COMM11007 - Week 4 Blog Activities



1. Practical: Interview two people and write their speech as a news report. 

Interview One:
I asked Shannon Payten-McDonald, if she would be an interviewee for me. Shannon works at the Cooma Universities Centre Snowy Monaro, where I go to study in peace, and receive support and help when needed. So, she was more than happy to be an interviewee for me, and discuss what things are important to her.

This is the first news report from the interview with Shannon:




 'Family, education, work and my 15-year-old Pomeranian dog, Misty, are the things that are most important to me,' says Shannon.

Shannon was encouraged by two aunts, and her grandparents to pursue an education, which she did.

'I went to Newcastle University, and completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature; and  am currently working on my Masters of Arts in Writing.'

Shannon is a sixth generation of the McDonald family, who first settled on a property in Nimmitabel in the 1850's. Her grandfather, Bill McDonald is still running the sheep property as a profitable business today.

The property is called Willow View.  'I was living there with my grandfather last year, when I started working at the Cooma University Centre,' she said. 'Now I have moved into Cooma, as it is closer to work.' 

Misty, Shannon's dog, moved with her also. 'Misty was given to me as a pup for my eighth birthday, from Mum.' 

'I am organising mum's 60th birthday celebrations,' Shannon said. 'It will be a Rock'n'Roll theme, in the Hall at Pambula, on the south coast, where she lives.'

After talking to Shannon, I can see why family, education, work and her dog, are all important things in her life.



Interview Two:

Interview with my darling younger sister, Gemma, who lives in Brisbane.

Things that are important to my sister, Gem, are: Animal Welfare, and Veganism. Also, Gemma’s friends are very important; for the friendship and support they give her.

Gemma thinks we have evolved as a human race, to a point where we no longer need to use animals as food and clothing.

'I don't think we need to eat animals, or animal by-products, to be healthy,' she says.

'There are plenty of cruelty-free clothing options available now, so we don't need to wear leather or wool products.

Gemma said it is hard to live by your values sometimes, and she struggles when it comes to feeding her dog.

'Dogs need to eat meat, and the thought of the terror livestock go through is really upsetting when it comes to feeding him,' she says.

Gemma loves her dog, Billy, who she regards as her 'spiritual dog companion'. 

She will do anything for him. 'When he wakes me at 4am and wants to go outside, I have to take him down the front stairs, because he won't use the backstairs anymore - they are too terrifying.'

The things we do for our pets! It is a family trait, and we all laugh about our pets idiosyncrasies.





It took me a couple of attempts to get this quiz right.

I must remember to put a colon before a direct quote, and after says/said.

Also, to put punctuation marks OUTSIDE the quotation in a partial quote.

And to stop using adverbs, keep words to a minimum for clarity.

Understanding Direct and Indirect Speech/Quotes is a problem for me, so this chapter is very helpful.

Quoting someone for the first time, requires you to introduce them before the quote. After that, variations are possible with he/she said, before, after or in-between quotes. 

For indirect quotes, you need to move most tenses one stage back. 'It is difficult to live by your values sometimes', becomes: She said it is difficult to live by your standards sometimes.

Reference:
Hicks, W 2013, English for journalists, Chapter 7, Reporting speech, pp. 93-99, 4th edn, Routledge London and New York.








Comments

  1. Great work Karen. I enjoyed your two interviews.
    It was well set out and easy to read.
    No grammar errors and we you had well formed sentences.
    You aso used the 5W's & H
    I hope you are starting to wrap your head around the technology.
    I am struggling and hope it will be kind. Great job!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Karen, some great information in these interviews. We're looking for more direct speech, and an even simpler style. For example, you wrote:

    Gemma says, ‘I don’t think we need to eat animals. As a human race, we have evolved so we don’t need to eat animals, or animal bi-products, to be healthy. Nor do we need to wear leather or wool products, as technology has also evolved and there are plenty of cruelty-free clothing options available.’

    She struggles when it comes to feeding her dog, – who is very important to her. Dogs need to eat meat, and the thought of the terror livestock go through, is really upsetting when it comes to feeding him. She says, ‘It is difficult to live by your values sometimes’.

    Better as:

    Gemma doesn't think we need to eat animals.

    "As a human race, we have evolved so we don’t need to eat animals, or animal bi-products, to be healthy," she says.

    "Nor do we need to wear leather or wool products, as technology has also evolved and there are plenty of cruelty-free clothing options available."

    Gemma said she struggles when it comes to feeding her dog who is very important to her.

    "Dogs need to eat meat, and the thought of the terror livestock go through, is really upsetting when it comes to feeding him.

    "It is difficult to live by your values sometimes."

    Here you see that the speech brings life to the story. So in Interview 1, where most of your story is written as indirect speech, you would work to incorporate a mix of indirect and direct quotes. This makes it easier to do more with the story, and is the style we're looking for in Week 8's media release and the Storify.

    I hope this helps, Kate. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, that does help Kate. I can see how, now I am doing the broadcast copy for the interview. Thank you. Karen

    ReplyDelete

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