Communication Studies 213E
Telephone: 961-1650
Office & Hours: M-Th 1-2 and F 9-10 or by appointment in 24 McNeill Hall.
Course Web site: http://www.simpson.edu/~steffen/advnews.html
Email: steffen@storm.simpson.edu
Welcome to Communication Studies 213E: Advanced Newswriting and Reporting. In this course we'll go beyond the spot-news coverage that was a staple of Beginning Newswriting and Reporting to a series of writing assignments that will test your abilities as a news gatherer, writer and thinker. The prerequisite is Communication Studies 211. Students who have not fulfilled this prerequisite must immediately drop this course.
As an advanced writing course, Advanced Newswriting and Reporting will be heavy in terms of reading and writing. We will operate the course many weeks as a kind of "writer's workshop" in which the vast responsibility for quality class sessions will fall on the shoulders of students. As a result, students in our small section will be expected to have read assigned and unassigned materials ahead and class and be ready to use those materials in the classroom.
We have four required texts in the course:
- Best Newspaper Writing 2000, a collection of the top U.S. in-depth and feature stories, along with the premier examples of journalistic commentary and criticism, as selected by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. This book is available at the Simpson College Bookstore or other local bookstores.
- The Wall Street Journal is simply the best-written newspaper in the nation. Students are required to purchase a one-semester subscription to the Journal. A sign-up sheet will be distributed the first night of class.
- The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual was also a requirement of students in Beginning Newswriting and Reporting. If you're in need of a copy, the Simpson bookstore carries it.
- Finally, you should purchase and use When Words Collide: A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style, by Lauren Kessler and Duncan McDonald, for help on these critical skills of importance to professional communicators.
Good news and bad news: There will be no examinations. But, of course, this wouldn't be a newswriting course without pop current affairs quizzes. These quizzes will constitute 50 points of the course grade. One of the keys to excelling as a journalist, a writer and, for that matter, as a citizen is to keep on top of the news. As always, you can consult traditional media or a variety of online media sources located on the course links page.
The bulk of your grade in Advanced Newswriting and Reporting will be taken up with five major writing assignments during the term. Those assignments include:
- An in-depth, multisource news story on a trend or issue affecting the members of the Simpson College community.
- A personality profile on a newsworthy or otherwise notable individual.
- A light and entertaining feature story.
- An op-ed piece suitable for submission to local media.
- A review of a contemporary arts and entertainment event or product.
Each project must be proposed in writing to the instructor via professional memoranda. Discussion of the memorandum format will be conducted on the first night of class.
As was the case in Beginning Newswriting, much of the course will be taken up with workshopping drafts of these stories with the instructor and other students. And, as was the case in the first newswriting course, stories may be rewritten for increase in grade if they are submitted on deadline.
Honesty is a must in this course. The College's policies regarding academic dishonesty are outlined on Page 63 of the 1999-2001 Simpson College General Catalog. With regard to this course, acts of dishonesty include, but are not necessarily limited to, cheating on examinations, plagiarizing material from other sources, making up material or sources of information, and/or submitting work for this course originally completed for other courses without the permissions of the instructors involved. The penalty for academic dishonesty shall be failure of the course.
Students will be eligible to receive up to 400 points for their work in The Law of Communication. The points will be awarded as follows:
- Quizzes: 50 points
- Writing Proposals: 50 points
- Professionalism: 50 points
- Written Work: 250 points
Attendance and participation also play a factor in the determination of final course grades. Students with no unexcused absences on their records and superior classroom participation will be rewarded with an increase of up to 1/3 of a letter grade in determination of final grade. Students will be penalized 3% of the total possible number of points in the course for each unexcused absence. At the end of the course, final grades will be determined either by straight-percentage scale or by curve, depending on the method which benefits the largest number of students in the course.
It's somewhat difficult to gauge with certainty what our progress will be during the 15 weeks of the spring term. We'll try our best to keep to the following schedule. Please note that I will be assigning additional readings from the Wall Street Journal and from other traditional and online media as we progress through the term, so the readings listed serve as the beginning points for our work: