This guide represents a work in progress. Read through sections you’re interested in, but if any section is missing pieces or if you’d like clarification, please come to one of the editors or a member of FO.

 

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso

We designed this handbook to promote learning, collaboration and efficiency. Each section of the Gazette has a section within this (online) handbook acting as a reference guide for basics. We hope this guide serves as an invaluable resource, and while it’s not comprehensive, we believe it contains enough information to get you started. So read this guide as you see fit, share it with your interns and volunteers, and enjoy!

Welcome to Volume 112 of the Gazette.

The Journalist

Working as a journalist comes with responsibilities. As an organization in the public eye, there’s an expectation to conduct ourselves ethically and responsibly. If ever you face backlash for work you’ve contributed, following these basic rules of conduct will ensure that you will have the Gazette behind you. This is the briefest section, but it’s also the most important.

The following have no legal basis. Rather, they are journalistic guidelines concerned with professionalism and respectability.

The basics

1. Identify yourself as a reporter for the Gazette
   • There’s no legal obligation to identify yourself as a reporter; however, journalistic ethics strongly suggest you should, and the Gazette operates under this maxim. There are extreme circumstances in which a reporter may mask their identity, but they must request it from Front Office first.
     
2. Never promise to publish any content
   • Although tempting, resist the urge. Content can be dropped at any time for any reason. Promising a source that something will run opens you up to criticism or complaint.
3. Treat sources with courtesy and respect
   • Keep communications with sources as professional as possible. Sources may feel slighted if they feel an interview was unprofessional, and this damages our legitimacy.
4. Send all complaints to the Editor-in-Chief
   • Editors must not speak on behalf of the paper. Only the EIC speaks for the paper as a whole. For this reason, any complaints — even those raised against you or your article — should be directed to the EIC. If the EIC is unavailable, inform the other members of Front Office of the complaint.
5. Remain unbiased
   • Never cover stories you’re involved with or use sources with whom you’re acquainted. Similarly, never accept gifts for covering a story. Even if you remain unbiased, anyone discovering these missteps will be in a strong position to claim unethical reporting, which damages the reputation of both you and the paper.
6. Don’t alter photographs
   • Altered photographs must be labelled “photo illustration.” Minor improvements like level adjustments and red-eye reduction are exempt.
7. Never show your article to anyone pre-publication
   • Sources have no right to request to see your story before publication, and you don’t need their approval to publish anything. As a courtesy, you may send them a copy of the quotes you intend to use. However, as long as your quotes and your article are accurate and fair, it will withstand complaints from anyone, including those quoted in the story.
8. Respect “off the record”
   • Although “off the record” has no legal basis, we urge you to treat it as though it does. If a source tells you something in confidence, exposing it can potentially end your relationship with them as a source. They may also caution others of your transgression, which can harm your chances with future sources.
9. If anyone — even a police officer — asks you to divulge information about a source, take them to the EIC
   • There are complex legal and ethical issues surrounding situations like this, so you must send them directly to the EIC.
10. If another newspaper, magazine or publication calls asking for a reprint, refer them to Front Office
    • All material the Gazette publishes is our property. If someone contributes work and wants to sell it to another publication, Front Office must approve the sale. Any proceeds will be split between the creator and the Gazette.
11. Ensure contributors’ work is original
    • The Gazette doesn’t purchase material from other media. Perform a brief search online when a contributor submits work to ensure it wasn’t published elsewhere.
12. During USC elections, the Gazette closes its doors
    • During USC elections, anyone who sits on a candidate’s campaign team will not be allowed into the office, even if they’re staff. Further, no new contributors will be allowed to contribute material to the Gazette until the elections have concluded. Politely inform newcomers of the policy and ask them to come back once the elections are over.

Office conduct

1. Be welcoming
   • The office can be intimidating, especially for new contributors. If a contributor comes to your section, make them feel welcome. Spend a few minutes getting to know them and giving them some basic information on the role they’re interested in.
2. Ensure appropriate and professional conversation
   • With people always filtering through the office, it’s good practice to hold off on crass stories and jokes until you get home. Do yourself and us a favour: if you wouldn’t say it in front of your professors, think twice about saying it in the office.
3. Respect the work environment
   • The office can be fun, but keep in mind this is still a workplace. Try not to be too disruptive and let others get their work done.
4. Communicate your progress
   • If you have a work in progress, regularly update Front Office on its status and be especially sure to tell someone when your work is on Blox.
5. Don’t gossip about information overheard in the office
   • In the office, you’ll hear a lot of sensitive information from sources, complaints or submissions. Don’t discuss these with people outside of the Gazette. When discussing this information among staff at the office, be cognizant of who may be listening.
6. Treat the computers with care
   • Be careful with food and drinks near the computers. We aren’t going to ban eating at desks, but if you come to us with a waterlogged keyboard, we promise you’ll receive a downgrade.
7. Keep your workspace presentable
   • Sources and administration sometimes come into the office, and we want to look our best when they do. This means keeping the office presentable and professional. Use the appropriate garbage and recycling for waste. If you have food waste, use the garbage cans down the hall as they’re emptied much more frequently.
8. Keep the back room and kitchen clean
   • Put equipment back where you found it. Keeping the back area organized will make finding and maintaining equipment easier. The same goes for the kitchen. Clean any dishes you use and wipe the microwave down if you make a mess. Lastly, if you put food in the fridge, remember to actually take it out at some point.
9. Always use the sign-out sheet when taking equipment
   • The sign-out sheet must be used whenever removing gear from the office as it allows us to locate equipment and keep track of our assets.
10. Lock the door!
    • If you’re the last one to leave or you’ve come to the office after hours, make sure you lock the door when leaving.

For contributors and staff

1. Communicate with your mentor
   • Your assigned mentor is your point-of-contact for any questions and concerns you have. It’s imperative that you inform them of your progress so they can offer guidance and support on your project.
2. Time commitment
   • As a contributor, you’re free to spend as much or as little time in the office as you like. However, if you take on a story, we expect you to finish it within a reasonable period. If you find yourself struggling to finish a story due to other commitments, tell your mentor or Front Office and we will determine what to do next.
3. Get involved
   • As a contributor, you’re a member of the Gazette. We encourage you to get involved in office culture. This includes office discussions and edboards.
4. Apply for our internship
   • The internship-program applications open in _____. If you’re interested in improving your content, receiving more feedback and working more closely with the editorial board, consider applying. Many of our future hires come from our intern pool.
5. Contributor and Staff
   • Our volunteer system is two-tiered. Upon publication of your first contribution, you become a Contributor. Once you have five pieces of published content, you become a Staff Member.
6. Get your name in print!
   • If we publish content you contribute in our print issue, we’ll include your name beneath the masthead.
7. Read this guide
   • Seriously. We won’t make you read the whole thing, but this guide is an invaluable source of information. Ask your mentor to show you which sections you should read and scroll through other sections that interest you.

 

The Writer

Story searching

First and foremost, you must find something to write about. Sometimes, there’s an obvious story that you can’t miss, such as new administrative announcements or something causing a commotion on campus.

However, to find other stories, you can’t be a passive listener waiting for the next big thing. You must actively seek out interesting stories. A good journalist understands what their readers want to know about their community.

To accomplish this, make yourself aware of campus life and changes in the community. Be mindful of what new trends or grievances your peers are discussing. Listen before you find something to say.

Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social media sites are great for finding stories. Browse Western Facebook groups and the Western subreddit for any potential stories the community may be offering.

Consider setting up Google Alerts to get campus news updates from other organizations. Feel free to subscribe your Gazette email to various organizations around London and contact those who you feel might have an interesting topic to discuss.

Here are some values to judge your potential story on:

1. Timeliness
2. Proximity
3. Significance/impact
4. Prominence (does it involve well-known people)
5. Human interest (emotional/inspiring/comical)
6. Rarity/novelty
7. Conflict

Pitching

Once you’ve found a story you’re interested in writing, your next step is to get approval from Front Office.

Weekly pitch meetings, led by a member of Front Office, allow for each section to discuss projects they wish to work on.

If you have a story you want to pitch, you don’t have to wait until pitch meetings to be heard. Approach your section leader and give them the rundown of your idea.

When pitching, you should have the following points ready to discuss:

• Story basics and angle
  • Describe the story plainly and be ready to answer some questions about it. How will this story benefit students? What about the story is interesting? Why do you want to tell this story?
• Possible contacts
  • Have an idea of whom you might contact for information on the article. At the very least, provide a viable method for contacting sources.
• Tone, length and format
  • Think about how you want the story to come across. Is it light-hearted or serious? Is it coverage or an explainer?
  • Similarly, consider the format of your story. Is this to be a feature you spend a couple weeks on or a brief you finish in a day?
• Multimedia elements
  • Think about visuals or audio clips you think would complete your story. Don’t just think of the basics like a good photo or graphic. Would your story benefit from a timeline, Tweets or videos?

Spend a good amount of time preparing for your pitch. You’re passionate about your stories, and they deserve your best effort when pitching.

Convincing your section leader that the story will entertain people or will inform them in ways they should be is the first hurdle. If you can’t convince someone whose job it is to read your work of its importance, you won’t convince students.

Finding sources

Once you have your story, you’ll need someone to talk about it — ideally three people. It’s important that every story has sources representing all sides of the issue. Make every effort to have at least one source for and against the issues presented in the story.

