the quote. I'm particularly bothered by "add," not least because that's usually not what the person it's applied to is doing. ...
Third on my list was Jan Winburn, special projects editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who has edited Pulitzer- and ASNE Award-winning narratives.
KEEPING READERS IN THE MOMENT
In a feature story, particularly one in which a reporter is writing in scenes and describing the actions and thoughts of a character (as opposed to quoting a source), I think any technique that helps keep the reader immersed in the moment is useful. And I think the present tense is one strong method for doing that. So "says" would be applicable, as would present tense throughout. It makes the use of active verbs come easily. And active verbs are the muscles of good writing.
I heard a writer recently say that she was taught that "says" made a story sound less newsy. Softer and perhaps not as important.
It seems like a chicken-and-egg debate to me. Doesn't "said" just sound more newsworthy because we've long preferred its use in news stories? Would our news stories sound more immediate if we sometimes used says?
Last, but certainly not least, I turned to one of my favorite writers, Ken Fuson of the Des Moines Register. He relied on present tense in his ASNE Award-winning series, "A Stage in Their Lives," a six-part serial narrative for The Sun in Baltimore, edited by Jan Winburn, that chronicled a high school production of "West Side Story."
A QUESTION OF IMMEDIACY
I've never understood why it drives some people crazy to use "says," but it certainly does. We had an editor here a long time ago that basically banned it.
To me, the issue is immediacy. "Says" sounds like it's being spoken right now, in real time. "Said" sounds like it was said in the past. Like it's already happened.
If you're doing a narrative, or even a daily feature in which you want the reader to have a sense of being there, as the action is taking place, I think you want to use "says." For example:
She kicks the ball.
Goal.
"Great job," her coach says.
That sounds like you're watching the scene. Compare that to:
She kicks the ball.
Goal.
"Great job," her coach said.
That breaks the spell, it seems to me. You're no longer watching something as it happens. You're watching something that has already happened. That makes it harder, in my view, to get "swept away" in the story.
Thanks for asking, Sebastian. Thanks for answering, Mary Lynn, Chris, Jan and Ken.
August 20, 2007
NED offers student internship
Media Center Fall Intern
Organization: National Endowment for Democracy
Location: United States (Washington, DC)
Website: http://www.ned.org/employment.html
Contact Information: Shannon Maguire
Phone: 202-378-9532
Email: CIMA@ned.org
Description:
The Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) seeks an intern for the fall semester. The NED is a private, bipartisan, nonprofit organization which strengthens democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. The Center, a recently established NED initiative, focuses on strengthening the support of free and independent media worldwide. Among other activities, the Center supports an Advisory Council and working groups on media assistance issues, as well as drafting reports on topics relevant to media development.
Qualification:
The internship, which is unpaid, is open to current graduate and undergraduate students. The duties include researching international organizations and topics on media assistance, helping with Center correspondence and assisting with arranging meetings and events at the Center. Applicants must be proficient computer users and possess strong oral and written communication skills. Applicants should have an interest in journalism, communications, international relations, development and democracy work.
Please e-mail a cover letter and resume to the Center coordinator, Shannon Maguire, at CIMA@ned.org.
Organization: National Endowment for Democracy
Location: United States (Washington, DC)
Website: http://www.ned.org/employment.html
Contact Information: Shannon Maguire
Phone: 202-378-9532
Email: CIMA@ned.org
Description:
The Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) seeks an intern for the fall semester. The NED is a private, bipartisan, nonprofit organization which strengthens democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. The Center, a recently established NED initiative, focuses on strengthening the support of free and independent media worldwide. Among other activities, the Center supports an Advisory Council and working groups on media assistance issues, as well as drafting reports on topics relevant to media development.
Qualification:
The internship, which is unpaid, is open to current graduate and undergraduate students. The duties include researching international organizations and topics on media assistance, helping with Center correspondence and assisting with arranging meetings and events at the Center. Applicants must be proficient computer users and possess strong oral and written communication skills. Applicants should have an interest in journalism, communications, international relations, development and democracy work.
Please e-mail a cover letter and resume to the Center coordinator, Shannon Maguire, at CIMA@ned.org.
August 14, 2007
Oops! Why copy editor are important
Below is a short piece from China Digital Times.
What is significant here is that by not paying attention to what they stole from another news service, China Daily changed 18 years of Chinese government policy about the Tiananmen
Square massacre.
My guess is that some editors at China Daily are about to "transferred" to jobs making Mattel toys in some state-run facility. Could be worse. The editors could end up "donating" their organs for transplants.
