1st Place, News Brief
2021-22, Division 2, News Writing
By Anita Gaenko & Lydia Hargett
The Emery
Ann Arbor Huron HS
Last weekend, the Huron Ethics Bowl team competed in the virtual Regional Ethics Bowl championship run by the University of Michigan. In each round, a case is chosen from a predetermined list of 16 cases that explores ethical concepts. The two teams discuss the case and are scored on both their depth of thought and their responses to the other team and the judges.
“Ethics Bowl is like the missing link between the kinds of academic studies we do and real world problems that demand solutions,” said Kathryn Jones, Huron social studies teacher and advisor of the club. “I like it because it teaches us, me included, to think deeply about matters that really do matter and problems that need to be solves, personally and on a societal level.”
Huron had two teams compete, each with at least eight members. Kai Farjo, Jessie Tai, Eric Heng, Leo Kupperman, Anita Gaenko, Rachel Kim, Zachary Lin and Mariam Nassuna were on the first team. Anna Alexandrov, William Epps, Samuel Fleming, Sarah Kim, Teyin Kim, Eilene (KJ) Koo, Brandon Lin, Mari Park and Audrey Wu were on the second team.
Both teams advanced to the quarter finals, matching against each other. Huron’s first team continued on to the semifinals and competed in a close round against Avondale High School in the finals. Huron won the regional championship, while Huron’s second team placed in the top eight.
Huron’s first team will compete in one more virtual round against the Tennessee state champions. The winning team will advance to an anticipated in-person national tournament in North Carolina in April.
NW-04. News Brief
News briefs should be 150-200 word stories that report on events and issues that have news value and timeliness to the publication’s readers. Coverage should include quotes or other attributed information from at least one human source.
Judging Criteria
- Meets word count limit
- Does not sacrifice accuracy for the sake of timeliness
- Sharp, attention-getting lead that underscores news story importance
- Uses inverted pyramid
- Sentences are carefully constructed to be as concise as possible
- Emphasizes news elements, i.e. timeliness, nearness, impact, and prominence
- Uses direct quotes or attributed information from at least one source