Phil Tenser » Writing Samples

We’ve got it under control

Phil Tenser — Mon, 09 May 2011 17:38:43 +0000

It’s a good feeling to know that you can handle whatever is thrown at you. Our small evening team proved that recently when we handled a breaking news situation in which officers shot a man who threatened them with a weapon in a very public place.

While coordinating the coverage and reporting was exciting, I didn’t realize the most satisfying fact until it was all over: our boss returned to the newsroom to help, but found little to do. We had the situation under control.

… After many developments and revisions, the night’s events also produced this quality writing sample.

A torrent of news

Phil Tenser — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:39:25 +0000

April 26th was a very exciting day at work. Central New York was hit by some very strong and very sudden thunderstorms, complete with flood waters and damaging hail. The newsroom became a bustle of activity, even long after the downpour had ended.

In the Web Unit, we crushed our previous record number of visits by nearly 1/3rd. (It was the fourth time we’ve broken that record in four months) We also added a few hundred Facebook fans as hundreds of people shared photos and videos of the storm and damage.

With my peers, I worked to collect and curate that user generated content. Then, when things slowed down, I wrote and produced this segment for the 11PM news using the UGC submissions.

Monkeys and men

Phil Tenser — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:28:07 +0000

I was recently honored by a request from a Newhouse school professor to write an essay for his class blog. My essay joins a handful of others from recent Newhouse grads who now work in online or multimedia journalism.

Why is this post called “Monkeys and men?”

You’ll just have to click here to find out.

Writing Sample: Illustrative Language

Phil Tenser — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 04:01:55 +0000

You may have heard that winter weather is a big story throughout much of the Northeast – including Central New York.

Recently we ran a story about how the large snowfalls made parking arduous, and bus driving downright difficult by extension. While not something I wrote from the ground up, I took significant artistic license when editing and rewriting this television script for the website. I felt that I had to illustrate in words what was illustrated by video on TV.

The story was called: Parking made difficult by snow, but rules still apply.

Boeheimburg

Phil Tenser — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:24:02 +0000

Phil in Sports Illustrated's 2006 March Madness Bracket

As a Syracuse University grad, being a basketball fan is unavoidable. As a student, I took turns with my friends camping out in anticipation of a big game. We even painted ourselves orange and were pictured in Sports Illustrated’s 2006 March Madness edition. Now, about four years later, I had the opportunity to write about SU students doing a very similar thing.

Talk about your circle of life.

My story about the campsite, now named Boeheimburg in honor of Coach Jim Boeheim, was fun to write and appeared to be well received by Otto’s Army (aka. student fans). The students were camping out in anticipation of the January 22 game against Villanova, a perennial rivalry game that has previously broken attendance records.

For the television partner of my story, the reporter chose to focus on the students moving inside the Carrier Dome and out of the bitter cold weather. While that remained the news peg for my copy, I also tried to elaborate on the experience that I remember so well.

The web story was written using some of the quotes selected for the television script.