College of Communication College of Communication The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism School of Journalism

J315 Fall 2009

Syllabus: News Media Writing & Editing (Mon/Wed sections)

Room: CMA 4.312

Teaching Faculty

Diana Dawson 282-0256 dianadawson@austin.rr.com

Dave Garlock 512-259-3240, 217-6024 garlock@mail.utexas.edu

Bob Mann 219-1816 bobbylmann@aol.com

Mike Whitney 529-7752 mwhitney@mail.utexas.edu

Chris Williams 470-4062 christopher.williams44@gmail.com.


Course Supervisors:

Wanda Cash 471-1965, 585-1518 wgcash@mail.utexas.edu

Diana Dawson 282-0256 dianadawson@austin.rr.com

Course Description:

J315 contains a substantial writing component and fulfills part of the basic education requirement in writing.

You will learn this semester how to gather and evaluate information to craft stories for the broad public. This course teaches the core skills of news judgment, news writing, basic reporting and editing, feature writing, law and ethics --- and covering news from diverse communities.

The emphasis in this class is on basic news reporting and writing skills that you will find necessary for any career in journalism. The only way to acquire these skills is by practice, so you will write a lot this semester. When you leave, if you have done your best, you will be ready to succeed in your upper-level writing courses and, later, successfully tackle an internship.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course, J315 students will:

Required Texts:

News Writing by The Texas Quartet (George Sylvie, David Garlock. Wanda Garner Cash and Diana Dawson).

The Associated Press Stylebook (latest edition).

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White.

Required Reading:

The Austin American-Statesman and The Daily Texan. News quizzes and class discussions will be based on both papers. You may subscribe to the American-Statesman, pick up a copy daily in the J315 lab, or use a password provided by your instructor to access an electronic edition.

All class handouts and the text. (Exams will be based on both text and supplements noted in the syllabus). Your instructor may provide additional handouts.

Very Helpful:

The New York Times (you can access this easily and free online through the UT Library.)

Course Requirements:

The core components of this course are the lab work, homework and outside writing. Some of the stories are taken home for completion, others completed in class under deadline pressure. A breakdown of some of the major class work can be found in the next section. Additional assignments may be added as needed.

Class Grading / Weighting:

These count as 5 percent of your grade:

Each of six outside news stories (four short news stories, a speech and a meeting)

AP Style Quizzes

Midterm Competency Exam

These count 10 percent each:

Lab work and lab homework

Two outside feature stories

News quizzes

Midterm Story

Final Story

Final Competency Assessment ***

*** IMPORTANT NOTE: Not passing the written portion of the Final Assessment will prevent you from progressing to J-320.

Attendance:

Class meets twice a week for an hour lecture and a 90-minute lab. You must read your assignments from your text and supplements every week before class meets to understand fully how to complete your deadline work in lab. Outside writing assignments are due at the beginning of class. You are expected to be in class on time and will be penalized for excessive tardiness. You are expected to remain in lab until dismissed.

Two excused class absences will be allowed unless your instructor deems otherwise.

Grade reductions may be taken after you pass your absence quota. If you miss class without a prior, approved excuse, you will get a zero on any quizzes or deadline work that day. Do not miss any critique days – those will be unexcused. (See schedule below for critique days.) If you miss a lecture, borrow notes from a classmate.

Students with Disabilities
Please notify your instructor of any modification/adaptation you may require to accommodate a disability-related need. You will be requested to provide documentation to the Dean of Student's Office in order that the most appropriate accommodations can be determined.  Specialized services are available on campus through Services for Students with Disabilities.
http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd/            
 

University Honor Code:

All students are expected to abide by the University of Texas Honor Code, which reads: “The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.”

