Topic: News Release with Reading Level Assessment Results
This assignment consists of 1artifact that includes the following 2parts:
1) a 500 word news (press) release intended as a brief article in a local newspaper, and
2) a reading level assessment of the news release conducted with members of your intended (target) audience.
Writing the News Release
Write your news release as a discussion/announcement about a hypothetical seminar about some aspect of the health topic: Elderly Adult Nutrition. Provide an overview of the information that will be given at the seminar, complete with a quote from an expert in the field.
Your quote must be a real quote from a real expert (not over 50 words) taken from the scientific literature, properly citing and referencing the source in your blog.
Make sure that the content in your article follows Universal Intellectual Standards and is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
With little variation, news releases contain the same basic information and follow a similar journalistic pattern to present that information.
Whether they are mailed, emailed, or hand-delivered, they are the preferred method of receiving information by health reporters and journalists of both print and broadcast media. It is important to learn to prepare and use them properly.
The model you will use for your news release is frequently used by health communicators of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Simply add your own original content to the template on pages 24-28 in the CDC's Healthy Communities Program Media Access Guide. You will also find it helpful to refer to the news release preparation guidelines on content and journalistic format recommended by the American Public Health Association on pages 6-7 of their APHA Media Advocacy Manual.
Together, these 2resources provide all you need except the content to complete this activity (and for your instructor to grade it). Although the health facts you include must be accurate and complete, you will also need to provide some hypothetical information about the date and location of your seminar. Add the label "Press
Release" or "News Release" in bold typeface at the top of your document. Save your release as a PDF file and upload it to Blackboard and post it to your e-Portfolio.
Conducting a Reading Level Assessment
Articles in U.S. newspapers typically are written at the 8th grade reading level. Health and scientific writing usually requires a higher level. For this activity keep your writing between the 8th and 10th grade levels.
To do this, first conduct a reading level assessment of the content in the body of your release. MS Word contains a built-in reading level assessment based on Flesch-Kincaid grade level equivalencies. Other similar readability tools are available on the web here, here, and here.
Then modify your text as needed to fall within the required reading level. Finally retest and repeat as necessary. Before submitting your artifact, record the reading grade level and the name of the test used to determine it in a centered set of parentheses immediately under the title of your article.