Dan
___________________________________________________
China Daily Messed Up Copy-and-Paste Job
Posted by Xiao Qiang
2007-08-13, 07:17 PM
This is not the first time China Daily online editors copy-and-paste other's article. But this one is certainly more noticeable than others.
From EastSouthWestNorth blog:
At 20:31 on August 8, 2007, the online edition of China Daily posted an article titled: "China invites the world to Olympics" on its website.
The following sentence appeared: "Security was tight around Tiananmen Square, where troops crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 with huge loss of life, as crowds gathered for the celebrations.".
This came about because someone did a copy-and-paste job from Reuters' Nick Mulvenney (dated 19:54 on the same evening) without checking the content.
What is significant here is that by not paying attention to what they stole from another news service, China Daily changed 18 years of Chinese government policy about the Tiananmen
Square massacre.
My guess is that some editors at China Daily are about to "transferred" to jobs making Mattel toys in some state-run facility. Could be worse. The editors could end up "donating" their organs for transplants.
Dan
___________________________________________________
China Daily Messed Up Copy-and-Paste Job
Posted by Xiao Qiang
2007-08-13, 07:17 PM
This is not the first time China Daily online editors copy-and-paste other's article. But this one is certainly more noticeable than others.
From EastSouthWestNorth blog:
At 20:31 on August 8, 2007, the online edition of China Daily posted an article titled: "China invites the world to Olympics" on its website.
The following sentence appeared: "Security was tight around Tiananmen Square, where troops crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 with huge loss of life, as crowds gathered for the celebrations.".
This came about because someone did a copy-and-paste job from Reuters' Nick Mulvenney (dated 19:54 on the same evening) without checking the content.
____________________________________________________
August 13, 2007
Back to school data from the Census Bureau
If your students are looking for a different angle to stories about education, they can stop by the Census Bureau. Here is a listing of their summer releases of data.
Back to School: 2007-2008
Summertime is winding down, and summer vacations are coming to an end. It's back-to-school time! It's a time that many children eagerly anticipate -- catching up with old friends, making new ones and settling into a new daily routine. Parents and children alike are scanning the newspapers and Web sites looking for upcoming sales to shop for a multitude of school supplies and the latest clothing fads and essentials. This edition of Facts for Features highlights the many statistics associated with the return to classrooms by our nation's students and teachers.
Back-to-School Shopping
$7.1 billion
The amount of money spent at family clothing stores in August 2006. Only in November and December -- the holiday shopping season -- were sales significantly higher. Similarly, sales at bookstores in August 2006 totaled
$2.1 billion, an amount approached in 2006 only by sales in January and December. <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>
For back-to-school shopping, choices of retail establishments abound: In 2005, there were 24,659 family clothing stores, 6,305 children and infants clothing stores, 26,416 shoe stores, 9,501 office supplies and stationery stores, 23,195 sporting goods stores, 11,077 bookstores and 9,589 department stores. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/county_business_patterns/010192.html>
Students
75.8 million
The number of children and adults enrolled in school throughout the country in October 2005 -- from nursery school to college. That amounts to aboutone-fourth of the U.S. population 3 and older. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
Pre-K through 12
Enrollment
54%
Percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in school in October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
70%
Percentage of children enrolled in kindergarten who attended all day, as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
55.8 million
The projected number of students to be enrolled in the nation's elementary and high schools (grades K-12) this fall. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
11%
Projected percentage of elementary and high school students enrolled in
private schools this fall. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
41%
Percentage of elementary and high school students who were minorities, as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
22%
Percentage of elementary and high school students with at least one foreign-born parent in October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
42%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who participated in sports as of 2003, which was the most popular extracurricular activity. About one-third of children this age participated in club activities and 29 percent in
lessons. Lessons include those taken after school or on the weekend in subjects like music, dance, language, computers or religion. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
75%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who were enrolled in school and academically "on-track " (i.e., enrolled in school at or above the grade level for peers their age) as of 2003. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
24%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who were in a special class for gifted students or did advanced work in any subject, such as honors and advanced placement classes, as of 2003. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
41%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who had ever attended or been enrolled in first grade or higher and had changed schools at some point as of 2003. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
Languages
10.5 million
Number of school-age children (5 to 17) who speak a language other than English at home, about one in five in this age group. Most of them (7.5 million) speak Spanish at home. (Source: 2005 American Community Survey)
Lunchtime
30.1 million
Average number of children participating each month in the national school lunch program in 2006.
(Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
10 billion
The nation's total apple production, in pounds, in 2006. The chances are good that the apples your children present to their teachers or enjoy for lunch were grown in Washington state, which accounted for more than half of the nation's total production.
