Covering a Speech

1
Covering a Speech

• Reporters normally do homework before a speech,
  checking what the speaker had previously said.
• Reporters may get an advance copy. However,
  always check to see if the speaker sticks to the
  text.
• If you use the advance copy, you have to make
  that clear by saying in a speech prepared for
  delivery.
• During the speech, listen carefully for
  information and for possible quotations to be
  used in the story.
• Ask yourself What is the key point? The answer
  to this is the lead to the story.
• Note the speakers clothing and mannerisms.

2
Organizing the Information

• Most speech stories begin with a terse summary
  lead that emphasizes the key points of the
  speech.
• Second graf Back up the lead with a strong
  quotation or paraphrase. Tell where the speech
  occurred and who sponsored it.
• Third graf Continue developing the points made
  in the lead, or write a transitional paragraph
  moving into another key point. This can also
  introduce a set of bullets highlighting all the
  speakers important points. Provide more
  background on the speaker. Introduce
  observations. Tell how many people attended the
  speech.

3
- Fourth paragraph or the one after the bullets
Continue developing the lead, or begin developing
the bulleted items one by one. If possible, use a
strong quotation to illustrate one of the key
points - Balance of the Story. Follow up with
quotations and paraphrases. Continue to sprinkle
in observations. - Final Paragraph. Try to end
with a direct quotation, the speaker in direct
communication with the reader. That will help
avoid an abrupt ending and will make the reader
feel that the dialogue continues even though the
story has ended. Do not use an attribution such
as he concluded in the last paragraph. Make
sure that all the key points are fully developed.
4
The Tung Speech

• In his speech, Tung (like most speakers) began
  with small talk, compliments and humor It gives
  me keen pleasure to come among you today, to
  share the joy of this great institution
  celebrating its 90th anniversary, and to bask in
  the reflected glory of its long history of
  academic excellence. Let me confess this very
  evening, for more than just a fleeting moment of
  self-doubt, I almost felt a sense of regret for
  having sailed off many years ago to a distant
  land to read my degree, instead of going up to
  Pokfulam Road to be educated.

5
After these remarks, Tung developed the theme of
his speech, which was that elitism, especially in
education, had been erroneously
discredited. Unfortunately, at some point during
the 1980s, the pendulum had swung from old-style
elitism to the other, egalitarian, extreme, and
nowhere has that been more evident than in,
again, education. The concept of competitive
student selection based on academic performance
was fiercely challenged on account that such
practice magnified social divisiveness. The
system of name schools bore the brunt of
egalitarian critiques and they became scapegoats
for the sins of the old elitism. As a result,
standards deteriorated, and we were asked to
believe that mediocrity ought to be acceptable so
long as it was equally shared. Elitism took on
a bad connotation, and the baby was poured away
together with the bath water. In the speech,
Tung praised the university and complimented its
graduates, but none of this was newsworthy. Only
what he said about elitism and education was
newsworthy. News stories, therefore, should have
focused on this element of his speech in their
lead. And subsequent paragraphs should have
contained quotes supporting this theme.