News
Reporting and Writing
Student Course Materials
Centers for Independent Learning
©2006
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Course
Information Sheet |
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Student
Course Materials |
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Calendar |
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Catalog
Description Including Prerequisites
Course
Goals & Expected Student Outcomes.
Satisfactory/Fail
(S/F) Grade Option
Plagiarism/Academic
Dishonesty Policy
Unit
1: Introduction to the Ingredients and Criteria for News Writing
Unit
2: Source Development for Researching and Writing News
Unit
3: Researching Public Records Laws for News Writing
Unit
4: Gathering Facts and Writing News Story Angles
Unit
5: Reporting and Writing About Accidents and Disasters
Unit
6: Introduction to the Associated Press Style in Standard News Writing
Unit
7: Covering Speeches, Meetings and News Conferences
Unit
8: Preparing for Specialty Beats: Localizing News
Unit
9: Preparing for Local Government Budget Coverage
Unit
10: Developing Specialty Beats in Sports and Business
Unit
11: Reporter Feelings and Observations in News Development
Unit
12: Understanding Police and Court Reporting
Unit
13: Developing the Multi-Source Story in Obituary Writing
Unit
14: Press Freedom and Libel Law
Unit
15: Media Ethics in News Gathering
Notes:
JOURNALISM AND
MASS COMMUNICATION 1105
News Reporting and Writing
3 credit hours
Develops basic journalistic skills in reporting and writing news stories.
Includes form and organization of news stories, leads, reporting of speeches
and meetings, interviews, news gathering simulations and live exercises. Uses
Internet, CD, word processing and other reporting resource technologies for
assignments. Prerequisites: None.
News reporting and writing includes the techniques of news gathering, reporting and interviewing; the use of library and online database research methods and other related skills. Students write basic stories under real time constraints. On successful completion of the course, students will be able to: (1) write clear, concise, accurate, complete, balanced and readable news stories; (2) define what constitutes news and how news stories differ from features and opinion pieces; (3) effectively apply research skills for writing news stories; (4) write effective leads; (5) write a variety of types of news stories; (6) gather and write news in an ethical manner and apply the laws governing journalists; (7) demonstrate knowledge of AP stylebook rules; and (8)write under deadline pressure.
Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to do the following:
1. Apply skills in writing clear, concise, accurate, complete, balanced and readable news stories, according to standard newswriting guidelines
2. Apply journalistic questioning techniques while conducting interviews with news sources
3. Demonstrate basic journalistic skills to news lead writing
4. Apply basic news style to lead writing
5. Demonstrate introductory skills in electronic copy preparation through standard word processing and page layout systems
6. Define the elements of news and how news differs from features, opinion pieces, and other forms of journalistic writing
7. Apply journalistic research skills to write publishable balanced and multi-sourced news stories
8. Compose a variety of news story types, including government meetings, speech coverage, local government budgets, police news, interviews, live events, and surveys
9. Compose assignments under deadline pressure
10. Demonstrate knowledge of Associated Press stylebook rules as applied to print journalism style
11. Demonstrate an understanding of the laws and ethics of newswriting
News Reporting and Writing, 10th Edition, Mencher, Melvin. Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2006 (Packaged with NRW Plus Student CD-ROM and Brush UP: A Quick Guide to Writing and Math Skills CD-ROM.)
ISBN
– 0072981059. Order from efollett.com online or the
Student Course Materials, Library video and audio tapes.
Students
are strongly encouraged to register their e-mail addresses with
Videotapes for this
course are available at the
The student works independently with the instructor via e-mail, phone and private appointment, per student request.
None required for this course. You may arrange for an individualized orientation by contacting the instructor during scheduled office hours as noted on the Course Information Sheet. It is helpful if you read through your packet first and then call or email with specific questions.
Assignments
To assess your
skills and knowledge, you will be required to submit unit activities listed in
the Course Handbook. All assignments must be e-mailed from the official
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Unit
Number |
Assignment |
Point Value |
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1A 1B |
· News value identification · Attribution analysis |
10 10 |
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2A |
· Classic knowledge quiz |
10 |
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3A 3B |
· Summary of Sunshine laws · Annotated list of official sources & thesis for story on higher education |
10 10 |
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4A |
· Develop 25 different news leads based on “Covering Chiapas” video |
10 |
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5A 5B |
· News coverage analysis of “When Evil Struck” CD · Develop news story of “Operation Thunderbolt” |
10 10 |
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6A |
· You Be the Reporter · AP style exercises
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10 10 |
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7A |
· Covering Speeches |
10 |
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8A |
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