This doesn’t just apply to News stories. When writing other sections, look for that constituent of people who have something different to say. Don’t simplify your story and the feelings around it because it would be easier to write.

To diversify the story, considering contacting those with different degrees of involvement in the issues of the story. Combining all these elements creates a more comprehensive, enjoyable and unique experience. If Western is changing from plastic to paper straws, don’t just talk to the university: ask environmentalists if this will really help and USC Hospitality Services employees how the change will affect them.

However, don’t be discouraged if a source doesn’t get back to you or refuses an interview. As long as you tried in earnest to give them the opportunity to comment, the story can still run.

Use the campus directory and search online to find potential sources, and ask the other editors and your friends for possible contacts. Additionally, you search for sources by posting on Facebook or Twitter. The contact page at the end of your handbook also has some basic resources for finding sources.

Sensitivity

Journalists are responsible for covering a wide variety of topics, some of which require tact and responsible reporting. Reporting should be fair, representative and diversified: Don’t use the same community spokesperson for every story involving that community.

Every community deserves respect and understanding how to report on stories involving those communities is necessary for every journalist. Stories relating to these groups and stories regarding sensitive topics are difficult and require an extra level of attention when crafting.

Potentially sensitive topics include, but are not limited to, sexual orientation, indigenous issues, abuse, mental health, and loss of life. Remember that just because a topic isn’t difficult for you to discuss doesn’t mean that it’s not difficult for others.

This section combines CP Style guidelines with information from Western’s community members. Familiarize yourself with it as it will make your writing more conscientious and appropriate.

Front Office may scrap or deny stories if they don’t handle a difficult subject with tact.

Aboriginal Peoples

Aboriginal Peoples are divided into four _(accepted groups)_: status (reserve) Indians. Non-status Indians (outside the reserve), Métis (people of mixed European and native heritage), and Inuit (inhabitants of northern Canada)

Proper identification and terminology is important. There are several names for Aboriginal Peoples, the tribes, bands, or communities they belong to, and the spellings of said groups. Ask your interviewee or a community spokesperson which terms they’re most comfortable with and ask for correct spellings. Otherwise, use the tribe spellings found on Canada.ca.

Abortion

Only describe individuals or groups as pro-life or pro-choice if they describe themselves as such. Otherwise, use opponents of abortion and abortion rights advocates, respectively.

Abuse and assault

Stories recounting abuse can be troubling for some to consume or recount, whether they were abused or not. When interviewing, don’t push topics interviewees are clearly uncomfortable with sharing.

Although this is a training ground, we don’t want to train at the expense of others. Traumatic events, no matter how distant, can still be damaging when brought to recollection. Respond to questions in an understanding manner and guard yourself from asking questions that blame the victim, which may include asking why a victim didn’t leave a relationship or what they were wearing. Interrogate each sentence and verify your story doesn’t make direct or indirect claims that the victim shares any of the blame.

Don’t include irrelevant details about the abuse, such as physical appearance or habits of the victim that don’t directly inform the story.

Lastly, remember that anyone can be a victim of abuse. Maintain professionalism when conducting an interview. Be aware of subtle differences in how you respond to their story based on your perception of the story. This can include things like not offering tissues to someone you perceive as tough or speaking in a softer tone to people you believe are

Vulnerable. If you think you may handle the interview poorly, inform Front Office. We may

review your questions or assign the interview to another editor.

If you think the story may be false, discuss it with Front Office. You can be critical of the story after the interview, but never during the interview or in the story.

Age

Prefer a specific age to potentially derogatory terms like elderly or middle-aged

Use someone’s age only when it’s significant to the story (e.g., “95-year-old history prof scales UC tower for fundraiser” or “13-year-old high schooler offered full scholarship to Western’s writing program”).

Disabilities

Discuss disabilities only if they’re pertinent. Mention the degree to which they’ve

overcome it or how they cope with it (e.g., “Aimes lost his sight when he was a few months old. When in his apartment, he gets around largely by touch, but outside, he relies on a walking stick and his seeing-eye dog.”).

Don’t define people by their disabilities. Never use one’s disability as a noun (e.g., “those who are blind,” not “the blind”).

Be specific. Incorrect phrasing may imply pain when there is none or overstate the degree to which a disability restricts someone (e.g., suffers from). Typically, prefer scientific definitions to common terms (e.g., blind and legally blind are separate definitions. Inform yourself about which is correct for your story). Note that some phrases are OK in the medical community, but not elsewhere (e.g., mentally retarded). In you’re ever unsure about a potentially derogatory term, ask your source for their preference.

LGBTQ2+

Never mention someone’s orientation unless it’s directly relevant to the story. If you do, always use sexual orientation, not sexual preference.

Always ask the individual which pronoun they prefer and which name they go by. Ensure you have their correct spelling. These spellings may differ from the directory where we verify names, and that’s OK if they prefer to go by a different name/spelling.

If relevant, ask how they identify and pay attention to how they refer to their partner, if applicable. Never change their terminology.

Speak plainly and describe individuals as gay and lesbian if they identify themselves as that, but don’t use them as nouns (e.g., “a gay man,” not “a gay”).

Avoid derogatory terms like homosexual and queer unless they’re in direct quotes. Similarly, avoid slurs in regular copy; use them cautiously in direct quotes only when they inform the emotions around a story.

Transgender and transexual are not interchangeable. Transgender is considered the general term. Transsexual is a clinical term for when an individual identifies as the opposite sex they were assigned at birth. Again, common sense dictates you use whichever term your interviewee uses.

Mental health and suicide

Treat mental health problems like you would physical ones. Never doubt the legitimacy of one’s mental health concerns or imply they aren’t difficult to manage.

Thoughtful coverage of suicide is key. The best practice is to reflect on the student’s life rather than reporting their death.

As such, never say “ she killed herself” or describe the method used. Instead, say, “she died by suicide,” and spare any details on the method.

When only rudimentary details are known, avoid identifying features. No one should find out someone they know closely has died via the newspaper.

Race and ethnicity

Only use racial identifiers if it’s relevant, such as when it clarifies motivation or an incident or when you’re discussing an unusual accomplishment for that ethnicity. However, be careful you aren’t using harmful stereotypes when you determine what warrants an unusual accomplishment.

Describe events cuts across ethnic lines (e.g., Canadian worker joining Chinese immigrants in a picket line against unfair deportations).

Capitalize proper names of nationalities, peoples, races and tribes (e.g., Aboriginal Peoples, Arab, French-Canadian, etc.). Black and white are lowercase.

Keep in mind that you’re writing for a diverse audience, and as such, not everyone is familiar with the same cultural staples you are. When describing things, don’t label them as exotic simply because you didn’t grow up with them. Doing so subtly tells your reader what is and isn’t normal.

Avoid this by defining things in a “universal” way. Use description that is true regardless of where you grew up or what you’re familiar with (e.g., “The sport, hailing from Haiti,” not “The exotic sport”).

Sexism

Always use gender-neutral terms when one exists.

Don’t insert opinion as to what qualifies as sexism. Provide the facts to the situation and allow readers to judge for themselves.

Avoid discussing marital and family status unless it’s necessary to explain a personal reference or to round out a profile

Don’t describe someone’s physical appearance unless the article calls for it. This is a rarity: consult Front Office if you think your article warrants it.

***

These are not just things to be aware of when writing your story. Interacting with your sources in an unprofessional manner makes you and the paper look bad.

When interviewing someone, you can’t be sure they are completely OK with the discussion you’re having, even if they seem to be. The best practice is to lean toward professionalism in any conversation you have and try to avoid personal banter.

Sensitivity to certain topics can’t be taught in a few pages of text, but being conscious of these issues can avoid the most obvious of blunders and make you a more cognizant journalist.

Interviewing

Before you begin your interview, it’s usually best to prep. First, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the issues and how your interviewee relates to it. Doing this will help you avoid asking the wrong question, and it also allows you to ask deeper, more informative questions. In some instances, gaining background knowledge may sometimes be unnecessary, impossible or too time consuming, such as asking someone’s thoughts about an event they’re currently attending or when dealing with a breaking story.

After you have a good understanding of the background, you should write down roughly five to eight questions to take into the interview. Tend toward open-ended questions (e.g., “What do you feel was the best response to this situation?” not “do you think the administration handled the event properly?”).

The idea is to start with general questions and move into more specific ones as the interview progresses. Your first question should allow the interviewee to establish context. Successive questions should become more specific as you hone in on the details you want to extract.

Interviews can be in person, over the phone or via email, but you must record them all in some capacity. If there’s no record, quotes and information from that source can’t be published. Even anonymous interviews must have a record accompanying them. The first two must be recorded using one of our recorders (or your phone’s audio recorder), and the email must be saved. Additionally, you should take handwritten notes during the interview.

Once the interview begins, introduce yourself and what you’re writing about. Then, ask for their name, the spelling of their name and their occupation/program.

Begin asking your questions, but don’t be bound by what you’ve written. Ditch or create questions during the interview as you learn more. Follow up their statements with clarifying questions or other interesting avenues they mentioned.

This means that you should always be attentive to what the interviewee is saying. After you ask your question, let the interviewee talk without interruption, but don’t just passively listen and wait for your chance to ask the next question.

Oftentimes, discussions with your source will give you the best lines of questioning. If the source gives you an interesting anecdote or slips up with a previously unknown detail, form a new question to uncover more.

