The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Dear all: Since I have not received any reply to my previous request, I am asking you again if you would like to volunteer to compile the news digests. If you were put off by the idea of devoting a good part of your weekends for the work then maybe two (or three) of you could work together in an alternating fashion? Following are brief notes that may be useful to you in addition to my earlier remarks: 1. There shall be only one news digest per week, ideally every Sunday. 2. The best sources are non-official Western ones like the Economist, the Times, Reuters, BBC, AP, etc. They are considered the most reliable by the majority of people. Therefore, they are more useful when one wants to refer to the news digests. 3. I did my best to avoid Arabic sources in my news digests because they are, more or less, rhetorical in nature. Only use them if the news item is (1) important, (2) accurate, and (3) not reported by a non-official Western source. 4. Layout: Title in the subject header and again on the first line of the email, references, then headlines from most important to least important news item, then the news items in chronological order. 5. Choose the best article of a news story according to source and comprehensiveness. Include links only to other reports of the same story only if that is absolutely necessary (e.g. if they contain additional important information). 6. When listing a news item in the main body of the digest, put the URL after the headline and before the article. 7. Use ellipsis, . . . . ., to replace redundant, well-known facts or irrelevant stuff from a news article. The only exception would be newspaper or magazine articles where they should normally be reproduced in their entirety. 8. Include links only to articles that are of secondary importance at the end of a news digest. 9. Refer to the news digests of the last few months to get an idea of all the above points in practice. Please e-mail me if you are interested in taking over this voluntary task. Thanks, Hathal ----- Original Message ----- From: Hathal Alqassab <hathal@hathal.netkonect.co.uk> To: CASI Discussion Group <soc-casi-discuss@lists.cam.ac.uk> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 4:36 PM Subject: News Digests Volunteer Required > Dear all: > > As much as like to continue helping with the news digests, I really have to > concentrate on my PhD shortly. So I was wondering if any of you is > interested in taking over from me starting from the end of July? > > The work involved should be quite interesting to anyone wishing to learn > extensively about the Iraqi crisis. You will have to devote a good part of > your weekends to visiting various news sites, newspapers, reading news > articles and choosing the best articles to include in your news digests. > Additionally, different people may also send you news reports that they have > come across. I have relied almost entirely on non-official Western sources > because they tend to be rhetoric-free and are considered to be widely > reliable and therefore they are given preference over others. The best ones > include Reuters, BBC, The Economist, The Times, etc. > > I have discovered that devoting the entirety of Sunday or part of Saturday > and part of Sunday was the best way to do the job as opposed to doing little > work everyday. This is so because many news stories are continuously > unfolding and better reports may appear later in the week. So unless you are > willing to sacrifice a good part of your weekends, you should not consider > to volunteer! > > Please e-mail me if you are interested and I will give you more advice. > > Thanks, > > Hathal > > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq > For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk > Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: > http://welcome.to/casi > -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi