Journalism 133: Prof. Craig: Story Flow Exercise
Story Flow
Exercise
Assignment: Assemble story information so that it uses narrative flow to draw readers in and keep them reading to the end. Email it to me by class time Wednesday.
Lead paragraph:An upscale Italian restaurant in Mooresville, N.C. is receiving plenty of criticism – and praise – on social media after banning children under the age of five.
Start with the lead paragraph, then reorganize the following graphs so that you believe they flow best.
- “People don’t want to come in and spend money on a nice meal and an evening out, when there’s constantly food on the floor, loud electronic devices keeping kids entertained, and small children screaming,” Caruso told the Mooresville Tribune. “It was just the right decision for my business.”
- “We tried to be nice about the situation, but we’re here to take care of customers and we can’t tell a parent how to control their kids.”
- The restaurant’s website clearly states that there is no children’s menu available and that proper attire is required of all guests in the dining room.
- But some eateries are taking a different tack when it comes to catering to patrons of all ages. A restaurant in Italy recently made headlines for rewarding parents of well-behaved diners with a discount on their meal.
- Since implementing the ban, the restaurant says they have seen a dramatic increase in reservations, and a spike in diners from about 50 to 80 per day.
- But not everyone agrees with Caruso’s ban, with some blasting the rule as “heartless.”
- “Banning children has always been a topic in the industry and every owner says, ‘I wish I could do it,’” said the owner of the restaurant and father of two, Pasquale Caruso. “Our owner has the full support of the staff. We work here to make a living, too, and we support our owner 100 percent.”
- The decision to ban children has become a recent trend in the restaurant industry. Restaurants in Houston, Pennsylvania and California have all implemented similar bans, according to Eater.
- Yoshi Nunez, the manager of Caruso’s restaurant, decided to instate the policy after a little girl was reportedly using an iPad with the volume on high in the dining room– and her parents refused to turn it down after waitstaff requested them to lower the volume on the device.
- “Finally, we had to ask them to leave. They were upset, but they didn’t seem to care about what the other guests thought,” Nunez told The Washington Post.
- The decision to ban children under the age of five went into effect in January and has since received plenty of praise from patrons who have apparently had enough of loud kids at other establishments.
- Online, plenty of people are applauding the restaurant, too.