End every interview with same question: “Is there anything more you wanted to say?”

Most people will add  to a topic you didn’t think was important or tell you about something you didn’t think to ask. This question also gives your interviewee a chance to clarify what they’ve said, which can lead to a better quote for something they’ve already mentioned. This question is indescribably important. You aren’t the expert on whatever you’re asking them: they are, so trust that they’ll know what to tell you.

Transcribing

Transcribe interviews exactly as they happened, removing only things like meaningless repetitions and verbal mannerisms like “ah” and “like.”

Any other changes, such as excising vulgarity and fixing grammar, should be done with a member of Front Office. Include the quote as is in your copy, but make a note of changes you think it should undergo.

Save both the audio file and the text file with the following format and upload each to the appropriate folder on the server.

MM/DD/YY_LastNameofInterviewee

Once on the server, the Copy desk and Front Office can access the transcriptions, but only Front Office can access the audio file.

Writing

Basics

Be human

Stories must be human, specific, clear, concise, imaginative and factual.

Write about people. Find the human angle in every story and write for everyday readers. Relate the news to the reader’s life whenever possible. For us, that means relating as much as possible back to Western and student life.

Perk up stories that are devoid of anything human. Season them with examples that bear directly on the lives of readers: Just when you thought you had finally caught up with the Joneses, along came Statistics Canada on Tuesday announcing that 1.2 million households have more than one high-definition television.

Be clear

Organize your story in your mind before you start writing. Decide what the news is and put it in your lead. Then, introduce the rest of your information in subsequent paragraphs.

Use plain words, but always the right words (e.g. wicked, not nefarious; remaining, not residual). But use specific words when details are useful (e.g. hamburger and fries, not food; man of 87, not an elderly man).

Never forget how much you’ve researched your topic. Plenty of your research won’t make it into the article, which means there may be sections of your story where your readers are lost.

Examine every passage for clarity, adding information if necessary to make the story comprehensible. If you’re unsure whether your article is clear, ask another editor to review it.

Be direct

Avoid putting more than one thought into a sentence. In general, contents and structure — not length — make sentences hard to understand.

Avoid lazy terms such as fairly, really, pretty, few, etc. when you have the details. Similarly, don’t cram your story full of double entendres and ambiguous phrases. Occasionally, these are OK, but if your reader is consistently wondering whether both meanings are true or not, you have a problem.

Be concise

Keep your story tight in content and phrasing. Stick with truly significant angles. A full report often makes for a dull report.

Don’t use a dollar word when a dime word will do (e.,g try, not attempt; about, not approximately; so, not consequently; prove, not substantiate; plan, not initiative).

Similarly, avoid lofty phrases when a single word will suffice (e.g., although, not despite the fact that; now, not, at this point in time; if, not in the event that, early, not ahead of schedule; usually, not in the majority of cases).

Ditch ponderous euphemisms and gobbledygook (e.g., prison, not correctional facility; fewer assaults, not lower rates of violence).

Omit words that aren’t doing any work (e.g., “He said (that) the cut(back)s in (the) health care (field) have put hospitals in a crisis (situation)”).

If you can’t cut a sentence down, rephrase it and see if you can make it shorter:

The economy experienced a quick revival. → The economy revived quickly.

At first light, there was no sign of the ship. → The ship vanished in the night.

Write your story as concisely as possible. Journalism isn’t the place to show off your stellar vocabulary and wit. Write to be comprehensible and invisible. Know your audience and the level of comprehension they’re likely to have on a topic.

Structure

Writing for journalism is quite a bit different than writing for academia. One of the biggest changes is to structure. Whereas essays commonly follow an ordering of either chronology of logical sequencing, journalistic structure is based on importance, called the inverted pyramid structure.

In this model, the most important information is presented first, followed in order of importance down the line, introducing necessary background only when it becomes relevant.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, you should decide what piece of info is the most relevant or pressing.

Here’s a rough hierarchy of importance:

1. Death
2. Injury
3. Uncivilized acts
4. Administrative changes/student initiatives
5. Announcements/previews
6. Student life

This leads to a hard balancing act. While you want to be clear and informative, you also don’t want to give your reader an info dump. Spending time on trivial details (whether fascinating or not) will cloud your main points and make your story less exciting. If the story drags on or strays too far from what the lead promised, readers won’t read for long.

Even if your story is powerful, bogging it down with less impressive information will make the reader judge the whole package more poorly.

Lead

The lead is the first paragraph of your article, and its purpose is to tell the reader the most important element of the story. Although some leads cover the 5 W’s and the H of the story, this can sometimes make for a monstrous lead, which is called overloading the lead.

A good lead should be between 15 and 30 word, so you must often choose which information you want to cut.

Sometimes large leads are warranted and can work, but for the most part, you should pick a few key questions to answer. These answers are often the most important, shocking or crucial to understanding the story. Bury the rest of the information in the body of the text.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, two second-year neuroscience students called police for assistance after discovering an aggressive beaver family living in the newly renovated University College during a USC-run charity sleepover event. Animal control was alerted shortly after and removed the animals without incident.

This lead is dense. As it stands, it has 46 words. It also has a lot going on, trying to cover too many aspects of the story without giving any aspect enough detail to be engaging.

Using the rough hierarchy given above, we find that the police being called is a good angle to start with. To give it some context, we can briefly say where and when but bury the details in the copy.

Before dawn, police and animal control evacuated several rooms in University College as they removed a family of aggressive beavers who had made their home in the newly renovated building. There were no injuries.

This new lead is not that much leaner at only 36 words. However, it’s quite a bit more focused and informative. Although it sacrifices some of the additional context of the story, these can and should be discussed later.

Note, however, that this isn’t the only way to write that lead. There are convincing arguments to focus on different aspects of the story in the lead and change the angle of the story. Perhaps you wanted to write a light-hearted piece about the two neuroscience students who have gotten up to a lot of shenanigans throughout their time at university or use this as an example of the university’s poor choice of contractors for the UC renovations. In instances like this, focusing on different information works well. The key is to understand the type of story you’re writing and have a good reason to write it the way you’ve chosen to.

The good thing about leads is that they’re short enough that you can write a few of them and see which story you most want to tell.

Choosing quotes and paraphrases

Pick quotes that match the tone of your article. If you’re writing a light article, don’t go for serious quotes about difficult topics and vice versa.

It’s typically not a good idea to opt for a light take on a serious topic even if you have the quotes for it; however, if you find you have a lot of quotes talking about a serious aspect of your story or you’ve uncovered something new about your story, consider taking that more serious angle.

Once you know the tone of your article, you’ll want to narrow down your quotes. Aim for quotes that offer a unique perspective or are said in an interesting way. Avoid quotes with truisms and cliches. Your chosen quotes should add something to the story and inform the reader beyond the body of the text. In this way, they should add life to and explore the human side of the story.

Sometimes you’ll do an interview where your source gives you a lot to work with. Too much, even. When this happens, you may find that they tend to reiterate their points. Rather than cram in all they’ve said about the topic of interest, you’re best to use whichever quote covers that information in the most succinct or eloquent way. Quotes that are long-winded but still contain important information make for good paraphrases.

As discussed in the section on finding sources, you should include quotes from all sides of the argument to humanize each side. It’s unfair to include several powerful, emotional quotes for those in support of a new administrative change but to simply summarize the stance of all those who oppose it with paraphrasing. Every source you introduce in your article should have at least one direct quote. Additionally, each shift in topic should have one direct quote as well.

Lastly, ensure that your source has the credibility to talk on that subject. This goes hand-in-hand with libel, which will be covered below, but it’s important to think about here as well.

Ensure that your article isn’t led askew by an non-credible source. If you interview a Mustangs women’s soccer player and she tells you they beat Guelph because Guelph never practices in the rain, verify she could actually know that information before quoting her on that.

Next you must decide whether to use a direct quote or a paraphrase.

You should use direct quotes when exactness is required. This can be in situations where it’s one’s word against another’s. Paraphrasing here can greatly change the context of a quote or the meaning of the message, which is dangerous when there’s no other record of someone’s stance that the reader can examine.

Use direct quotes when they inform the emotions behind the message or portray an interesting character trait. To help get the emotion across, sometimes you can indicate the tone alongside your dialogue tags.

Consider paraphrasing when the quote is important but long or dry. Often, paraphrasing a related quote can act as a good lead-in for full quotes or to introduce a source.

Avoiding libel

Libel is the defamation of someone through some published medium, and we are not immune from publishing it. A libellous article is one that makes a false or unproven claim and gives enough information on the defamed to identify them.

Libel is both dangerous and easy to overlook. Note that direct quotes don’t shift the blame to the speaker: if a story runs with a libellous quote, the paper is at fault. Even if a line is someone else’s opinion, the inclusion of that quote suggests endorsement. Therefore, all quotes must be factual and defensible from libel. If you have an interesting quote that you can’t verify, we can’t run it.

This extends to the entire article. Don’t use figures, names or information you haven’t or can’t verify. Whenever possible, link to an article or study discussing specifics you mention.

Imagine an article discussing campus violence. In this hypothetical article, the editor describes the story of a student who says they were assaulted on campus. If the student and article discuss the attack but not identifying information about the attacker, the article is not libellous.

If the student identified the perpetrator but there was definitive evidence (like a conviction) of the attack and the perpetrators involvement in it, the article would not be libellous.