         
University of Texas Policy on Scholastic Dishonesty
           The University defines academic dishonesty as cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, falsifying academic records, and any act designed to avoid participating honestly in the learning process. Scholastic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or an extension on a test, quiz, or other assignment, and submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without the prior permission of the instructor. By accepting this syllabus, you have agreed to these guidelines and must adhere to them. Scholastic dishonesty damages both the student's learning experience and readiness for the future demands of a work-career. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University.
 For the University's official definition of scholastic dishonesty, see Section 11-802, Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities.
 http://registrar.utexas.edu/catalogs/gi08-09/app/gi08.appc03.html#sec-11-802-scholastic-dishonesty19
 

Further Clarification Re: Dishonesty in J315:

Any form of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, manufacturing quotes or sources, using another’s reporting, research or quotes, will result in an automatic grade of “F” for either the assignment or for the class, depending on the situation. Don’t even think about it. Truth and accuracy are the hallmarks of journalism ethics and these values are ingrained in everything you do as journalists. While you may see your class

assignments as simply class work, we view them as the first step in your career as

a professional and we expect you to conduct yourself accordingly. You are graded

in this course not only on the stories that you produce, but on the framework

you begin to build as a journalist. Your instructor will make spot checks of

sources to be sure that your reporting is accurate and credible. Ethical violations -- plagiarism, making up sources, failure to properly credit

sources, interviewing family members and friends as sources (unless approved in

advance by the instructor), submitting stories previously submitted for credit

in other courses and quoting sources whom you have not personally interviewed

-- are all grounds for failing this course. Remember: Ethics are the foundation of credibility. Betray them and your journalism career may be finished before it starts.

A J-315 SURVIVAL MANUAL

Lab rules: No eating or drinking in the labs. Clean up your area before leaving lab.

To Do Well:

Attend class. Our lectures are practical. We are telling you how to do this stuff, so you ought to be here to hear the advice!

Keep up with the readings. Our lectures complement the textbook, reading packet and other course materials but do not replace them. You need all sources of information to do well on graded assignments. You must complete your reading assignments before the first day of class every week.

Read the newspaper and watch news broadcasts. Students who skimp here may not do well on their stories. You need to be able to see the types of things that are considered news, get a feel for the style and basic form. You must keep up with the news to do well on the weekly quizzes.

Learn how to use the stylebook. You must know proper journalistic style to do well on quizzes, stories and forever more.

Do your best. If you have a good attitude and want to do well but are having difficulty, the instructors will go out of their way to help you do better. Please ask. But you must apply yourself.

Think diversity and ethics: You should become aware and sensitive to issues of diversity in the community and how those issues affect your reporting. Ethics are the foundation of your credibility. Betray them and you are finished as a journalist. You are graded in this course not only on the stories that you produce, but on the framework you begin to build as a journalist. Your instructor will make spot checks of sources to be sure that your reporting is accurate and credible. Ethical violations are grounds for failing this course. See syllabus for elaboration.

The only dumb question is the one not asked. If you do not grasp something or want more information, ask the instructor. Our greatest reward is seeing you learn this stuff as you prepare to dive into a life of journalism you will love as much as we have loved ours.

Mon/Wed J-315 Key Dates

At a Glance / Fall 2009

Sept. 16 News Story #1

Sept. 16 Midterm Story Plan

Sept. 23 News Story #2

Sept. 30 News Story #3

Oct. 5 News Story #4

Oct. 7 Critique of Midterm Story

Oct. 12 Midterm story due

Oct. 14 The Midterm Exam

Oct. 26 Outside Speech Story

Nov. 2 Final News Story Plan

Nov. 4 Outside Meeting Story

Nov. 9 Feature Story #1

Nov. 16 Feature Story #2

Nov. 18 Last Writing Test

Nov. 23 Critique of Final Story

Nov. 30 Last Exam

Dec. 2 Final News Story

Dec. 2 Class Survey

J315 COURSE OUTLINE / Fall 2009

(Monday & Wednesday sections)

Week 1 (Aug. 26) News Values and Ethics

Goal: Introduction to the syllabus and to course expectations, including ethics and values critical to this course and to the profession. Begin exploring the basic concepts of news value and focus sentences. Learn how to identify headlines, captions and bylines.

Reading: Texas Quartet, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 (Why We’re Here; Intro to News and Features, Becoming a Reporter)

Handouts: Writing basics, Top 10 AP Style Guide

Homework:

Misc: Instructor will explain how weekly news quizzes, AP style assignments and weekly closed-book quizzes on the Top 10 AP Style Guide will work.

First Class / Wednesday, Aug. 26

Lecture: Introduction to the course and the ethical standards of journalism. (A deeper discussion of ethical dilemmas will follow in week three.) Focus sentences and news value will also be discussed.

Lab: Critique news judgment of the day’s Austin American-Statesman, following the first exercise in Chapter 2 of your text. Identify specific news values in stories. Write a focus statement of 20 words or less stating what each news story on that day’s front page is about. Then, write your autobiography, which will serve as an ungraded writing assessment.

