English 211--Newswriting & Reporting

Room:  Buck 2      Time:  MWF 9-9:50

Instructor:
James Plath     Office:  English House 104    Phone: 556-3352

Hours:  T-TH 12-1:00 p.m. & by appointment   URL: http://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath/plath.html

Email:
jplath@iwu.edu

Required Text:
The Associated Press Stylebook & Libel Manual (latest edition).

Resources:  Online exercises   Newspapers   Ames Library Journalism Page

Course Goals:
To acquaint students with the backgrounds of American journalism, news style and the types of stories and strategies that make for good print journalism. Journalism is a competetive, demanding, fast-paced (and quickly changing) profession, and the course will reflect that.

Course Requirements:

Grades Determined on the Following Basis:

10 Assignments (out of 11, lowest three eligible for Argus substitution)--------------------------5 percent each, 50 percent total
Deadline Midterm----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 percent
Deadline Final Exam-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 percent
AP Stylebook Quizzes-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 percent
Class Participation----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20 percent

Tentative Calendar:

Week 1 (Aug 27, 29, 31) What's News?---------------------------Exercise: Three campus story ideas; Introduction: video story assignment

Week 2 (Sept 5, 7) Leads------------------------Exercise: Three leads from best of three story ideas and online exercise

Week 3 (Sept 10, 12, 14) Basics/Organization-----------------------------------Assignment 1: Accident story (from fact sheet)

Week 4 (Sept 17, 19, 21) Crime----------------------Assignment 2: Crime story (from police blotter and phone-in questions)

Week 5 (Sept 24, 26, 28) Speakers-----------------------Assignment 4: Speaker story (actual campus event) 1st AP QUIZ

Week 6 (Oct 1, 3, 5) Meetings-------------------------Assignment 3: Meeting story (Student Senate or City/Town Council)

Week 7 (Oct 8, 10, 12) Conferences---DEADLINE MIDTERM Oct 10 (early class start time, real story, surprise topic, start to finish; stories should be emailed by deadline as a word attachment)

Week 8 (Oct 15, 17)  Sports---------------------------------Assignment 5: Sports news, game, or feature Story (IWU only)

Week 9 (Oct 22, 24, 26) Press Releases---Assignment 6: Press release (from assignment or actual event)/2nd AP Quiz

Week 10 (Oct 29, 31, Nov 2) Advances-----------------------------Assignment 7: Advance news story from press release (provided)

Week 11 (Nov 5, 7, 9) Round-Ups/Trends-----Assignment 8: Round-up or Trend Story (actual, individually generated)

Week 12 (Nov 12, 14, 16) Brights--------------------------------------------------------------Assignment 9: Bright/3rd AP Quiz

Week 13 (Nov 19, Thanksgiving) Headlines/Cutlines/Photos---Exercises: in-class assignments

Week 14 (Nov 26, 28, 30) Shooting/editing interview footage and B-roll -------------------Assignment 10 due: Video news story or news feature

Week 15 (Dec 3, 5, 7) Postmortems-----------------------Assignment 11: Your own obituary (the consolation: you're a celebrity!)

DEADLINE FINAL EXAM:  Thursday, Dec. 13, 10:15-12:15. As with the midterm, students will have a real deadline assignment to complete from start to finish.


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