ABOUT: The Rapidian

The Rapidian is a web-based citizen journalism project designed to increase the flow of local news and information in
the Grand Rapids community and its neighborhoods.

The Rapidian provides tools, training, platforms and support for Grand Rapidians to become more than just
content consumers. Not an aggregation site, The Rapidian features original content by and about the Grand Rapids
community.

The Rapidian launched on Sept. 15, 2009 and is a project of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center with funding
and support from the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Slemons Foundation and John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation.

ABOUT: Grand Rapids Community Media Center

CMC is a nonprofit media and technology support organization. By collecting, maintaining and leveraging
communication tools, CMC supports the work and growth of the community. Core services and resources include:

• The Rapidian
• WYCE-FM 88.1
• Wealthy Theatre
• GRTV (Comcast cable 24/25)
• CMC Media Education Services
• IT and Web Development services for nonprofits
• New Media Strategy and Planning
 HOW TO PARTICIPATE

The Rapidian invites community members to participate however much they EDITORS
want. All media pieces on The Rapidian are free to access. For those
who want to increase participation, a graduated process of REPORTERS
involvement with the online site has been • Provide support
developed. for reporters
NEW REPORTERS
• Gained confidence • Review flagged
of editorial mentor content
REGISTERED USERS • Mastered the style
Mentoring process: guide and any
• Pieces are additional
ANYONE/ANYTIME reviewed by an materials
• Comment on
editor • All posts go up in
stories real time
• Published
• Rate Rapidian
• Read
content
• Watch
• Contribute photos NEW REPORTERS
• Listen
• Add tags to
• Tweet #Rapidian stories Stories in any format are submitted to an editorial mentor
who will complete two quick steps before publishing the piece:

• Look out for any “fatal flaws” - A fatal flaw could be a technical issue that keeps the content
from posting correctly or a piece that is in direct violation of our few but important editorial
policies. If such a flaw is found, the story will be returned to the reporter for correction.

• Review and make suggestions - This step is intended to provide useful feedback. These comments are suggestions
related to readability, story flow, recommended tags and such. New reporters can also ask for specific advice and
feedback.

Reporters who want to publish in real time will need to be recommended by their mentor and master The Rapidian’s
style guide.

PUBLIC HOURS
Questions about The Rapidian site?
How to use media equipment?
Maybe you’d like help brainstorming
your next piece or figuring out how
to categorize your piece.
Come visit The Rapidian staff during
our public hours.
Weekly public hours:
• Tuesdays: 3 - 6 p.m.
• Thursdays: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
RAPIDIAN RESOURCES
EQUIPMENT
The Rapidian has basic equipment
available for reporters:
• Flip cameras
• Still cameras
• Audio recorders
• Netbooks with built-in wi-fi
Equipment can be checked out
during public hours till the upcoming
office hours.
RAPIDIAN FLICKR POOL
Flickr is a photo sharing site, and
Grand Rapidians who regularly
submit to The Rapidian’s photo bank
have agreed to share their photos
with contributors for the purpose of
illustrating their Rapidian articles.
www.flickr.com/groups/therapidian
TIPS & TUTORIALS
A weekly editorial is published
about goings-on at The Rapidian,
developments in citizen journalism
and tips for making the most of the
site. Topics range from Creative
Commons licensing to content
distribution to our site development
docket.
Also on the site is a compilation of
resources, from reporting how-tos
to free collaboration tools and visual
information generators.
Access both at
www.TheRapidian.org/about
 TIPS FROM OUR REPORTERS

CONTACTING SOURCES

• The Rapidian is a young publication and not everyone has heard of it (yet), so the sure-fire way of introducing it—few
questions asked—is as a local publication.
• When emailing sources for Rapidian articles, put “Media inquiry from The Rapidian” or something similar in the subject
line
• Start your email with “I am writing an article about [subject], and I would like to include you in the piece.” Assume that
they want the publicity.
• Whoever you’re covering - organization or individual - tap into their self image. “[You/your project] is so vital to the
community, and I want to ensure that as many [insert adjectives that reflect how the sources think about themselves]
community members find out about it as possible.”

ASSEMBLING YOUR STORY

• On reviews
Pre-coverage benefits the venue, but reviews should be genuine and benefit the audience.
Establish your authority on the subject in the body of your article. Why should someone trust your review of a Thai
restaurant? Share the characteristics readers should be looking for to evaluate the subject.
• Prior review - Contributors want to make a positive impact with their reporting, but they don’t want to be a mouthpiece
for the businesses and individuals they interview. With as loose of a structure as The Rapidian, reporters can respond to
requests for prior review by offering to share quotes, but not the entire story.
 TIPS FROM OUR REPORTERS (con’t)

• If you can’t complete a story - Stories don’t always pan out or life intervenes and ideas need to be shelved. This is a
common experience; many reporters feel guilty but are unsure about how to wrap things up. In such a situation, proper
protocol would be to inform sources.

