If the UPIU mentoring team asked student journalists we work with around the world to stand up if we’d ever told them they needed more sources in their stories, it’s likely that every single student would rise.

Named sources add credibility to stories, we argue. By peppering news stories with real names and documents, a journalist is far less likely to make errors and get into legal trouble.

We still believe all that. But the trouble is that we often wind up with stories that read something like this:

Restaurants around the university have been serving beer to underage students, Student Affairs Director John Smith said.

“The restaurants aren’t worried about getting caught,” Smith said.

It’s common for university students to try to find ways to drink alcohol, said Jane Doe, a third-year student.

“It’s one reason we enroll at university,” she said.

The story is technically fine, but a little boring. The set-up, quote, set-up, quote framework is more likely to put readers to sleep than engage them.

To kick things up a notch, it’s important to learn how to write with authority. This means that you as the reporter and writer knows enough about the topic that you can confidently make statements that illuminate context.

The New York Times published a great example of writing with authority on Dec. 1. Reporter Alissa J. Rubin wrote about Gulnaz, an Afghan woman who was charged with adultery after she reported having been raped. The woman was pardoned from a prison sentence, but then told that she should marry the man who raped her.

Take a look at these statements, pulled from throughout the story:

“(The announcement that she should marry her rapist) revealed the ways in which even efforts guided by the best intentions to redress violence against women here run up against the limits of change in a society where cultural practices are so powerful that few can resist them…”

“The problem for (women in Afghanistan) is the deeply held belief that women uphold their family’s honor. Thus any attempt to expose abuse is so humiliating to the family that a woman who speaks out often becomes a pariah among her relatives, ending up isolated as well as abused.”

“Gulnaz’s case shows the power of cultural norms…”

None of the statements above are clearly attributed to a source via the standard “..he said” or “…she said” or “…according to a report by…” method. Yet the statements have weight, and are unlikely to be challenged.

Why? Because Rubin crafted a story with a strong framework of incontrovertible facts. A cursory skim of the story might suggest that Rubin is drawing her own conclusions instead of allowing readers to make their own judgments (another of UPIU’s big no-no’s), but that’s not what’s happening in this story. In fact, Rubin is utilizing quotes and facts that appear in the story, in addition to her expert knowledge of Afghan culture, to build a story that is multi-layered, honest and, most importantly, accurate.

Read the story. Take a careful look at the sentences in which Rubin writes with authority.  Each time, the statement is an echo of a quote or fact – but the statements help the reader dig below the surface of what sources are saying. Each statement can be traced back to a quote or fact.

Moreover, Rubin has reported from Iraq and Afghanistan extensively over the past 10 years. She didn’t show up in Kabul one day and write this story the next. Rubin has a deep understanding of Afghan culture.

Meanwhile, Rubin did NOT attempt to draw conclusions that might reveal a personal bias about the situation. For example, she did not write, “Afghan men don’t love their wives,” or “Afghan families treat their daughters like property.” Especially when writing about other cultures, it can be easy to make assumptions about people and practices because we don’t recognize ourselves in them. But while it might be true that SOME Afghan men don’t love their wives, and SOME Afghan families treat their daughters like property, it would have been a gross assumption – and a grave error – to make such statements in the story. None of the quotes or facts suggest either statement is true.

Often, when we review UPIU stories, we’ll ask, “How do you know this?” We expect that you’ll be able to answer quickly that you know something because a credible source told you, or that you saw something with your own eyes. In many cases, we’ll want to see the name of that source in your story. But not always. When sourcing, think about building a story that will allow readers to dig deep into an issue. Take them below the surface – don’t settle for quotes that trivialize or over-simplify the issue.

Many UPIU students know that United Press International has its own stylebook, used to standardized the way UPI stories are written. If you’re someone who has written 15 as fifteen or used the title “Dr.” to describe someone with a PhD, you might have received a note from a UPIU mentor advising you to read the online stylebook.

And if you’re someone who rankles at the thought of nitty-gritty details and would rather focus on the art of writing, you may have wondered why we use a stylebook at all.

Bruce Cook, UPI’s stylebook guru, agreed to help us understand why style is important, why UPI has its own stylebook, and how doesn’t hinder creative writing, but helps it. 

UPIU: What is style? What is a stylebook?

Bruce Cook: In a news organization, comments such as “Follow style” and “What’s our style?” are common. Style, in this sense, is a set of standards writers and editors follow in producing a news report.

