Real-Life Communication
It is your unlucky day. Your associate editor's car broke down,
so she won't be in today. A freelance writer has just e-mailed you a copy
of a story for your site that specializes in senior issues. You really wanted
to post the story online today, because it's about a new senior center that
has opened up in the area. Waiting another day or two would not be the end
of the world, but the director of the facility granted you an exclusive interview.
You want to publish before your competitors do.
The problem, you realize
after reading it, is it is a particularly long story for a website, and you
want to make it more digestible to web surfers. The best way you can think
of is by breaking it up with subheads. You also need to provide a headline
that will capture the attention of web readers. You are good with English,
but headline writing has never been one of your best skills.
You surf
the web to try to find advice on how to write headlines. Some of the things
you find bring back that journalism class you took in college five years ago.
But you are a little rusty. You need to sum up the writer's main point in
the headline. But it needs to capture a reader's attention.
You also
need to locate breaks in the story and put subheads within it. This will lead
the reader to important parts and break up the text.
Here is the story:
From
the street, the Victorian mansion on the bayou looks like a bed and breakfast.
Its turrets rise over the 600-year-old oaks. The white rocking chairs on the
sun porch, wind chimes, and hand-carved pumpkins (in celebration of the upcoming
holiday) do nothing to convince you otherwise.
Opening the front door,
the melody of a classic piano greets you. You walk into a cozy parlor and
the concierge bids a warm hello. Is that apple pie baking in the oven? Red's
ears perk up but the dog remains curled and slumbering.
You wonder
where you should check in. But this is not a place for a casual overnighter.
The people that come to Sunshine Farm, a medical care facility for the elderly,
are in for a longer haul. In less modern times, this is what was referred
to as an "old folks' home." Today it is simply called assisted living. Red,
the house dog, is living proof of what Sunshine Farm is trying to recreate
for seniors -- the warmth of a home.
Joe Greene is executive director
of the local center, which opened two weeks ago. He explains how one doctor
reacted negatively to Sunshine's ways of caring. The bone the doctor had was
with Red. The critic asked, "What if people are allergic? What if someone
trips over the dog?"
Greene answered, "You could lock people in a room
so they wouldn't be exposed to allergens or so they wouldn't be at risk of
tripping, but what would be their quality of life? If you have no risk in
your life, you have no life."
While other assisted living centers may
concern themselves dutifully with care of the body, many ignore care of the
mind, he says.
Assisted living centers cater to seniors who need help
with daily tasks, such as cooking meals, taking medications or doing laundry,
but do not need round-the-clock medical care.
But Sunshine is unlike
other facilities, says Greene. Besides its homey atmosphere, there is its
universal caregiver concept: One person takes care of a resident's needs,
from dressing and bathing to serving them food. "We want this one person to
know you better. We want Sunshine to be a caregiver atmosphere, like when
a daughter takes care of her mother in the home," explains Greene.
Tina
Jones recently moved one of her elderly clients into Sunshine Farms. Jones
is an attorney for Taking Care of Ma and Pa, Inc. The firm handles end-of-life
decisions for the elderly when there is no family, or the family is too old,
too far away or financially abusive to the person.
As part of her job,
Jones has toured many facilities. She says she was very impressed by Sunshine.
"It allows the residents the greatest amount of freedom and independence."
She also says she liked the attitude of the staff.