Week 2 (Aug. 31-Sept. 2) Great Writing (Starts with Good Grammar) & Leads

Goal: Review the rules of grammar and sentence construction you’ve forgotten. Your instructor will share examples of great writing in journalism and show you how to accomplish that in your work. Learn how to find material for hard leads in your reporting and how to write them.

Reading: Elements of Style, Chapters 1 and 4; Supplement for Leads, Chapter 9 (Writing).

Handouts: Leads

Monday:

Homework assigned: Grammar & Usage Assignment (due Wednesday, Sept. 2)

Testing: None

Lecture: Great Writing in Journalism: Building a Foundation on Solid Grammar

What makes the best writing in news stories sing? Learn how to write tightly and to edit your own work before you turn it in. Clarity comes first.

Lab: Exercises involving grammar, usage and tightening writing.

Wednesday:

Homework due: Grammar & Usage Assignment

Lecture: Leads: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. What works and what bombs? How to find and write news leads.

Lab: “Leads Olympics.” Your class will be divided into writing teams of three. Each will have a set of facts supplied by your instructor from which to create a lead. One team member will do the first draft and the second and third writers will edit it. They will stop writing after 10 minutes and each team will read the lead aloud. You will be able to vote for the winners. Repeat six or eight times, alternating writers.

Homework Assigned: Write six leads from assigned exercises. Due Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Week 3 (Sept.7-9) Story Structure

Goal: Review basic news story structure and how the lead fits into it. You’ll learn about different structures for news stories and how to use them.

Reading: Review Chapter 1 (Why We’re Here) Read Chapter 5 (Developing Ideas), Story Structure Supplement

Handouts:

Monday: No Class – Labor Day

Wednesday:

Homework due: Six leads

Testing: News Quiz #1, Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #1

Lecture: News Story Structure & Quotes

You’ll learn how to identify and label parts of a story. Your instructor will demonstrate the mechanics of using quotes and paraphrasing in news stories. The class will review ethics of quotes. Your instructor will explain different story structures: Summary, Wall Street Journal and Hourglass form.

Lab: Discuss expanding the lead into the top of a story by using setting quotes and nut graphs. Write three short summary-style news stories during lab, using sets of facts provided by the instructor. After you complete each one (about 20 minutes each), read aloud and critique as a class. Turn them in.

Homework assigned: You will then write short stories in Wall Street Journal (or focus) and summary form from sets of facts your instructor provides. Due Monday, Sept. 14.

Outside News Story #1 due Wednesday, Sept. 16. Attend an event or select an issue on campus or in the community and write a basic news story of five to eight paragraphs, including a lead, supporting material, nut graph, an ending and quotes from at least two human sources you’ve interviewed. Provide contact information for all sources.

Week 4 (Sept. 14-16) Developing Ideas, Ethics

Goal: You will learn how to come up with fresh ideas for stories and hone your skills of observation. The class will delve into ethical dilemmas that journalists face.

Reading: Chapters 4 (Finding Story Ideas), Review Chapters 1, 5 (Why We’re Here, Developing Ideas)

Handouts:

Hard News Midterm Story Plan due this Wednesday: Your story will be 750 to 1,000 words (three to four pages, with a minimum of four human sources whom you interview.) Your plan will include an idea written as a focus statement, sources to interview, scenes to describe and questions to answer with your reporter. Your instructor will review it and approve or help re-direct the focus.

Monday

Homework due: Two short stories written in Wall Street Journal (or focus) and summary style.

Testing: News quiz #2

Lecture: Developing Enterprise: How do you come up with a strong story idea and come up with a plan to execute it?

Lab: First, a timed hard-news drill (10 minutes).

Next … go outside for 20 minutes to find three story ideas. After you return to lab, write and turn in focus sentences and a story plan for each, including people to interview, scenes to observe, questions to ask and other research needed.

Wednesday

Homework due: OUTSIDE STORY #1, Midterm Story Plan, AP style/Grammar assignment#2

Testing: Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #2

Lecture & Lab: Ethics discussion. Your instructor will lead a discussion exploring the importance of ethics, issues you may face and how to make the right decisions. Complete questions at the end of Chapter 1 chosen by your instructor.

