Movie review example

Project X, a movie about a teen party gone horribly wrong, would be every parent's worst nightmare if it weren't so inane.

It's billed as a comedy, but there's not a laugh to be had during the frenetic mayhem. There is also no plot beyond debauchery, nor characters beyond cardboard cutouts.

Basically, it's a setting, and a familiar one: a suburban home teeming with drunken, druggie, hedonistic, irresponsible high-schoolers.

Herein lies a heinous, misogynistic movie filled with faceless crowds and nary a character who resembles an actual human being.

Then there's a ridiculously corny romantic ending, à la John Hughes movies, tacked on as if to atone for all that went before.

As a spoof, it fails miserably. Its one-note concept is carried out in the most derivative fashion, employing the overused "found footage'' technique (Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity movies), in which someone has a camera rolling within the film, documenting every casual conversation, as well as every catastrophe, as it occurs.

Here, it simply provides an excuse for muddy-looking camera work.

A shy guy named Thomas (Thomas Mann) is having his 17th birthday, and his supremely annoying pal Costa (Oliver Cooper) decides to stage a party that will vault their status from dweebs to cool guys who can score with the hottest babes.

Costa sends an e-mail blast and posts the party on Craigslist. That's perhaps the only vaguely fresh element: invitations gone viral.

The party draws a couple of thousand boors and bimbos, and nearly every imaginable horror occurs, including a Mercedes sunk into a swimming pool and a neighborhood set on fire.

Almost every terrible outcome is predictable.

As supposed evidence of originality, a dwarf is stuffed into the oven and the family dog is set aloft with helium balloons. Amid the carousing are the requisite jokes about coitus interruptus and defecation.

Perhaps a better title would have been There Will Be Vomit.

(Emerging) trend feature example

Zane Rizvi swiped across his phone and curled his lips in a fit of revulsion. The 19-year-old student at Cal State Long Beach, who identifies as bisexual, shared a bit of what his life is like on the smartphone dating app Tinder.

“OK, these guys are all pretty ugly right now,” he said.

A devoted Tinder user for about a year, Rizvi uses the dating app to meet men and women, or entertain himself by engaging in lengthy messaging with people he matches with, which happens when each user swipes right on the other’s profile, to show they’re interested.

Though not a new trend, finding dates online or through smartphone apps is rising steadily. A recent Pew Research Center survey of 2,001 adults in the U.S. shows that 27 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 have used online or app dating, a number that has tripled in the last two years.

Fifteen percent of American adults overall report they have used online dating sites or mobile dating apps, up from 11 percent in early 2013, according to a February study in Pew.

And it’s not just a Millennial thing. The percentage of adults between 55 and 64 years old who have used online dating doubled during the same time period, from 6 percent to 12 percent.

Forty-one percent of Americans know someone who uses online dating, with 29 percent knowing someone who has met a spouse or longtime partner in the digital world, according to Pew.

Apps for every romantic appetite abound. There’s JSwipe for Jewish people. Bumble, which makes women make the first move. Grindr and Scruff are apps for gays.

While eight in 10 Americans who have used online dating say it’s a good way to meet people, and 62 percent agree that it allows people to find a better match, close to half (45 percent) say the Internet and apps are more dangerous ways to meet people than other means.

Another negative, or positive depending on one’s perspective: 31 percent agree that online dating gives people options and therefore causes them to delay settling down, according to Pew.

In some cases, dating apps and online sites might be fun at first, but like other novelties, the thrill wears off.

“Every new match, it’s the same questions,” said Mariah Garcia, a 20-year-old student at CSULB.

She described the tedium of messaging with guys who seem to buy discount pickup lines from the flirt factory. What’s a woman to do when all she reads is “Hey,” “What’s up?” or “You’re so beautiful”?

Garcia said men need to make an effort to set themselves apart on dating apps.

“I’m more likely to like them more if they show personality or if they say something funny,” she said.

Garcia dated a couple of men she met on Tinder. One didn’t go anywhere. The other?

“We dated for a hot minute,” Garcia said, laughing.

