Week 1
M 4/07:
Introduction to course/syllabus

W 4/09:
Class activity/discussion: What IS news?

F 4/11:
Elements of a Basic News Story: Inverted Pyramid
Brainstorming – story ideas

Readings and Assignments:
M 4/07:
Read Working with Words (WW): Ch. 11
Read Harrower: Ch. 3 and 4

W 4/09:
HW: Establish a blogger account at blogger.com. E-mail Ms. Kopinski the url ASAP!

F 4/11:
Read WW: Ch. 14

HW: Story 1 assigned DUE 4/25

Using one of the five story ideas you brainstormed for, write a story in inverted pyramid style.
The story should be hard news. For this assignment, soft news will not be accepted.
Your story MUST have all of the necessary components of a hard news story. The story must be AT LEAST 500 words long and contain a minimum of three interviewed quoted sources.
These quotes should be taken from interviews you conducted one on one. Face to face interviewing is preferred over e-mail interviews.

Remember, your target audience includes the following Clark County, Vancouver, and/or Clark College. Do not pick a topic that will not allow you to conduct face to face interviews.

HW: Web Log #1 posted by 11:59 p.m. 4/18:
Find one story in either the Oregonian or the Columbian. Identify why the story is newsworthy using the qualities of news. Be sure to include some vital information:
1. the date the story ran
2. which newspaper the story ran in
3. which section of the newspaper (the A section, Metro section, etc.)

*Reminder - if you have not e-mailed your blogger url to Ms. Kopinski, please do so ASAP!

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Week 2
M 4/14:
New Quiz #1
Finding a news story and writing the basic news story

W 4/16:
writing the basic news story con't

F 4/18:
Collecting information

Readings and Assignments:
M 4/14:
Read Harrower: Ch. 5 & 6
HW: Watch the local news (2,6,8) at 6 or 11. List all of the news stories being reported during that entire newscast. Bring the complete assignment to class on Wednesday.

W 4/16:

F 4/18:
Complete your second blog. Be sure to read writing good leads and bad leads in your Working with Words book. From there, read the Columbian or Oregonian. Identify one well-written lead and one poorly written lead. Provide each lead you are critiquing through a link to the story or re-type the lead in the text box for your blog. Be sure that when you critique the lead you provide sound reasoning for your opinions.

This is DUE by 11:59 p.m. 4/25.

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Week 3
M 4/21:
News Quiz #2
Interviewing

W 4/23:
Interviewing

F 4/25:
DUE - Story 1
Tying up loose ends - Interviewing and taking notes

Readings & Assignments:
M 4/21:



W 4/23:
Read Harrower: Ch. 2

F 4/25:
Blog 3
HW: Blog 3
Listen to the news on NPR by 11:59 p.m. 5/2 answer these questions after listening to the news on NPR:
1. How are quotes used in the newspieces? (Briefly explain, provide links if you can)
2. What kinds of quotes are used in the newspiece? (Are they eloborate, descriptive or what is that something extra the quotes add to the story)

The preferred program for this assignment is Morning Edition. Follow the link below for the OPB weekly schedule.
http://www.opb.org/radio/?mode=schedule
The link below will take you to the Morning Edition Web site, complete with links to the days stories.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3

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Week 4
M 4/28:
News quiz #3
Leads

W 4/30:
Grammar, Usage and AP Style
Common usage mistakes

F 5/02:
Tying up loose ends - Leads and Nut Graphs

Readings & Assignments:
M 4/28:
Register at the Bedford's St. Matrin's Grammar Quizzes Web site.

HW: Stories 2a and b assigned - DUE 5/12 for workshopping

Using one of the five story ideas you brainstormed for, write a story in inverted pyramid style and use that same topic to write a version in narrative style.
Each story should be hard news. For this assignment, soft news will not be accepted.
Each story MUST have all of the necessary components of a hard news story. Each must be AT LEAST 500 words long and contain a minimum of three quoted sources.
These quotes should be taken from interviews you conducted one on one. Face to face interviewing is preferred over e-mail interviews.

Remember, your target audience includes the following Clark County, Vancouver, and/or Clark College. Do not pick a topic that will not allow you to conduct face to face interviews.

If you have 5 or more grammatical/AP Stylebook errors, I will stop grading and you will automatically have to rewrite your story. Each student has ample resources available through your text books and reading the newspapers everyday to have a college level final story handed in.

Read Online Sources:
Narrative I: Newswriting
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=49550

Narrative II: Features
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=49904

Narrative III: What is it anyway?
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=50255

W 4/30:
HW: Story 1 correction log and rewrite

Each student must hand in all drafts of the news story, the rewritten story and the the log of mistakes, rules broken with the correct rule written out (include the text the rule was found and what page it was found on) along with an explanation of why the rule was broken.