Outside News Story #2 due Wednesday. Attend an event or select an issue on campus or in the community and write a basic news story of five to eight paragraphs, including a lead, supporting material, nut graph, an ending and quotes from at least two human sources. Provide contact information for all sources.

Week 5 (Sept. 21-23) Information Gathering/ Interviewing

Goal: Learn where to look for information, how to find diverse sources appropriate to your stories and how to interview them. You will work on managing your reporting and writing time to be able to meet deadlines. Learn how to verify facts from human sources, documents and the Internet.

Reading: Chapters 6, 7, 10 (Finding and Maintaining Sources, The Art of Interviewing, Verification)

Handouts: Interviewing, Information gathering, reporting

Monday

Homework Due:

Testing: News quiz #3

Lecture: Interviewing: How to Get Anybody to Tell You Anything

Lab: First, a timed hard-news drill (10 minutes). Next … pull a controversial topic from a hat and interview another student in class about it. Instructor will walk around class, listening and offering tips.

Do the Poynter Institute’s bias survey to think about how you’d interview diverse sources. Your instructor will then lead you in intense interviewing practice, interviewing many of you, showing how and when to follow up, strengthening passive quotes. You might do exercises from Chapter 7 in your text.

Wednesday

Testing: Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #3

Homework: OUTSIDE STORY #2 DUE, AP homework / Grammar assignment#4

Lecture: Sources, information gathering and verification

Lab: Timed hard-news drill (10 minutes).

Next … online sources and verification exercises: you will do the necessary checking during lab to verify facts in a news story provided by your instructor. Make corrections and turn in. You might do selected assignments from Chapter 6 in your text.

Outside Story #3 is due on Wednesday. Attend an event or select an issue on campus or in the community and write a basic news story of five to eight paragraphs about it. It must include a lead, nut graph, ending and quotes from at least two human sources

THINK AHEAD! You should be reporting your midterm story outside of class. It will be due to your critique groups Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Week 6: (Sept. 28-30) Covering Basic Deadline News Stories: Crimes, Accidents and Disasters

Goal: You will learn how to interview victims, witnesses and law enforcement officials to cover crimes and disasters for deadline stories and follows. The inverted pyramid structure introduced earlier will be reinforced. Review the Poynter Institute’s guidelines developed by Keith Woods for identifying race in a story.

Reading: Chapter 8 (Information Gathering)

Handouts:

Assignments: News Story #4 due next Wednesday.

Monday

Homework assigned: Exercise 2 from Chapter 8 of text (keep track all week, due next Monday)

Testing: News quiz #4

Lecture: Covering disasters and crime.

Lab: Write a crime story assigned by your instructor on deadline and turn it in by the end of lab.

Wednesday

Homework due: OUTSIDE NEWS STORY #3, AP Style/Grammar#5

Testing: Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #4

Lecture: Covering trials and dealing with lawyers, prosecutors, judges, bailiffs, clerks, etc., can be both fun and overwhelming. Big stories often are broken by reporters who know how to use all the players for information and not be taken in by

lawyers, who always know how to spin their case. We’ll give you some tips and ideas for covering a trial and “working” the courthouse.

Lab: Courthouse Research Assignment

Week 7 (Oct. 5-7) Honing the Basics

Goal: You will hone your news-writing skills this week by practicing the fundamentals of the basic news story, using facts provided by your instructor. You will learn how reporters develop and milk daily news beats.

Reading: Review Chapter 8 (Meetings portion)

Handouts: Beat reporting

Monday

Homework due: Outside News Story #4, Monitoring Crime Stories

Testing: News quiz #5

Lecture: Beat Reporting & Covering Meetings

Lab: Deadline drills of hard news stories. The instructor will provide several sets of facts. You will have 20 minutes to write each story, turn it in and then go on to the next one.

Wednesday

Testing: Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #5

Homework due: MIDTERM NEWS STORY DUE TO CRITIQUE GROUPS

Lecture & Lab: Mandatory attendance for a two-hour critique. Bring enough copies of your completed midterm stories to class for your four to five-person critique group. You’ll read each other’s stories and critique as a group for AP style, organization, reporting and writing. You may incorporate these suggestions into the final midterm stories you turn into your instructor on Monday.

Week 8 (Oct.12-14) Covering Speeches; Midterm Exam

Goal: To learn how to cover speeches and press conferences on the fly, often without the benefit of advance preparation.