Mark Carrier, a psychology professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson, said online dating is a rational endeavor for those who want to find a partner.

It requires little effort and offers convenience, especially in a world where people are accustomed to using apps and websites as a way to quickly get things done.

“Looking for other people and portraying yourself are all easier to do through the apps,” Carrier said.

But finding people this way is not without its pitfalls. Sixteen percent of American adults say people who use online dating sites are desperate, according to Pew.

The research center also found that among those who have used online dating, 53 percent of women say it’s more dangerous than other ways of meeting people, with 38 percent of men saying such.

And the danger isn’t just in meeting a weirdo.

Carrier said on dating apps and websites, people let their guards down and freely offer bits of information that could come back to haunt them.

Screenshots of lurid conversations could be posted online, or perhaps if the relationship sours, a vengeful person takes the information you shared and uses it against you.

“Disinhibition is a mechanism by which people are much more willing to disclose personal information, and that alters the dating experience by the using the device, for the better or the worse,” Carrier said. “The problem with disinhibition is you are more likely to behave in ways that are detrimental to your long-term goals.”

And in the early formation of relationships, the chemistry between two people online or through a dating app can quickly dissolve when they meet in the flesh.

Such was the case once for Rizvi, who met a woman in Vancouver he found on Tinder. All the fun bantering through messages suddenly disappeared when they first saw each other.

“It was pretty awkward,” Rizvi said.

It’s a common occurrence. Mainly, because when people portray themselves through texts or emails, they are only offering slices of themselves that project an image of what they want other people to have of them.

The person receiving the messages is forming an impression of you with limited information, so the brain starts to fill in the rest of a personality profile, Carrier said.

This starts when they see your photo on a dating site or app. Carrier said people will look at photographs and immediately draw up mental images of a stranger’s characteristics, like intelligence or integrity.

“So when you meet the person, that impression can change, and the reality doesn’t match,” Carrier said.

His advice to dating app users is be cautious before sharing personal information, and pause to consider how what you type can be used against you later. Slow down and don’t be impulsive, he said.

Personality Profile Los Angeles Times

He runs with a cellphone pressed tightly against his hip, but she never calls, so for 26.2 miles he runs with his memories.

In the first hour, she is walking again through the German countryside. By the middle of the race, she is dancing again to their classical favorites.

At the finish line, she is strolling with their two children into the best years of her life.

Then John Creel, 77, towels off, catches his breath, and returns to the marathon that is his life as a full-time caregiver for wife Ingrid, whose body has been rendered helpless by the evils of multiple sclerosis.

"My life is pretty simple," Creel said. "It's all about taking the next step … just take the next step."

The Brea man's next official step will be taken in the Dodger Stadium parking lot Sunday as one of 24,000 runners in the 28th L.A. Marathon. In what is annually trumpeted as the human race, Creel will be one of the most human of runners.

When his wife's degenerative illness confined her to a wheelchair in 1995, Creel made the decision that he would be her primary caretaker.

When the stress from that decision became overwhelming, he began running for relief.

That was 59 marathons ago. He has run at least one marathon in each state. He transports her in her wheelchair to most of his races, twice even making sure somebody pushed her to the finish line.

She doesn't understand running, but she likes the company. He sometimes weeps over her losses, but he still loves her smile.

He feeds, bathes and clothes her. Yet after 53 years of marriage, he says she is his strength.

"Honestly, I don't know what I would do without her," he said.

And he doesn't know what she would do without him. If he dies first, she probably will have to go into an assisted-living facility, and he can barely tolerate even the thought, so he keeps running, for her, for him, for them.

Said Ingrid with a grin: "Sometimes I don't understand why he has to run so much, but it makes him happy, so let him run, let him run."

Said John with tears: "She's the best thing that ever happened to me."

You can glimpse strands of their enduring affection in a back room of their Brea home, the place where Ingrid spends her days watching television, the channel tuned to episodes of "Little House on the Prairie" and "Bonanza."

