Feature Story

For my feature story I plan on interviewing two college students and one youth financial advisor. This story is considered a trend story because as the economy is weakening students are now having to budget and save more.

I have an appointment set up this week with a finanical advisor, who will hopefully be able to discuss whether or not more students are starting up savings accounts. From there will be the basis of my interviews with the students.

I will then at the end give some tips from the finacial advisor on how to save and budget in this economy.

Wall Street Journal Formula

Hey Laaaaaady! It's the King of Comedy is a perfect example of the Wall Street Journal Formula. The Story starts out with a descriptive lead, describing Jerry Lewis' popularity and his career as a star, writer, director, producer and technical innovator. 

The nutgraf comes along in the second paragraph and explains how on Sunday night he will be honored at the Academy Awards. 

 Photo from Everett Collection

Jerry Lewis with Dean Martin 

 

The body of the story gives details from his life and his extensive career spent in the spotlight. 

The fourth step in the Wall Street Journal Formula is also used in this article, the end of the article showcases works of Jerry Lewis, this allows readers to look into some of his works. They even gave links to one of his masterpieces. 

Ideas

I have been thinking of ideas for my story, and in order to encompass all of the elements I am thinking of doing a profile story on three college students and how they budget. I will gather information from all three and also add in some of my own tips from my experience, and also from a financial advisor.

Learn to be financially Successful

There is workshop coming up next week which will explain how to become financially successful. The Student Leadership workshop: The Keys to Financial Success is going to be held at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore on Thursday February 26th at 6pm. If you don't have a car don't worry the Collegetown shuttle picks up at Towson and will drop off at the College of Notre Dame. The participants of this event will be provided with dinner and packets of information about topics covered. 

The workshop will cover topics such as why a credit score is important and how to keep yours at a high level, how to save and invest money and how to make sure the economic crisis doesn't impact you. Dr. Alan Cox is the Managing Director of the Maryland Coalition for Financial Literacy and he is going to be presenting some of the topics. 

This same presentation was given last semester at Loyola College, because of the response they decided to put on another workshop. If you are interested in attending rsvp at info@baltimorecollegetown.org. 

A feature lead is more of a quick preview to what is coming, it is not packed full of important information like a hard news lead is. The feature lead is a chance to attract readers and give a quick preview of what is to come. There are several types of feature leads, Anecdotal, narrative, descriptive, and question. An anecdotal lead is a specific example that is used to make a general point about the story. Narrative leads present a story to the reader and generally run longer than anecdotal leads. Descriptive leads are usually used with stories that focus on a person, place or group. They include only details that support the main point of the story. Question leads are rarely used but they are sometimes used to catch the reader off guard. 

A summary lead is similar to a feature lead but is more of a description and a scene setter, it sometimes includes the 5 w's and an h but not always. The summary lead is usually the first choice for most feature writers. 

Example of Narrative Lead. 

Chance McCoy strummed the guitar and plucked a mandolin before finding his calling: the fiddle. He remembers going to fiddle conventions in Virginia and West Virginia six years ago and watching musicians jam. 

Example of Descriptive lead

They know him as "Black," a convicted felon and longtime member of the Bloods street gang. He is leaning far back in a chair, under the only working light in a nondescript row house in East Baltimore. He is talking about street life and hustling. And this group of more than 25 gang members and young men recently sprung from prison and hanging on his every word. 

Story beat

Students seek more bang for buck appeared in The Towerlight today which talks about how community colleges are reporting increased enrollment. Community colleges are usually much cheaper than traditional four-year colleges and because of the state of the economy most students are looking for the cheaper way out. Students are beginning to choose their schools based on money, not whether they like it or not. 

It is hard to afford college whether it be a community college or traditional four-year school. Many students are transferring to an instate school or transferring from a four-year school to community college, which is reverse of what used to happen. 

Many college students don't live on a budget in college which really hurts their financial future. I am guilty of it too sometimes, we all are at times, especially when that new outfit is calling our name but living on a budget is key to surviving the college years. Everyone should figure out exactly how much money they need to pay out in bills and then with what ever amount is left over some should go into a savings account and the rest can be spending money for the week. Saving accounts are necessary at any age because at anytime something unexpected could happen that a large lump sum is needed up front. 

So this week I encourage everyone to start looking at their income and compiling all bills that you pay out each month and determine your spending limit for each week. 

My beat is...

Staying on a college budget, is it easy, not always but I will give tips to guide college students through those tight budget years. I also plan to provide cheap and free weekend activities for college students, where to find the best deals and the cheapest grocery stores in the Towson area! I am a bargain shopper and always have my coupons in hand in order to spend the least amount possible for what I need.

This week I want everyone to check out the Baltimore Collegetown website. It is full of fun and cheap ways to enjoy the Baltimore area. They have a section on the homepage called cheep and free, now how are you supposed to beat that! All the activities are within the Baltimore area and the collegetown shuttle stops near each activity so you can even save on gas by taking the FREE shuttle.

This website is good for everything a college student could be looking for. There is a section where you can find internships in the area, you can see the shuttle route, you can even plan your visit by mapping out the places you want to go. A lot of my future blog posts will include activities found on the website but I won't be able to mention them all so check it out!