A good style guide helps them put out a report that is disciplined and professional. It ensures a uniformity of spelling, abbreviations and punctuation. It includes rules of grammar. It provides history and background where needed. It may have information on ethics and libel. As the foreword in UPI’s printed book says, the stylebook has become “an all-purpose reference for reporters and editors in a hurry.”  (Note: The printed book [last printing 2004] is called The UPI Stylebook and Guide to Newswriting. Although it has been substantially updated online in recent years, the printed book is recommended reading. It includes a 103-page section that has much advice on writing and editing.  It tells how some of UPI’s top reporters covered their beats, and it features some of the great lead sentences written by UPI over the years.)

Why is a standardized style important?

Without it, things would get real untidy. We could have al-Qaida in one story, Al Qaeda in another and other variations, too. Or Minn. in one abbreviation, MN in another. Alternatives are everywhere. Sen. or Senator? Advisor, adviser? Do you cap president standing alone? How do you write academic titles, degrees? And what about hyphenation and possessives? Even the experts disagree on these. There are quirky corporate spellings and a mind-boggling maze of transliterations. Vulgarities? Currency conversions? How do you handle Tweets and texts and Web lingo? A news organization must be consistent. Standardized style is the answer.

Describe the process of developing UPI style.

UPI has a style committee. Great care is taken in updating the stylebook. Entries are written to conform to the ‘style’ of the book, which UPI has produced for decades. Sometimes a style addition is easy. For example, we recently added SEALs to describe the U.S. Navy special forces. Many additions or revisions require much research and deliberation. An example would be the work that went into a revision of the foreign legislative bodies entry.

Why does UPI need its own style? Isn’t AP style good enough?

UPI is very proud of its stylebook, which has always ranked as one of the best in the business. Not everyone uses the AP stylebook. Many organizations (The New York Times, The Times of London among them) have their own stylebooks. For decades, UPI had separate stylebooks for newspaper and broadcast writing. In 1977, because dozens of newspapers carried both UPI and AP, the two news agencies cooperated on a joint stylebook for newspapers to make it easier for editors working with copy arriving from competing agencies. The UPI and AP stylebooks are still very similar, but they have changed much in recent years and there are now many differences between the two.

AP style has had some big changes recently, such as Web site to website. Why didn’t UPI follow suit?

UPI’s style rules also have undergone big changes  (a recent example is an overhaul of the possessives entry).

Hey, style guides are a pain! Can’t an editor just fix style errors for me?

Use of the stylebook is an absolute requirement for everyone contributing to the news report. It’s a matter of professionalism and, frankly, common courtesy.  Writers should do all they can to make the editor’s job easier, not harder. A person with a “Let the editor fix it” attitude won’t go far in this business.

What if UPI style cramps MY style? (I’m a creative writer, you know.)

The best writers in the business use style guides. UPI’s greatest — and most creative — writers used the stylebook. It sure didn’t cramp their style. If you’re sending texts or self-publishing, do as you wish. But if you are employed by an organization that has a stylebook, use it. The UPI book is just a click away.

What’s the best way to learn UPI style?

Read the stylebook. It’s not just about cap this and hyphenate that. It’s a book about writing, good writing. It is better to use the online version because it has been updated. But to learn even more about UPI style, get a copy of the printed book (it can be purchased online). It is loaded with extra advice for any writer.

*  *  *

Convinced? We hope so! Remember, a reporter who knows UPI style makes a happy editor. And a happy editor means more bylines for the reporter! Check out the UPI stylebook online.

We were blown away by Pratik Kumar’s story about lone protesters who devote their lives to petitioning the Indian government. The protesters live on the sidewalk just outside government headquarters, and file complaints on behalf of aggrieved people who ask for their help.

Surprisingly, the protesters are effective, according to Kumar’s story. They’re homeless and, in some cases, eccentric, but they get answers. Several of the protesters showed Kumar the responses they’ve received from government officials.

Kumar juggled hesitant sources and a fact-checking nightmare to get the story, and his perseverance paid off when he earned a UPI.com byline.

Want to know how he did it? Read on:

Name: Pratik Kumar
Hometown: Bhagalpur, Bihar, India
Journalism School: AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia
Area of Focus: Feature and Investigative stories

UPIU: How did you come up with this story idea?

