Newspaper Reports

David B. Sher

This document details how to write newspaper reports.  It starts with a set of rules that explain what articles can be used, how they are to be presented and how the reports will be graded.  Afterwards is a discussion of how to find articles for mathematics or computer topic reports. 

Rules of Newspaper Reports

Newspaper Reports

David B. Sher
 

This document details how to write newspaper reports.  It starts with a set of rules that explain what articles can be used, how they are to be presented and how the reports will be graded.  Afterwards is a discussion of how to find articles for mathematics topic reports. 

Rules of Newspaper Reports

  • Must be taken from any of these papers (you can use articles from several papers).

New York Times

New York Daily News

Newsday

New York Post

Nassau Community College Vignette

Wall Street Journal

Financial Times
  • You can use the web sites of these papers as long as it’s an article from the paper and its date is after the assignment was assigned.
  • The date of every article must be after the assignment is given (unless the instructor says otherwise).
  • Any attempt to conceal or falsify the date or source of an article will result in a grade of 0 for the entire report.
  • You will be given something to find in the paper.  Each item you find is worth 20 points.
  • You can only get credit for up to 2 items in an article (you can find 1 item also).
  • The whole article must be attached to the report.
  • If a particular part of the article is particularly relevant then either circle or highlight that part. 
  • If an item (such as a function) repeats the type or style of previous items its worth reduced from 20 pts.  
  • Continued repetition can result in 0 pts for an item. 
  • At most, 2 items (functions) per article.
  • You only get credit for finding items (like functions) specified by the instructor.
  • You should number the items by writing a number next to each item you find in the newspaper.
  • Will write a report (about 1 page) giving item numbers and the details asked for about the item (for functions you need to give the independent variable, the dependent variable and why it is in the article).
  • Reports should be handed in in large (8.5x11) envelopes so that articles are not lost.
  • Newspaper reports can not be emailed but can be mailed using postal mail.  Since postal rates for packages are mysterious, mail items with a postal clerk at a post office..
 
Click for Math Report
Click for Computer Report
 

Newspapers and Math

Newspapers often contain references to math issues.  You can learn how math topics apply to real life (which the newspapers write about) by reading newspapers.  Generally the easy way to start is to look in your textbook for word problems.  For example, a word problem on functions might look like:

A weather report might report that it will be cloudy in the morning, rain in the afternoon and clear up by the evening; what are the independent and dependent variables of the function described by this report?

This problem helps you discover examples of functions in the newspaper several ways:

*     The weather section produces functions so you can look at the weather report.

*     Functions relate time to other things like temperature so you can look for articles that describe things that happened at different times or contain time lines. For example, at 9:30, the robber entered the bank, by 10:00 he had left with $100,000 from 10:00 to 11:00 he was on the road making his escape and by 12 noon, he was in police custody.

*     Understanding functions require that you understand the independent and dependent variables, so it is important to understand them to have a function.  In the word problem the independent variable is time of day and the dependent variable is weather condition.

*     You can see from the example that functions variables don’t necessarily have to have numerical values but can be other things like weather conditions.

Careful examination of word problems is a good way to guide your search through a newspaper.  The rest of this document presents examples of functions, slopes, and quadratics in the newspapers.  Students should copy entire articles into their report but for legal reasons they can not be reproduced an

Two functions are described in the paragraphs copied from the July 31, 2003 New York Times website article, To Cut Failure Rate, Schools Shed Students by Tamar Lewin and Jennifer Medina:

The first shaded region describes the number of students discharged in 2000-1 school year and the number discharged this year.  The independent variable is the school year and the dependent variable is the number of students discharged.  The function records how many students are discharged each year..  The article uses this function to show how fewer students are graduating now. 

The second shaded part of the function describes several functions which share the independent variable of school year and have dependent variables of numbers of students discharged, got GED’s and still enrolled.  All of these functions are used to show how student behavior has changed from the past (1998) to now (2003). 

According to a report by Ms. Hyman's group and the city's public advocate, using statistics reported to the city by each high school, the New York City schools discharged more than 55,000 high school students during the 2000-1 school year — a number far higher than that year's graduating class of fewer than 34,000.[1]

 

According to the city's count, in the class that started ninth grade in the fall of 1998, there were 63,460 students, of whom 51 percent graduated four years later, 20 percent dropped out and 29 percent were still enrolled.

Those are hardly impressive figures, but they would be substantially worse if they included discharged students, and counted G.E.D. graduates separately from those who get a regular high school diploma.