However, if the attacker has not been convicted but can be identified (whether by name or by some other obvious feature of their occupation or appearance), then the statement would be libellous.

Libel can be a lot sneakier than that, however. Writers often take shorthands when writing, ascribing seemingly obvious thought processes to certain actions. But as journalists, we are observers, not mind-readers. In (most) fiction writing, you typically write as though you can’t see the thoughts of every character.

This means writing, “He turned his head toward the sound,” instead of, “He heard the sound and turned his head.”

The distinction is small but important. It’s the difference between being all-knowing and simply observant.

This writing style is especially important in journalism. We are not all-knowing. If it appears like someone did something for an obvious reason, unless they tell us, we must only report the information exactly as we see it.

Not: “The professor wrote one final demonstration on the board. Seeming to think he was incompetent, several students left the classroom with an hour left in the lecture.”

But: “The professor wrote one final demonstration on the board. All at once, several students walked out of the classroom with an hour left in the lecture.”

Doing otherwise can be libellous because we are assigning meaning to actions that may mean something else entirely.

Avoiding bias

Similar to libel, bias is another dangerous yet easy-to-overlook part of writing. For this reason, we cannot let anyone write a story they have some involvement in. For example, if you’re involved in a club on campus that new administrative changes will affect, you can’t report on it. Further, even if you aren’t involved in the story you’re writing, you cannot interview people whom you know.

Another key element to avoiding bias is to recognize topics you have an affinity for. It may be tempting to work on a story that has a topic that has affected you, but understand when you may be too ingrained in the issue to write about it fairly. A suitable litmus test can be to ask yourself whether your story reflects values before you gather sources and facts. Most stories aren’t a place for you to put forth your views. Rather, a story is often a place to impartially juxtapose differing viewpoints, weaving them into a narrative the reader can consume.

This impartial-platform approach is why we’ve harped on the importance of giving all sides a chance to speak.

Features

Broadly, newspapers stories are divided into two categories: regular stories and features. Features are long-form stories, but there are many differences beyond length alone.

Whereas regular stories are structured to deliver the news most effectively, features serve many different purposes: humanizing, adding colour, educating and entertaining, to name a few. Certainly all stories should do this, but features are set apart in that they do these first and foremost, with more in-depth focus on each of these facets. Features require research, typically of a different nature, to provide information beyond the 5 W’s and the H.

Although not necessary, features also allow for informal styles and opinionated or subjective content matter (so long as it follows the same guidelines against libel).

However, the most noticeable divergence between regular stories and features come down to structure: in opposition to the inverted pyramid structure of regular stories, features use a structure found most commonly in fiction, called the narrative arc.

A good story must have characters, and those characters must be doing something for some well-defined reason. But it would be boring if they simply achieved their goal after a few short moments. The remedy, then, is to introduce conflict — something to impede your character.

There are four basic types of conflict:

1. Man versus man
2. Man versus nature
3. Man versus society
4. Man versus self

This sounds easy enough. Simply pick a conflict you wish to explore and write a suitable antagonist to embody that conflict. In fiction, this is of course the solution. However, in non-fiction, “characters” aren’t inventions and conflicts can’t be fabricated.

So what do you do? Well, the first part is easy. You need to pick your characters. Whom will this story be about? Find people well-integrated into the subject matter whose actions changed the outcome of the story you want to tell. Those are your main characters, and it’s vital they’re as true to life as possible — no room for creative liberties here.

Once you have your character(s), you need a conflict: there’s no getting around that. So you must determine what the conflict is. Scour your notes on the subject and search for any interesting obstacles your character(s) encountered. Take care to note which kind of the four conflicts listed above each obstacle was.

Your feature will likely not be long enough to explore every conflict your character life, so you’ll have to select the most entertaining conflicts to include. Parse your list of conflicts, searching for recurring themes or conflict types to get a sense of what your options are.

Typically, you’ll want to focus on your most numerous conflict type as they signal the most significant hurdle your character faced, and if related, you can discuss each conflict in the overarching difficulty your character had to overcome. However, you don’t need to choose only the most common conflict type: if another conflict is more interesting or more in line with the story you want to tell, use that. What’s important is that you’re consciously choosing what is and isn’t important to the story instead of cramming every event in.

Here, you have a few options for structuring your feature. You can opt for one large, entertaining conflict; several small but similar conflicts; or a main conflict with a smaller (or several smaller) conflict as a subplot. The content of your story will, in part, dictate which structure you choose.

Next, you must lay out your information. This will be similar, again, to fiction, but with a few modifications.

Your story should open with exposition, like any story, with a lead that provides enough context to start the story. A well-written feature, however, will open with a lead noticeably different than a regular story. Your reader should immediately know they aren’t reading a run-of-the-mill piece. These leads will be entertaining or dramatized retellings of the subject, aiming for more creative prose.

Compare the following:

News lead:

For the past two years, a Western University student has been using a computer program to get into courses before anyone else.

Feature lead:

Course registration: students huddle around their computers, vying for a spot in popular courses and obsessively refreshing their browser tabs. But one student has an idea. If it works, he’ll never have to refresh that tab again.

As you can see, the feature lead doesn’t focus on the newsworthiness of the story; rather, it frames the piece as a story to be told. It can be a little more meandering, opening up a wider stage to prepare for the “action” of the story. At the end of a feature lead, you may not even know exactly what the story is about, but the key is that you’re interested enough to find out.

Following the lead is the nut graph, which is strange journalism jargon for the part of a feature story that demonstrates why the story is newsworthy. Since features often aren’t pressing and their importance may not be readily apparent, they require nut graphs to guide and focus the narrative. A bit of a misnomer, the nut graph isn’t always a single paragraph.

Rather, the nut graph is the section following the lead, providing more detail (any of the essential questions the lead didn’t answer), illustrating the theme of the feature, and succinctly describing what the story is. Nut graphs also serve as a means to organize your feature, similar to your introductory paragraph in an essay.

Following this, it’s time to get back to your story. By now, the story should be ramping up, with the nut graph teasing at what the main conflict may be. Start detailing your chosen conflicts, beginning with the less important ones and dramatizing the ones that change the course of the story. This section will be the largest section of your feature as you take your character through different conflicts, each that serve to reinforce the theme introduced in the nut graph.

In fiction, each conflict typically puts the character in a worse position than they started (called a disaster); in non-fiction, there are few true disasters following hardships. Instead, you must focus on how the difficulty of overcoming that conflict and how each conflict changed the course of the story and the character.

These smaller conflicts will raise the stakes, culminating in your major conflict. Take the time to dramatize this scene, but don’t go overboard. It’s interesting to view a heated debate with a city official word for word, but the pleasantries beforehand aren’t particularly gripping.

At the end of this conflict, your reader will be fairly exhausted. It’s time to bring the story back down. The conflict resolution phase of your story should explore the ramifications of the major conflicts. Look at how things are different now and show the extent of what your character has accomplished. The section doesn’t need to be long, but it’s very important to get right. Your reader got through the bulk of your story to see how it ends, so don’t skimp on the details. If you find that not a lot has changed, this may be a sign that your conflict wasn’t really the main one.

Finally, you need a kicker. This is how you end out your story. It serves as a look to the future and often cycles back to the introduction, contrasting how things are different. Try to include your theme in the kicker to cement its importance to the story.

At the end of your feature, you should have given your reader a glimpse into the human experience, providing them with a powerful tale of strife and struggle and how we can overcome these tribulations.

Sections

News

Credible news coverage is the centre of any reputable journalistic organization and the Gazette is no different. Stories should not be told out of service to the reporter’s self nor the Gazette as a whole. A reporter’s judgement in discerning what is or is not news must be a free from personal and organizational bias as possible. Doing this heightens the Gazette’s credibility on campus and reproduces the journalistic practices at the core of our organization’s project.

More than in any other section, News reporters strive to be impartial. It is recognized that every individual’s perspectives are formed from their character and lived experiences, but strong news stories seek out all necessary information and sourcing regardless of the underlying perspectives a reporter carries. The public will not provide reporters the benefit of a doubt. Strong news stories are rarely celebrated while small errors in otherwise strong stories will be widely shared. In spite of this, reporters must act out of journalistic responsibility and adherence to the Gazette’s mission.

In deciding what stories to tell and how to tell them, it is important to recognize that the Gazette does not subscribe to “gotcha” journalism. This means we are not in the business of purposefully misleading sources so as to dig up a story which may do well online. This is exemplified by a willingness to give all sources multiple opportunities to give comment before attributing them with “no comment”, and offering individuals opportunities to clarify statements which may otherwise seem controversial. The Gazette’s reputation as an elite university training ground was built on an attention to core values and principles. Attention to these principles, when story pitching, information gathering, writing and sharing stories is of the utmost importance.

Structure

– News stories ought to be constructed like an inverted pyramid: the most important information (who/ what/ where/ when/ why/ how) goes at the top of the story, followed by any pertinent information to contextualize (quotes, history, multimedia etc.) this base

– Opinion, hyperbole, theorizing and other methods of subjective enhancement to a story do not belong in News; a story is constructed and described from factual, corroborated information

– The highest degree of professionalism must be adhered to in the News section; as the voices of our most barebones journalism, the online, on-phone and in-person conduct of News reporters speaks volumes of the Gazette’s overall credibility

– As contributors, writers will write five news briefs (short, one or two source stories) before moving onto longer articles; at this stage, writers become Staff members

Coverage

News reporters are expected to be available for event coverage at any time and on any day throughout the school year. Generally, hours align with those of other sections. But covering University Students’ Council, Senate and Board of Governors meetings, events and unexpected happenings throughout the year leads to evening and weekend hours. These events should be covered with tweets and, if the photographer is confident, photographs using office photo equipment. Covering events should never be seen as an overarching task of describing the event itself, as there may be multiple stories worth telling discovered within the event. It is less important to capture every quote or sequence specifically as it happened than to stay aware of the overall narrative unfolding.

