UWP 104C — Writing in the Professions: Journalism
Spring 2012
Week 1 WRITING AS PROCESS & ANALYZING PUBLICATIONS
Tuesday April 3
Thursday April 5
Read: Rich Part One: Understanding News
Write: 2 Journals (on freewriting and topic for the PPOP)
Draft Short Profile of a Classmate (2 digital or hard copies)
In-class exercise: Active & Passive Voice
Week 2 NEWS TIPS, REPORTING TECHNIQUES, LEADS
Tuesday April 10
Read: Rich Part Two: Collecting Info, Ch. 14 Public Relations
Write: Revised Profile of a Classmate (digital copies)
In-class Exercise: Appositives
Thursday April 12
Read: Rich Ch. 8 Leads & Nut Graphs, Ch. 19 Beat Reporting
Land “The First 100 Words”
Fimrite “Risk of Attack All about Timing”
Gelman “Over Time Gay Marriage Groundswell”
Leonhardt “Pulling Back, Echoes of 1930s”
Luo & Strom “As Rules Shift, Donor Names Remain Secret”
Scanlan “The Nut Graf, Part I”
Write: Draft of Your Perfect Page of Prose
In-class exercise: Alternative Leads for PPOP (using Land)
Workshop: Draft Perfect Page of Prose
Week 3 LEADS, NUTGRAPHS, WRITING FROM SOURCES
Tuesday April 17
Read: Rich 9 & 10 Story Organization & Forms
Writing from Sources: Journalism
Gabriel “Plagiarism Line Blurs for Students”
Brisbane “In an Age of Voices, Moving Beyond the Facts”
Lacey “Clicking on candidate.com”
Murray “Making Meaning Clear: Logic of Revision”
Write: Exploration 1(hand in on Thursday)
In-class exercise: Balance and Bias
Thursday April 19
Read: Rich Ch. 11 Storytelling
Write: Revised Perfect Page of Prose (Ongoing submissions)
In-class exercise: Review Criteria / discuss topics of your Reviews
Week 4 REVISION, REVIEWS: DESCRIPTION & PERSUASIVE DETAIL
Tuesday April 24
Read: Rich Ch. 15 Media Law and Appendix 1 Grammar and Usage
Reviews in target publication: select a model & bring 2 copies
Write: one journal entry analyzing model review (hand in Thursday)
In-class exercise: Description
Thursday April 26
Read: Rich Ch. 16 Ethics
May “Digital Age Teens Wired for Giving”
Herbert “The Man in the Room”
Johnson “Student Dances her Way to Elite”
Berger “An Undocumented Princetonian”
Nixon “Adopted from Korea and in Search of Identity”
Write: Draft Review (2 copies)
Workshop: Draft Review
Week 5 PROFILES: QUOTATION & PARAPHRASE
Tuesday May 1
Read: Rich Ch. 18 Profiles & Obituaries
Starr “Case Study [Barack Obama]”
Belluck & Rymer “Ready-Made Rockefeller”
Hildebrand “A Child of Jazz”
Cohen “Concerns Beyond Where Wild Things Are”
Vargas “The Face of Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg”
In-class exercise: Paraphrase, Quotation, Lists & Descriptions
Thursday May 3
Read: model profile(s) in target publication
Write: Draft of your profile due next week.
In-class exercise: Conciseness
Week 6 FEATURES, PITCHING IDEAS
Tuesday May 8
Read: Land “How to Offer Ideas to Magazines”
Query samples
Write: In-class exercise: Participials
Write: Draft Profile. (2 copies)
Workshop: Draft Profile
Thursday May 10
Read: Rich Ch. 24 Media Jobs and Internships
Liptak “Justices Turn Minor Movie Case to Blockbuster”
Write: Draft Query for Feature (Moved to May 17)
Workshop: Query Memo or Letter for Feature (Moved to May 17)
Week 7 MULTICULTURAL STORIES
Tuesday May 15
Guest Speaker: Oliver Jones of People Magazine
Thursday May 17
Read: Rich Ch. 17 Multicultural Sensitivity
Write: Draft Query for Feature (Moved from May 10)
Write: Revised Review
Week 8 FEATURES, ORGANIZATION
Tuesday May 22
Read: Rich Ch. 12-13 Broadcast Writing, Online Journalism
Segal “When Capitalism Meets Cannabis”
Features from target publication
Thursday May 24
Read: A feature article to be determined by the class
Write: Revised Profile
Week 9 RESEARCH & USE OF SOURCES
Tuesday May 29
Read: Henig “What Is it about 20-Somethings?”
Write: work on feature draft
In-class exercise: Dangling Modifiers
Thursday May 31
Read: Features from target publication
Write: Draft Feature (2 copies)
Workshop: Draft Feature
Week 10 REVISION AND EVALUATION
Tuesday June 5
Read: Research for Feature
Re-Read: Murray “”Making Meaning Clear: Logic of Revision”
Write: penultimate Draft Feature
In-class: write memo on status of feature draft
Thursday June 7
Read: your articles for the course
Write: Revised Query Letter & Feature
Final exam handed out
In-class writing: Course Evaluations
Final Exam at regularly scheduled exam time: Wednesday, June 13th from 8-10 am in 27 Olson. Please set multiple alarms.
