Assignment 2: Hard Rain, Hard News

Write a short, straight-ahead news story about how the recent heavy rain in the region has affected people around you. Keep the focus tight: Don’t try to describe the effects of the weather on the whole area, but tell the reader what happened (and perhaps is still happening) in one neighborhood, or just to the people on one block or in one household.
Use the inverted pyramid structure and write in the third-person, as per a standard hard news story.
Use at least two sources - by sources I mean people – and quote at least one of them. (The second person you can merely paraphrase.) The story should be the equivalent of 1-2 typed, double-spaced pages, and it should have a headline over it.
The content of your story doesn’t have to be earth-shattering in its newsworthiness; I’m more interested in your use of the typical newspaper writing style, the judgment you use in prioritizing the pieces of information you convey, and your overall accuracy, clarity and efficiency.

The story is due online by noon on Thursday, July 6, or in hard-copy form at the start of class that evening. Questions? E-mail me at ackerink@aol.com.