In covering events, it is helpful to be trained in photography and videography. Using visuals provides clarity which today’s consumers demand. The Gazette, as a cross-sectional training ground, is available to equip and educate any reporter interested in learning to use visuals. Often, this will be using video or photo on a smartphone and uploading straight to Twitter. Though these photos and videos may also embed into stories to provide multimedia elements to written work.

Story searching

It is the writer’s responsibility to find stories relevant to student life. These stories may derive from information found from a number of online sources, accounts from campus administration and student representatives learned by attending meetings, tips from fellow students or everyday experiences. Often, the best news stories come through a new perspective on, or more rigid analysis of, these traditional story sources rather than finding new places to look. A news reporter must be creative enough to produce new, interesting content for readers, while maintaining their sense of impartiality and holding a high journalistic standard.

Today, online sources are the quickest ways to find new stories in a variety of forms. Resources include: social media outlets such as Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, as these forums are commonly where photos and conversation about relevant happenings may initially occur; Tweetdeck, a Twitter tool, organizes Twitter searches and allows for quick, comprehensive review of what users are talking about; local news organizations such as the London Free Press and AM 980 occasionally break campus-relevant stories before we see them; and Western News often shares articles or studies which can be expanded as appealing student content.

Though, these online tools must be assisted by an attention to everyday life. For example, one of the Gazette’s finest pieces of reporting last year, “Sugar coated: the secret world of Western’s sugar babies”, took an intersectional approach to culture and news as a means of guiding qualitative sourcing through a sugar baby usage assessment found online. In this instance, a reporter was required to relate what they find online to what they know of Western’s campus, and then make a judgement on if this story was worth investigating.

Additional Resources

“Ethics Guidelines” from The Canadian Association of Journalists

http://caj.ca/content.php?page=ethics-guidelines

“The Writing Centre” from George Mason University

https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/news-writing-fundamentals

“A Short of History of News” by Mitchell Stephens

http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/short-history-news

Sports

GOAL: As a publication that represents Western undergraduate students, the Sports section mainly covers Western’s 46 varsity teams and their athletes, non-varsity club teams and intramural leagues, as well as happenings in and around the school’s athletic department and any university policies or initiatives that will impact athletics on campus. From time to time, the Sports section will also cover professional sports that matter to Western students.

Sports Section Essentials

• Most games are free to attend with valid student ID. For other events, like football games or national championship tournaments, reporters can gain access with a press pass. Press access is usually acquired through emailing Western’s Sports Information and Communications Coordinator Ryan Robinson or filling out a form on the event’s website.
• It is important to keep the section interesting. Game stories are certainly the meat and potatoes of the section, so make sure to focus on a particular narrative throughout the story. Don’t just give a box score. If a fan cares enough about Mustangs sports to follow our coverage they probably also care enough to read the game stats when the final whistle blows. Because fans will likely already know the outcome of the game, we can say that they already know the answer to the “what” journalistic question. It is critical, then, that sports reporters provide fans with something new and fresh in their stories. A good sports writer should then focus on the “how” and “why” journalistic questions. How did the Mustangs win? Why did their star running back have such an explosive game? Find an angle from the game and work it to provide something to our readers that they can’t just find in the box score. This angle will act as the “meat” of the game story. After identifying the angle and key how/why questions, writers should build their story around answering those questions and providing detail related to that angle. Examples include statistics that help show a reader the answer to one of those questions, or quotes that also provide evidence or explanation to the bigger point in the story. Thus, a game story should never be a chronological account of the game. In contrast, the substance of the game story is often explanatory in nature. In other words, the writing should expand on the “how” or “why” questions that are raised in the story.
• A great game story should be accompanied by great visuals. With this in mind, it is crucial to communicate with the photo section to ensure that there is a vision for what kind of photos are shot. If you want particular focus on one player or a type of shot, make sure to let the photo editors know in advance so that they can prepare to meet your preferences.
• There will always be an inclination to focus on the big sports at Western, like football. It is imperative that we try to ensure balance in the section. Watch out for disparities between big sports and little sports, male sports and female sports and other divisions that could lead to any potential disparities. For smaller sports like table tennis or synchronized swimming, it might be more reasonable to cover the team in a larger feature story instead of going to every single event for that team. Obviously we won’t be able to offer extensive coverage for every single team. But ensuring that we cover some of the smaller teams and their athletes will give us credibility and can help us access a wider audience.
• After games there is usually a player and coach made available for interviews. This gives you an opportunity to get quotes. These interview sessions are often scrum style. In scrum interviews, it’s important to remember to share the question period with other journalists within the scrum. Also remember to pay attention so as not to repeat a question that another reporter has already asked. Outside of that, Mustangs Sports Information and Communications coordinator Ryan Robinson is often helpful in getting reporters in touch with Mustangs coaches and players. Coaches will often directly respond to emails as well, but athletes can be tougher to contact directly.
• We are not the Mustangs’ official cheering section. It is important to write without bias. Of course, we cater to Western students and should provide them primarily with information on Western teams. But we’re not Western apologists and we’re expected to report the truth.
• Make sure to take notes throughout the games you cover. This way, you can have a summary of the action when you write your story. You don’t want to sit down to write your story and forget what happened during the game. Furthermore, writing notes can help you prepare questions for the interview scrums.

Types of Sports stories

• Game stories
  • A game story covers a game while focusing on statistics, events and memorable plays.
• Features
  • In contrast to a straight game story, sports features present events, statistics and information through a narrative story, complete with a plot and story characters.
  • Offers an opportunity to work out of regimented structures and to incorporate themes that would not normally be found in hard game stories.

• Profiles
  • A profile is a type of feature story that usually focuses on an athlete, coach or athletic department administrator and what is interesting about that person.
• Season previews/reviews
  • Stories that are done any time a team and a coach are preparing for the coming season, or when the season has just ended, either in glory or infamy.
  • The focus here isn’t a specific game or even individual, but a broad look at the season – how the coach and players expect things to go, or how they feel once that season is done. Put into a narrative context.
• Column
  • A piece in which the author gives their opinion on a topic.

Tips for writing

• Ideal length for a game story is around 3,000 to 4,000 characters
• Past tense
• Concisely written
  • Ideally your opening paragraph or lede will be concentrated on a theme. This theme can then be used throughout the story, tying it in with other events that occurred to offer you a narrative structure and storyline.

• Be effective with highlights
  • Especially in game stories, make sure to use key plays to describe the ebbs and flows of the games. However, make sure these plays are actually significant within the larger context of the game or the team’s season. Use your discretion about which highlights are significant enough to single out in your story.
• Know the rules
  • Our sports coverage relies on our ability to understand the games we watch and the sports we cover. Make sure to know the rules, terms, strategies and inner workings of each sports we cover. Your credibility as a writer depends on your expertise.
• Mix up your terminology
  • If you’re describing a play-by-play, find other ways to use common terms. “Scored,” “passed” and “shot” can become boring. Avoid being overly repetitive.

Key Resources

Mustangs Athletics

https://westernmustangs.ca/index.aspx

U Sports

https://www.usports.ca/en

Ontario University Athletics

http://oua.ca/landing/index

Ton von Richter (Western Sports Information)

tvonrich@uwo.ca

Culture

The Culture section is the Gazette’s reflection of student life. Culture is divided into two sections: arts and lifestyle, which loosely parallel to anything that appeals to or applies to students, respectively. This could be where they should or might go for entertainment (previews and reviews), fads, trends or lifestyles popular among a group of students (student life/listicles); or in-depth examinations of one’s, or a group’s, personal life (profiles).

Culture pieces could look at up-and-coming tech advancements, the eccentricities of a particular group or how students are adjusting to campus life. The key is that all of these articles are written fairly, treating each subset of culture as a valid entity — doing otherwise is a sure way to lose contacts and upset communities. A good rule of thumb is to treat each story as serious and hard-hitting content.

This isn’t to say that Culture pieces must be devoid of criticism. However, if you plan to criticize something, you must have good, defensible, and fully accurate reasons to. You can write that you didn’t like a performance or that some group is doing harm, but you must back up any claim with evidence and reasoning.

Not every student is going to find each event or lifestyle exciting, but your goal is to expose those topics to a wider audience so readers can judge for themselves.

Culture Stories

Previews

• In essence, previews are announcements for upcoming events. There are always new events to preview, and since everyone is eager to discuss their event, sourcing them is painless.
• In a preview, your goal is to tell students why this event is one they don’t want to miss. Students are busy. Everything is clamouring for their time, so you must be informative, interesting and thoughtful in your previews. Don’t just say what’s going to happen. Tell your readers what’s different about this event. Make them realize they’ll be missing out if they don’t attend.
• However, previews can be overdone. Try not to rely on these and don’t feel like you must preview every event on campus and in the community. Stick to events you think are important to the community or that you know you can write about in an interesting way. Previews get stale fast, to both writers and readers.
• Previews should be done at least two days before an event.

