 ESU Malaysia - Workshops
Crouching Spiders, Hidden Storms
Report on the Workshop given by Mrs. Theresa Manavalan
On 14th June 2005, at Wisma Antah, KL.
This workshop was a real team-effort, with much enthusiastic input from all the audience.
The first half of the session was devoted to the method used by Theresa Manavalan to help new newspaper reporters get ideas for the articles they have to write. By ‘brain-storming’ us all to suggest word associations for controversial topics such as the acquittal of Michael Jackson and AIDS, the whiteboard was soon covered in dozens of words and phrases. Then one had to decide which slant or opinion dominated, and then to group those words together but other themes could also be taken into consideration from these words for different slants.
In the second half we were introduced to the 8 legged “spider” Theresa uses for her interview techniques. The 8 “legs” are:-
1) Personal details of interviewee (name, family, appearance etc)
2) Educational or career details
3) The How? When? Where? Why? Of the incident
4) The resolution or outcome of the incident
5) Personal thoughts (e.g. fear, hunger, thirst, survival)
6) Reaction of others to the incident (e.g. from parents, friends, teachers)
7) Advice to give to others arising from the incident
8) “Stupid” questions – which can sometimes lead to a whole new area of reporting!
From these 8 legs, one chooses a “juicy bit” for the headline, to entice the reader.
After the main 2 sessions, we did some brainstorming on how to improve the level of English in Malaysia, particularly amongst schoolchildren. No doubt the students in the audience found this very helpful. Indeed they were full of good ideas. Altogether it was a very informative and enjoyable workshop.
Thank you Theresa for your time and input.
(Datin Glenis Raja Mohd Ali)
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