A FINAL LOOK

• Read the story out loud - This is a tried-and-true approach to highlight gaps in the story that still need to be filled before
the piece is published.
• Read the story backward - Starting with the last line, read each line of the story from the end to the beginning. This trick
breaks readers out of the narrative flow and makes it easier to catch whether each sentence and its structure makes
sense by itself.
 COMMON EDITORIAL ISSUES & MISTAKES

GRAMMAR
• It’s / its - “It’s” is a contraction for “it is,” never a possessive for something that belongs to “it.” Like other possessives
such as “my,” “yours,” “his” and “hers,” it does not take an apostrophe to signify ownership. Only proper nouns such
as “Billy’s” and “mom’s” take apostrophes.
• Between / among - “Between” is used to describe a relationship between two people or things. “Among” is used for
more than two.
• Fewer / less - When something is quantifiable, use the word “fewer.”
• Pronouns - Beware unclear antecedents. In this example, “it” could refer to the store or the street:
i.e.: “When she drove to the store on East Fulton, she found it was closed.”

NUMBERS
• Numbers - Spell out numbers one through nine with the exception of when a number begins a sentence.
• Ordinal numbers - Use figures like “10th” above “ninth”

GEOGRAPHY
• Addresses in GR and Kent County are designated by quadrants: NE, NW, SE, SW. The dividing line between north and
south is Fulton Street. East and west is Division Avenue. When citing a place by name for the first time, put the address
in parentheses. i.e.: “The performance took place at St. Cecilia’s Music Center (24 Ransom NE).”
• Addresses on Fulton and Division may be designated by a single compass abbreviation.
• Streets and avenues - Generally, east-west roads are designated as streets and north-south roads are avenues. A
common error is referring to Michigan Street as “Michigan Avenue,” as it’s called in Chicago.
 COMMON EDITORIAL ISSUES & MISTAKES (con’t)

STYLE
• Attribution - When using words such as “said” and “explained” to attribute a quote, use those verbs in past tense.
• Time-date-place - This is the usual order when narrating an event for an article.
• Race and ethnic groups: Generalized references to race such as “white” and “black” are not capitalized. With ethnic
groups, hyphens should only be used when it is an adjective but not at all when it is a proper noun (ex.: African-
American history, African Americans).
• Gender / sex - “Gender” refers to terms like “woman” and “man.” Sex refers to scientific categorizations like “male”
and “female.”
• Photo attribution - All photos must be credited even if you are the photographer. When illustrating your article with
Creative Commons photos (an alternative license to copyright), make sure to mark that the photo is licensed under
CC by adding the type of licensing after the photographer’s name. A full list of license abbreviations is available
on the Creative Commons site (i.e.: Photo credit: Louis Campau (Creative Commons - BY, ND, NC)). If the image is
copyrighted, make sure you have documented permission to use the photo.
• The Rapidian - When referencing The Rapidian, make sure to capitalize the “t” in “The.”
• Wealthy Theatre - Often mispelled as “Wealthy Theater” or incorrectly referenced as “Wealthy Street Theater.”

PUNCTUATION
• Capitalization - Generic titles need not be capitalized, even if it precedes the person’s name. Only proper nouns need
to be capitalized.
• Colons - The first word after the colon should be capitalized only if it starts a complete sentence.
 COMMON EDITORIAL ISSUES & MISTAKES (con’t)

• Punctuation within quotation marks - Ending periods, commas and other punctuation fall within the quotation marks.
i.e.: “The Rapidian is very local,” she said.
• Italicizing versus in quotations - Italicize when mentioning the title of a movie, publication or album by name. If it is an
article, chapter or track, put the title in quotation marks.
• Serial comma - When listing items, do not add a comma before the penultimate item. Only use a comma before “and”
if it is a complicated list.
• Spacing - It’s a common habit to put two spaces between the period and the beginning of the next sentence. In
journalistic writing, only one space is needed.
 CHECKLIST: BEFORE YOU PUBLISH

At first glance, some of the terms on this checklist may be foreign. We’ve included it so you are aware of the basics
of digital publishing. Your editorial mentor will explain and walk you through this and in time, mentally ticking off the
checklist will become second nature.

Headline is straightforward, not every word needs to be capitalized

Image(s) uploaded for the piece, all photos properly credited

Key words and concepts have been hyperlinked

The piece has been tagged

Check spelling and grammar

Verify spelling for people’s names

Story mapping

Authoring time reflects publishing time (time is written in military format)