Plan for Medieval Day Story

(Here, admittedly a little bit late, is the suggested plan I gave to Lucia for constructing the Medieval Day story fom your memos. As I said in class, this represents an example of the "anedotal lead" style of opening, which is different from the simple "5Ws and and H" news lead that we have been talking about. Here we use a short "anecdote," or short story of something that happened, to try to get the reader's attention, and then tell the reader who did what, where, when, why and how. It also shows how you try to build into the plan an effort to explain the importance or significance of the story. And finally, it demonstrates how you want to have a logical framework for the rest of the maertial. It's also an example of how to use chronological order as an organizing device. (In the last part we tell what happened during the event in the order it happened. It´s an example of the principles enunciated in "How To Write Anything," an essay of mine that you read at the beginning of the year.)

SUGGESTED PLAN FOR MEDIEVAL DAY STORY

Opening anecdote  -- two paragraph description of one episode that sort of summed up the day. One that might be good is the jousting match between Maid Natalia of Medina and Maid Moira of Rodriguez.

The “theme” paragraph that gives the “5Ws and an H”

Explanation, if we have it, of the larger purposes of the event

Summation of the results and reactions

·         Results of the competition

·         Quotes from students

·         Quotes from teachers  

(Don’t just “list” the quotes. Try to use each one to tell something new, or make some new point.)   

Explanation of where the idea came from (brief)

Summary of the events of the day

·         Opening ceremonies .. coats of arms, mascots, dances, etc

·         Medieval Fair activities and competitions

·         Afternoon events on the soccer field

(In doing the summaries of the activities it isn’t necessary to tell everything about everything. Some events can just be mentioned in passing. You can tell about the parts that seemed particularly interesting.)