<http://www.usda.gov/nass/>
College
18 million
The projected number of students enrolled in the nation's colleges and universities this fall. This is up from 12.8 million 20 years ago. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
37%
Percentage of all college students 25 and older in October 2005; 56 percent of these older students attended school part time. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
69%
Percentage of undergraduates enrolled in four-year colleges in October 2005. Of those enrolled in such schools, 81 percent attended full time. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
49%
Percentage of 18- and 19-year-olds enrolled in college in 2005.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
56%
Percentage of undergraduates who were women in October 2005. Among graduate students, the corresponding
percentage was even higher: 59 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
Learning and Earning
21%
Percentage of high school students who were employed as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html>
50%
Percentage of full-time college students who were employed as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html>
How Many Schools?
95,726
Number of public elementary and secondary schools in 2003-04. The corresponding number of private elementary and secondary schools was 28,384. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Tables 228 and 252.
4,276
Number of institutions of higher learning that granted college degrees in 2005. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
1.1 million
Number of students who were home-schooled in 2003. That was 2 percent of all students 5 to 17.
<http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 227.
3,294
The number of public charter schools nationwide in 2004-05. These schools, granted a charter exempting them from selected state and local rules and regulations, enrolled 887,000 students. (Source: Upcoming Statistical
Abstract of the United States: 2008)
Teachers and Other School Personnel
6.8 million
Number of teachers in the United States in 2006. Some 2.7 million teach at the elementary and middle school level. The remainder include those teaching at the postsecondary, secondary and preschool and kindergarten
levels. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
$57,300
Average annual salary of public elementary and secondary school teachers in Connecticut as of the 2003-2004 school year -- the highest of any state. Teachers in South Dakota received the lowest pay -- $33,200. The national average was $46,800. High school principals earned $86,938 annually in 2004-05. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Tables 240 and 241
$14.18
Average hourly wage for the nation’s school bus drivers in 2004-05. Custodians earned $12.61, while cafeteria workers made $10.33. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 241
Technology
14.2 million
Number of computers available for classroom use in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools as of the 2005-2006 school year. That works out to one computer for every four students. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 248
100%
Percentage of public schools with Internet access as of fall 2003. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 246
83% and 43%
Percentage of children 3 to 17 using a computer and the Internet, respectively, at school as of fall 2003. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer.html>
75%
Among children 3 to 17 accessing the Internet in fall 2003, whether at home, school or elsewhere, the percentage who used it to complete school assignments. This was the most common reason for children to use the Internet. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/005863.html>
66%
Among children 3 to 17 using a computer at home in fall 2003, the percentage who used it to complete school assignments. This was the second most common home computer use for children, behind playing games. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/005863.html>
The Rising Cost of College
$13,425
Average tuition, room and board (for in-state students) at the nation’s four-year public colleges and universities for an entire academic year (2005-06). That is more than double the corresponding figure in 1990. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
$36,510
Average tuition, room and board at the nation’s four-year private colleges and universities for one academic year (2005-06). That also is more than double the corresponding 1990 figure. (Source: Upcoming Statistical
Abstract of the United States: 2008)
$6,291
Average amount of aid received by full-time college students in 2001-02. More than half of college students receive some form of financial aid from outside their families to help pay for their education. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007383.html>
The Rewards of Staying in School
$79,946
Average annual 2005 earnings of workers 18 and older with an advanced degree. This compares with $54,689 a year for those with bachelor’s degrees, $29,448 for those with a high school diploma only and $19,915 for those without a high school diploma. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/009749.html>
$67,069
Average starting salary offered to bachelor’s degree candidates in petroleum engineering in 2006, among the highest of any field of study. At the other end of the spectrum were those majoring in the humanities; they
were offered an average of $31,183. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
Graduation
3.3 million
Projected number of high school diplomas that will be awarded in the 2007-08 school year. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
3 million
Number of college degrees expected to be conferred in the 2007-08 school year. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
Government Spending on Public Education
$8,701
The per-pupil expenditure on public elementary and secondary education nationally in 2005. New York ($14,119) spent the most among states or state equivalents, followed by New Jersey ($13,800), the District of Columbia ($12,979), Vermont ($11,835) and Connecticut ($11,572). Utah ($5,257) spent the least per student, followed by Arizona ($6,261), Idaho ($6,283), Mississippi ($6,575) and Oklahoma ($6,613). <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/010125.html>
Satisfaction
7%
Among households with a child in the local public school, the percentage who expressed dissatisfaction with the schools in 2003. Fifteen percent of these households said they would prefer a different school for their child.
