Communication 104: News Writing

Syllabus (print or Web)

Our main text, Tim Harrower's Inside Reporting, has three downloadable chapters on its website. For later chapters, answers to the "Test Yourself" pages and the Morgue collection of stories, you need the printed copy.

Follow this required texts link to see my bookmark entries for websites for that book, the AP Stylebook, and two free downloadable texts.

Feel free to browse any of my bookmarks on the left, or this narrower selection of newswriting pages.

Class Review Notes (usually will be added on Wednesday or Friday; listed here with most recent week first):

Eleventh Week (Nov.9-12)

Speech stories: In class Thursday (or by e-mail if you missed class), write an "advance" story about a speech; over the weekend (for Tuesday) write a story "after" the speech, and write a proposal -- with tentative questions -- for a follow-upinterview story about the speaker.
Here's the more detailed assignment sheet. And here are some notes about common errors I saw in the "precede" stories.
ELECTION UPDATE: The data and quotes folder now has separate pages for men and women and an additional text file from Tuesday's class. Here are the data and quotes. See the "ReadMe" file. You may only need that document, the quotes and the spreadsheets themselves (.xls or .xlsx version). If you don't have Excel, or if that file gives you trouble, try the PDF versions. The original questions are still online at the link below.
For Thursday, write the best story you can from any of the "bottom line" calculations that are clear to you, plus a few of the quotes. (We will discuss the data and the use of quotes in class, then you get to write a final draft for grading.)

Tenth Week (Nov. 2-4)

Tuesday: Election day survey... Briefly interview five students. (If you weren't in class, download the questionnaire and give it a try. Page one explains the questions; page two is where you write the answers. Don't just talk to friends or to people gathered around one table at Dalton. Get some variety. Bring back the results on Thursday.)
Thursday: Topic --Reporting with numbers; Assemble the survey data; last chance to turn in Halloween stories.

Ninth week (Oct. 27-29)

Thursday: Here's the Halloween assignment, due Tuesday. That link goes to a folder with a Word version of the assignment sheet, an HTML version of the assignment sheet, a slide show of still images from the video we watched in class, and a folder of higher-resolution versions of those images. Have fun!
Tuesday: brainstorming to develop story ideas and questions.

Eighth week (Oct.20-26)

Weekend: Follow-up on the "finder returns $300,000" story by reading ex. 6, p 63, a more over-the-top version of the story, and the discussion on page 289.
Weekend: Refine or add to your list of story ideas.
Complete any unfinished assignments below.
Finish Chapter 4 and start Chapter 5.
In-class: Discuss of local "seasonal" story ideas: Local angles on Halloween, sports tournaments/series, Thanksgiving, autumn, flu, etc.
In-class: Advanced search tips; extending Google with "site:" or "+" and "-"; exploring city Web sites (starting with Hayward, Calif.); exploring government site search engine http://usa.gov
In-class: Adding local background to Hayward brief; comparisons with 1989 Loma Prieta quake, Pulitzer-winning stories about it.
For Thursday: Hayward earthquake brief (Exercise 3-3.3)
Editing-test grading-curve news. (More to come.)
If you left a textbook in class, write to Bob.

Seventh week (Oct.13-19)

Follow-up Style exercise, edit a "Break-In" story: 3-5.14 using rules from grammar and AP online quizzes and exercises.
Write a news brief about a yoga teacher who found $300,000 in the street. Based on textbook ex. 6, p 63, with a few changes: The event happened last week (not in December), and it was raining (not snowing.)

Sixth week (Oct.6-12)

Thursday: Test similar to ex. 3-5.12 using rules from grammar and AP online quizzes and exercises.
Tuesday: Reviewed grammar & stylebook quizzes and (Ch. 3-b) text pages mentioned below. Did vandalism editing exercise.

Fifth week (Sept.29-Oct.5)

Homework for next week: Consider pages 51-59 of the textbook your "study guide" for next week's editing test, especially pages 55, 58 and 59 (chapter 3b in the online edition). For extra practice with the AP Stylebook, try looking up the rules that Harrower gives on page 55.
In-class Thursday: Reviewed lead-writing ex. 3-2.2; AP Stylebook exercises 3-5.1 to 3-5.10
In-class Tuesday: Experimented with leads and details for Costa Rica study-abroad story.

Fourth week (Sept.22-28)

Guest speaker: Professor Glen Martin, on Maymester Peace Studies program in Costa Rica.
Done in class: Exercises 3-4.1, 3-5.1, 3-5.2... etc.
Homework: For next Tuesday, complete the rest of Harrower's AP Stylebook exercises on your own 3-5.1 to 3-5.11. Don't just accept the quiz's automatic answers: Look up the rule in the stylebook.
Homework: Common lead problems. Do this exercise at home for Thursday.
Identify the problems and write corrected versions of the leads in Harrower ex. 3.2.2. Don't e-mail the results, just type up the leads and put them on your H drive or flash drive for discussion in class.

Third week (Sept.15-21)

Review qualities of news and news jargon reminders in the online workbook. No need to turn the first one in unless you are absent from Sept. 15 class. For the second one, if you are absent, just submit a page with definitions of the terms, or the completed crossword. (I'd suggest the jargon flashcards, but the program the publisher's website uses doesn't run properly on my laptop. Maybe you'll have more luck. (I haven't tried them with Internet Explorer.)
Discuss the value of the AP Stylebook as a tool for writers, editors and people writing questions for "Jeopardy."
("Alex, The question is, 'Should that TV show title be in quotation marks?'")
Why sticking to a technical stylebook is important:
Fact-checking and accuracy, consistency and correctness, professional practice and tradition.
Homework for Thursday: Browse more sections of the stylebook to prepare for Stylebook Jeopardy.

Second week (Sept.8-10)

Introduction to "newsworthiness elements" or "news values": what editors think readers are looking for (why you picked certain "morgue" stories). Ref: "What is news?" and "What readers want" in Harrower, Chapter 2.
Some journalism vocabulary and "How the newsroom works."
Chris Carter's introduction to the Mac Lab and School of Communication website's facilities and equipment page.
Tour of other parts of the school website -- announcements, course listings, faculty pages and more.
Review Chapter 2's "Test yourself" page.
Preview of Chapter 3: leads, styles, word choice, sentence and paragraph lengths.
Weekend homework: Read Ch.3; do test questions 1-5, pp. 62-63. Familiarize yourself with the AP Stylebook
Grammar quiz reminder (see pages 54-55, 58-59 for some tips). Two sites with more grammar help:
- Newsroom 101
- CCC Grammar Guide.

First week (Sept.1-3):

Introductions, the syllabus, the book and its website. What to look for in Chapter 1: Journalism's purpose, importance, history, people and folklore.