Kumar: I learned of a 90-year-old gentleman who operates as an anti-corruption activist from the capitol’s designated protest zone. I thought it could be a good side story to tell because the place was in spotlight of media mongers, following the famous anti-corruption protest by the country’s leading social activist, Anna Hazare.

When I reached there, I was up for a surprise. A local tea-stall owner informed me that he hadn’t been seen for a month. But for me, there was no going back. I went around the place trying to find out possible leads to my story. In the process, I found that the place was home to an ever shifting community of protesters. With years of struggle in their skill basket, some of them were no different from that old gentleman – trying to affect change in their own little way.

What did it take to earn the trust of your sources?

Injustice can be blind. Sadly, resentment is a part of their daily life. At the protest zone, this is what they see, as well. I just had to empathize with them. They wanted to talk, and I let them do so.

How do you fact-check your story?

Corroborating information from disagreeing views is a tricky job. To avoid any slant and to report things correctly, I always go around and cross-check things with potential sources.

Documentary proof always comes handy. For example, I saw no harm in politely asking my subjects to show me the copies of petitions they filed. In fact, they were willing.

Describe the unexpected challenges you faced.

Some of the subjects didn’t want to be photographed or talk about things which they considered personal. I had to decide how deep I could go. There was a risk of breaching privacy.

How did your UPIU mentor help you polish the story?

UPIU mentorship was helpful in fixing the loopholes in my story. I was told that corruption and injustice is a running theme in the story. The challenge was to show how big the phenomenon was.

There was no point cramming the story with incomprehensible facts about corruption and protests. In stead, I opted to go to the local police station to find out the number of registered protests in the last month. It helped to peg my story.

Also, I learned the art of telling a story to an international audience. There are interesting little nuances.

What do you plan to write next?

There are a few stories ideas in mind. I might do a piece on green buildings, since rapid urbanization and pressure to create modern infrastructure, provides India a unique opportunity to build green. I’m trying to get the research in place.

Welcome to the team, says UPIU mentor Tim Maier, who has made a living asking tough questions and uncovering secrets for more than 20 years.

Maier’s no slouch when it comes to reporting and writing stories that count. He’s covered anthrax and missing children cases, and one of the first cases he covered was later turned into a movie.

At UPIU, we often hear j-students say they’d like to become the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. It’s a noble goal, but investigative reporting isn’t as easy as it might look in the movies.

Below, Maier shares his tips for getting started in journalism.

The late Bob Greene, founder of Investigative Reporters and Editors once defined investigative journalism this way:

“It is the reporting, through one’s own work product and initiative, matters of importance which some persons or organizations wish to keep secret. The three basic elements are that the investigation be the work of the reporter, not a report of an investigation made by someone else; that the subject of the story involves something of reasonable importance to the reader or viewer; and that others are attempting to hide these matters from the public.”

Here are a few tips to help jump start your investigative reporting career:

• Become a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. The conventions provide great seminars, and the Web site has a boatload of tips and documents that can help you build great stories. Check it out. (There are lots of great investigative reporting sites out in cyberspace, including The Center for Investigative Reporting and Global Investigative Journalism.)
• Learn how to file Freedom of Information requests both with federal and state agencies. You can go to the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press to get help with FOIAs. As an investigative reporter, you should have at least one FOIA request out per week. I once requested records from every state prison in the nation on the number of prison deaths and their causes to build a 10,000 word story on drug overdoses in prisons. It took a year to complete the story, and a year to get all the records. I even filed FBI records requests on the places I worked, and also every time a famous person died. You never know what you can find out.  I even filed an FBI FOIA on myself. Turns out, the FBI had a file on stories I had written attached to investigations they did. The FBI didn’t always talk to me during the stories but they did talk a lot in the records I received. Who said this can’t be fun?
• Get familiar with databases and Web sites that store wonderful information. For example, Associations on the Net is maintained by the Internet Public Library. It provides links to various association websites. FindLaw.com can help you link to government agencies. If you have access to Lexis Nexis, you can search for transcripts of new programs and news articles.
• Find a private investigator. He or she can be a source for life. If you get a good one, you will have stories, and learn tricks of the trade to get all kinds of information – all legal. For example, if you need a phone number or an email of someone, find out if the person has a dog. More than likely, they got a license or permit. File a FOIA and you can get the phone number.
• Use social media to help you go through records. Agencies often do a document dump, knowing you can’t possibility go through thousands of records. It’s a way of saying, “Here are your records, but good luck finding what you want.” Put them on your social media network and ask for help. In 2006, Talking Points Memo Muckraker found success by asking readers to help sort through thousands of documents pertaining to the investigation of the U.S. Department of Justice’s controversial firing of seven United States attorneys. You can do the same by getting expense records of all your local legislators and asking readers if they see anything that jumps out at them.
• You’ve probably heard people say, “Follow the Money!” That’s straight from Watergate. Where there is money, there is a document trail. Find the paperwork. Ask yourself, “Where did they write it down?”  Then FOIA it.
• Court records are great.  Get to know the judges, the clerks, the lawyers. Check the records on cases prior to trials, during trials and after trials. You can find a goldmine of information. Request copies of jury reports – yes jury reports – that are filed quarterly.  That’s how I found out that jurors had requested a state investigation into government pension fraud.
• Interview in person as much as possible and always over something to eat. Why?  Because the person is trapped while waiting for food. Some of my best interviews were over apple pie. They never left until they got the pie, which gave me plenty of time to get what I needed. The pie wasn’t bad either. Order it with ice cream and it buys you another 20 minutes.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are lots of journalists out there who have done similar stories and can provide tips. After 25 years, I still ask for help.
• Don’t rush. It’s better to be right than to write a correction tomorrow.

