Beginning News Writing
Journalism 30
Fall 2012
Section 3: T 9-11:50 a.m.
Instructor: Timi Poeppelman
Office: MND 5001
Office Hours: Tuesdays Noon to 2 p.m.
Wednesdays 9-9:45 a.m.
(Wednesday office hours will discontinue after Nov. 7)
Sundays via Skype 9-10 p.m.
Skype name: timiross
e-mail: timischool@gmail.com(I check my email everyday!)
Mailbox: Communication Studies Office, MND 5014
MATERIALS REQUIRED:
Newswriting on Deadline by Tony Rogers ISBN 0-205-37798-X (bring to every class)
AP Stylebook 2012 edition (MUST BE 2012 edition)—BRING TO EVERY CLASS
ISBN: 978-0-917360-56-5
OR purchase the AP stylebook app
The Girls in the Van by Beth J. Harpaz ISBN 0-312-30271-1
The Sacramento Bee—Daily access
The State Hornet—weekly access
Californiawatch.org—read the Higher Ed blog everyday and any articles on this website
MATERIALS RECOMMENDED (but NOT required):
Reporter’s Handbook on Media Law from the California Newspaper Publishers
Association—ASIN B0006RH262
When Words Collide by Lauren Kessler & Duncan McDonald—ISBN 0-534-56208-6
Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for better writing by Mignon Fogarty
ISBN-13: 9780805088311
Cappon, R. The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation. Sixth Edition.
ISBN: 0738207853
PREREQUISITES
Journalism 20 and keyboard proficiency.
Please note that this is NOT a remedial writing course. If you feel that your writing skills
are not up to snuff, you may want to work on that BEFORE attempting this course.
YOU MAY TAKE J20 CONCURRENTLY BUT IF YOU DON’T PASS YOU’LL
RECEIVE AN INCOMPLETE IN J30.
DESCRIPTION
This will be a demanding class. Journalism is hard but rewarding work, and your success
depends on how much effort you are willing to put into it.
This is a beginning news reporting course, concentrating on the fundamentals of news
gathering and news writing, through instruction and through practice. We will focus on
reporting skills for all news media. However, emphasis is on the language and style used
in print and online and in learning how to write news stories. This course is intended to
prepare you for courses and careers in any news medium or public relations, or any
profession that requires interaction with the media.
This course teaches you to develop clear thinking and clear writing skills. There will be
an emphasis on thinking logically and quickly while analyzing data, and writing precisely
and concisely to communicate the results of that analysis. By learning to search for what
is most important or most interesting in material presented to them, beginning journalists
develop news judgment. They also develop problem-solving skills. Assignments will
progress from simple news stories to more complex news stories. They will include but
not be limited to coverage of the following: a speech or a meeting, breaking news and a
government budget.
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, you will have developed these skills:
News judgment
Use of quotes
Use of Transitions
Editing and rewriting
Research planning
Libel law awareness
Clear writing
Attribution
AP Style
Deadline Writing
Use of multiple sources
Use of Statistics
Accuracy
Listening
Interviewing
Note-taking
Current events awareness
GRADING
There are two ways your assignment or story can receive an automatic “F”:
1) If a person’s name is misspelled!
2) If you miss a deadline!
Your final grade will be determined using these criteria:
Current Event Quizzes
In-Class exercises
Interviewing assignment
Scavenger Hunt
Book Report
Final: Out-of-class articles
Web site Assignment
Twitter Assignments
Professional Conduct
AP Style quizzes
Math quizzes
11@10 points each
11@10 points each
= 110
= 110
= 100
= 100
= 100
1@50 pts & 1@75 pts
= 125
= 75
5 @ 10 pts each
= 50
= 50
5@ 10 pts each
= 50
2 @ 10 pts each
= 50
TOTAL 920 points
FORMATTING:
All assignments will be typewritten and double-spaced. Use 1” margins. Use 12-point
Times or Times New Roman. At the top, make sure to include your name, the assignment
and a slug (name) for your story. See the sample format at the end of this syllabus.
All emailed assignments MUST be sent as a PDF.
SOURCES & ETHICAL CONDUCT
In all reporting in this class, you are expected to identify yourself and what you are doing
honestly and accurately to the people who are your sources. You MUST tell them that
what you write MAY BE published. You SHOULD NOT tell them that you are just a
student doing course work that will not be published.
You may not use friends, relatives or classmates as sources for your stories, as this
constitutes an inherent conflict of interest.
Journalists are held to the highest ethical standard. To successfully perform our duty to
inform the public, we and our methods, must be above suspicion. We will abide by the
Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics for the work you do in this class.
(Again, you will be quizzed throughout the semester on the details of this code.) You can
find the SPJ Code of Ethics at www.spj.org/ethics.asp. Any ethical breaches will harm
your grade. Serious violations will result in a failing grade for the entire class.
PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism involved the copying of another’s work without attribution or citation and is
an affront to both journalism and education. The department’s policy on plagiarism
follows:
Any student guilty of plagiarism in this course will be failed for the entire course,
not just for the piece of work in which the plagiarism occurs.
Plagiarism is the use of somebody else’s material as your own in a speech, film or
research paper without giving credit to the author. It includes particularly, the following:
1. Use of somebody else’s exact wording, whatever the material, without indication
of the source and quotation marks or other accepted typographical devices.
Changing a few words here and there is not sufficient to avoid plagiarism.
2. Borrowing the whole pattern of organization and points of view of a source
without giving credit via standard in-text citation.
3. Borrowing facts, figures, or ideas that originated with and are the property of a
particular source, rather than a matter of common information available in many
sources.
4. Collaborating with other students to the extent that two or more assignments are
identical in pattern of organization, points of view or wording.
FABRICATION
Fabricating ANY part of a story will result in your failure of the course.
LAB RULES
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During class discussions, your laptop must be closed.
Please silence your cell phones and pages when in class.
NO FOOD in the lab when we have the laptops out.
Drinks MUST have lids on them and be in spill-proof containers. This means
NOTHING in paper cups.
Do not adjust computers to personal settings
Do not load programs
Do not save your work to the hard drive; your work will be erased. Save your
work to your USB card.
Please clean up after yourself.
CURRENT EVENT QUIZZES
When there is a current events quiz (check your syllabus schedule) it will ALWAYS
cover the previous 7 days of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Front page of The Sacramento Bee (doesn’t include info on jump)
Page 3 of the front section of The Sacramento Bee (doesn’t include jump)
The Front page or page 1 of the Metro section of The Sacramento Bee
The Front page of The State Hornet (doesn’t include info on jump)
The Front page of ‘section B” of The State Hornet (doesn’t include jump)
Californiawatch.org—Higher Ed blog and any Higher Ed article—check it
everyday!
The following will SOMETIMES be on the quiz:
•
•
•
AP style
SPJ ethics code
Questions from the assigned readings
AP STYLE QUIZZES
The AP Style exercises will be open-book exercises/quizzes that you will do in class and
we will grade in class—in some cases you’ll be able to work in groups on the answers.
Spend some time with the AP Style book—IT is THE BOOK with all the answers—learn
early in the semester how it’s organized, what’s in it –what’s not in it!
TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE
Aug. 28
Intro to course
sample current events quiz #1
Sept. 4
Writing Leads
Current Event Quiz #2
AP Exercise
(**Please note that class will begin at 10 a.m. on Sept. 4 and the quiz will bw given
immediately**)
Sept. 11
READ: Deadline book –pg 2-9
Math Skills
Current Event Quiz #3
Hand out Scavenger Hunt
Sept. 18
Writing Leads
AP Exercise
DUE: Scavenger Hunt
AP Style/ SPJ Ethics
Current Event Quiz #4
Sept. 25
Gathering Info
AP Exercise
In class exercise
Current Event Quiz #5
ASSIGN: Interview Assignment
Oct. 2
AP Exercise
AP Quiz #1
In class exercise
Current Event Quiz #6
Oct. 9
AP Exercise
Hand-out Book report criteria
In class exercise
Current Event Quiz #7
Oct. 16
Interviewing
AP Exercise
DUE: Interview assignment
In class exercise
Current Event Quiz #8
AP Quiz #2
Oct. 23
In class exercise
Current Event Quiz #9
Oct. 30
In class exercise
Math Quiz #1
Current Event Quiz #10
Nov. 6
AP Quiz #3
Nov. 13
No Class—work on Book Report
Nov. 14
Current Event Quiz #9
Nov. 20
DUE: Out-of class assignment #1
AP Quiz #4
Nov. 27
AP Exercise
DUE: Book Report
AP Quiz #5
Dec. 4
In class exercise
In class exercise
Current Event Quiz—#11
Dec. 11
Last day to turn in REWRITES—email them as a PDF
attachment to timischool@gmail.com by 1:30 p.m.
INFORMATION SHEET FOR INSTRUCTOR
Please complete, sign and return to the Instructor. All information will be strictly confidential.
Name: ___________________________________________________________________
(Please give your common name with pronunciation hints.)
Major: _______________________________ Class Level: __________________________
Phone: _______________________________ EMAIL: _____________________________
1. What are your reasons for taking this course?
2. What are your career objectives? Where do you hope to be in five years?
3. Is there anything I should know about you to better assist you in achieving your goals for this
course?
4. What is your background? Do you work now? Where?
5. Do you have any concerns about completing this course?
6. What grade will you be working towards?
7. What questions do you have? (Use back of sheet if needed)
I understand that I am responsible for reading and abiding by the information presented in this
syllabus.
________________________________________
Signature
_____________
Date