The revised story and log of mistakes/rules will be graded and the two scores will be averaged together. This will result in a new grade for story one. If one component is missing, there will be no new grade earned.

There will not be any late corrections accepted. No exceptions. DUE 5/02

F 5/02:
BLOG 4:
Comment on two different blog entries from your class. Due Friday 5/9 by 11:59 p.m.

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Week 5 - Mid Term Week
M 5/05:
Class cancelled - if you are enrolled in College Newspaper Class, this class is NOT cancelled. Attendance is required.

W 5/07:
News quiz #4
Endings

F 5/09:
Middles of stories

Readings & Assignments:
M 5/05:
HW: Go through today's Oregonian and Columbian. Pick 2 differnet stories from each news section that uses a different technique for ending the story. Circle those endings and bring the newspapers to class on Wednesday for discussion.

Be sure that you are caught up on all of your reading assignments in all of your text books.

W 5/07:
Read this feature story by TBA.
Read SPT Feature Story

F 5/09:
Complete the following quiz by Monday, 5/12: Missing Comma - Introductory Element AP 211: Puncuating Adverb Clauses at Bedford's St. Matrin's Grammar Quizzes Web site

Blog 5 - DUE 5/16 by 11:59 p.m.
During the week of 5/09 to 5/15 keep a media log of the election coverage you comsume. Particularlly the media coverage regardign the canidates stances on key issue like health care, education, retirement (social security, 401K), Iraq, immigration, etc. Bring your observation and analysis to class on 5/19 and be ready to discuss your findings.

DUE: Story 1 correction log and rewrite 2

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Week 6
M 5/12:
News quiz #5
DUE 2a & b workshopping assigned 4/30 refer to this assignment entry for 2a & 2b directions

W 5/14:
Feature Writing
Story Structure & Storytelling




F 5/16:
Story Structure & Storytelling

Readings & Assignments:
M 5/12:
Workshop Worksheet

For this week read: Harrower ch.1 and 8

W 5/15:
DUE: Stories 2a and 2b rewrite after workshopping.
Feature Story assigned
Feature Story Assignment Sheet
HW: Have your first feature story draft ready to turn in on 5/28.

F 5/16:
BLOG 6 - Due 5/23 by 11:59 p.m.
Read Oregon Moms. Identify this story has soft or hard news. Answer the following questions:
1. Identify the elements of the story that helped you conclude the story was hard vs soft.
2. Was there a clear bias in the story? How did you know?

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Week 7
M 5/19:
News quiz #6

W 5/21:
Web Journalism




F 5/23:
Journalism v. Public Realtions

Readings & Assignments:
M 5/19:
Read Harrower Ch 10
HW: Using your Harrower text (page 161) and any centerpiece story on any newspaper Web site - you can find links to a variety of newspapers on the links page of this Web site - fill out the blanks and answer the questions on a separate sheet of paper. Have these typed and bring them to class on Friday.

W 5/21:

F 5/23:
BLOG 7
Using your Harrower text (page 161) and any centerpiece story on any newspaper Web site - you can find links to a variety of newspapers on the links page of this Web site - fill out the blanks and answer the questions on a your blog. This is DUE by 5/30 at 11:59 p.m.

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Week 8
M 5/26:
Memorial Day - No Class

W 5/28:
News quiz #7
Media Law


F 5/30:
Media Law and Ethics

Readings & Assignments:
M 5/26:


W 5/28:
Feature Story draft 1 DUE
HW - Story 2a & b rewrite and correction log

F 5/30:
Read Harrower Ch 7

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Week 9
M 06/02 :
Media Law and Ethics con't

W 06/04:

F 06/06:
Study Guide hand put in class

Readings & Assignments:
M 06/02 :
Rewrite of StoryA and B DUE

W 06/04:

F 06/06:
Feature story draft 2 DUE
Last day to post late blogs. All blogs must be labelled completely and posted by 11:59 p.m. to be counted for your grade.

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Week 10
M 06/09:
Study Session for final

W 06/11:
Final Project - DAY 1

F 06/13:
Final Project - DAY 2
Meet in PUB 255

Readings & Assignments:
M 06/09:

W 06/11:
Final Project Research Packet


F 06/13:
Final project is DUE at the end of class!

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Finals
W 06/18:
Sect. A in JSH 116
8 – 9:50 a.m.

SYLLABUS AND CALENDAR ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT INSTRUCTOR'S DISCRETION.

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