Class: TTH 1:10-2:25, CLA 105 Instructor: James Plath
Office: CLA 143 Phone: 556-3352
Office Hours: MWF 11-12 & by appointment
URL: http://titan.iwu.edu/~jplath Email: jplath@titan.iwu.edu
Text: Required text is Writing for Story by Jon Franklin.
Additional online stories and handouts provided by the
instructor and students.
Required first
reading: "The
Gift:
A Transplant Journey," by IWU (and English 325) alum Chris
Fusco,
now editor-in-chief at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Course Requirements: This class will be conducted in true workshop/seminar fashion, meaning that students will share the responsibility for filling the air with ideas, questions, answers, notions, fears, problems and solutions. Students will produce five assignments:
Deadlines: Though this is a class in non-deadline (feature) writing, students must nonetheless observe due dates or face a one-grade penalty for every class period the assignment is late. We will try to follow this rough timetable:
Week of Jan 9--Thinking Features: Focus, Originality,
Depth,
Impact; Have you ...?; types of stories; READ: Chris Fusco's "The
Gift:
A Transplant Journey" for Jan 9.
Week of Jan 14, 16--How-to/informational features;
gathering
information. How-to feature due on Jan 21.
Week of Jan 21, 23--Profiles; interviewing. Profile due on
Jan 28.
Week of Jan 28, 30--Audience & Market; DUE: oral
analysis
of two markets with "clips" of articles from target publications
of the
type the student is attempting (travel, human interest), on Feb 4.
Week of Feb 4, 6--Structuring the travel/event article.
DUE:
Final drafts of first two assignments, Feb 11.
Week of Feb 11, 13--Fiction techniques and fleshing out an
article; DUE: draft of travel feature on Feb 18.
Week of Feb 18, 20--Writing the human interest/personal
experience feature; DUE: five ideas for a human interest story on
Feb 20.
Week of Feb 25, 27--Workshopping; DUE: Final draft of
travel/event feature on Feb 27.
Week of Mar 3, 5--In-Depth Research and problem-solving;
Select group project;
DUE: draft of long feature on Mar 5.
Week of Mar 10, 12--SPRING BREAK
Week of Mar 17, 19--Workshopping; investigation problems and methods; division of installments and research labor.
Week of Mar 24, 26--Project discussions; complex stories
&
investigations; DUE: final draft of long in-depth feature.
Week of Mar 31, Apr 2--No class on Tuesday (research);
putting it all together.
Week of Apr 7, 9--No class on Tuesday (research)
Workshopping and investigation. DUE:
draft of research installments on Apr 9.
Week of Apr 14, 16--Workshopping
Week of Apr 21--Workshopping
FINAL EXAM: Friday, April 24, 10:15-12:15; due at the start of the final exam period: final draft of long feature/investigative piece
Grades will be based on the following:
Attendance and participation (including peer critiques)-----------------20 percent
How-to/informational
article------------------------------------------------10
percent
Profile---------------------------------------------------------------------------10
percent
Travel/event--------------------------------------------------------------------10 percent
Investigative story (group)---------------------------------------------------20 percent
Human interest feature (in-depth)------------------------------------------30 percent