JOUR 3410 News Writing and Reporting (Lab Section)

Spring 2010

Instructor: Geoffrey Graybeal, Grady College, Room 208-B

E-mail: graybs@uga.edu

Skype: graybs13

Twitter: @graybs13

Wave: geoffrey.graybeal@googlewave.com

Office Hours: Before and after class, and by appointment. Other set times will be announced over the listserv.

Public Class blog sites:

*www.speechatuga.blogspot.com (Speech stories go here)

*www.athensteens.blogspot.com (aThEENs stories go here)

*Beat blogs (you are responsible for creation and maintenance)

*We will also have a private class blog site on blogger and use eLc*

Class webpage: graybs.myweb.uga.edu (syllabus is located here)

Grady’s online news space: GradyJournal.com (select stories may go here)

Class Location: 241 Journalism Building

Wednesdays 1:25-3:20

Notice of changes: This course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.

UGA Undergraduate Bulletin Course Description: Techniques of basic news reporting and writing and an introduction to advanced practices, with practical assignments in the media.

Course Objectives: The weekly lab is to teach students Associated Press rules and to give practice in writing journalism, including leads and story writing.

Evaluations: Course evaluations will be done online at the end of the semester at

eval.franklin.uga.edu .

Texts

This course will use the following textbooks:

1. Writing and Reporting the News: A Coaching Method, ^6th ed. Carole Rich

2. Associated Press Stylebook (the newer the better)

3. Be the Media. David Mathison (This will be given to you in Lab; compliments of a Harnisch Foundation grant; you do NOT need to buy)

You are also expected to be well read on current events. You should regularly read the campus newspaper, and the Athens and Atlanta newspapers at a minimum. Reading the New York Times and Wall Street Journal is highly encouraged.

ABOUT MY LAB

Journalism is changing, and this Lab will change along with it.  In addition to learning the basics of how to write a traditional news article, we will blog, tweet, Wave and who knows what else.  Discussion, experimentation and use of social media and online tools will play a prominent role in this Lab. Merely writing and reporting the news is no longer sufficient.  You will be expected to build a following, engage with your audience, promote your work and yourself, and experiment with new forms of journalism and storytelling.  In many instances, this will be a collaborative process.    

POLICIES

Attendance and tardiness

Attendance is expected. There will be occasional pop quizzes about current events and AP style and lots of in-class assignments. This is a writing lab, so naturally, you will be expected to write. There will be NO MAKE-UPS of these assignments. If you miss class, you will receive a zero for the assignment, however, your lowest in-class work grade at the end of the semester will be dropped (so in essence you get one free “miss”). You are expected to arrive on time. Students who arrive after the start of a quiz or exercise may be asked to wait in the hall until it is over. All absences are considered unexcused and will cost you a zero for work in that lab. Extraordinary cases (such as a serious illness accompanied by a doctor’s note or a death in the family accompanied by an obituary) will be considered, but being “sick” doesn't count. Save it for a miss. Missing more than 3 Labs will result in automatic F in lab.

GRADING

Grades are NOT negotiable. Grades are my subjective interpretation of your performance of the assignments and are final. Your papers are graded using objective measures, such as subtraction of points for style, punctuation, grammar and writing quality as well as subjective measures. Assignments with multiple spelling and grammar errors will be devalued. You will be given a letter grade on graded written assignments. Plus and minuses may also be used. Your grades will be based on your performance on “canned” activities and on “live” assignments. “Live” assignments count more than “canned” activities and assignments later in the semester count more than those at the beginning. Only extra credit assignments specified by the instructor can alter your final grade (see below). A rough estimate of grading percentages:

AP Quizzes 10%

Canned activities 20%

Live activities 65%

-25% Beat blogging (beat profile, beat blogs and blog edits and participation)

-20% teen story (5% first draft; 10% 2nd draft; 5% peer evaluation)

-10% Social networking story

-10% Speech story

Overall Class Participation 5%

Fact Error(s) and Grades: Any graded story assignment written in Associated Press style that contains a fact error or errors will lose 20 percent per error. Common fact errors are found in names, addresses, ages, quotes and narration. Be certain to proofread your copy carefully before you turn it in to me.