All around the room there are vases with purple orchids, some blooming, some decaying, gifts from weekly visits to Trader Joe's.

"I love orchids," said Ingrid. "He still brings me orchids."

She still calls him "Johnny." He sometimes calls her "Mom."

During a recent weeknight interview they giggled at each other from across the modest living room, he in his shiny running shoes, she in her black wheelchair, their lives having taken them to different worlds, their spirit forever connected

"When you get older in a marriage, things change, but the caring just gets deeper," John said.

They still laugh about how they met in 1958 on a snowy night in a small town in Germany. She didn't speak English, he barely spoke German, yet a year later they were married.

At the time he was a member of the U.S. Army's Green Berets. Today he runs his marathons with the actual green beret atop his balding head.

It reeks of sweat and has been tattered by moths, but, like his devotion, it is unmoving.

"He is an amazing man, so determined, so faithful," said former longtime running partner Denis Paez. "On a daily basis, it's hard to imagine doing the things he does."

The former systems engineer for Kaiser Permanente awakens with Ingrid every day at 4:30 a.m. He spends the next 90 minutes dressing and feeding her.

He then puts a cellphone near the left hand that she can still use for dialing and leaves the house for his morning workout.

Except for a brief return home to check on her, he is running or lifting weights or simply exercising for the next couple of hours.

"Running is the only time he's completely relaxed," said daughter Karola. "He goes to another place."

Sometimes that place is filled with anger, the slap of steps along the pavement punctuated by screams to the sky.

"I get mad at God a lot. I yell and scream," Creel said. "What has Ingrid ever done to anybody? It doesn't seem right that she has to suffer."

But mostly that place is filled with calm, and by the time he returns home for good, his mind is clear and his body is amazingly untaxed.

He will spend the rest of the day pulling his wife's wheelchair up and down the several steps in the house — a 150-pound task — yet he says he never feels it.

"You know that 'He ain't heavy, he's my brother' thing?'" he said. "It might be a little bit of that."

When they attend an out-of-town race, he will arrange for a caregiver to watch her in the hotel room during the race. Then there were those four glorious moments when they actually raced together.

Yes, for four 5K races in the area, Creel pushed her through the course. She said it felt as if she were flying. He said he was most happy about the ending.

"She always finished ahead of me," he said with a grin.

On Sunday Ingrid will not attend the marathon, remaining at home with her son Greg and his family. But after her husband finishes his 5 1/2-hour run, sits in a cold bath, and rejoins her late Sunday night, she will again feel like a winner.

Before they fall asleep, John will lean over and hold her hand. Ingrid will stare at the ceiling and, in a voice softened by age and slowed by disease, give thanks that she married a man who will finish the race.

"God, you know what you are doing," she will say. "I don't know why I am sick, but you know what you are doing."

Study guides chapter 4 and 6

Chapter 4

Where do stories come from – breaking news, scheduled events and news releases. What is the difference from where news and feature stories come from? 

Know the basics of interviewing. What is the difference between a direct quote, indirect quote and paraphrasing? When should you do each one?

What are the different sources a reporter uses for a story (page 71)? What are the pros and cons of using anonymous sources?

What does the term attribution mean? Why is said the preferred verb of attribution?

What is the benefits and downside of tape recording an interview? What are the benefits of taking notes during an interview? What are the best way to take notes according to lecture and textbook?

How are the powers of observation—sight, sound and emotion—used by reporters in developing a story?

What should a reporter do before an interview to prepare, during the interview and after the interview?

What are the most common types of interviews? How can the Internet be used to augment the interview?

What is the correct way to punctuate a quotation? Does punctuation go inside or outside of the quotation marks?

When to quote directly, paraphrase or use a partial quote.

Chapter 6

Be familiar with the 10 different types of features outlined in the textbook. What are the differences between news and feature stories?

Where should reporters look when generating story ideas? Be familiar with the helpful tips for successful feature writing.

Know the different feature story structures.

Be familiar with the tips to follow when researching and writing personality profiles.

Know the difference between criticism and reviews. What are some do’s and don’ts to follow in writing reviews.

