English 151: Media Journal Part Two
News Reporting & Writing Students: For this journal, pick one story that has been covered in multiple media outlets, and check/compare factual assertions, context, and overall quality of coverage between two separate sources. Write two entries about these sources, with at least one paragraph of summary and at least one paragraph of response in each entry, and finish the assignment with at least one full paragraph of overall concluding thoughts. Demonstrate course concepts and journalism knowledge from class throughout.
DUE for posting by class time, WEEK NINE, Day One (10/18).
Ledes
Feel free to post your favorite lede-of-the-day here, along with this handout of sample ledes.
Basic News Writing Tips
Using these tips, develop your reporting plan into a lede and then a full story.
News Writing Criteria
News Reporting & Writing and English 153 work with the following criteria to guide assessment, evaluation, improvement, and grading of the basic journalistic news pieces we write in the class.
● NEWS VALUE
● FORM
● REPORTING
● WRITING QUALITY
● CLEAN COPY
Reporting Plan & Checklist
Download a Reporting Plan & Checklist document to chart and piece together your ideas for a piece of journalism.
Guest Speaker Preparation & Schedule
Get ready for the Fall 2010 guest-speaker lineup.
English 151: Media Journal Part One
News Reporting & Writing Students: Post your first Media Journal per "Online Writing" syllabus instructions. See also a description of the Media Journal assignment on the syllabus, and refer to the student sample handed out in class.
DUE for posting by class time, WEEK FOUR, Day Two (9/15).
On Wikipedia
Here are just a few more reasons to go beyond the popular reference site and instead do some Truman library database research...
...from beloved "fake" TV pundit Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report via YouTube...
Media Concepts & Questions
Consider the following Media Concepts and Questions handout while reviewing the news for upcoming class discussions and writing.
International News Sites
Feel free to post your favorite links to international English-language news sites, in addition to those listed here.
Al-Ahram Weekly
Al-Jazeera
All Africa
Asia Times
The Associated Press
British Broadcasting Service
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
China Daily
Gulf Daily News
Iran Focus News
The Jerusalem Post
The Jordan Times
Kyodo News Service, Japan
Nigerian News
What can you do with writing?
This English 151 handout tries to define journalism as a distinct kind of writing, while dealing also with the challenge of what you can do with writing as a profession.
What is plagiarism?
This brief article from The Chronicle of Higher Education reviews the basics of recognizing and avoiding plagiarism.
SYLLABUS: ENGLISH 151-C (News R&W)
Welcome to News Reporting & Writing for FALL 2010!
Download the English 151-C Syllabus in PDF format.