James F. Evans Collection, In public-information work writers may modify or generate direct quotes for news releases (non-verbatim quotes). In contrast, journalistic news writing traditionally uses verbatim quotes. How do land-grant communicators say they use quotes? Survey data (sent to 50 randomly-selected land grant news writers, response rate 80 percent) indicate the majority (79 percent) said they use non-verbatim quotes at some time. They do so with the understanding that the quotes will be checked with sources before release. Ninety-two percent reported their communications office had no policy about the use of non-verbatim quotes. (author)
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 143 Document Number: C22254
Notes:
Available in CD and paper formats., Presentation at conference of the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE), San Antonio, Texas, May 31, 2005. 13 pages.
Editorial staff, Information Center, International Rice Research Institute (author)
Format:
Guide
Publication Date:
1992-11
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes1 Document Number: C06664
Notes:
Evans; See C06665 for part 2: visual identity, Manila, Philippines : International Rice Research Institute, 1992. 27 p., This manual is intended to help authors prepare papers for international symposia, conferences, and work shops held at or by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and to prepare articles for IRRI publications (original).
Author wonders if "we are not over-doing modernistic layout, form, and color in our attempt to get stuff to folks, at the expense of just good plain writing."
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 149 Document Number: D06742
Notes:
Online via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. PhD dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. Publication No. AAT 9009561. Source: DAI-A 50/11, p. 3396, May 1990. 2 psges.
Author urges agricultural college editors to abandon entirely the use of the journalese term "story" and use exclusively in its stead the term "article," in every piece of press material, regardless of length. "In a scientific organization such as our colleges are, the use of the term "Story" is distinctly a psychological liability to the press-relations office, in my opinion."
Writer criticizes current language use and reports that he tosses flags and assigns penalties (per football) when he sees and hears misuse of language while watching television.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 161 Document Number: C26598
Notes:
3 pages., Summarizes principles identified in a book published 40+ years ago (Donald R. Murphy, What farmers read and like) and invites readers to compare them with guidelines used today for attracting farm readers.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 144 Document Number: C22556
Notes:
Alfred and Julia Hill Lecture, conference of the National Association of Science Writers, University of Tennessee, March 17, 1997. 8 pages., "If science was ever a thing apart, a special way of living and of seeing things, that time is past. Today, science is the vital principle of our civilization. To do science is critical, to defend it the kernel of political realism. To define it in words is to be, quite simply, a writer, working the historical mainstream of literature."
Fraser, Art (author / Vice President - General Manager, Marsteller Inc., Agri-Marketing Group) and Vice President - General Manager, Marsteller Inc., Agri-Marketing Group
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1980-11
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 77 Document Number: C04262
USA: Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08945
Notes:
Page 2 in Lucinda Crile, Findings from studies of bulletins, news stories, and circular letters. Extension Service Circular 488. Revision of Extension Service Circular 461, which it supersedes. May 1953. 24 pages. Brief description by a study by the U.S. Extension Service. 1943. 5 pages.
USA: Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08946
Notes:
Page 3 in Lucinda Crile, Findings from studies of bulletins, news stories, and circular letters. Extension Service Circular 488. Revision of Extension Service Circular 461, which it supersedes. May 1953. 24 pages. Brief description by a study by the U.S. Extension Service. 1943. 22 pages.
Gifford, Claude W. (author / Assistant Director, Office of Governmental and Public Affairs, USDA)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1978
Published:
USA: Office of Agricultural Communications, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 13 Document Number: B01640
Notes:
AgComm Teaching; #375; See also C02027, Burton Swanson Collection. Claude W. Gifford Collection., Pages 19-31 in Robert G. Hays and James F. Evans, editors (1983). The agricultural communicator today and tomorrow: four professional views. 53 p. Speech presented by author as Agricultural Communicator in Residence, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, April 6, 1978.