When Julia Bodwell first submitted her story, it focused on the global health of coral reefs.

But over the course of a week or two, Bodwell, a student at the University of Tampa, whittled and polished her story. When she emerged from the mentoring process, her story boasted this lead:

TAMPA, Fla., April 10 — When the Narcosis Scuba Center takes a boat of divers out into the Gulf of Mexico, a “look, don’t touch” policy is strictly enforced. To preserve marine ecosystems, the Tarpon Springs, Fla., shop permits nothing to be removed and brought back on board. Nothing, that is, except garbage.

The World Resources Institute reported more than 60 percent of the world’s reefs are currently under immediate threat from human activities. To help reverse human impact, those in the dive community are taking initiative to prove local efforts towards reef recovery can make a difference.

Compare that to her original lead sequence:

According to the “Reefs at Risk: Revisited” analysis released this February by the World Resources Institute, more than 60 percent of the world’s reefs are under immediate threat from human activities.

The report, led in collaboration with more than 25 research, conservation and educational organizations, identified overfishing and coastal development as the leading threats to reef ecosystems. When combined with thermal stress, the percentage under threat jumps to 75 percent.

Katie Reytar, a research associate at WRI, said it’s hard for society to make the link between threatened reefs and local pressures because it’s not obvious for people to see exactly where the reefs are being degraded, and why.

“It’s more apparent (to people) in areas where reefs are a big part of day-to-day lives.” she said. “In other parts of the world, it’s out of sight, out of mind. But it does have cascading effects for everyone.”

Bodwell got rid of the global lead, which had been written many times before by environmental journalists. Instead, she focused on local efforts to clean up the reefs. That meant she could interview people involved, in person, and describe their efforts in detail that would have been impossible had she attempted to write an overview of the problem worldwide. She reported a fresh angle on a topic that has had, to some degree, global attention. She was able to add momentum to the global conversation about the issue, without repeating what’s already been reported.

Bodwell earned a UPI.com byline on April 26. Soon, the story had been linked all over the place. A Google search for “Julia Bodwell, divers” resulted in three pages of true results. Here’s just the first page:

Google search: "Julia Bodwell, divers"

The lesson here? Write a story that hasn’t been told. In most cases, a local angle on a global story has more value than a broad overview.

Journalists’ personal interests can often drive their best story ideas. A love of tatoos sent University of Tampa j-student Julia Bodwell trolling through the underground world of body modification for her next story idea. It ended with her watching her sources swing through the air from piercings in their skin.

Body suspensionist Russ Foxx hangs in the air. (Photo courtesy of Russ Foxx.)

Squirmy? Oh, yes. But, driven by her intrigue with the idea, Bodwell dug in and delivered a nuanced portrait of a practice many find shocking.

“I expected my story to make people squirm a bit, but I think everyone’s squirming in a good way, so for me that’s the most positive feedback I could ask for,” Bodwell said.

Read on to find out more about how she tamed this particular reporting beast, and earned a UPI.com byline for her efforts.How did you find this story idea?

I have a personal connection with the tattoo world (my brother is an up-and-coming tattoo artist in Pennsylvania; consequently I have a lot of tattoos myself). So I was interested in writing something aimed either at the body modification community specifically or at least towards an audience that could be intrigued by such ideas. I’ve always been slightly more curious about body suspension than the average person, so I decided to run with it and see where it took me.

