Current Events

Current Events:

Analyzing the News

Guidelines for selecting a current event.

	You must get your current event from a local or national newspaper, or a news magazine.
	If you are unclear if the news source you chose is credible see your teacher BEFORE the due date.
	The current event must be a state, national or international story. No local crime stories, human interest, fashion, celebrity, sporting event, sports figures stories.
	Attach the newspaper or magazine article to your report by stapling it to the back upper left corner of your paper.
	News articles must be a minimum 3 paragraphs long or zero credit will be given.
	Current Events must be typed to receive credit.

For helpful websites where you can find current event articles click here.

Format for Current Event

Source: Indicate the source you found your article from using proper bibliography form. See your “How to Cite” yellow handout or go to www.citationmachine.net .

Issue: Describe briefly what the main issue/topic is (civil rights, pollution, hunger, disease, scientific breakthrough, technological breakthrough, cultural event, etc) of the article?

Who: Describe briefly who is the story about (a person, group, etc)?

Where: Describe briefly the location of article (city, state, or region).

When: Describe briefly when the story takes place?

What: Paraphrase the article (Webster’s definition: paraphrase = a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form.) Basically, sum up the article in your own words or else no credit. (No copying word for word/pasting text.) The summary is to be from five to seven sentences. Be precise and concise.

Why: Why is the story important? Why is it newsworthy? How does it affect your parents, people in your community, in the state of Washington and/or in our Country? This is your analysis. Think about why this particular news event is in the paper. Do not give superficial general answers such as “This is newsworthy because people want to know what is going on in the world”. This type of statement could be used for any article, you need to be specific and give it deeper thought than that. To answer the why section you should ask yourself, what is the problem the article is discussing, who does it affect and what do you think could be done to solve the situation? The “Why” section should be five to seven sentences.

Vocabulary: Pick two words from the article to define. These should be two words you were not familiar with before and are curious about. Note under the words what source you used for your definitions.

Discussion: Write a discussion question for the class. It should be a question that does not necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but one with which reasonable people could disagree. The question must be specific to the issue in your article.

Click here to see a sample Current Event!