SYLLABUS
Journalistic Inquiry
Fall 2014
Rosemary McManus Beirne
Rmb12@nyu.edu
Cell phone: 914-262-7774
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:30 to 8:20 p.m.
Sept.2-Dec. 11
Welcome to Journalistic Inquiry, a first level reporting, research and
writing course. The goal of this class is to train students in the basic
principles and practices of professional journalism.This class will
emphasize in-depth research and interviewing techniques as it
introduces a variety of journalistic forms, including the basic newspaper
inverted pyramid style of newswriting, magazine and newspaper
feature style and web-based newswriting. The course will focus on the
critical and impartial examination of issues through research and
reporting. Research methodology is key, as are observation and
interview preparation. Research and reporting projects will include
interviews, as well as off- and online research.
My office hours are Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30, before class begins. I
am also available outside of class by appointment. Please contact me by
phone, email or during class to set up an appointment
Requirements: The basic requirements for this course are as
follows:
1. You will have one weekly assignment that involves going out to
interview someone, cover an event, or write some other form of
news story such as an obituary, profile, or hard news story or
feature.
2. In-class assignments. Since this is a laboratory course, you will
have regular assignments to complete in class to assure that you
master the basics of news reporting and writing.
3. You will have news quizzes regularly, to assure that you are
keeping up with important news events happening around the
city and the nation. You are required to read The New York
Times every Tuesday, and bring a print copy to class every
Tuesday evening.
4. You will make three field trips this semester, to the 911 Memorial,
the Manhattan District Attorney’s office OR Night Court, and to the
Lower East Side Historic District. From these trips, you will have
assignments to complete that will involve reporting and writing.
5. Good attendance at class is key to doing well, since this is a course
that involves a lot of in-class practice and perfection of skills. If
you must miss class, please notify me by email or text before the
class begins. More than two absences will affect your performance
in class, and therefore your grade.
6. Deadlines are crucial to good journalism. Failure to meet your
deadlines with assignments will result in deductions from your
grade.
7. Academic integrity is essential. Any plagiarism or unauthorized
collaboration on assignments will result in a failure, and could be
grounds for failure in the course. All quotes must be original and
verifiable. That means you must have a means of contacting
anyone you quote for further clarification, or for me to verify
accuracy of quotes. If you draw from someone else’s work without
properly crediting them, you will fail that assignment.
8. Class preparation and participation are extremely important, and
will be counted toward your final grade. This will include regular
discussions of news and its coverage, both in class and online on
NYU Classes.
9. In lieu of a final examination, you will have to write a news story
based on coverage of an issue that will encompass several
interviews and coverage of an event. (Assignment discussed later
in syllabus.)
10.
Each class will begin with an exercise called What’s new,
what’s hot, what’s happening? It will be 5 minutes spent
discussing some current news events and how they are covered.
Please be prepared each class to discuss one news story you have
read and to compare coverage in two different places.
SYLLABUS
Weekly Schedule of Topics, Assignments for Class
DATE
TOPIC
ASSIGNMENT
Sept. 2:
What is News?
Read Chap. 5
3 Different Ways to
cover news story
Sept. 4:
Basics of News Style
Sept. 9:
Leads/Inverted
Pyramid
Sept. 11:
AP style.
Sept. 16:
Research Basics/Lexis-Nexis Kate Boss/6:30
Read Chaps. 3, 4.
Chaps.6,7,8. Write leads,
first grafs from sets of
facts.
AP stylebook chapter.
Sept. 18:
Interview Basics/Quotes Chaps. 9, 10; Interview
Classmate
Sept. 23:
More interview basics.
Sept. 25:
Visit to 9/11 Memorial
Sept. 30:
Go over NQD/ Good
Observation/
Oct. 2:
Obituaries/A Life Story
Interview a 9/11 survivor,
Family member/1st
responder, reporter.
Victim/survivor
Notes/Quotes/Details
NQD/Autumn in NY
Read Chap. 11
Write obituary of someone
Oct. 7:
Speeches/Meetings
Questions.
Chap. 12. Cover a meeting
Or Speech
Oct. 9:
Speech/Class Speaker
Write up notes on Speaker
NQD
-----NO CLASS OCT. 14 ----Oct. 16:
Balance/Fairness
Ex. Bias/agendas
Oct. 21:
Visit to LES Historic Dis.
Write story from visit
Oct. 23:
Specialized Stories
Chap. 13/Halloween Brite
Oct. 28:
Feature Stories
Marathon Story
Oct. 30:
Crime/Courts Reporting
Chap. 15.
Nov. 4:
Election Night in the Newsroom
Nov. 6:
Crime reporter visit
Nov. 11:
Courts Reporting
Nov. 13:
Visit to Night Court
Nov. 18:
Covering New York
Find a NY story
Nov. 20:
Covering NY: Speaker Amon
NY Transit story
Story on crime reporting
Write off visit to court
Nov. 25: 24-hour Newsroom/writing for Web/ Print.
-----NO CLASS NOV. 27 -----
Dec. 2: Libel/Fair Use/Anonymous sources Research Libel case
Dec. 4: Presentations/Libel
Dec. 9: Wrapping it up/review
Dec. 11: Final story due
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS: These assignments will vary each week.
All will involve taking notes and observing, and quoting, those
involved in the story. For the first few, you won’t write a story but
rather be prepared to file a series of Notes, Quotes and Details.
Later you will turn those notes into complete stories.
1. Notes are just that, notes about the event you’re covering.
How many people are there, who are the main speakers,
guests? Are there protestors? What’s the purpose of the event
or speech? What is the topic, focus, agenda?
2. Quotes are direct words from those you interview, and for all
your stories you should be sure that you have quotes from
enough people that you won’t have to use every single one. If
you need 4 people to make the story work, get quotes from at
least 8 people. Quotes must be accurate, and follow the
conventions of good interviewing. Also, for controversial
issues, obviously you want to make sure you get quotes on
both sides of the issue. Always get complete names, ages, and
contact information for anyone you quote. You may need to
check something before you write a story.
3. Details are the things that you observe at the event. They are
things others might not even notice, such as the girl in the
corner crying, the weather, the surroundings and whether
they have affected the event, how the speaker was dressed,
the flag pin in his lapel, the tattoo on her left arm.
FINAL ARTICLE: This exercise is designed to bring together all the
skills you have learned this semester into one cohesive news
article that will require you to
1. Do at least 3 interviews
2. use a database
3. Cover some event that relates to your topic.
The final article must be 800-1,000 words. Your aim is to get it
published on a blog, in a newspaper or magazine, or at an online
site. As such, you will employ all the basics of good journalism
that you have learned. Accuracy, fairness and balance, good
writing, and good sourcing and quotes all are important and will
be measured in determining your grade on the final.
GRADES: Your grade will be a combination of weekly
assignments, participation in class and news quizzes, and final
project. It will be calculated as follows:
Weekly Assignments: 50 percent
Quizzes/In Class Assignments: 20 percent
Final Project: 30 percent
*Required Text: Reporting for the Media, 10th Edition, by John R.
Bender, Lucinda Davenport, Michael Drager and Fred Fedler
*Please note: 10th edition is required because it contains a
chapter on the Associated Press Stylebook that is essential to
the course. Otherwise you would have to get the entire AP
Stylebook.