< http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/009884.html>
Dan
Back to School: 2007-2008
Summertime is winding down, and summer vacations are coming to an end. It's back-to-school time! It's a time that many children eagerly anticipate -- catching up with old friends, making new ones and settling into a new daily routine. Parents and children alike are scanning the newspapers and Web sites looking for upcoming sales to shop for a multitude of school supplies and the latest clothing fads and essentials. This edition of Facts for Features highlights the many statistics associated with the return to classrooms by our nation's students and teachers.
Back-to-School Shopping
$7.1 billion
The amount of money spent at family clothing stores in August 2006. Only in November and December -- the holiday shopping season -- were sales significantly higher. Similarly, sales at bookstores in August 2006 totaled
$2.1 billion, an amount approached in 2006 only by sales in January and December. <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>
For back-to-school shopping, choices of retail establishments abound: In 2005, there were 24,659 family clothing stores, 6,305 children and infants clothing stores, 26,416 shoe stores, 9,501 office supplies and stationery stores, 23,195 sporting goods stores, 11,077 bookstores and 9,589 department stores. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/county_business_patterns/010192.html>
Students
75.8 million
The number of children and adults enrolled in school throughout the country in October 2005 -- from nursery school to college. That amounts to aboutone-fourth of the U.S. population 3 and older. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
Pre-K through 12
Enrollment
54%
Percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in school in October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
70%
Percentage of children enrolled in kindergarten who attended all day, as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
55.8 million
The projected number of students to be enrolled in the nation's elementary and high schools (grades K-12) this fall. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
11%
Projected percentage of elementary and high school students enrolled in
private schools this fall. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
41%
Percentage of elementary and high school students who were minorities, as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
22%
Percentage of elementary and high school students with at least one foreign-born parent in October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
42%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who participated in sports as of 2003, which was the most popular extracurricular activity. About one-third of children this age participated in club activities and 29 percent in
lessons. Lessons include those taken after school or on the weekend in subjects like music, dance, language, computers or religion. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
75%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who were enrolled in school and academically "on-track " (i.e., enrolled in school at or above the grade level for peers their age) as of 2003. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
24%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who were in a special class for gifted students or did advanced work in any subject, such as honors and advanced placement classes, as of 2003. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
41%
Percentage of children 12 to 17 who had ever attended or been enrolled in first grade or higher and had changed schools at some point as of 2003. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/009412.html>
Languages
10.5 million
Number of school-age children (5 to 17) who speak a language other than English at home, about one in five in this age group. Most of them (7.5 million) speak Spanish at home. (Source: 2005 American Community Survey)
Lunchtime
30.1 million
Average number of children participating each month in the national school lunch program in 2006.
(Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
10 billion
The nation's total apple production, in pounds, in 2006. The chances are good that the apples your children present to their teachers or enjoy for lunch were grown in Washington state, which accounted for more than half of the nation's total production.
<http://www.usda.gov/nass/>
College
18 million
The projected number of students enrolled in the nation's colleges and universities this fall. This is up from 12.8 million 20 years ago. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
37%
Percentage of all college students 25 and older in October 2005; 56 percent of these older students attended school part time. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
69%
Percentage of undergraduates enrolled in four-year colleges in October 2005. Of those enrolled in such schools, 81 percent attended full time. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
49%
Percentage of 18- and 19-year-olds enrolled in college in 2005.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
56%
Percentage of undergraduates who were women in October 2005. Among graduate students, the corresponding
percentage was even higher: 59 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007909.html>
Learning and Earning
21%
Percentage of high school students who were employed as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html>
50%
Percentage of full-time college students who were employed as of October 2005. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html>
How Many Schools?
95,726
Number of public elementary and secondary schools in 2003-04. The corresponding number of private elementary and secondary schools was 28,384. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Tables 228 and 252.
4,276
Number of institutions of higher learning that granted college degrees in 2005. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
1.1 million
Number of students who were home-schooled in 2003. That was 2 percent of all students 5 to 17.
<http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 227.