Reviews

• Reviews detail events and art expos you’ve attended. We don’t do album or movie reviews because most students prefer to read professional reviews.
• Event reviews aren’t just a chronological recaps. As with all stories, start with the most unique or exciting aspect of the event and build from there.
• In practice, this means distilling this moment into a catchy lead. The lead should contain enough information to set the context for the event while still being short enough to have some punch.
• Reviews can sometimes feel flat, and a good remedy is to theme them. In a themed review, you must find some element of the performance or creation indicative of the overall message of feel of the event and mention it as early as possible (in the lead). After you have a theme, explore the different moments of the event through this themed lens. Did they fit the theme or not? (Note that if too many don’t fit the theme, it means you need to choose a different theme). Lastly, choose language that reinforces this theme. Don’t fabricate details, but define the details you do have in appropriate terms.
• Reviews should be done the night of or the morning after the event.

Listicles

• Listicles are great for when you have a lot of related things to talk about but not enough content for each aspect. This could be a list of apps students should download or interesting courses first-years should take.
• Listicles don’t require sources and are often better without sources.
• However, without sources, they come down to how interesting the collection is and how well you write. Convincing listicles give enough detail and wisdom to be useful while not overstaying their welcome.

Profiles

• Profiles look at an individual (or small group) and discuss their life. They aren’t simple inventories of what your profile has done or where they’ve worked. The goal of a profile should be to tell someone’s story, which means they can be personal and raw. Explore why they’re the person they are today and what set them on their current path.
• The first thing you should do is hone in on your profile’s main characteristics through questioning. Is it a desire to succeed and excel? An urge to help everyone they come across? Or are they a free-spirit just looking for the next thrill?
• Once you know what drives them, you must determine where, when and how this characteristic originated. Weave that story into your profile, but don’t let it dominate the story.
• You can also discuss other pivotal moments in your profile’s life, such as struggles and failures, as long as they inform the article and serve as a further explanation of who your profile is. Like fiction, imagine your profile as the main character: include defining scenes in your profile’s life and keep an interesting storyline.
• Although you’re telling a life story, it doesn’t mean that story must be in chronological order. Tell the story in whatever is the most gripping and true to the theme this person embodies. For example, perhaps the mysterious illusionist is better left as an enigma for most of the profile, revealing their personal history toward the end (or perhaps they opt not to reveal it at all, which can happen).
• A lot of this can sound abstract and the way a profile is written, especially if you want the writing style to complement their character, depends wholly on the person you’re profiling. Profiles are hard. Be patient, review your quotes and try a few different angles before you pick the one you think works best.

Student life

• Student life articles look at trends and lifestyles among students, including health and wellness, food and drink, music, TV and movies, to name a few. Whereas News stories report on news relating to students, Culture pieces look at these topics through the eyes of students.
• Instead of simply reporting what students are doing, these stories explore topics in a more casual style by looking at students involved in the culture. These articles showcase a community and expose them to a larger audience.
• Similar to a profile, Culture pieces can tell a story. But instead of someone’s story, you’re telling something’s. Discuss how this lifestyle began or how it relates to larger movements. Give enough information to ground the reader in the topic, but then introduce student angles and how students are affected by, or are involved in, the lifestyle.

Features

• As mentioned above, features are larger pieces with more sources, a broader scope, a narrative through line and a conflict.
• In Culture, this often takes the form of in-depth look at student life with a focus on conflict and development. Culture features may examine the origins of a lifestyle or an organization, similar to profiles, or they may combine elements of other story types into a larger package.

Culture Tips

• The average Culture piece is between 2,500 and 4,000 characters (or about 400 to 600 words). Pieces can, of course, be longer should they warrant it.
• The story should be written in present tense (unless they describe events that have happened) and in third-person
  • Says and explains, not said and explained.
• Don’t be afraid of emerging or niche trends
  • Just because the trend hasn’t pulled in the larger student community doesn’t mean others won’t find it to be an interesting read
• Don’t discount trends or fads because they don’t interest you
• Culture pieces work well as multimedia packages. If you have a vision for a complementary video, photo gallery/graphics, social media tie-in, etc., pitch it alongside your story or as early as possible. Coordination with Creative is key.
• It’s important to answer the five W’s and H, but it’s more important that your story is gripping. Give your lead enough information to give the reader context while still making it tight and focused.
• Ask about press passes for events you’re interested in covering.

Resources

Art Labs

Macintosh Gallery

Western Events page

London Music Hall

Opinions

The opinions section puts forth opinions either by individuals editors or by the paper as whole. Typically, Ops pieces cover current events that affect students or the university and offers one’s opinion on the subject. Different from other sections, Ops sections read into these situations, giving opinion on comments and situations that have arisen. They also feature a healthy dose of personal writing style and anecdotes as a means to discuss the human and practical implications of the subject matter.

This section provides for a wide array of content, and we encourage all editors to contribute to the section. Articles can be funny or serious, but they must always be well-researched and well-written.

Ops Stories

Columns

• Columns are the main way in which individual editors can share their opinions. Columns can be recurring series on a whole host of topics, like sports, politics or advice columns.
• Columns feature a much stronger author presence. Tone and personality shine in columns, allowing the the author to speak on a more personal level.
• Columns are between 2,000 and 4,000 characters.

Editorial board

• Twice weekly, our editorial board convenes to discuss a topic relevant to students. After each meeting, an editor summarizes the paper’s stance on that topic in an edboard.
• You shouldn’t include every point raised in an edboard — we simply wouldn’t have enough space to go over everything. Instead, select a few key arguments that relate to one another and explain them clearly and succinctly. Give the reader a general sense of the meeting, divulge the results of any straw polls and ensure the article matches the conclusions met during the edboard.
• Some edboards will discuss a humorous topic. In these instances, the article can be entertaining or whimsical. However, when dealing with serious topics, keep a factual tone, reporting only the conclusions made during edboard and discussing everything in a reverential tone.

Letter to the Editor

• A Letter to the Editor is a response from someone outside the edboard to some article we published.

Op-ed

• An op-ed is a column written by a member of the community, such as a professor or councillor.

Community

• Community pieces are open-forum type platforms for community members to engage in debate on campus using the Gazette as their medium.

Ops Tips

• Ops pieces must all take a stance, and the stronger the stance, the better the piece.
• You can improve pieces by adding in personal information that informs the article, such as a
• However, any story must still maintain the same level of integrity as other stories. This means they must be well-researched and factual. The Ops section can be libellous and dangerous to the paper if not properly vetted.
• In general, your Ops piece should be highly focused. Pick one major thread and don’t stray from it. Now isn’t the time to argue multiple issues. Doing so confuses your article and makes for a less impactful piece.
• If you’re going to criticize a group or person, you must talk to them first and give them an opportunity to respond.
• Although the focus is on interesting writing styles and content, don’t forget visuals. If you have an idea for a visual or multimedia aspect for your Ops piece, let us know.

The Editor

Editing checklist

1. Is there a student angle?
   • Does the story have an angle that relates to student life or students on campus? If not, you must find some way or some source who can tie in the student angle. Asking a student’s opinion on the matter, unfortunately, doesn’t count as a student angle. Get creative and find ways to make this matter to students, whether directly or indirectly.
2. Do you have a minimum of 2-3 sources?
   • Does your story have at least 2 (preferably 3) sources? Some stories can get away with fewer, such as briefs and profiles, but we typically want as many sources as there are sides to a story.
3. Are the sources appropriate?
   • Do the sources you’ve contacted have something meaningful to say on the topic beyond their opinion? Can they speak to the topic professionally? This means asking those directly involved (or as closely involved as possible) to the topics covered. Again, this doesn’t mean asking a student who isn’t involved in topic. You can ask them for their opinion on larger stories, but they can’t be counted as your main two to three sources.
4. Do you have all sides of the story?
   • Does the article give everyone a chance to speak on the topic? It’s key that you contact all sources and give them an adequate amount of time to respond. They may not respond, but it’s imperative that they’re given a chance to anyway. If your story is too short, it can be a sign that you haven’t included all sides to the story.
5. Are all the names correct?
   • Check the spelling in your notes/recordings and then check the directory. If there’s a discrepancy, politely ask which spelling they prefer. It’s likely they gave the spelling they prefer when you interviewed them, but the discrepancy may also be a transcription error or static in the audio.
6. Does the article clearly explain the topic?
   • Is the article written for lay people? Remember that not everyone has researched the topic as diligently as you. Try to remember what level of understanding you had before you started your article and cater to that.
7. Is the article well-structured?
   • Is the article choppy or difficult to follow? Your story should feel like one cohesive package. A break in the flow of the story does sometimes serve a purpose. Generally, however, you want your article to read smoothly. A lull in the story is a good place for your reader to stop reading. Imagine your article like a scene in a story: don’t break it up. Additionally, choppy articles can indicate that you’re missing key elements in the story, like explanations or opposing viewpoints. Vet your story for these if you feel your article doesn’t read evenly.
8. Is the article repetitive/bloated?
   • Does the story repeat descriptions or reintroduce elements? In some stories, there’s not a lot to discuss, and there’s a temptation to bolster the article’s length by rehashing previously discussed points. If you find yourself in that situation, it’s best to end the story without dragging on when you have nothing more to say. This can also be a sign of poor structure. Look back on your article and try to collect like information to reduce the amount of times you must jump back and forth between parts of the story.

