Make it Memorable book Assignment

Handout Make It Memorable by Bob Dotson

ASSIGNMENT FOR FRIDAY: 
Regarding the book by Bob Dotson, Make It Memorable: Please read the introduction and Section One (pages 3-41). Then, answer the following questions and be sure to exceed the requested word counts:
o What do you notice about the way he writes? Use specific examples, please. (75 words)
  He uses a lot of example to back up his advice's helping the reader make connections. for example when he talks about the Non-Question/ Question he tells the reader who he learned it from, explaining what the technique consists of by bringing up the boy whose father was the leader of the Iranian government and how this technique of the Non-Question came into use. He really addresses the reader really well saying "You" a lot instead another pronoun, I found this more interesting to read.(78)


o What did you learn from reading pages 9 to 27? (75 words)
I learned different techniques of how to catch a good sound bites in an interview. One technique that really stood out to me was the Filling the silence. Let silence grow during interview and making people uncomfortable, making them broaden their answer. A technique to use when having trouble staring to write the piece is to start the middle of the story first. I learned that its also important to fill your story with details, not to waste time pointing out the obvious. (83)


o With the scripts: What do suppose is described in each column? Why would it be split like that? What else is interesting about the scripts? (50 words)
The left hand side is a description of the image of what the viewer should be seeing, while the right hand column is the dialogue to go this the image on the left hand side. This Kinda reminded me of a theater script there are stage directions and the dialogue and its split, to keep it separate and faster when reading or acting out the script. (59)


o On Page 34 (and to the end of the section), Dotson writes about a long-form feature. Find one of these (a story at least 4 minutes long) on a TV news magazine such as Rock Center, 20/20 or 60 Minutes. Then, give and explain examples of how the storyteller uses the five bulleted traits Dotson gives on Page 34. (200 words)

 I watched "Bringing Lincoln to life" by 60 minutes. They first set the scene by introducing late president Lincoln and showing a clip from the movie, and commenting on how accurately the scenes of movie depicted Lincoln's actual life. There was no foreshadowing in this long form feature. The Conflict was whether or not the movie truly depicted the real life of Lincoln. So in this news story, they interviewed historians to compare and contrast how accurately the movie corresponds with Lincoln's life. Character growth is shown through the feature. They show clips from the movie and Lincoln's character growth through his president is shown and talked about. For example they talked about how Lincoln aged by the end the presidency and how his walked changed and this was shown by a clip from the movie, instead of just having the Historian comment on it. The resolution was basically proving that the movie did do a very accurate job of depicting Lincoln's life to life through the movie. This was resolved through interviewing Lincoln historians and other personnel that were involved in making the movie. Showing that the people involved in the movie did extensive amounts of research to make the movie so accurate. (203)