3,294
The number of public charter schools nationwide in 2004-05. These schools, granted a charter exempting them from selected state and local rules and regulations, enrolled 887,000 students. (Source: Upcoming Statistical
Abstract of the United States: 2008)
Teachers and Other School Personnel
6.8 million
Number of teachers in the United States in 2006. Some 2.7 million teach at the elementary and middle school level. The remainder include those teaching at the postsecondary, secondary and preschool and kindergarten
levels. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
$57,300
Average annual salary of public elementary and secondary school teachers in Connecticut as of the 2003-2004 school year -- the highest of any state. Teachers in South Dakota received the lowest pay -- $33,200. The national average was $46,800. High school principals earned $86,938 annually in 2004-05. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Tables 240 and 241
$14.18
Average hourly wage for the nation’s school bus drivers in 2004-05. Custodians earned $12.61, while cafeteria workers made $10.33. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 241
Technology
14.2 million
Number of computers available for classroom use in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools as of the 2005-2006 school year. That works out to one computer for every four students. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 248
100%
Percentage of public schools with Internet access as of fall 2003. <http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/>, Table 246
83% and 43%
Percentage of children 3 to 17 using a computer and the Internet, respectively, at school as of fall 2003. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer.html>
75%
Among children 3 to 17 accessing the Internet in fall 2003, whether at home, school or elsewhere, the percentage who used it to complete school assignments. This was the most common reason for children to use the Internet. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/005863.html>
66%
Among children 3 to 17 using a computer at home in fall 2003, the percentage who used it to complete school assignments. This was the second most common home computer use for children, behind playing games. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/005863.html>
The Rising Cost of College
$13,425
Average tuition, room and board (for in-state students) at the nation’s four-year public colleges and universities for an entire academic year (2005-06). That is more than double the corresponding figure in 1990. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
$36,510
Average tuition, room and board at the nation’s four-year private colleges and universities for one academic year (2005-06). That also is more than double the corresponding 1990 figure. (Source: Upcoming Statistical
Abstract of the United States: 2008)
$6,291
Average amount of aid received by full-time college students in 2001-02. More than half of college students receive some form of financial aid from outside their families to help pay for their education. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/007383.html>
The Rewards of Staying in School
$79,946
Average annual 2005 earnings of workers 18 and older with an advanced degree. This compares with $54,689 a year for those with bachelor’s degrees, $29,448 for those with a high school diploma only and $19,915 for those without a high school diploma. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/009749.html>
$67,069
Average starting salary offered to bachelor’s degree candidates in petroleum engineering in 2006, among the highest of any field of study. At the other end of the spectrum were those majoring in the humanities; they
were offered an average of $31,183. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
Graduation
3.3 million
Projected number of high school diplomas that will be awarded in the 2007-08 school year. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
3 million
Number of college degrees expected to be conferred in the 2007-08 school year. (Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008)
Government Spending on Public Education
$8,701
The per-pupil expenditure on public elementary and secondary education nationally in 2005. New York ($14,119) spent the most among states or state equivalents, followed by New Jersey ($13,800), the District of Columbia ($12,979), Vermont ($11,835) and Connecticut ($11,572). Utah ($5,257) spent the least per student, followed by Arizona ($6,261), Idaho ($6,283), Mississippi ($6,575) and Oklahoma ($6,613). <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/010125.html>
Satisfaction
7%
Among households with a child in the local public school, the percentage who expressed dissatisfaction with the schools in 2003. Fifteen percent of these households said they would prefer a different school for their child.
< http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/009884.html>
August 12, 2007
Tweaks -- Revised and revisited
A few years ago a number of journalists up and down the East Coast put together a daily collection of quotes on writing called TWEAKS. It was run out of Penn State and was always a joy to read.
Turns out I saved just about all those e-mails. (Let's hear it for sloppy e-mail management!)
Here are a couple of gem,s from just a quick review of the hundreds of offerings:
Turns out I saved just about all those e-mails. (Let's hear it for sloppy e-mail management!)
Here are a couple of gem,s from just a quick review of the hundreds of offerings:
- I would say to a student, "You have to love the language. You've got to read, because if you don't read, you can't write, because you don't know anything to write about." Any kid who tells me, "I'm studying journalism" and then tells me "I don't have time to read the newspaper before I go to class every morning" is somebody I don't figure is going to be much of a journalist. You have to get the facts about what's going on in your life, in your town, your nation, around you and that is my priority.
-- Carl Rowan - Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph, sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second, and hold him against the wall until the tag line.
-- Paul O'Neil - Be clear. This is the first and greatest commandment. In a large sense, nothing else matters. For clarity embraceth all things; the clear thought to begin with, the right words for conveying that thought, the orderly arrangement of the words. It is a fine thing, now and then, to be colorful, to be vivid, to be bold. First be clear.
-- James J. Kilpatrick
August 8, 2007
Mining the Census Bureau
I'm getting a person from the Census Bureau to come to my feature writing class to show my students how to mine the Bureau's databases.
In the mean time, here is a link to the Bureau's Newsroom section: http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/news/index.html
Go to the Tip Sheets and Facts for Features sections for some really great material that could help your students get interesting items for their stories.
Dan
In the mean time, here is a link to the Bureau's Newsroom section: http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/news/index.html
Go to the Tip Sheets and Facts for Features sections for some really great material that could help your students get interesting items for their stories.
Dan
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