Grading Criteria for Journalism Writing: Grades for story assignments using Associated Press style will be awarded according to these standards (see Grading Scale below):

A. Copy is publishable as is. No fact error and copy meets deadline.

B. Copy needs minor editing and meets deadline. No fact error.

C Copy needs close editing but meets deadline.

D Copy needs heavy editing but meets deadline.

F Copy has three fact error(s) and/or misses deadline.

Extra Credit

You can earn up to 5 percent extra credit on your final grade by participating in research projects and/or other extra credit opportunities announced by the instructor throughout the semester. Extra credit points will also be given for class work which is published in a professionally edited newspaper, news website or magazine.

Academic Honesty

All academic work must meet the standards contained in “A Culture of Honesty” at

http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/academic_honesty/sect05.htm. Each student is responsible to inform themselves about those standards before performing any academic work.

Disability policy

The University of Georgia is committed to providing equal educational opportunities for qualified students with disabilities in accordance with state and federal laws including the American Disabilities Act. Help for disabled students is available from the Disability Resource Center. More information is available at http://www.dissvcs.uga.edu/

Requirements

*Bring your AP stylebook and text book to every lab meeting. Sometimes we'll use the text and often we'll need stylebooks

*Check your email, eLc, class blog, and the class website daily for assignments and class news.

Assignments

I accept work only in typed form unless you are told otherwise. No chicken scratch, last-minute offerings. Assignments should be typed, double-spaced and use 12-point Times New Roman font. Late work is never accepted, so don't even ask. It goes down as a zero. Not in class that day? Zero for that work. Never email me assignments unless I request it.  Some assignments are also expected to be posted to the class blog.

Speech stories should be posted to your blog by 10 a.m. the day after the event. Do not start writing speech stories until after we’ve discussed speech stories in class.

Homework assignments will be announced in class and are due at the START of the following class period. All “live” assignments are due at the date and time specified.

Other announcements and assignments may be made over the class listserv.

Assignments are divided into two groups: “canned” assignments (workbook exercises, in-class writings, weekly homework assignments, pop quizzes, etc.) “Live” assignments are the articles written outside of class in the “real” world where you talk with real people.

These “live” assignments include:

1 Speech story

1 Beat Profile story

1 Social Networking Story
1 Teen Section Story and Revision (w/ partner)

*Beat Blogging

Optional Multimedia piece (for extra credit)

Beat blogging

You will be expected to choose a news beat and become a beat blogger. You are expected to create a blog for your beat. You are expected to regularly follow news pertaining to your beat, to generate story ideas from your beat, to regularly write blog posts about your beat and to search, find, identify and describe other blogs pertaining to your beat topic (in essence, to be a “blog editor“) on a weekly basis. You are expected to write a 500-word profile on a person on your beat.

Teen story

You and a classmate will write a news story about and for Athens area teenagers. The final revised versions of these will be posted to aThEENs.

Social media toolbox

You are expected to have an account on and use the following:

-Twitter (follow me on @graybs13; also follow @atheens)

-Facebook

-Blogger (speechatuga; aThEENs; class blog)

-Grady Journal (you will be given an account)

-eLc

-Google Wave (I will send you an invite)

-class listserv (jour3410gg@listserv.uga.edu)

-Other sites may be announced

About speech stories

Speech stories are due by 10 a.m. the day after the event. If it is a Friday event, then due Monday.

The blog page is

http://speechatuga.blogspot.com
(You must have a blogger account.) You will upload some of your speech stories to our Speech at UGA site. Snapping a pic or adding art is a plus.

Do not do these until I start the clock.

Grady Journal

Select assignments will be posted on GradyJournal.com. This will be discussed in greater detail in class later in the semester.

DO NOT EMAIL ME STORIES. HARD COPIES ONLY ARE ACCEPTED. IF YOU CAN'T GET THEM TO ME, THEY DON'T COUNT. Understand that sometimes you go to a story and it craps out. That's to be expected. Go to another.

DO NOT email me assignments.
Hard copies only. Also post to appropriate blog.

Always keep a copy of your assignment. Sometimes I lose stuff.

Never mention the words “Hope Scholarship” to me.

Schedule

Just like in traditional journalism, some stories and assignments are planned in advance. Other stories, however, are spontaneous. In daily journalism, you don’t always know what you will be writing about when you walk into work. Thus, to simulate a real-life newsroom environment in the lab, not all activities will be announced in advance. A partial schedule and story deadlines are posted below.