Reading: Review Chapter 8 (Speeches section)

Handouts: Speeches

Monday

Testing: No News quiz

Homework Due: TURN IN MIDTERM NEWS STORY. (You must attach a contact list of valid e-mail addresses and phone numbers for all sources.)

Lecture and Lab: Covering speeches. The instructor will review the basic elements of covering a speech story. Either your instructor or a guest will deliver a speech in class. You’ll take notes, write a deadline story about the speech and turn it in.

Sometime during the next two weeks, you’ll attend a speech on campus or elsewhere, do the reporting and write a story you’ll turn in Monday, Oct. 26

Wednesday

(No Top 10 AP Quiz today)

Testing: THE MIDTERM ASSESSMENT (Covers text chapters 1-10; Supplements on Grammar, Story Structure and Leads; Top 10 Style Guide sections 1-5)

Week 9 (Oct. 19-21) Covering Diverse Communities & Meetings

Goal: Understand the importance of sensitivity to all people in news coverage. Explore examples of bias in the media involving race, gender and age. Learn how to assure that no part of the community is left uncovered and how to develop sources in communities different from your own. Discuss tactics for advance preparation and covering a meeting.

Reading: Multicultural Sensitivity Supplement, Review Chapter 8 (Meetings Section)

Handouts: Diversity

Homework due: AP Style/Grammar #6

Monday

Testing: News Quiz #6

Lecture: The importance of multicultural sensitivity in news coverage.

Lab: First, a timed hard-news drill (10 minutes). Next … you will brainstorm your plans for completing a “listening post” assignment outside of class, which forces you to move beyond your usual circles. Before next Monday’s class, you’ll need to find a couple of places within an under covered community where people talk and mingle. While there, you’ll have conversations with people, read bulletin boards and leaflets and listen to all of your senses. You’ll look for story ideas that later can be developed into a feature. Ask questions about how this community sees itself portrayed in the media.

Wednesday

Homework due: AP style exercise

Testing: Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #6

Lecture: Covering Meetings: Preparation and Tactics.

Lab: In-class drills of short meeting stories using information provided by your instructor.

Outside Assignment: In the next two weeks, you’ll find a government meeting on campus, in Austin or in a nearby community to cover. Get approval in advance from your instructor before you prepare for the meeting, which might include a local school board, city council or county commission. No campus clubs! This news story will be due Wednesday, Nov. 4.

Week 10: (Oct. 26-28) Expanding on Listening Posts

Goal: Develop story ideas from listening post experience.

Monday

Testing: News quiz #7

Lecture: Discuss experiences in listening posts. What was the community’s perception of its treatment in the media?

Lab: You will develop at least three story plans from your “listening post” assignment. One of these plans will become a short feature story.

Wednesday

Homework: AP style/Grammar assignment #7

Testing: Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #7

Lecture & Lab: Topic at instructor’s discretion.

THINK AHEAD!! Your story plan for the final news story is due on Nov. 2. This will be a new-feature story of 1,000 words (about four pages, minimum of five human sources whom you’ve interviewed). It will include a focus statement, sources you'll interview, scenes you want to describe and questions you seek to answer with your reporting. The instructor will review it and approve or help you re-direct your focus.

Week 11 (Nov. 2-4) Features / Obits

Goal: Review different ways to organize feature stories, including the narrative approach. Learn and practice the basics of obituary writing.

Handouts: Obits, Profiles (For discussion next week) A Boy of Unusual Vision by Alice Steinbach, An Untimely Frost by Diana Dawson, Mrs. Kelly’s Monster by Jon Franklin. Others may be handed out.

Reading: Chapter 11 (Feature Writing), Review Chapter 2 (Intro to News and Features) Supplement on Obits

Monday

Testing: News Quiz #8

Homework due: Story Plan due for Final News-Feature Story

Lecture: Elements of Feature Writing: Description, Narrative, Scenes

Lab: Freestyle Essay Writing: You will be given five minutes each to write three different topics chosen by the instructor. You will see how to loosen your style with spontaneous writing. Read some aloud in class.

To practice observation and writing with detail, you will go outside for 30 minutes and find a scene to describe using all of your senses. Come back to lab, write it in 20 minutes and we’ll read some aloud.

