Ending an Article

When it comes to writing, the end may be considered the hardest part of a story depending on who you talk to. To journalists, “it depends on the story” according to Joseph Gambardello from the Philadelphia Inquirer. He says that the end should be the end, and the end shouldn’t raise any questions for the reader. The ending of a story should sum it up and end it.

Susan Snyder of the Inquirer says that the ending isn’t too hard to write. “We call that the ‘kicker.’ And I tend to find that much easier to come up with than the first couple paragraphs,” says Snyder. “Perhaps that’s because at that point, you are at the end of the story and know all the material you have.”

There’s no secret technique to writing an ending. The endings found in news articles aren’t made in some special way that novice writers can’t figure out. “But there are sure fire endings,” says  Gambardello, “such as a quote that sums up the story in an emotional or  colorful way.”

Daniel Rubin from the Inquirer says that an ending should be memorable. It can be “a phrase that doubles back to something at the start of the piece” or “something ironic, a twist.”

Some say that the ending in a news article doesn’t matter as much as people may think, but it’s nice to have a good ending. Snyder says that “A lot of readers won’t get there. We’re in a real competition for the reader’s time,” but she also says that the ending should be nice for those who actually do many it to the end.

Gambardello agreed, saying that “The ending of the article is not as important as the contents of the article overall. The story must be clearly told, fair and factual. A good ending is always welcome, and an effort should be made to write one.”

“In all honesty, the only way to learn how to write a good ending is to keep trying and eventually it will come naturally, or not,” Gambardello says. “I know many reporters with years in the business who struggle with endings with little success.”

There is, however, one way that everyone knows how to end a story:

The end.

Breakfast Pains

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but many people have trouble enjoying it. In the early hours of the morning, multiple people experience pains in their stomachs after breakfast. Like all sensible people do when they have a problem, someone who experiences these cramps may look it up on Google, which leads him to Yahoo! Answers and other websites. Some of the answers read that it’s something in his diet or that it’s entirely his fault, but how is it when there are so many people with the same problem?

A breakfast of bacon and eggs with home fries and toast.
Source: caferomaonline.com

An informal poll taken at Sterling High School states that two thirds of students don’t eat breakfast.  A majority says it’s too early to eat anything, and the reasons are split between the risk of stomach aches and not having enough time in the morning before school. Natasha Wolfhope, a high school senior, says that she can’t eat breakfast before 8 A.M. because her “stomach is not awake.” School starts at 7:55 A.M. every day, which would mean that most students get up around 6 A.M., and some even earlier, but it’s not just for school. Many adults get up early to get to work on time, according to the University of Florida [link], and the majority of askers on Yahoo! Answers that ask about the stomach pains is made up of confused young adults.

It’s a necessity to eat breakfast in the morning to maintain a healthy diet, but it’s skipped all the time because there is no time, eating it causes stomach aches, or a combination of both. Time plays a big part, for many people feel like there’s a limit to how early someone can eat his breakfast. Wolfhope says, “I don’t know how people can go to the airport at six in the morning and eat breakfast.”

"With Us, It's Personal."

The first thing someone will notice upon entering the Rite Aid in Stratford, NJ is the welcoming cool air compared to the outside. Give it about ten minutes, because the cool air will be gone and replaced with the heat. The cashiers will easily tell you how hot it is, fanning themselves and trying to keep cool with water bottles and keeping their hair up in ponytails. They’re all wearing blue polo shirts and khaki pants, and each employee has a nametag with their first name on it. One of the managers, Sam Albany, will tell you that she’s actually cold, but she’s always cold and wears a hoodie on some occasions to work.

Straight ahead would be the other aisles, some hiding behind others. These aisles include the grocery aisle, the candy aisle, the pet aisle, the cleaning aisle, and the seasonal aisles. In the seasonal aisles, you can find things pertaining to the time of year. The aisles this time are decorated to the theme of summer fun, and customers can find ceramics, beach umbrellas, sunscreens,  yard furniture, and snack foods.

Behind these aisles are where you can find the cold items like milk and eggs. They’re found in fridges, and there are also single-serve candy bars placed on the inside of the door for a cold, chocolatey treat. The fridges also hold Vitamin Water, water bottles, and different kinds of juices and single-serve soda bottles.

Looking to the right, one can find the first few aisles which are made up of make-up, nail care, hair care, feminine care, and a selection of items for men such as razors and cologne. Behind them, if someone looks further, will be the aisles that house different over-the-counter medicines like Advil and Zertec Allergy pills. Things like pregnancy tests and first aid can be found back here as well. Behind these aisles is the pharmacy, where customers can purchase and obtain prescription medications.

To the left are the cash registers. The cashier at the first register today is an older woman named Helen, and she can be found playing Candy Crush on her phone when she’s not ringing up customers. The other cash register next to her is empty, but someone can hop on it in case of an emergency. Any time a line gets over three people, Helen has to pick up the phone on the wall between both cash registers and call another cashier to the front. Someone on the floor will come to the second register.

