Step 1: Read News
Here are two examples of news writing. The first is a news story, the second, a feature article. Both present unique challenges to the writer. A news story tells you exactly what happened at a recent event. A feature article puts you in the subject's shoes by giving you more details, more background. Like a news story, a feature article can be about a person, place, or thing. It can make readers laugh or cry or both.
After five months of separation, Elián Gonzalez was reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
In the early morning of April 22, U.S. immigration officials took 6-year-old EliÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â¡n out of his relatives' house in Miami. Elián was flown to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., where his father was waiting.
On their first day together, Elián and his father played baseball and went for a walk.
Elián's father wants to return with his son to Cuba, their native home. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno says Elián should be able to go back to Cuba.
Elián's Miami relatives want Elián to stay in the U.S. They disagree with the Communist leadership of Cuba, saying it limits people's personal freedoms. Elián's relatives have asked a U.S. federal court to keep Elián in the U.S.
For now, Elián will remain in the U.S. with his father until the court decides whether or not he can ask for political asylum, or protection, from Cuba. He could then stay in the U.S.
Scholastic News Senior, May 15.
Children at Work
Millions of children around the world must work for food and shelter
Bonauli Simamora stands on a rickety fishing pier, staring at the waves slapping at the wooden beams below. With the sun's rays beating down on his back, the 14-year-old hauls up a giant fishing net, careful not to lose his balance and fall into the ocean.
For the past nine months, Bonauli has worked 7 days a week, 10 hours a day. From sunrise to sunset, he labors on a pier that sits 10 miles off the coast of Indonesia.
"I work from 8 in the morning until 6 at night," says Bonauli. "Every morning, I wake up, sort the fish, dry them, boil them, and put them into storage. Then I wait for the tide to go down and do it again."
Bonauli is one of 120 million children worldwide, from ages 5 to 14, who work instead of going to school. Each day, nearly 80 million of these children risk their health, safety, and often their lives, to earn money.
"Child labor is cheap labor," says Darlene Adkins of the Child Labor Coalition, a group that works to end child labor abuses around the world.
As many as 70 percent of the world's working children labor on farms, picking crops, herding cattle, and operating equipment. In the fields, they are exposed to dangerous pesticides, or poisonous chemicals. Pesticides increase the children's risk of developing lung disease.
In India, Nepal, and Pakistan, boys and girls work up to 16 hours a day weaving carpets in small huts with little light or fresh air. Loom owners sometimes chain children to the looms, so they won't run away.
"Their hands are dry, cracked, and gnarled from labor," Adkins says.
In Peru, young boys work in mines, digging for gems and coal deep below the earth's surface. As they crawl through dark, cramped tunnels, the boys risk death from cave-ins. Around the world, girls as young as 5 work up to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week as housekeepers.
"These children are living with families, but they are not considered part of the family," says Adkins. "Often, they are beaten, only fed leftovers, and are forced to sleep on the floor. They are treated as slaves."
Stopping Child Labor
Students at Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, Massachusetts, created their own Web site to educate Americans about child labor.
The students raised more than $100,000 through the Web site to help build a school in Punjab, Pakistan. Today, 288 children, who might otherwise be weaving rugs or stitching soccer balls, attend class instead.
For Bonauli, school seems like a distant dream. After endless months of backbreaking labor, the homesick teenager has just one wish: to see his family again.
"I miss my mom," he says. "For the past 2 1/2 months, I have asked to go home, but there is no one here to replace me. I have to wait until a new worker comes."
For now, Bonauli works and waits.
Scholastic News Senior, May 8.