Speech
– 216 candidates; 123 passed – 57 per cent
Changes in the format were introduced in this exam. Previously the speech lasted ten minutes and ran to 1,000 words (at an average speed of 100 words a minute). The candidates had one hour in which to write a news story of about 300 words plus five follow-up suggestions.
Now the speech was reduced to eight minutes for 800 words. The write-up time for 300 words became 55 minutes, but no follow-ups were required.
A longer printed brief was given to the reporters at the start, outlining much more of the background. Five minutes were allowed for studying it. Fewer names and numbers appeared in the script than previously.
Anyone, however, who expected a radical improvement in the quality of the stories produced would be disappointed. As before, most were reasonably adequate but only a handful were outstanding.
The speaker was the local police commander. He was responding at a meeting of the Chamber of Trade to traders’ rather minor complaints against the plice, which had been published in the letters column of the Oxdown Gazette.
He also took advantage of the opportunity to announce dramatic and swift progress in the fight against juvenile crime. Within six months of the town’s Youth Offending Team being formed, these reductions had been achieved:
The markers expected the police response to the traders’ complaints to be covered briefly, particularly since they had been published in the reporter’s own newspaper. But the most important news was clearly the reduction in Oxdown’s juvenile crime, at a time when figures elsewhere were steadily increasing.
Some reporters were alert enough to see this but too many simply did not appreciate the news.
They were offered the chance of a strong intro, which could be followed immediately by figures to support it. Instead, they produced indifferent intros and plodded through aspects of the speech in chronological order.
The result was that too many stories became bogged down in the traders’ complaints. They tagged on the juvenile crime reductions as a final paragraph, obviously in a hurry and often with errors in the figures. A few never got round to using them at all.
The printed brief spelt out that the Youth Offending Team was a multi-agency group representing the police, council, schools, welfare officers and others concerned with children and young people. The speaker went out of his way to confirm this and said:
“While we co-operate fully with the scheme, I must make it clear that the police cannot claim sole credit for this (the crime reductions).” Yet many stories gave entire credit to the police.
The speaker would have been embarrassed and would probably seek a correction for the intro that began: “A police chief has said he is winning the war on crime…”
Copying of names was better than usual. Only one paper changed the Chamber of Trade to the Chamber of Commerce. In another, Robert’s Park became James Park.
For the first time in years, every candidate copied correctly the name of the speaker, Chief Superintendent Steven Georgeson – although one, after getting it right, changed it later to Supt Lyons.
The brief set out that Georgeson was the commander of the Oxdown Division of Oxshire Constabulary. In other words, he was the man in charge. A number of intros called him an Oxdown police chief, as though there were several around. Others said he was a senior police officer, a leading police chief or a high-ranking police officer.
Considering the close contact between press and police in most areas, there was an astonishing array of abbreviations for his rank, which would usually be Chief Supt:
Chief Sup, Chief Super, Cf Supt, Chf Spt, Chf Sup Int, Chft Supt, Cht Supt – and even Det Supt.
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