Rite Aid Pharmacy in Stratford, NJ

Source: www.indianlakearea.com

If someone looks beyond the registers, they’ll find the celebrations aisles. These aisles are full of greeting cards, wrapping paper, and bows all around. The cards are arranged by occasion, and nearly every occasion is there from birthdays to wedding congratulations. Behind the counter, the wall of tobacco can be found. To the left of this wall are made up entirely of cigarettes. The smaller half to the right has the cigars and rolling paper, though there is a section of products that will help quit smoking, like nicotine patches.

Further to the right, past the tobacco and before the wrapping papers and gift bags begin, there is a section for electronic devices. There’s a tiny laptop, a couple music players, an army of blank CDs and blank DVDs, and another army of earbuds. Many of the bigger items are out of date, but the CDs and earbuds are quite handy.

On the floor, you can find up to two people on any given day, one of which being a manager. A devoted mother of two by the name of Donna can almost always be found in the store. She has worked there for years, and everyone knows her. Edna, a co-worker who only works on Sundays, says that Donna is the “fairy godmother” of the store, helping others with anything they need at the drop of a dime.

As one walks around the store, music from the past couple of decades can be heard. Before the recent radio upgrade, Rite Aid used to be the place where music went to die. Now with modern artists like Owl City and Bruno Mars, the younger customers can enjoy the music (and so can the two teenage cashiers when they’re working). Among the tunes, bouts of “Do you have your Wellness+ card today?” and “I can take you over here!” can be heard. Every now and then the music will stop altogether, and one of the few annoying Rite Aid commercials will play. The most frequent is one about the awareness of infertility.

Throughout the day, customers file in and roam the store like lost dogs searching for food. They scan the shelves and pick out what they want, though no two customers are alike. From the registers, you can see most of the aisles and who’s in them. A couple with tattoos and bandanas looks at the perfume in aisle one. An old woman’s grocery shopping in aisle twelve. Middle school boys are in the back of the store grabbing Arizona Iced Tea cans and candy. Women in bathing suits with their children are getting ready to go to the swim club, purchasing sun screen. 
Cashiers chat with some of the customers like old friends, and it makes working there and waiting in line much less irritating. Nearly every customer can be addressed by name when speaking to at least one of the Rite Aid ladies. They share stories, and befriended customers always come back to buy from the store again.

Sterling's Media Center Makeover

Sterling’s media center is going to change. Mr. Ferraro, the new librarian, is planning to update and remodel our media center experience in the 2013-2014 school year.

The main room of the Media Center, June 2013
Photo source: Emily Strauser

Say “goodbye” to the old, DMV feel of the media center; Mr. Ferraro is going to make it more like a Barnes & Nobles. He says there will be a new study area and a hangout area. The study area will be in the corner of the media center by the main computer lab, and it will be a more formal setting that can fit up to three or four people. The hangout area will be like an informal study area, and it will be found in between bookshelves. This area will fit more students, and there will be more comfy chairs and possibly couches. A map of the new layout can be found drawn on the whiteboard behind Mr. Ferraro’s desk in front of the main computer lab.

Mr. Ferraro also plans to advertise new books in the media center on the announcements. At least one day a week will be “New Book Day,” where the library’s latest additions will be featured on Channel 19’s Sterling Knightline.

The computers Annex 1 of the Media Center, June 2013.
Photo source: Emily Strauser

The library isn’t the only part of the media center that’s going to change. The computer labs will have a modification or two as well. All of the computers in Annex 1 will be replaced with Macs that can also be used as PCs. When students start up the Macs, they can choose to use either the Mac or the Windows platform. The Mac platform would be used for media projects, and the Windows platform would be used for the usual student work like essays. Mr. Ferraro says that it’s for the benefit of the students, and he wants all students to be able to “create media projects” outside of class. The only computers capable of this right now are the Macs in Room 402 and Room 201.

The shelves in the Media Center are being
prepared for the arrival of fresh, new books!
Photo source: Emily Strauser

When asked about other changes Mr. Ferraro wishes to make, he said that he was “barraged by ideas,” and it depends on the amount of space he has. Some ideas that he has still need approval from the Board of Education. He says he’s open to suggestions that any student has for the changing media center, but he can’t promise anything. He encourages students to come see him with ideas.

Once a "Knucklehead," Always a "Knucklehead"

For years, students have been driving teachers up a wall. But not all of them. There’s always the select group of students that misbehaves on a regular basis.

The Columbine incident is one of the most, if not the most,
infamous of school shootings. It was performed by two students.
Source: columbine-online.com

According to the Huffington Post, since the Columbine incident in 1999, schools have been stepping up their games as they add police officers to the staff, creating something known as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” In many other schools, like in Denver, Colorado, these police officers arrest students and put some into juvenile detention centers or prison. “For some kids, that’s the entry point, their chances of getting involved with the criminal justice system again just skyrocket once that first arrest has been made,” civil rights attorney Browne Dianis told the Huffington Post.