For your OUTSIDE FEATURE #1, due next Monday, report and write a one to two-page feature that you discovered during your listening post assignment. It must focus on an under-covered community and include a lead, middle, ending, plus details of observation and quotes from at least three human sources you’ve interviewed in person. Include a contact list for all sources.

Wednesday

Homework due: Outside Meeting Story, AP Style/Grammar assignment #8.

Testing: Top 10 Style Guide #8

Lecture: Writing the Obit

Lab: You will draw a name from a diverse selection of living celebrities, research that person’s life on the Internet and write a feature obituary on deadline in lab. Turn it in by the end of class..

Week 12 (Nov. 9-11) Profiles/ The Internet

Goal: You will learn the basics of reporting and writing profiles and writing for the Internet. You’ll learn about convergence and how reporters often are expected to rewrite the same story in several different forms. Critique handouts of profiles. Discuss the devices that writers used to make these stories sing. Explore how to approach these stories and how to best write them.

Reading: Review Chapter 11 (Section on profiles), Web Writing Supplement

Handouts: As needed

Monday

Homework due: SHORT FEATURE #1

Testing: News quiz #9

Lecture: Writing about people. Class discussion of profiles handed out last week.

Lab: You will collect details about one person on campus and select material from what you’ve observed to write a paragraph that makes a focused point about that person. (Are they harried, industrious, exhausted, relaxed?) Read them aloud at the end of class.

In class, you will begin work on OUTSIDE FEATURE #2, your two-page profile, doing most of the work outside of class. Due: next Monday, Nov. 16.

Wednesday

Homework: None

Take Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #9

Lecture: Writing for The Internet

Lab: Internet writing drills

THINK AHEAD!! Your final news story is due on Dec. 2, your last class day.

Week 13 (Nov. 16-18) Government & Media Law, Final Writing Assessment

Goal: You will learn how to glean the important information from a budget or government report and write statistical stories in a meaningful way for your readers. By knowing the basics of media law, you’ll learn how to stay out of trouble in journalism. Your instructor also will review state and federal public access laws and the information they allow you.

Reading: Review Chapter 8 (Government section), Media Law Supplement

Monday

Homework: Short Feature #2 due

Testing: News quiz #10

Lecture: Making Stories about Bureaucracies Sing

Lab: Please bring a calculator to class to complete the un-graded IRE Math Test for Journalists. After you complete the quiz, instructors will review correct answers and the proper way to solve the problems. Write a short news story involving government & statistical stories, using facts provided by your instructor.

Wednesday

Testing: Take Top 10 Style Guide Quiz #10

Homework due:

Lecture: Media law: Staying Out of Trouble in Journalism

Lab: FINAL IN-CLASS WRITING DRILL. You will be given facts by your instructor and 30 minutes to write a short news story. When the timed drill ends, turn in what you have written.

Week 14 (Nov. 23-25) Thanksgiving Week Critiques for Final Story/ Drill Day

(Thanksgiving week)

Goal: You will offer and receive constructive criticism of the final news story that you’ll turn in next week. During the second class period, you’ll practice news story drills.

Monday

Testing: None

Homework: FINAL NEWS-FEATURE DUE FOR CRITIQUES

Lecture & Lab: Mandatory Attendance for two-hour lab during which peers will critique your final news-features. Bring enough copies of your completed final story to class for your four- or five-person critique group. You’ll read each other’s stories and critique as groups for AP Style, organization, reporting and writing. You may incorporate these suggestions into final stories you turn in next week.

Wednesday:

Lecture & Lab: TBA. Your instructor might choose to have a Drill Day during which you write several basic news stories from sets of facts provided.

Week 15: (Nov. 30- Dec. 2) Written Exam/ Practical Advice/Evaluations

Goal: You’ll leave the class prepared to seek internships and to succeed in them. Discuss negotiating the application process, the art of working with editors and sidestepping office politics.

Reading: Chapter 12 (What’s Next?)

Monday

Lecture: Internships, building careers, what to expect in the reporting class.

THE FINAL COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT will covers Chapters 2, 8, 11 and 12; supplements on Multicultural Sensitivity, Media Law, Obits and Web Writing and the entire Top 10 Style Guide).

Wednesday

Lecture: Course Evaluations & Course Wrap-up

Homework due: FINAL NEWS STORY DUE

(Please bring a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you’d like for your instructor to return your final news story with comments)