Intro to news reporting and writing



Intro to news reporting and writing

Book: Scholastic Journalism by Earl English, Clarence Hach and Tom E. Rolnicki

Course goals: This is a classroom, but it will also be a newsroom. My goal is to teach you how to be an effective news reporter and writer. I hope your goal will be to take each assignment seriously and be open, interested learners. I hope that by the end of the semester you will have learned enough about the media to be an educated consumer of the news and an integral part of our school newspaper.

Class policies:

Respect for classmates is of utmost importance. You are colleagues and peers — please treat one another accordingly.

Deadlines are at the beginning of class and anything turned in late will earn and automatic C or lower. If you think you need a deadline extension, please talk to me at least 3 days before the assignment is due. Do not ask me the night before!

Participation is crucial to the structure of our class. We will do individual and group activities nearly every day and your participation in those, as well as any work you complete in class is part of your grade.

If you feel you need to meet with me outside of class, my door is always open. Please see me about setting up a time before or after school.

Tardies and make-up work:

Tardies: Please be on time — coming in late disrupts the entire class. Your first tardy will be excused. Each one thereafter will result in the loss of 2 participation points. Please see the grading section for more information on how participation fits in to your final grade.

Make-up work: It is your responsibility to request and complete make-up work. You have the equivalent of the number of days absent, plus one additional day, to request and submit make-up work to the teacher. Make-up work is only accepted from students with excused absences.

Class Timeline:

Week one / Aug. 6-10 / Introduction

M: Syllabus review, overview of class, class survey

T: Parts of a newspaper, parts of a magazine, newsroom management

W: Understanding news

Th: Understanding news, cont’d

F: Newspaper article critique due

QUIZ 1

Reading day

Week two / Aug. 13-17 / Short-form news

M: Gathering news

T: Interviews – tips and techniques

W: Mock interviews

Th: Writing leads

F: Newspaper article critique due

Leads, cont’d

Week three / Aug. 20-24 / Short-form news

M: Writing news stories

T: Writing news stories, cont’d

W: Short-form news article rough draft due

Writing exercise

Th: Reporting special topics

F: Newspaper article critique due

Special topics, cont’d

Week four / Aug. 27-31 / Feature writing

M: Short-form news article final draft due

What is feature writing?

T: Idea development

Getting started

W: Writing exercises

Th: Writing a profile

F: Magazine article critique due

Writing news-features, human interest

Week five / Sept. 3-7 / Editing

M: Guest speaker (Pam Brandon, feature writer)

T: Writing headlines

W: Feature story rough draft due

Using AP style

Th: Copyediting

F: Magazine article critique due

Quiz 2

Writing workshop

Week six / Sept. 10-14 / Editing & Writing for Online Media

M: Labor Day (No school)

T: Writing workshop, cont’d

W: Editing workshop

Th: Writing for online media intro & overview

F: Blog critique due

Feature story final draft due

Blogs & podcasts

Week seven / Sept. 17-21/ Online Media & Layout Basics

M: Writing Web-exclusives and other special Web stories

T: The best (and worst) of online news

W: How-to tutorial on Adobe InDesign

Th: Guest speaker (Jason Farmand, magazine designer)

F: Final project feature story due (2 copies)

InDesign tutorial, cont’d

Week eight / Sept. 24-28 / Design and Photography Basics

M: Design wrap-up

T: Guest speaker (Gary Bogdon, photographer)

W: Photojournalism basics

Overview of great photojournalism

Th: Photoshop basics

F: Newspaper article critique due

Photoshop activity

Week nine / Oct. 1-5 / Design & photos, cont’d

M: Group meetings/layout time

T: Group meetings/layout time

W: Group meetings/layout time

Th: Editing/Design workshop

F: Story-swap final layout due

Nine-weeks wrapup

Assignments:

Article critiques

This goal of this assignment is to get you to read newspapers and magazines.

Newspapers: During the newspaper unit, you will choose one article out of the current week’s Orlando Sentinel, New York Times or USA Today. If you do not receive the newspaper at home, you may use an article from the paper’s Web site. I am not interested in an overview of what the story was about; I want you to tell me what you think the writer did well and what, if anything, you wish the writer had done differently. Please include a printout or copy of the article or the original taped to a sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 paper.

Magazines: During our feature unit, you will critique two magazine articles. You must choose an article that has been published in the last year and I must approve the publication you choose. The stories must be in-depth and at span at least 2 pages in the magazine. If you don’t want to buy a magazine, there are several great titles in our library as well as in the public library. I will also bring in several magazines that you can use. Please include the article or a copy.

Blog: For this critique I will supply you a list of approved blogs. You will be required to read the blog for a week and critique the blogger’s writing style. We will discuss this further in class.

Here are some questions to guide your critiques:

Was the writing concise? Was the point of the story clearly conveyed? Were the interviews pertinent? Did you have any unanswered questions? If you had been assigned this story, what would you have done differently?

Short-form news article

500 words

This article will reflect the style of news writing we cover in the first three weeks. It should follow inverted pyramid style, and must include at least one full interview and three sources (one will be your interview; two can be brief quotes.) Topic will reflect a current event that is relevant to our school and/or you and your fellow students. Examples include a student government meeting, an awards ceremony, a new school policy, a community event, a sporting event or a speech. I must approve the topic.

Long-form feature story

700-1,000 words

This article will reflect the feature-writing unit. Your article will be an in-depth report on someone or something and must include at least three full interviews. I must approve the topic. Examples of topics: a personality profile on a student or faculty member who has recently done something for the school or in the community, a in-depth look at our winning football team or behind the scenes of a school play. Take a look around — almost anything can become a great feature. Notice trends, topics your peers are talking about. Ask questions to see what other students think would be an interesting story to read.

Story-swap project

For this project you will get to be a writer, editor and designer. You will write a 1,000-word feature essay on the topic of your choice. You will be placed in groups of three and each member of the group will edit one story (not their own) and lay out another (again, not their own.) For example, student 1 will edit student 2’s story and lay out student 3’s story and so on. You will turn in the first draft of your story to both your editor and me. Your editor is responsible for giving your edited story to your designer. Your final product will be your layout.

I want to be very clear about fact errors. Fact errors — such as Misspelling a name of a person or place, getting someone’s profession or title wrong, or any other error that is factual — are a very big deal to editors. We will cover this more thoroughly in class. These errors in a final draft will result in a zero on the assignment. I expect you all to be thorough editors and to pay careful attention to the work you turn in! If you have any questions about this, please see me.

Grading

Article critiques 10 points each — total of 80 possible points

Short-form article 100 possible points

Long-form article 100 possible points

Story-swap 100 possible points

Quizzes 25 points each — total of 50 possible points

In-Class activities/

participation 70 possible points

Total: 500 points

A 466-500

B 421-465

C 371-420

D 325-370

Final draft grading criteria

A (94-100 pts) Well written and organized and reflects your thorough research. There are no spelling or grammar errors.

B (93-85 pts) Needs minor style editing and may need some rewriting or reorganization. Contains a few spelling or grammar errors.

C (84-75 pts) Hard to follow, needs significant restructuring and/or rewriting and reflects insufficient research. Has a number of spelling and grammar errors.

D (74-65 pts) Needs to be completely rewritten and does not meet the requirements of the assignment. Has numerous spelling and grammar errors.

F (64 and below) Reflects little effort on the part of the writer and does not meet the requirements of the assignment. Filled with spelling and grammar errors.

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