Knowing when to write is important, dealt with here, but recognizing an event is a learned skill.

We can begin recognizing events in its most explicit form: the calendar. Each community has its own calendar. A Catholic calendar will look different from a Lutheran calendar; an American calendar will look different than a French calendar. But they all accomplish the same thing: they tell us when something is going to happen within our community. We organize and modify our lives around these planned events and therefore we can often predict news around these events.

For example, message-boards across the internet are asking "Why does the Easter Bunny lay eggs?", "Is Easter pagan?", and "Should Christians celebrate Easter?". There are already three explicit articles that are driven by the event of Easter. Also , during this season in 2004, Mel Gibson released "The Passion". Additionally, the Catholic Church is at its most active during this season and releases news daily from the Vatican to the local parish that writers can easily find a hook. By keeping a "daybook" - a calendar of events, a writer can easily find newsworthy items for any community.

WHEN IS NEWS NEWSWORTHY?

Calendars are useful because a Baptist calendar may look similar to a Catholic, but to a Jewish person, the news may be new and fascinating. But often, the most general stories during a mainstream event are already covered by the mainstream press. For example, last Easter, The Passion was in the news for weeks. But members of Spero Forum debated The Passion for a year before the movie was released. By the time the mainstream press was discussing it, it was old news.

The nature of events is that they rarely happen suddenly. When they do, then they definitely take the front headlines. Otherwise, there are many other events that are happening that build-up to a larger event. Learning about and collecting intelligence and then documenting it makes interesting stories for your readers. For example, a popular story about The Passion is that the actor who played Jesus was struck by lightning while being filmed nailed to the cross. This story didn't reach people until after the film came out. If your community and contacts had "filming of Passion" on your calendar, this story might have been picked-up much earlier as you followed the production of the film and stayed in contact with insiders. For your audience, this would have been headline news!

Another example of a calendar-driven event, is when your local synogogue might be reviewing their budget. If you attend the meeting, you discover they alloted a significant portion for construction of a new building. This is a significant departure from the norm for them. As you question why your audience would care, you might discover that the building is going to be a scaled-version of the Temple in the Bible, or it's going to be used as a conversion center that is targetting Baptists. As you dig into the broader scheme, you may discover that Jewish temples are growing across the nation and the world and this is a trend. This is a significant departure from the norm and the story needs to be told.

Keep a daybook of your account and your ideas will naturally flow from that. When events happen that are unexpected, you will catch them. But, more than likely, if you follow your community's calendar, you will probably discover that it isn't much of a surprise to them.

What Is Spero News

• Who and what is Spero News and how do the writers create news?

Developing A Case

• Developing a case: The internal formula

Level Of Generality

• Finding the the right level of generality

Core Assertion

• Your analytic topic sentence

Inverted Pyramid Paragraph

• The basic structure of journalistic writing.

Expanding A Single Paragraph

• How to create a multiparagraph line of reasoning.

Principles Of Analytic Writing

• Writing smartly for busy readers.

Reminders About A Paragraph

• Summarizing how a paragraph works.

Topic Sentence Outline

• How making a topic sentence outline can save you time.

Concept Paper

• Creating your blueprint.

When To Write

• How to know when to write an article

Self Editing

• Developing a critical eye for your work.

Guide To Gisting

• How to evaluating and distill raw facts.

Key Intelligence Questions

• Questions to ask for any project.

Assessing Information Needs

• Realizing your Core Assertions

Getting Started With Methodologies

• Why bother using a methodology when you can just start writing what you know?

Alternative Scenarios

• When and why you should use alternative views.

Competing Hypothesis Analysis

• Looking at all possible solutions.

Finding The Angle

• An exercise in finding the angle of story by using a real press release.

Indentifying News

• Discovering news and finding an idea.

_Template Idea To Article

Advancing An Argument

• Advancing your line of reasoning in multiple paragraphs.

Ideas Are Event Driven

• Knowing when to write is important, dealt with here, but recognizing an event is a learned skill.

Daily Calendar of events

• Maintaining a Daybook

Conceptualization Process

• How to crystallize your main judgment or point and lay out your argument for it.

Crafting Titles

• How to create titles, your contract with the reader

Zeroing In On The Focus

• How to summarize your bottom line in one sentence.
Who and what is Spero News and how do the writers create news?
10/8/2007 1:56:50 PM - -76.30.20.161
Developing a case: The internal formula
10/8/2007 1:55:29 PM - -76.30.20.161
Finding the the right level of generality
10/8/2007 1:57:48 PM - -76.30.20.161
Your analytic topic sentence
10/8/2007 1:58:02 PM - -76.30.20.161
The basic structure of journalistic writing.
2/5/2006 6:26:35 PM - -66.69.144.12
How to create a multiparagraph line of reasoning.
2/5/2006 6:33:19 PM - -66.69.144.12
Writing smartly for busy readers.
2/5/2006 6:36:46 PM - -66.69.144.12
Summarizing how a paragraph works.
10/8/2007 1:54:13 PM - -76.30.20.161
How making a topic sentence outline can save you time.
5/2/2008 5:09:48 PM - -76.30.20.161
Creating your blueprint.
2/5/2006 6:46:20 PM - -66.69.144.12
How to know when to write an article
2/5/2006 7:30:09 PM - -66.69.144.12
Developing a critical eye for your work.
10/8/2007 1:56:22 PM - -76.30.20.161
How to evaluating and distill raw facts.
2/5/2006 6:51:53 PM - -66.69.144.12
Questions to ask for any project.
2/5/2006 6:54:41 PM - -66.69.144.12
Realizing your Core Assertions
10/8/2007 1:56:09 PM - -76.30.20.161
Why bother using a methodology when you can just start writing what you know?
10/8/2007 1:54:55 PM - -76.30.20.161
When and why you should use alternative views.
2/5/2006 7:08:20 PM - -66.69.144.12
Looking at all possible solutions.
10/8/2007 1:58:27 PM - -76.30.20.161
An exercise in finding the angle of story by using a real press release.
2/5/2006 7:20:35 PM - -66.69.144.12
Discovering news and finding an idea.
10/8/2007 1:54:40 PM - -76.30.20.161
Click to read this topic
10/8/2007 1:57:05 PM - -76.30.20.161
Advancing your line of reasoning in multiple paragraphs.
2/5/2006 6:29:44 PM - -66.69.144.12
Knowing when to write is important, dealt with here, but recognizing an event is a learned skill.
2/5/2006 5:46:24 PM - DEDJ201-spero
Maintaining a Daybook
2/5/2006 5:51:49 PM - DEDJ201-spero
How to crystallize your main judgment or point and lay out your argument for it.
2/5/2006 6:04:47 PM - -66.69.144.12
How to create titles, your contract with the reader
10/8/2007 1:59:49 PM - -76.30.20.161
How to summarize your bottom line in one sentence.
7/19/2006 4:39:05 PM - -67.10.170.21

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