Gifford, Claude W. (author / Director, Office of Information, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Format:
Commentary
Publication Date:
Circa 1973
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 68 Document Number: D10748
Notes:
2 pages., Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, Claude W. Gifford Collection., Emphasis on writing public information that is readable and understandable. Cites an example of a proposed news release from the deputy of one USDA agency. It contained a 68-word sentence found not understandable.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 69 Document Number: D10730
Notes:
#980, Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, Item 15 located in ACDC Document D10726, Directory of written summaries of 80 items deposited in the Claude W. Gifford Papers, University of Illinois Archives. 5 pages., Author's guidelines for preparing and presenting speeches, plus selected experiences and perspectives about public speaking.
Identified online via keyword search of UI eCatalog, Examines the inter-relationship between journalism and poetry in the 19th century, when poems on topical issues regularly appeared in newspapers alongside prose reports of the same events.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 144 Document Number: C22544
Notes:
Published in "The Final Word" column of Food Routes Network, Millheim, Pennsylvania. Issue 44. 2 pages., Author expresses concern that farm magazines and newspapers in the U.S. are "as bland and featureless as a sun-scorched pasture: there's nothing there to chew on; no water, no food, no new ideas." Suggests they need to challenge the status quo and publicly discuss and debate new ideas.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 144 Document Number: C22545
Notes:
Published in a column, "The Final Word," from Food Routes Network, Millheim, Pennsylvania. Issue 45. 2 pages., Author reports on consolidation of farm periodicals, with resulting cutbacks in editorial staffing and in local coverage. Describes financial pressures that lead to more use of free-lance writers that often write for ag publications and ag public relations agencies simultaneously. "But the divided loyalties often yield stories that resemble corporate press releases more than journalism." Cites an example from his experience as a free-lance writer.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 50 Document Number: C00383
Notes:
Agcomm Teaching, Urbana, IL : Cooperative Extension Service, Dept. of Agricultural Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984. 8 p. (AF 4568)
Gunawardene, Nalaka (author) and Science and Development Network
Format:
Editorial
Publication Date:
2005-09-12
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 146 Document Number: C23326
Notes:
3 pages., Argues that better communication is needed to convey the urgency of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals - and the role of science in achieving them - to the public.
Hamil, Harold (author / Senior Vice President, Information and Publica Relations, Farmland Industries, Kansas City, MO)
Format:
Speech
Publication Date:
1969-02-20
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 33 Document Number: B03548
Notes:
Delmar Hatesohl Collection, Mimeographed, 1969. 27 p. Talk by the author at the Agricultural Communications Conference, University of Missouri, Columbia. 27 pages.
Pakistan: Directorate of Agricultural Policy and Chemonics International Consulting Division for the Pakistan Economic Analysis Network Project, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: Byrnes6 Document Number: C12554
Research among experienced environmental journalists reveals a shift since 2000 in their view of "balance," as an element of objectivity. They now advocate a "weight of evidence" approach where stories reflect scientific consensus.
Australia: Compiled and published by Information and Extension Training Branch of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries with the Assistance of Funds from the Commonwealth Extension Services Grant, Brisbane, Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 137 Document Number: C20864
Australia: Compiled and published by Information and Extension Training Branch of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries with the Assistance of Funds from the Commonwealth Extension Services Grant, Brisbane, Australia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 137 Document Number: C20862
Online via keyword search of UI Library eCatalog and Elsevier.com. Open access., Author offers "practical advice for developing, delivering and evaluating effective science communication initiatives, based on over a decade of experience as being a professional science communicator."
Johnson, Earl C. (author), Verma, Satish (author), and Johnson: Director, Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition, University of Extension Service, University of Georgia Extension Service, Tifton, GA; Verma: Program Development Specialist, Cooperative Extension Service, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
1992
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 90 Document Number: C06382
James F. Evans Collection, Alabama county Extension agents' circular letters and newsletters (2.5 million pieces in 1988) were found to be two grade levels higher than the reading level of the average U.S. adult, and 85 percent of Alabama 4-Hers. If this means that these materials are difficult to understand, agents need to write pieces aimed at lower reading grade levels. The study showed that agents would increase readability if they devoted more time to writing. Sensitizing agents to this need and providing learning opportunities in writing for readability are suggested. (original)
