Journalistic Writing/Eng 3050/KM24A Spring ‘07
Prof. Bridgett Davis
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2:30-4:00 and Thursdays by appt.
Rm 265 - 7th Floor - VC/ 646-312-3927 -#
Bridgett_Davis@baruch.cuny.edu
Required Texts: The New York Times Metro Section, Daily
The City Section, Sundays
Community newspaper
Welcome To Journalistic Writing.
This is a laboratory course. In it, you will learn to report and write news style stories by reporting and writing them. The discipline, writing and editing skills you acquire in this course will serve you well in whatever aspect of the media you choose to pursue - be it newspaper reporting, broadcast journalism, on-line media, corporate communications, magazines or book publishing.
The focus of your attention this semester will be on your neighborhood. For three months, you will bring fresh eyes to familiar surroundings. By taking notes daily in a journal, you will come to know the patterns and rhythms of your community. You will compile a source list of contact people who are the experts of your neighborhood - local politicians, community leaders, neighborhood gossips, business owners, etc., — which will grow as the semester progresses.
You will attend community and board meetings that focus on neighborhood concerns and issues. You will cull from this rich material informative and fascinating feature stories that bring to readers a glimpse of New York that only your unique perspective (coupled with dogged research!) could have rendered.
To hone your perspective, you will participate in an exciting new experience this semester: You and your classmates will publish a neighborhood blog, posting to it weekly as part of a community team. The goal of the blog is twofold: to give you practice writing for social media and to provide dialogue between you, your classmates and others as you explore issues in your community.
Classroom Policies:
1. Meet ALL deadlines. Because journalism is dependent upon deadlines, NO LATE PAPERS OR ASSIGNMENTS are allowed unless excused by me BEFORE the due date. All REWRITES are due ONE WEEK from the date you receive them.
2. Read The New York Times DAILY except Saturday. Pop quizzes are given.
3. Keep a DAILY journal of neighborhood observations. Journals will be checked randomly.
4. Prepare all assignments according to the given copy format.
5. Know the college’s policy on plagiarism. Go to the website: www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic_honesty.html. Evidence of plagiarism of any kind will result in sactions that range from an F on the assignment to a failing grade in the course. A report of suspected academic dishonesty will be sent to the office of the Dean of Students. Any sources consulted MUST be attributed to those sources - websites, articles, books, etc., Ignorance of the policy is no excuse.
6. Become familiar with the Journalism Program’s guidelines, our “Rules of the Road” - some helpful hints for reporting as well as detailed cautionary notes on plagiarism– which apply to this class as well as all others in our program at Baruch (and indeed, to the world of professional journalism in general).
ENG 3050 JOURNALISTIC WRITING DAVIS SPRING ‘07
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1: Introduction. Classmate interviews.
1/30-2/1 The Nature of News: Objectivity vs. Fairness
How To Read the Metro Section
Blog Groups Assigned
DUE: 2/1: CLASSMATE PROFILE
Week 2: News Value and the Journals: What makes it newsworthy?
2/6-2/8 Blogging Workshop (2/6)
Discussion of Profiles
Neighborhood Research Workshop (2/8)– VC/8-160
Week 3: Guest Speaker: Michel Marriott, New York Times reporter,
2/13 Circuits Section: iChat, YouTube: A Conversation about
Technology, Media and Your Immediate Future
(classes follow a Monday schedule on 2/15)
Week 4: Where we’re headed: Deconstructing a neighborhood news/feature
2/20-2/22 Finding Community Meetings & Sources
Blogging Begins
DUE 2/22: COMMUNITY BACKGROUND REPORT
Week 5: Structure of a News Story:
2/27-3/1 Leads
Week 6: More Leads
3/6-3/8 Developing a News Story - Inverted Pyramid
Journal reports / Meeting confirmations
Week 7: Covering Meeting & Reaction Stories
3/13-3/15 In-class writing (reaction story)
Week 8: Covering Neighborhood News:
3/20-3/22 Speeches & Reaction Stories
Deadline Reporting (3/20)
Week 9: Guest Speaker: Mark Kurlansky - 3/27 - room 750 Library
3/27-3/29 Building
DUE 3/29: Kurlansky Speech Story
Discussion of reaction stories & Journal entries
SPRING RECESS - 4/2 - 4/10
Week 10: Developing a Larger Story
4/12 Combing for Feature Stories/Creating Community Source Lists
DUE: NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING STORY
Week 11: Research & Reporting
4/17-4/19 Gathering Web-Based Data
Pitching Proposals
DUE 4/19: PROPOSAL FOR FINAL FEATURE STORY
Week 12: Sources/Interviewing Techniques
4/24-4/26 Creating Strong Feature Leads & Nut Graphs
FINAL JOURNAL ENTRY (4/26)
Week 13: More on Feature Leads & Nut Graphs
5/1-5/3 In-class Writing
DUE: SOURCE LIST (5/1)
Week 14: In-class Writing
5/8-5/10 DUE 5/10 (end of class): 1st Draft of Neighborhood Feature
Week 15: Discovering your Nut Graph
5/15-5/17 FINAL DRAFT - NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS FEATURE -DUE: 5/17
FINAL IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT
GRADING:
Your final grades will be based on how proficient you become at news reporting and writing, evidenced in your news stories (40 %), research assignments and quizzes and journal entries (20%), final feature story (20%) and your class participation, including regular blog posts (20%).
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