Sterling High School has its own prison, which is most commonly known as Internal suspension. Mr. O’Donnell, the Internal suspension monitor, says that he may see up to “ten people on any given day,” the average being between three and four. O’Donnell also states that there are “numerous repeat offenders,” saying that he may see a student at least once a week. Instead of being arrested for murder and bank robbery, students are sent to Internal mainly because they don’t follow directions, talk back to teachers, or violate the dress code.

But the misbehaving doesn’t stop in schools. Outside of school, prisons are filled with people who misbehave, and we all have to pay for it through taxes. We spend so much time taking down the “knuckleheads” and locking them up, away from the rest of us.

This time and energy is spent on a whopping 4% of the population. In 2011, there were 7,139,104 arrests in cities around the country, but that barely makes a dent in a total population of 163,760,401 people.

Despite the percentage of “knuckleheads” being this low, it seems like there are more and more of them every day. The news is full of “Who killed whom?” and “Someone just got assaulted!”

If you look at the news, you’d think the “knuckleheads” were multiplying, but they’re not. The numbers are actually going down. According to an FBI crime report, “The number of persons arrested in 2011 decreased 4.6 percent when compared with the number of persons arrested in 2010.”

The Bureau of Justice shows that this 4% of the population is full of repeat offenders. It says that “Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 states in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.”

“I have encountered hundreds of inmates that are repeat offenders. I have met different generations in prison from father and sons, even grandfathers, fathers and sons all incarcerated,” says Corrections Officer Cesar Garcia. “I believe that most inmates re-offend because the lack of structure in their life, and environment plays a huge part.”

Garcia states that many inmates who are released don’t have anywhere to go and live in high-violence areas like Camden, Newark, and Trenton. Camden was proclaimed the most dangerous city in the nation in 2003, 2004, 2008, and 2009, and it is often found in the top ten. This year, it’s ranked number two on this infamous list.

From schools to prisons, “knuckleheads” continue to drive the rest of us up a wall, and it’s the same people over and over again. Once you’re in the justice system, it can be a very vicious cycle with no escape.

“CISPA? What’s that?”

Back in January of 2012, the hacker group Anonymous called for an internet blackout to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act. An internet blackout is when websites either show support or block usage and spread awareness.

Google's "blackout" homepage on January 18th, 2012.
(Credit: Jonathan Skillings/CNET)

On January 18th, 2012, Google honored the blackout by placing a black bar over the word “Google” on its homepage. Wikipedia shut down its services altogether, providing only a message in white text to spread awareness over a darkened background.

All sites that participated in the blackout provided links for uninformed consumers to contact their government representatives. Some consumers didn't even log onto the internet, treating it like an internet boycott.

On April 22nd, 2013, Anonymous had called for another internet blackout to protest the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, an act that would allow internet websites to share someone’s information without his permission. Unlike the last blackout, companies like Google and Wikipedia didn’t participate.

CISPA was passed by the House of Representatives five days before the blackout, but the Senate would not even vote on it.

The younger generations should be aware of the CISPA, but there’s a chance that they have no idea that this is happening. The news about these internet bills rarely reaches television, and the battle is entirely online.

Twitter is one of the few places where the CISPA protests exploded with the hashtag #CISPABlackout, and thousands of informed internet users signed petitions and blacked out their websites or blogs.

An informal survey taken at Sterling High School reveals just how much students know about the CISPA and Anonymous.

Of the thirteen students interviewed, only three heard of the CISPA. Two actually knew what it was, though more students were aware of last year’s SOPA/PIPA blackout.

The collective hacker group Anonymous called

for another internet blackout to protest the CISPA.

(Credit: twitter.com)

When asked about the hacker group Anonymous, a majority of students either didn’t have an opinion or had no idea what it was. Russel Conrad, a more informed student, had this to say about Anonymous: “They do good.”

The uninformed students were told what the CISPA was and asked their opinions on the matter. A majority of students said that it’s a “violation of privacy” or say they just “don’t like it.” Natasha Wolfhope calls it a “violation of Constitutional rights” and that it “violates privacy.”

“It’s not fair,” says Ashley Morris, a senior who rarely uses the internet.

Jasmine Campi calls the CISPA  “Pure evil,” but not all students reacted negatively to the CISPA. Kellyn Lowden says “Well, I’m putting it out there. It’s there for people to take, I guess.”

Nearly all students use the internet in their daily lives, and most of them use Facebook, which explains why they may not have heard of it since the blackout took place on Twitter and parts of Tumblr.

Many students are still uninformed, and it’s possible that this could happen again. The generation that lives in the internet has a right to know when these types of bills are up for vote.