Nickel and Diming

As a continuation of my reporter’s beat, “Brave New World,” I recently interviewed two current Towson University students and one alumnus. Their perspectives helped me to get a better understanding of what it is like for students to learn to budget more effectively when it comes to the grocery bill. I was interested in finding out what students are doing now to lower their out of pocket spending when they went grocery shopping. Of the three individuals I spoke with, each told me a different technique to save money and get the biggest bang for their buck at the register. Click here to listen to the full audio story about how you can save some of your nickels and dimes.

I don't mean to put a wrench in your plan...but, isn't there a better way?

I found the first article about living on your own in the Pokono Record from April 2008. Written by the Carey Brothers, the article took a different look at giving tips to young people about to move out on their own. The article focused on solving common household issues like stopping a leaky toilet which “can be the cause of many a night sleep and a shameful waste of water.” I found the article interesting because it looks from the perspective of how to fix things when they break. Many of the issues they bring up are simple to fix but could cost a young person hundreds of dollars to have a professional complete. In this sense, the Carey brothers not only help the young person to live independently but to keep money in their pockets during our current recession.

I do agree with the writers that the perspective of house maintenance is extremely important to living on your own for the first time. While my blog does not cover this topic at this point, it would be interesting to interview a plumber or an electrician to get their simple fixes for problems. I would also be interested in making a how to video for viewers so they could see exactly what they need to do. One part of the article I did not agree with was the ending (or lack thereof). The article came to its final point and simply ended with no warning to the reader. I half expected to find a second page or a continuation of some sort. If I could add anything to the article, I would explain what each tool does so that the reader knows why they are carrying around a shiny red toolbox.

The second article I found was from Ezinearticles.com, a database of ezine articles that are shared amongst a community of writers. This article, written by Steve C. Boulden, discusses some of the hidden traps that come with living on your own at college. Boulden’s main points are to choose your friends wisely, save your money, and take care of your body’s health. He brings up the issue of choosing college friends and how the wrong friend can spell disaster for a student’s grades because suddenly they are not studying as they should, skipping class and failing exams. This is a good point because I don’t believe many students do realize the impact their friendships have on school. Boulden’s article, while short, provides insightful information and tips that might be helpful to college students.

In general, I agree with the points that Boulden brings up. He maintains that you can be friends with anyone you want and spend money as you wish as long as you keep your eyes on the proverbial prize and learn to control urges to spend excessively and outside of your budget. In no way does the author limit the student but rather warns of the consequence that could come from not taking care of your self from all aspects. To add to this story, I would probably interview a few students to get their perspective on how they manage these issues. I would also open up a forum for readers to comment and suggest their own tips to success in school and in their social life.

Inverting Wachovia

The story, “Citigroup Buys Banking Operations of Wachovia,” written by Eric Dash and Andrew Ross Sorkin by the New York Times is a very good example of a hard news piece featuring the inverted pyramid and its characteristic qualities. The lead, “Citigroup will acquire the banking operations of the Wachovia Corporation, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Monday morning, the latest bank to fall victim to the distressed mortgage market,” answers the most important part of the lead’s job: the 5 Ws and H. The next step in hard news is to place only the most important information at the beginning of the story and other information less pertinent or more colorful later. For example, the authors did not articulate how much Wachovia would be sold for until the fifth paragraph into the story. Even further down in paragraph ten, information is disclosed as to how long Wachovia has been hurting financially due in large part to bad mortgage practices. The final piece of information given to readers in the article is the impact the addiction of Wachovia to Citigroup will have on the future of customers and outside clients and investors. The information supplied in the last paragraph is nowhere near as important to readers as the lead. The ending information could easily have been left out of the story. An important aspect of news stories is to put information in chronological order. For example, in the article, information from Monday morning, located in the lead is before information about the negotiations from Sunday (See paragraph eleven). Even this information precedes the news about discussions with major banks Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Banco Santander of Spain last week in paragraph fourteen. The point of the inverted pyramid technique in hard news is two-fold. One goal is to help readers get the most important news without having to analyze entire articles and sort information unnecessarily. The other goal is to help writers and editors cut down articles that are simply too long for the space provided in the layout of the news source.

Check out this story: http://tinyurl.com/Citigroupbuyout