Dr. P.
Kalata AC 314
894-9311,
ext. 7621
Office
hours: Posted on Off ice door
Materials:
News
Reporting and Writing by Melvin Mencher, second edition.
a good
dictionary
lots of
papers and pens
Newspapers,
daily and weekly, local and national (i.e., theBurlington County Times,
the Courier Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer,the New York Times, the Christian
Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, even USA Today)
Rationale:
The subject matter for this course will be the news, what is important
and interesting and of value for people. In order to write news stories,
you need to know what is news, who is news and how to make these people,
events and issues understandable to others. You have to know who your audience
is and what that audience is interested in. You almost
always
have to research the background of a story.
Because
the news is our most important material, it is difficult to know how to
structure the syllabus. Situations in the world and in the local area will
be the basic for the course. Because we rely heavily on the news, you will
be expected to read a variety of newspaper and to determine what works
or doesn't work. For every class session, you should have read at least
three stories in one newspaper. As we go through the semester, a particular
newspaper may be assigned for certain classes.
Course
Outline/ Objectives
1. To
be familiar with the format of a variety of hard news articles.
2. To
have the opportunity to write hard news articles suitable for publication.
3. To
become aware of the ethics appropriate for the covering and reporting of
hard news.
4. To
analyze contemporary news articles for the elements that contribute to
good news writing.
5. The
practice of the elements of news reporting, including writing good leads,
organizing material, using quotations and attribution, using and verifying
facts.
Course
Content:
1. The
writing of beat stories, including police, fire, government and education.
2. The
conducting of interviews and the writing of interview articles..
3. The
covering of events and the writing of reports on events.
4. The
determining of appropriate conduct for reporters.
College level critical thinking: The recognition of appropriate ethical decisions that journalists might have to make, including the revealing of sources, accepting gifts and taking comments off the record.
Attendance: Individual students are expected to attend every class session. Regardless of whether or not a student attends a class, he or she is still responsible for all work assigned and discussed.
Grading:
The final grade for the course is the total of all the grades for the assigned
articles, with the midterm and the final counting for two grades. All articles
must be handed in on the due date. However, a student may submit another
assigned article on occurrence. Any articles submitted to the college student
newspaper or another newspaper and published will be graded up one grade
from the original grade given. At least one article should be submitted
to the college student newspaper and this can be given to the instructor
to be given to the newspaper's editor. While length is not an overriding
concern in the grading of articles, it is expected that the student will
see that the articles are of sufficient length that, if needed, an editor
could eliminate three paragraphs and still have enough information to run.
All articles must be handed in in typed journalistic format, folded crosswise,
with slug and name at top left. Failure to use the correct format will
lower your grade. A late submission will also suffer a grade lowering,
equal to one grade for every day late.
Please
note: The X grade is not given, except in unusual situations to students
in good standing.. Schedule of Assignments
August
31: Introduction to the course: What is News? Sept. 2: Chapter 3
Sept.
7: Appendix A, Newspaper Grammar and Stylebook, Punctuation and Chapter
1
Sept.
9: Chapter 14 Sept. 14: Chapter 15 Sept. 16: Chapter 18 Sept. 21: Chapter
20 Sept. 23: Chapter 21 Sept. 28 Chapter 2
Sept.
30: Chapter 5 Oct. 5: Chapter 23 Oct. 7: Chapter 24 Oct. 14: Chapter 22
Oct. 19: Chapter 13 Oct. 21: Chapter 25 Oct. 26: Chapter 26 Oct 28: Chapter
27 Nov. 2 Chapter 10 Nov. 4: Chapter 6 Nov. 9: Chapter 11 Nov. 11: Chapter
12 Nov. 17: Chapter 7 Nov. 19: Chapter 4 Nov. 26: New York Times, Washington
Post and Philadelphia Inquirer Dec. 2: Chapter 17 Articles Due Dates: Sept.
14: Interview Sept. 28 Beat stories: police, fire, courts, government,
food, farm Oct. 14: Midterm Oct. 19: Education, Business, and Sports Nov.
2: Science, Medicine, and Consumer Health Nov. 16: Meeting, Speech Nov.
30: Event
Final:
Week of Dec. 14 to Dec. 20