Gazette dictionary/style guide

Dictionary

Allyn and Betty Taylor Library. Also referred to simply as Taylor. Abbreviated to TL.

alumna (sing.), alumnae (pl.) are used for females who have attended a school.

alumnus (sing.), alumni (pl.) are used for males who have attended a school.

Alternative Spring Break.

Arts and Humanities Building. Also sometimes referred to as Old Ivey/the Old Ivey building. Abbreviated to AHB.

Arthur and Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Building. Also called simply the Health Sciences Building. Abbreviated to HSB.

Bachelor is lowercase. Example: bachelor of arts, bachelor of music. BUT: abbreviations are capitalized. Example: BA, BMus.

Board of Governors.

Book Store at Western is the full name of our campus’ bookstore. Also called simply the Book Store.

Brescia University College. Abbreviated to BUC. Also called Brescia.

Chaplains’ Services.

U Sports national championship. However, Stanley Cup, Yates Cup, Canadian Open, etc.

Dan Management and Organizational Studies.

D.B. Weldon Library. Also referred to as Weldon. Abbreviated to WL.

Enrol (not enroll), enrolled, enrolment.

Extracurricular. One word, no hyphen.

Farmers market, no hyphen.

frosh.

the Gazette. “the” is neither italicized nor capitalized

Graphic Services Building. Abbreviated to GSB.

Housing and Ancillary Services.

Hospitality Services when referring to the specific organization.

Huron University College. Abbreviated to HUC. Also called Huron.

Information and Media Studies. Don’t use an ampersand.

Ivey Business School. Commonly referred to as Ivey. Also known as the Richard Ivey School of Business.

King’s University College, with an apostrophe.

Kresge Building. Abbreviated to KB. Also called Kresge.

Letter to the Editor.

LGBTQ2+

Master’s degree, with an apostrophe.

McIntosh Gallery.

Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Mustang Athletics is the name of the organisation at Western that deals with Western’s sports and athletic teams. Mustang athletics refers to any kind of athletics dealing with Mustangs.

Natural Sciences Centre. Also referred to colloquially as Nat Sci. Abbreviated to NSC.

North Campus Building. Abbreviated to NCB.

Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. Abbreviated to OUSA.

Orientation Week, or O-Week.

OUA championship. However, Stanley Cup, Yates Cup, Canadian Open, etc.

Physics and Astronomy Building. Abbreviated to PAB.

Program names are lowercase, e.g. the history program, the political studies program.

Richard Ivey Building. Also called Ivey/the Ivey building. Abbreviated to Ivey.

rez. Short for residence.

Saugeen-Maitland Hall Residence. Also called Saugeen Residence or just Saugeen. Abbreviated to SMHR.

Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The Senate.

Social Science Centre. Abbreviated to SSC. Also called Social Science.

Society of Graduate Students. Abbreviated to SOGS.

soph.

The Spoke.

Student Support Services.

Support Services Building. Abbreviated to SSB.

Talbot Bowl.

University Community Centre. Abbreviated to UCC after first mention.

University Students’ Council.

vice-president, with a hyphen. We do not abbreviate to VP.

the Wave, the is lowercase.

Western Student Recreation Centre. the Rec Centre for short.

Western Student Services Building. Abbreviated to WSSB.

Style guide

Course names are capitalized when referring to a specific course. When referring to general courses, use lowercase.

• Introductory Physics, Intro to Canadian Social Problems, women’s studies courses, philosophy courses.

Departments are lowercase when referring to academic departments. The exceptions are proper nouns, such as the French or English departments.

• Department of biology, department of English.

Faculties are uppercase.

• Faculty of Social Science, Faculty of Engineering.

Note: This rule differs from CP Style, which recommends that faculties be in lowercase as well.

First-year, second-year, third-year, fourth-year student (adjective), or a first-year (noun). BUT: She is in her fourth year of study.

Majors, minors, honors specialization are lowercase. The exceptions are proper nouns, such as the French or English departments.

• A major in science, a minor in music, an honors specialization in English.

Note: when referring to the program, honors follows American spelling rules.

Q&A.

Note: This rule differs from CP Style, which recommends Q-and-A.

(Some) Canadian Press Style guide rules

Names, occupations and titles

Titles can go before the name:

• President Chakma is upset.
• Second-year social science student Trevor Eng skips class often.

Or after the name, but offset them with commas.

• Chakma, the president of Western University, is angry.
• Trevor Eng, a second-year social science student, skips class often.

After first mention, refer to the source by last name only.

We don’t capitalize occupational titles, which are titles given by an organization that aren’t formally recognized elsewhere. If a title means nothing without the company, it’s an occupational title.

• Prime Minister Trudeau visited India.
• The director of sales and at Nike.

Titles at newspapers are the exception.

• David Walmsley, Editor-in-Chief at The Globe and Mail.

Capitalizations

Capitalize all proper names, trade names, government departments and agencies of government, names of associations, companies, clubs, religions, languages, nations, races, places, addresses, and event titles. Otherwise lowercase is favoured where a reasonable option exists.

Capitalize formal titles directly preceding a name.

• Mayor Joni Baechler.

Lowercase them when standing alone or set off from the name with commas.

• The mayor, Joni Baechler; Joni Baechler, the mayor of London.

Formal titles are those that could be used with the surname alone, e.g. Prime Minister Harper, Prof. Brown, Dr. House.

Lowercase occupational titles and job descriptions: USC president Sophie Helpard, general manager Suzie Jenkins, author Susan Delacourt.

University degrees are lowercased except when abbreviated, e.g. master of arts, master’s, MA, PhD.

Capitalize geographic and widely recognized descriptive regions e.g. Western Canada, Central Canada. However, write southern Ontario, eastern Quebec, southern California.

Newspaper names are capitalized; the the is lowercase.

Composition titles (album titles, books, broadcast programs, films, plays, poems, speeches, works of art) are written in italics to differentiate them in regular copy.

Note: song titles are placed in quotations to differentiate them from album titles.

In quotations, capitalize the first word of a complete quotation, i.e. “McCabe replied to the lawyer’s ‘Ah, Mr. McCabe’ with an ‘Oh, hello, Mr. Trout.’ “

Use lowercase with a word or phrase that is quoted merely for discussion, when it is controversial or when it is used ironically or oddly. E.g. What does “grating” mean? / One of the words used was “scab.” / The “gift” cost $10.

Abbreviations

Avoid abbreviations when an option exists.

An abbreviation is sometimes acceptable to avoid an unwieldy lead. But in general, provide the full name later.

Abbreviations that have become household terms are acceptable in all references (you can still spell them out; it’s just not necessary), e.g., DNA or TNT.

Don’t put the bracketed abbreviation after the name of an organization. Abbreviations that need this device to be clear should rarely be used. The exception is when the abbreviation is in another language, e.g., Doctors Without Borders (MSF). In this situation, the acronym should be explained.

Omit all periods in all-capital abbreviations unless it is geographical or refers to a person.

Avoid abbreviating academic degrees. Use a phrase instead: John Woo, who has a doctorate in chemistry.

Degrees: B.Sc., BA, LLB, M.Sc. MA, B.Comm, PhD.

Abbreviate Dr., Prof., Sen., Rev., Sgt., Rep. before full names on first reference: Dr. Pamela Gucci, Profs. Eva Oberast and John Green.

When an abbreviation follows an indefinite article (a, an), the way the abbreviation is pronounced determines whether a or an is used. E.g., a UWO spokesperson, an STI.

Date and time

Abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell them out when standing alone or with a year.

• Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018.
• December 2018.

For time, use the following formats.

• 8 p.m.
• 8:30 p.m.
• 5 to 8 p.m.
• 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Never use tomorrow or yesterday in stories for print. Use today if it’s intended for online use and events happening the day of publication. Otherwise, the day is always named to avoid confusion.

Name the day if it falls within seven days of the current date: on Tuesday, next Sunday, last Friday. For more distant dates, use the date: May 5.

For months used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell them out standing alone or with a year alone.

For significant events, give the day and the date: The budget will be presented Friday, Nov. 4.

Friday, March 12, 1949 or March 31, 1949 (do not include st/nd/th in dates)

March 1949 (no comma separates the year and month when the date is omitted)

Use a hyphen to connect dates, except when preceded by from or between: the 1982–83 tax year, between 1998 and 2005

Drop the first two digits of a year if they are the same: 1998–99; 1998–2001

1983, ‘83, the 80s, the mid-80s, he’s in his late 50s.

Location

Abbreviate provinces when they come after a community. Otherwise, spell them out.

• Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., N.L., NWT., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que. and Sask.
  • Note: always use Yukon
  • Note: when used adjectivally, use B.C. and P.E.I.
    • B.C. legislature
• Ontario
• London, Ont.,

Use short forms in numbered addresses. Otherwise, use the full street name.

• Ave., Blvd., Cir., Cres., Dr., Hwy., Pky., Rd., Rte., Sq., St., Ter.
• Richmond Street
• 1151 Richmond St.

Numbers

One, nine, 10, 1,000, 1 million, 2.5 million

A $1.2-million donation (hyphenated when an adjectival form before a noun)

21–99 when written out get a hyphen: Twenty-one, Fifty-two

Per cent not %

Use a slash mark to replace per in measurements, e.g. 80 km/h

Also use a slash mark to separate the numerator and denominator of a fraction, e.g. 3 ⅝.