2010 Spring Weekly Work Calendar for the JOUR 3410 Lab_Graybeal

Week #1 (1/13).Introduction to the Lab

2(1/20). Lead Writing/Story Ideation

3 (1/27). Profiles/Specialized Coverage

4 (2/3). Editing/Athens Teens Overview

5 (2/10). Writing and Reviewing Stories: COVERING SPEECHES

6 (2/17). Writing and Reviewing Stories: SOCIAL NETWORKING

7. (2/24) Writing and Reviewing Stories TEEN STORY BUDGET DUE

8. (3/3) Writing and Reviewing Stories: CLASSMATE PROFILES DUE;  Midpoint Review

SPRING BREAK

9 (3/17). Writing and Reviewing Stories: Discuss beat blogging SOCIAL NETWORKING STORY DUE

10 (3/24) .Writing and Reviewing Stories:

TEEN STORIES Group A DUE

11 (3/31). Writing and Reviewing Stories:

TEEN STORIES Group B DUE

12 (4/7). Editing and Revision of Teen Stories

13 (4/14). TBA: Possible live Google Wave for Atheens

14 (4/21). FINAL REVISIONS of TEEN STORIES DUE; FINAL DEADLINE FOR SPEECH STORIES; BEAT PROFILE DEADLINE

15 (4/28) BEAT BLOG PRESENTATIONS IN CLASS. Summary of Lab Experience. You must attend this class.

EXAM. There is no final exam for Lab.

Grading Scale for News Writing

Here is a list of concerns:

LEADS: Problems arise when you focus on the wrong information in the lead, or the lead is boring, flat or inaccurate. Likewise, I usually want a one-sentence lead, so a lead graph with two or three sentences or longer is a problem. A delayed identification lead instead of an immediate identification lead is normally preferable.

WORDS: Journalism relies on simple and plain vocabulary, so words that are too big, as you might find in a research paper, are a problem. Keep the words short, easy to understand. Inappropriate words may surface, such as curse words or personal opinions or judgments. Don’t use these in news stories. Also, be sure to use the correct word or you open yourself to usage problems. Watch out for homonyms, words that sound the same but have different meanings.

SENTENCES: First, sentences must make sense. Be certain you are saying what you intend to say in simple words. Avoid nominalizations. Next, sentences in journalism should be short, say between 15 and 25 words. They may even be shorter, but seldom much longer. Watch for comma splices and sentence fragments, common errors due to hasty writing. Also, we normally will use active voice in story writing. Passive voice is not wrong to use and sometimes is desirable to use. But usually, write in active voice.

GRAPHS: Like sentences, paragraphs in news writing should also be short. Normally one or two sentences will fill up one inch of column space in a newspaper, so graphs that are longer will strain the reader’s eye and may result in the reader leaving your story for another one easier to read. Don’t let that happen to your reader.

If you have quoted material in your paragraph, it may go beyond two sentences, but consider three sentences, even in quoted material, long enough for one graph. If there is more to the quote, start a new graph and follow the guidelines for punctuation of attributions given by AP and/or Carole Rich’s text book.

For class assignments, paragraphs must always be indented from the left margin, and you should not have extra spaces between one graph and the next. Just double space all copy.

FACT ERRORS: Journalism writing must be accurate. A fact error damages your credibility as a news writer. Double proofread your copy for fact errors.

ATTRIBUTION: All information comes from someone or somewhere. Cite the sources for all of your writing. Follow the ample guidelines in Rich and the AP stylebook.

GRAMMAR: Clear writing is clear when it follows accepted and standard writing protocol. Know where to find answers to grammar problems. Practice writing will help you get better at grammar, but always have an up to date grammar book available. Problems in subject and verb agreement or errors in pronoun and antecedent agreement mark your writing as amateurish. Aim for professionalism.

AP STYLE: Following are items addressed in the Associated Press Stylebook:

Knowing the proper ways and places to use abbreviations, acronyms, capitalization, numerals and punctuations is essential to clear writing. There are guidelines for these things in the AP stylebook and you should be familiar with where to find the answers to your questions about these various conventions of use.

NOTE: I will weigh CONTENT over style in my final evaluation of writing.