Exercise: Editing for the web 02

This editing exercise involves reformulating a story written for print to one for the web. Below on the left is the narrative version of the story. On the right is the form that a web site for which you work uses to introduce the story. We can assume that the full narrative will be somewhere on the site, possibly below it, but as the editor, you need to fill in the parts indicated that will go above it. Do not rewrite the story. Use the information in the story to fill in as much information as you can. You will have to go online to find the links to include.

See an example of a completed exercise

Resources

Writing headlines for the web

Writing summaries

Finding links

Maximum 60 charactersSummary

Maximum 50 wordsMajor points

At least four bullet points; one complete sentence for each.Best direct quote

Use this form: Source, attribution.

Best links to other information

(at least three; use the form below)
Web site name, URL, description

Editor

(your name

Resources

Technicians prepare for Bristol’s “Big Bang”

By Rick Randell
Staff reporter

Technicians were preparing today for Bristol’s version of the “Big Bang,” the implosion that will reduce four dilapidated Bristol Housing Authority high-rises to a massive heap of rubble in a matter of seconds on Saturday.

And officials said they were taking detailed precautions to ensure safety when the blasts go off at 8:20 a.m. Saturday.

The four buildings at Fifteenth Street and Shelby Park Avenue were surrounded by heavy earthen berms and chain-link fences, and police readied a plan to protect neighborhood residents and the hundreds of spectators expected to turn out for the spectacle. Officials advised visiting onlookers to take up positions in a park on the east side of South Shore Drive from 20th to 22nd Streets. Curbside parking was expected to be available west of Freeman Avenue from 11th to 17th Streets.

Police planned to stop northbound South Shore Drive traffic about 27th Street and southbound traffic at Sprat Boulevard for about five minutes at zero hour, even though no debris was expected to escape the blast site.

A safety zone–stretching from Sprat, 23rd Street, the drive and roughly Joseph–was to be closed to all traffic starting at 6 a.m.

“That will allow the Police Department to do final checks,” said Wally Davis, the BHA’s senior manager of development. Officers planned to ensure that all pedestrians were off the streets and out of alleys and that all cars had been removed.

“Our goal on this is total safety,” Washburn said.

After that, a last pre-blast check was planned to account for all authorized people in the zone, including police, fire, demolition and environmental personnel.

Residents in the safety zone were advised to stay inside their homes, with doors and windows closed, until 10 a.m., more than 90 minutes after the implosion.

That was designed to give crews time to sweep and wash away the blanket of dust expected to settle in the area, officials said.

Tarpaulin shields were installed in front of six homes directly across Shelby Park Avenue from the blast site to shield them from the rush of air from the implosion.

From detonation to the crash of the roofs of the four buildings to the ground, the spectacle was expected to last 24 seconds.

A “significant police presence” was planned for the area, Washburn said, and Bristol officers were to be joined by BHA police and private security guards.