Write out positions under 10th place, e.g. She came in second place. He came in 15th place.

Concision

Always be vigilant for words you can omit.

A good way to practice this is to try to summarize your favourite books in only 15-20 words (or up to 30 if it’s a large book).

The deeper your understanding of the subject matter, the easier this becomes.

The best way to edit for concision is to reread and re-edit your sentences over and over and over.

Be wary of adverbs.

• She walked quietly and carefully. – crept
• The log travelled slowly down the river. – drifted

Similarly, you can often replace adjectives with more descriptive ones.

• With a fresh coat of paint, his car looked new and spotless. – “pristine”
• Fido is a really big dog. – “enormous”

If you see the words “so,” “really,” or “very,” it often means there’s a stronger adverb or adjective you can use that more accurately defines your action or object.

Avoid redundant adjectives.

I found a small fragment on the floor. – “fragment” already implies the object is small

Make sure you don’t remove important descriptors when reducing sentences.

• The bright, richly coloured sea-blue walls gave the interior a majestic look.
• The resplendent walls gave the interior a majestic look.

The rich sea-blue walls gave the interior a majestic look.

Passive/active

However, passive voice can be useful to put the news ahead of the source. Furthermore, when the one performing the action is unknown or unimportant, passive sentences can remove this secondary information.

There are two main types of sentence constructions: active and passive.

In an active sentence, the subject acts (verb) on an object.

• She caught the ball.

In a passive sentence, the object and subject switch places.

• The ball was caught (by her).

Passive sentences often have more words than their active counterparts.

• A study was conducted by researchers to examine depression in youth. – 11
• Researchers conducted a study examining depression in youth. – 8

There are two ways to identify a passive sentence.

1. Passive sentences always have a be-verb followed by the past participle of the main verb.

• Look for those two verbs beside one another.
• Be-verb forms: am, are, is, was, were, be, been, being
• One way to test this rule is to change the tense of the passive sentence. In an active sentence, the main verb will change tense, but in a passive sentence, the be-verb will reflect the tense change.
  • She loves me. – > She loved me.
  • I am loved. – > I was loved.

1. In passive sentences, the action is done to the subject

• Passive sentences often have no actor because the sentence is complete without it.
  • Pavel edited the article. (active)
  • The article was edited. (passive)
  • The article was edited by Pavel. (passive)
• For quick identification of passive sentences, check if there is a “by + noun/noun phrase”
• If there isn’t, see if adding that information would explain who did the action.

Passive sentences are useful when the person who performed the action is either unknown or irrelevant.

• The store has been robbed 10 times in the past year.

Here, even if we did know all the perpetrators, it would be cumbersome to list them all.

You could switch to an active voice with the following sentence:

• Robbers have robbed the store 10 times in the past year.

However, “robbers” adds nothing more to the reader’s understanding. You want to balance concision and utility. If a sentence warrants passive construction for the mentioned reasons, you may use it. But make sure you’re not leaving out relevant information by removing the subject.

• Various gangs have robbed the store 10 times in the past year.

This adds information about the tumultuous ecosystem and basic information about the robbers.

Structure

(Some) Punctuation

Colon

1. Colons introduce lists. To use a colon in this way, the part preceding the list must be a complete sentence

• The sweater comes in three colours: blue, green and black.
• Not: The sweater comes in: blue, green and black.

2. Colons explain or redefine the previous sentence.

• I dislike this presentation: it’s too long.
• There’s only one reason why you’re all here: Rita.

Introducing long or block quotes

Don’t capitalize the first letter after a colon, except for emphasis

Comma

Put commas between the elements of a series but not before the final and, or, or nor unless that avoids confusion.

Use commas before clauses introduced by the conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor or yet if the subject changes. Note: Omit when the clauses are short or the subject of both is the same.

Use commas to set off an introductory clause or long phrase that precedes the main clause.

Put a comma after the main clause only if the clause that follows is parenthetical, e.g. I’m selling you this gold brick because I like your face. The doctor bought a ticket, though she didn’t expect to win.

Use commas to separate adjectives before a noun when the commas represent and, e.g. a vigorous, genial, popular man. Omit commas if they could not be replaced with and.

Use a comma to separate a short introductory clause from a short, complete sentence in quotations. Don’t use a comma if the sentence is extremely short or it is an integral part of the sentence, e.g. Stop saying “I told you so.”

Put a comma after locations, e.g. St. John’s, N.L.,

Em dashes

Use em dashes to set off mid-sentence lists or when commas (generally preferred) would create confusion.

Use a dash to introduce a phrase or clause that summarizes, emphasizes or contrasts what was said before, e.g. Quiet, respectful, deferential, even obsequious — those were Mulliner’s chief characteristics.

Exclamation mark

Only one per story! Please.

Hyphens

Write words as compound to ease reading, to avoid ambiguity and to join words that when used together form a separate concept, e.g. first-year, once-in-a-lifetime, used-car dealer.

Hyphenate phrases acting adjectivally (words precede the noun they modify).

• The six-year-old piano prodigy stole the show.
• The piano prodigy was six years old.
  
• She’s a second-year student.
• She’s in her second year.

Quotation marks

Periods and commas always go inside the quotations.

• She said, “He went to the mall.”
• “He went to the mall,” she said.

Other punctuation marks go inside the quotations if they belong to the quote and outside the sentence if they belong to the main sentence.

• Did she really say, “There’s no place like home”?
• I can’t believe he asked, “Do we need to interview them?”

 

When a sentence ends with single and double quotation marks, separate them by a space. e.g “I heard him say ‘No.’ ”

Provide the speaker’s identity quickly if a quotation is unusually long. It should either precede the quotation, follow the first sentence (or the second if it is short and closely linked to the first), or be interpolated.

Use quotation marks to begin and end each part of an interrupted quotation, e.g. “We can’t hear you,” the girl said. “The radio is on.” NB: Capitalize the first word of the second part of an interrupted quotation only if the second part begins a new sentence. In our example, the period after “said” indicates that the sentence is over. If that was not the case, the period would be replaced by a comma, and the continuation of the quotation would begin with a lowercase.

In a quote that begins mid-sentence, capitalize the first word if the quote constitutes a sentence, e.g. The trainmaster gave the order to “Get the hell out!”

Fragmented quotes are justifiable only when the words are controversial, add colour or give the flavour of an event or style of the speaker.

Use three periods to indicate an omission from a text or quotation. Put spaces before and after the ellipsis.

In condensing a text, use an ellipsis at the beginning, inside or end of a sentence, If it is at the end, put the punctuation before the ellipsis (four periods end a sentence). Note: Guard against distortion that might result from putting together statements that were not together in the original. The solution may be to interrupt the sentence by starting a new paragraph or renewing the attribution.

Use an ellipsis only inside a sentence, not at the beginning or end. Exception: when a quotation simply drifts away, use an ellipsis. (differs from CP but is standard practice)

Semicolon

1. Linking two independent clauses together in place of a coordinating conjunction.
   1. The soldiers returned home; the civilians couldn’t.
   2. She went to school; however, she didn’t go to class.
2. Separating list items that have internal punctuation.
   1. The American flag is red, white and blue; the Canadian flag is red and white; and the Irish flag is orange, white and green.

Commonly confused words

Who vs. Whom

Who replaces words used as a subject.

• He was someone who didn’t know how to lose.

• • Who didn’t know how to lose?
    • He didn’t know how to lose.

Whom replaces words used as objects.

• She told us whom to speak to.

• • Whom did she tell us to speak to?
    • She told us to speak to them.

If you’re ever unsure of which word to use in a sentence, try turning the sentence into a question and answer that question, as above. If the question can be answered in a grammatically correct way by he/she/they, use who. If it can be answered by him/her/them, use whom.

Its vs. It’s

Its shows possession

• I witnessed its full power.

It’s in a contraction of “it is.”

• It’s truly a sight to behold.

Affect vs. effect

Affect is a verb.

• This affects our bottom line.

Effect is a noun.

• The effects of this will last for generations.

Pickup vs. pick up, hangout vs. hang out, etc.

Compound words like pickup and dropout are nouns.

• She owns a pickup truck.
• Let’s meet at the usual hangout.

Pick up and drop out are verbs and they describe action.

• Pick up the ball.
• We’re going to hang out.

If unsure, change the tense of the sentence and see if the word in question changed.

• She owned a pickup truck.
  • “Pickup” didn’t change, indicating a noun.
• We hung out.
  • “ hang out” changed, indicating a verb

Everyday vs. every day

Everyday is an adjective

• We all have everyday struggles.

• • “Everyday” defines the type of struggles we have.

Every day is an adverb.

• But I still get out of bed every day.

• • “Every day” defines the way in which I get out of bed.

Into vs. in to, onto vs. on to

Into and onto are prepositions denoting where an object is transitioning to, figuratively or literally.

• I brought them into this mess.

In to and on to are prepositions preceding the infinitive to (which will in turn precede a verb).

• I brought them in to get their statements.

 

The Creator

Photos, videos and graphics grab our consumers’ attention and pull them into our content for further engagement. Photo and graphics share the responsibility of ensuring that each article has a visual element to it. Meanwhile, video puts out additional and at time supplementary content. These may include reporting, live broadcasts or documentaries.­­

Photo

In the field

At the office

Video

In the field

At the office

Graphics

Guide to BLOX