Spero News encourages citizen journalism with news identified and documented by those who live in the community where it happens.
Some writers on Spero News are not professional journalists. Those who participates become a writers because they are close to their communities and we realize that they know there are more stories out there that need to be told.
Writers are fully empowered to write what they discover in their community. Their mission is to create an easy, intuitive and gratifying experience for people interested in their topic.
Non-writers must successfully complete the Spero training program and maintain our high standards in citizen journalism and community leadership. As a citizen journalist, you will write original informative articles, provide the best information available for users, and give their readers what they need to know. This relationship between writers and users makes Spero a dynamic service that truly responds to the needs of anyone who visits.
Our writers are real people. They include professionals, educators, students and stay-at-home moms. Our writers are as diverse as the news we offer.
As diverse as they are, writers share a few characteristics:
A true knowledge of and a passion for their topic
Commitment to creating informative, "what you need to know" features
A dedication to building and updating a comprehensive news portfolio
The ability to bring their articles to life
Strong writing and editing skills
Basic HTML skills
A desire to ensure that Spero remains the best citizen religious news on the Internet
Our Job Is
Our job as writers is to:
Define problems and issues clearly.
Anticipate trends and developments.
Provide our readers with insights.
Tell our readers what is really happening in a situation.
Be responsive to our readers.
Evaluate raw information critically to determine its relevance, reliability, and weight as evidence.
Extract key points from raw information or otherwise identify what is important in a sea of detail.
Make meaningful characterizations about data by synthesizing them into judgments that are greater than the data they're based on.
Deal with ambiguity, uncover and test assumptions, reconcile conflicting information, and guard against bias, subjectivity, deception, and politicization.
Consider the views of others.
Evaluate alternative scenarios.
Assess implications for our readers.
Analytical Mission:
Render the complex simple.
Read, weigh, and assess the fragmentary information to determine what it means, to get the "big picture."
That is, we draw conclusions that are greater than the data they're based on. One plus one equals three!
We see the forest, not just the trees: Synthesizing takes an inordinate amount of time up front. You have to know your bottom line before you write, because your bottom line comes first and drives the rest of your written product.
Sound analytic thinking and analytic communication require us to do two major things in our observations:
Conceptualize - focus, frame, and advance the story
Craft - write or speak so clearly and simply that the reader cannot misundersand our message. Everyone who reads what we have written comes away with exactly the same message. Our job is not done until that is accomplished.
Conceptualizing
Conceptualization is a technique for focusing on an overall judgment and a logical argument for it. When you conceptualize, you establish three things:
Contract. Your title - a pledge that creates an expectation in the reader's mind; conveys a message.
Focus. Your "statement of synthesis," the big picture and bottom line, the major judgment your story tells, the what an dso what - a simple declarative sentence that synthesizes information into an analytic assertion.
Case. Your argument - the advancement of the line of reasoning that supports or unfolds from your focus.
Crafting
Your ability to craft writing that conveys ideas clearly and succinctly shows your aptitude in "expository writing" style. Expository writing is:
Plain talk.
Straightforward, matter-of-fact communication - the efficient conveyance of ideas.
Writing that seeks to inform or persuade.
Writing intended for a busy reader who literally is in "a hurry to stop reading."
Expository writing requires that you use precise words and simple language.
Expository writing stresses the importance of clarity, speed, and structure to help you stay in control of your story - never make a reader wonder what you ar egetting at.
Developing skills in expository writing - clarity, brevity, precision, and structure - is essential to preparing effective articles.
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