Did you hit any brick walls in your reporting?

The initial process of tracking people down was difficult. I contacted various sources within the body suspension community (there’s even a Church of Body Modification that I tried to contact but to no avail), but wasn’t getting any response. When I was almost at the point of “Well, what do I do now?” I got a response back from Russ Foxx. He was actually really cool about it, especially since he’s a fairly big deal in this community, so the fact that he was so down-to-earth and willing to talk to me was really appreciated.

Was the reporting more difficult because of the ticklish topic?

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a sensitive, touchy subject. If anything it’s just bizarre and a bit tough to swallow for some people, but because I’m so intrigued by it, it felt natural to want to do interviews and ask any questions I thought needed to be asked.

Any big writing challenges?

Writing is my biggest strength, it always has been. Sometimes it’s hard to organize my thoughts when I have so many things to work with, research, quotes, etc., but getting it all down on the paper is never particularly difficult. My biggest difficulty is usually knowing the angle I want the story to take before I actually get it there. Usually I figure that out as I’m writing.

Were there any surprises in the process for you?

I didn’t expect the lede I ended up with to be such a success. I almost felt I was going against the acceptable norms of strong reporting and traipsing back into the world of fiction I love so much when revising. But I think in the end, because of the topic, it worked well and ended up being something I’m proud of.

The pace on online news may be frenetic, and the deadlines minute-to-minute, but that’s no excuse for sloppy reporting or writing. Forget even one crucial detail and you end up looking not only unprofessional, but downright stupid.

Consider two examples I recently found that sent me through the roof. Both, sad to say, were from professional journalists at established news sites. The first was a story about a new piece of legislation that didn’t even bother to include the name or bill number of the proposed law. The story was cogent, well-thought-out, and spot-on in terms of its analysis, but it lost all credibility with me when I couldn’t figure out exactly which bill the author was describing. Bear in mind: Dozens to hundreds of bills can be submitted each week at the Capitol, so having that name and bill number can be crucial.

Ultimately, I had to go on the website of the senators who authored the legislation and dig around for about 10 minutes to find the bill I sought.

And you can bet, almost no general news readers are going to go to that kind of trouble.

Another example: A story about a physician charged with stealing the Rolex from the arm of a dead patient. The story was sensational, interesting and dramatic. However, when the article told me the doctor had lied about a criminal past — but then didn’t tell me what crime he had been convicted of — I suddenly wasn’t so sure I believed it. A further search of other news stories uncovered that he had been convicted of a drunk-driving charge more than five years prior. Again, the credibility of the story hinged not on what the reporter delivered, but what he didn’t deliver — the answers to all the reader’s questions.

Both of these stories were short reports obviously written on tight, web-driven deadlines. But that’s simply no excuse for leaving crucial information off the table. So if you’re writing for a blog…a website…an online news magazine…don’t check your reporting chops at the door. Be sure you answer all the basic questions, include all the important relevant details, before posting your story.

Are you a journalism student? Do you want to work as a paid freelancer?

UPI.com is looking for a few good stories!

UPIU Journalist Suleiman Abdullahi reports for UPI.com in Juba, Sudan in Jan., 2011.

Every j-student who posts a story on UPIU has a shot at a UPI.com byline, but now UPIU is looking for stories that will be written specifically for UPI.com. Three students who pitch the best story ideas will be paid $100 each to write those stories.

How does it work? In the journalism world, reporters pitch story ideas to editors. That’s what we want you to do here. The THREE best story pitches will be chosen.

You can pitch up to TWO story ideas. However, we won’t choose two ideas from the same student. The three chosen story pitches will most likely be significantly different from one another, and will be from three different areas of the world.

Who is eligible? If you are an aspiring journalist, you’re eligible to submit a story pitch, no matter where you live, as long as you have a UPIU profile. (Go here to set one up!)

What should my story pitch be about? Internet access has been in the news a lot lately. Anti-government protests in North Africa were largely fueled by social media, and the Egyptian government did what it could to shut down the Internet entirely. Internet access in Iran was reportedly shut down in the wake of the protests in Egypt. After the earthquake in Haiti, naval ships provided Internet connection to the island. Cuba is expected to receive high-speed internet via fiber-optic cable from Venezuela.

We’re looking for stories about Internet infrastructure and access. Here are some questions to get you thinking:

• Who owns, or controls, the Internet in your country? Has Internet access reached rural regions in your country? If so, how much does it cost to access the Internet? Is the Internet available to anyone, or only to a high-income group?
• Is Internet access viewed as a right or a privilege in your area?
• Are there initiatives to ensure that people at every income level have Internet access? If not, why not? If so, what are those initiatives? What has or hasn’t worked? Are there any initiatives, globally, to provide Internet access to everyone? If so, is one person or organization able to shut off Internet access?
• Has Internet access been compromised in your country? If so, how do people get around government restrictions?
• Is there evidence that governments have used social media to spread its own message? If so, do people trust what they read via social media?

Your story must be timely, and must have strong news value. We DON’T want a story that is a general overview of Internet access. We DO want a story that reveals something new or noteworthy about Internet access. Your story must have a SPECIFIC focus.

Remember, we’re looking for three unique story pitches. We won’t choose three pitches that are similar.

What makes a good story pitch? Tell us, in one or two succinct paragraphs, what your story idea is. Your idea must have news value. It must be timely, with a solid news hook. Give us details that show you’ve done some preliminary reporting. Tell us who you intend to interview, and where and how you will find your sources. Remember, we’re judging the pitches based on the final stories we want to see. If you pitch a story, we expect to see that final product. If your final product does not match your pitch, you won’t be paid the full freelance stipend, and you won’t earn a UPI.com byline.

Can I pitch a multimedia story? Yes, multimedia story pitches are acceptable.

Which story pitches will the judges toss out?

• Pitches that are longer than two paragraphs, or pitches that are two extremely long paragraphs, will be discarded.
• If the story idea is a good one but the pitch doesn’t include details of who will be interviewed for the story, the pitch will be tossed.
• If the story pitch doesn’t fulfill the topic outlined above, the pitch will be thrown out.
• If you submit more than two story ideas, all of your story ideas will be ineligible.
• Pitches that are submitted in any way other than via the UPIU message system will be discarded.

If you choose my story pitch, what’s the next step? UPIU mentors will work with you to develop a reporting plan for your story, as well as an initial outline. Once you do your reporting, your mentor will ask for an updated outline. By the time you write your story, your mentor should have a good idea of what the final product will be.

What happens if my story doesn’t work out? If we accept your story pitch but you don’t deliver, you’ll be paid what’s known as a kill fee of $25. That means that we appreciate the effort you made to produce a good story, but your work doesn’t fit our needs. If your story is killed, we’ll think twice about approving your story pitch the next time around, so make sure you can produce the story you pitch!

What’s the deadline and how do I submit my pitch? Send your story pitch to Krista Kapralos via the UPIU message system by12 p.m.. EST on Tue. March 1. If your story is chosen, the final product will be due at 12 p.m. EST on Tue., March 15.

Professors: Want to motivate your journalism students? Help them get their work published.

UPIU student contributors regularly get published not only at UPI.com, but by other national media as well. Just ask Geri Alumit Zeldes, assistant professor of journalism with Michigan State University, one of whose students had a UPIU story picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal Online.

It’s one of the primary benefits of working with UPIU — getting students “connected to the real world of journalism,” said Rosa Fadri-Francisco, journalism professor with the University of Philippines Los Banos.

UPIU offers mentoring, editing, feedback and other services to journalism students around the globe. Students publish their stories on the UPIU website, and then work with UPIU mentors to bring their copy up to snuff, and possibly get published at UPI.com and elsewhere.

Other ways UPIU can help your students plug in:

Professional expectations. Students must meet tight word counts and deadlines. No excuses. “The word limit alone is a huge help. Six hundred to eight hundred words helps students make their writing more focused and concise,” Zeldes said.

Tough edits. UPIU mentors push students for better sourcing, solid news judgment and tighter prose. And they don’t pull punches. If a story doesn’t measure up, the student is given plenty of suggestions and tips, and sent back to rework both their reporting and writing. Mentors will work a story through five or six iterations, if needed.

“Students …are given a very intern-like experience where they get to see … how the professional news world works,” said Nicholas Bowman, assistant professor for communications studies with Young Harris College.

SEO training. Mentors teach students to make their copy more SEO-friendly with everything from meta-tags to careful use of keywords.

“[Students'] ability to write for the web improved significantly. They’re now writing tighter copy, with more web-friendly terms, and are learning how to exist in the new media world,” said Dan Reimold, assistant professor, University of Tampa.