By those lights, slightly less than 40 percent of the class of 2002 graduated, 19 percent were discharged, 16 percent dropped out, 2 percent got a G.E.D., and 23 percent were still enrolled and would need more time to graduate.1

In NY Times July 31 2003 Big and Fancy, More Pickups Displace Cars by DANNY HAKIM there are many descriptions of slope but the shaded sentence is one of the more clear ones.  In the article the fule efficiency of the average pick up was 19.2 mpg in 1987 and 16.8 in 2003.  This can be described as a slope of -0.4 mpg per year or more colloquially the fuel efficiency has decreased by about one half a mile per gallon each year.  The independent variable here is year and the dependent variable is the fuel efficiency. 

Fuel efficiency of the average pickup has also declined from as high as 19.2 miles a gallon in the 1987 model year to 16.8 miles a gallon today. The average S.U.V. gets 17.8 miles a gallon now and the average car 24.8. And even those averages do not count the very biggest vehicles — those weighing more than 8,500 pounds fully loaded — which are exempt under federal law. Like the Hummer and other giant sport utilities, the biggest pickups average little more than 10 miles a gallon.[2]

The shaded paragraph of the article, New Star and Old Driver to Share Buick Spotlight by Clifton Brown, refers to Tiger Woods shaping shots with a new driver.  The shots fly through the air following a quadratic formula.  Thus, this part of the article is an indirect reference to a quadratic function.  The independent variable would be time and the dependent variable would be height of the shot.  The parameters of the quadratic formula are affected by the way the driver is designed here.

"As far as sticking with this driver, I'm just going to play it by ear. It could be out of the bag tomorrow. Could be in the bag for however many months. I don't know. It all depends on whether I get a driver that I can shape shots with."[3]

This document shows how one can select articles for a report on a mathematical topic.  An actual report would have about 8 articles on a single mathematical topic.  Each article would be accompanied by a paragraph describing its relevance.  Each of these paragraphs would be worth up to 20 points depending on whether the shaded or circled part of the article truly matches the function described in the paragraph and whether this function is a good illustration of the mathematical concept.  In addition, if the function or article is repetitive of a previous article or function then less than full credit or even 0 credit can be given.  The total credit for a report is up to 120 points out of 100 (possible 20 points extra credit). 

Newspapers and Computers

Newspapers often contain references to computer issues.  You can learn how computer topics apply to real life (which the newspapers write about) by reading newspapers.  Often advertisements refer to computers or components, this is easy but it is not advisable to build a report entirely around advertisements.  Generally, articles that refer to the internet or to a computer company like IBM or to an activity that uses computers like accounting will refer to a variety of computer topics.

For example in the New York Daily News on August 12, 2003 there was an article entitled Computer infection spreads, plaguing tens of thousands from the associated press.  This article clearly will be full of references to computer issues.  For example, the paragraph below refers to computer viruses:

1) Security officials said the virus-like worm, dubbed “LovSan,” was part of a coordinated electronic attack that exploited one of the most serious flaws yet discovered in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating systems.

The paragraph below refers to internet issues:

2) In Sweden, Internet provider TeliaSonera said about 20,000 of its customers were affected after the infection clogged 40 servers that handled Internet traffic. Spokeswoman Lena Rosell said customers had their service restored by late morning.

In a newspaper report, each reference to the topic of the report that is documented by a highlighted line or paragraph will earn 20 points out of 100 (with a max of 120).  The entire article should be copied (entire articles are copyrighted and can not be handed out to students).  Each highlighted section should be numbered. 

Each such highlighted section will be discussed in the report.  The report needs to discuss how the section relates to the topic of the article.  The report needs to discuss how the highlighted section relates to the topic of the report.  Generally each highlighted section will require about a paragraph of discussion. 

If the topic of a report was computer viruses then for section 1) this discussion would explain it.  LovSan is a description of which infection is spread and the paragraph explains how it works.  Since LovSan has some virus properties it is related to the topic of computer viruses. 

If the topic of a report was the internet then  for section 2) this discussion would explain it.  This section discusses how the LovSan worm is affecting the an internet provider.  It shows how this worm can clog up and prevent internet sources, in this case in Sweden.

Copyright © David B. Sher 2003


[1] Tamar Lewin and Jennifer Medina, To Cut Failure Rate, Schools Shed Students, New York Times, July 31,2003

[2] Danny Hakim, Big and Fancy, More Pickups Displace Cars, New York Times, July 31,2003.

[3] Clifton Brown, New Star and Old Driver to Share Buick Spotlight, New York Times, July 31,2003.