How do columns and editorials differ?

Be familiar with some of the “Helpful Tips for Successful Feature Writing”

Personality profile example

Sprinting toward the surf, Shonna Cobb flings a fiberglass board onto the wet sand. With a springy assurance, she leaps atop the narrow 4-foot-long board and glides into an approaching wave.

In the seconds that follow, she will have to calculate the wave's advance and the body movements required to sustain enough speed and balance to skim over its 4-foot face and into the air.

There is no soft landing. She completes the acrobatic trick, then falls into the receding shallow water at Balboa Beach, absorbing the impact with a tuck-and-roll motion.

"There's a reason why there aren't many women skimboarders," she says with a laugh. "It hurts!"

Cobb, 26, of Long Beach, is a full-time veterinary dental assistant and former dancer. She also is among the most accomplished amateur female skimboarders in the world -- and has the scrapes and scars on her shins and feet to prove it.

This year, Cobb and at least half a dozen other women skimmers go pro.

The rough-and-tumble sport was born in Laguna Beach more than half a century ago. Yet skimboarding is still considered the poor cousin of surfing, which provides longer rides on enormous swells. Skimming also commands a far smaller market.

"There's a ton of women surfers in the world today, but not many women -- or men -- who skimboard," said Butch McIntosh, editor and publisher of 10-year-old Skim magazine. "I believe that is because it is a brutal, demanding sport that beats you down into the sand."

Typically, the board hydroplanes across shallow water and, seconds later, smacks into a wave at just the right angle to glide across its surface. The goal is to turn around and surf back to shore.

Some maneuvers catapult the rider more than 12 feet into the air. The thrills last for 10 to 15 seconds.

Cobb, who has been skimming since she was 11, calls it "my meditation."

"The moment I start running toward a wave, I feel totally alive and in a zone of meditation and endorphin releases," she said, preparing to race toward an incoming swell on a recent weekday morning. "But if you hit the wave at a wrong angle, it's tragic. You're toast. I've cracked my head open a few times."

Over the last 14 years, Cobb has won all but one of the nine amateur events she entered. "In that case, I had stepped on a rock and punctured my foot," she recalled. "So I ran into a nearby animal hospital and had them stop the bleeding and close the wound with glue. Then I went back and took second place."

Cobb is the top contender heading into the inaugural Victoria Skimboards Professional World Championship of female skimboarding, to be held June 19-20 in Laguna Beach. She leads a field of half a dozen or so contestants.

"If the waves are big and scary, I can take them," Cobb said. "I'm not afraid to fall."

Winning the first professional women's world championship requires strong legs, abs of steel and a healthy dose of fear management. It will also call for putting up with the mocking from some male skimboarders who refuse to take their female counterparts seriously.

Men have dominated skimboarding championships for nearly a quarter-century.

"Skimboarding was born in Laguna Beach, for goodness' sake," said Englund, an avid surfer, sipping red wine in the city's Surf and Sand Hotel. "Now, finally, female skimming is going professional. The town should be blowing its trumpet about that."

Cobb, who has always been fiercely competitive, agreed.

In preparation for the big event in June, she has hired a physical trainer and practices as often as possible, preferably at high tide on the sloping shorelines of Laguna Beach, Seal Beach and the Balboa Peninsula.

Cobb grew up in Laguna Canyon. As a kid, she skateboarded with neighbor boys. But she also modeled children's clothes. At 8, she landed a role in the 1992 movie "CIA: Code Name: Alexa." She portrays a young hostage rescued by a detective played by O.J. Simpson.

In Little League she was a pitcher with a 60-mph fastball, and one of the first girls chosen an all-star. In her freshman year at Laguna Beach High School, she was varsity goalie on the girls' soccer team. Now she is dedicated to two pastimes: working as a veterinary dental technician and skimming.

"In a perfect universe, I'll win the championship and tour the world, skimming against chicks who are just as good or better than me," Cobb said. "Even if I don't win, I'll be skimboarding the rest of my life."