Improved story ideas and sourcing. Students bounce their ideas off UPIU mentors in a pitch session, and learn how to find a local angle for a national news item, narrow down too-broad topics, and identify news tie-ins for feature stories.

“Students came away from the … session with a strong understanding of why their stories weren’t ready for publication — mainly because they lacked a strong news element,” said John Temple, associate dean, P.I. Reed School of Journalism, West Virginia University.

As part of the pitch, students walk through their sourcing strategy, too. It has “increased the number and quality of sources,” overall, Bowman said. “Students are looking for off-campus sources when covering events on-campus, and are not simply talking to just one student or administrator as their only attributed source.

There’s even a bonus for educators. UPIU is “a highly practical arena [in which] to judge whether students are applying what has been taught in class,” said Surhita Basa, journalism professor at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.

When Muthoki Mumo, a regular UPIU student contributor, started digging for a story about AIDS treatment in Kenya,  she uncovered reams of contradictory data, tough-to-nail-down story angles, major sourcing challenges and more.

But her search ultimately ended with the story “AIDS treatment goes mobile in Kenya,” and she succeeded in getting it published at UPI.com.

So we asked Muthoki to lay out how she brought this complex, well-researched story to life.

1. How did you find this story idea? What sparked it for you?

The idea came to me the week before World AIDS Week. Our campus usually has a Volunteer Counseling and Testing (VCT) drive where counselors set ups tents all over the campus grounds and students can come get tested at their own discretion. Although we already have a VCT on campus, this two-week campaign usually [helps] students view getting tested for HIV [as] part of their lifestyle.

I remember thinking that over the last three years that I’ve been on campus VCT week had changed. More and more people were attending and it became a normal thing, nothing to blush about. On the first two days of VCT week, there were such long queues that the counselors had … have students make appointments to come get their results. I thought this was a reflection on reduced stigma and I was originally going to do my story on just that.

2. You read hundreds of pages of government health reports for this story. How did you find the reports? What was the toughest part about going through all those numbers?

I found out which reports to read after going over a couple of news stories … in local papers the week before World AIDS Day. I also read one or two academic papers on AIDS in Kenya and I noted which reports were most referenced.

A couple of names came up again and again so I hunted these down. I also got material from one of my professors who used to be an AIDS researcher and she suggested some sources.

It took me about a week to read the stuff and get the info I wanted. I think the fact that I had read secondary material and already knew what I was looking for when I finally accessed the reports made it easier for me to sift through the information.

The numbers were sometimes contradictory and the hardest part was deciding which among so many reports was the most credible resource.

3. Who was your biggest help on this story?

My friends in the journalism program helped me a lot. I questioned every angle I had and they did it with me. When I was finally done, they helped find weak points in the story, and helped me edit it over and over again.

4. What are you proudest of with this story?

The first story I wrote for UPIU was riddled with opinion that had subtly crept into the story. For this story I wanted to be as factual as possible. It was hard for me but I think I managed it O.K.

5. What was the toughest part about reporting this story? Reporting? Writing? Rewriting?

I originally did not plan on using the reports that I used. I wanted to interview experts and professionals who might have been involved in developing these reports. I wanted to talk to officials from NASCOP, from the AIDS Council and from the ministry of health. Unfortunately, there is so much red tape to cut through for a reporter unattached to a credible news organization that it can take months to talk to who you want.

In addition, organizing the story was a problem for me. Should it flow in a logical narrative order or should the [inverted] pyramid [format] decide what goes first?

Rewriting was not too much of a problem because I had saved all the material I had used. Also, in organizing my story I had made notes on the source of every piece of information. So when UPIU asked for these sources, all I had to do was go back to my notes.

7. What would you do differently, if you had a chance to do it over again?

I would have given myself more time to do the story. Then perhaps I could have interviewed as many people as I wanted to.

8. Was there a source or angle that you weren’t able to nail down? Something that eluded you?

My story morphed many times. At first I wanted to do the story about [anti-AIDS] stigma and how it was going down. Then I talked to one of my professors who used to be an AIDS researcher and she said that stigma was not as simplistic as I made it out to be.

Yes, it had generally gone down but there were so many other factors to consider. It seemed that this was going to take longer than I thought and I wanted to publish the story within a day of World AIDS day.

Then… I visited the first VCT and found it closed to clients … and I finally settled on access [to testing and treatment as my subject].