Writing Exercise (three parts):

1. Revise this story, cutting unnecessary information, shortening words and sentences, replacing nominalized forms with verbs, and shortening the paragraphs.
2. Break up article into sub-topics or "chunks."
   1. Begin with a headline and a Blurb
   2. Break the story into three subtopics. Write meaningful headings for each.
   3. Add a link to interactive activity or multimedia (describe it, don't create it)
   4. Write a short a "backgrounder" with a heading.
3. Put this into HTML Format and call it writing_assignment1.html. Put the headline and blurb on one page, the article with internal links and anchors on another page, and the short backgrounder on another page. Publish it, and put a link on your lesson index.

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A bus driver who was shot and critically wounded early today in Montgomery County, Md., later died of his injuries, the police said. Because of similarities with shootings by the roving suburban sniper in the area, an investigation is being carried out to see if the driver was the gunman's 10th fatal victim, the police said. "The law enforcement community is looking at this situation, certainly very similar to other situations we have have dealing with as a region," said Chief Charles A. Moose of the Montgomery County police. "Evidence, ballistics will be gathered," he said at a news conference in Rockville, Md., adding that it "will be determined if this situation is linked. We will have that work done, and when it is complete then that will be shared."

Expressing concern for the safety of people of the Washington region, where six of the sniper's known victims have been killed since Oct. 2, Chief Moose said: "We realize that the person or the people involved in this have shown a clear willingness and ability to kill people of all ages, all races, all genders, all professions, at different times, different days and different locations." Chief Moose declined to answer specific questions about the state of the inquiry or any evidence gathered by the police task force. The chief identified the shooting victim as Conrad Johnson, 35. He had been a county employee with the Ride-On commuter bus service for almost 10 years. Chief Moose said Mr. Johnson was shot as he was standing on the top step of a Ride-On bus in a layover area, where Mr. Johnson arrived early to clean out the bus, to fill out paperwork and to determine the next route of the vehicle. He died after being taken to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., where he was treated for intestinal injuries.

The shooting occurred at about 6 a.m. Eastern time off Connecticut Avenue, a major commuter artery into Washington, D.C., close to a heavily wooded area and apartment buildings in the Aspen Hill area of Silver Spring.
Earlier, Capt. Nancy Demme of the Montgomery County police said it was not known if the shooting was related to the sniper attacks, "but we're treating this as if it is." Right after the shooting, all traffic was stopped by armed officers at and around the scene, about 15 miles north of the capital and north of the Washington Beltway, as the police search got under way and police helicopters took to the air above the scene. The shooting, in a staging area for commuter buses, provides a number of routes for a vehicle to leave the scene, with side streets feeding into major traffic arteries.

The sniper shootings, most of them in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, have all been linked by ballistics experts to a high-powered, long-range rifle. In addition to the nine known fatalities, the sniper has left three people critically wounded. On Monday, ballistics experts linked fragments of a bullet recovered from a 37-year-old man wounded outside a Ponderosa steakhouse in Richmond, Va., to the sniper. The man, who has not been identified, has undergone at least two surgical procedures.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/