Continue reading »]]> It’s our last week of regular classes! Next week, we move into workshop days for your final portfolio preparations…so let’s make our last week count.

We’ll spend this week discussing writing for the Web. We’ve integrated these issues into our class all along, I think, but we will spend some time specifically examining how you might develop and write for online media projects, such as multimedia news packages or traffic-generating blog posts.

In our first couple of classes this week, we’ll look at multimedia news packages and consider the many ways we can tell stories online beyond just text. Here are some items we’ll use in class:

Activity:
Anatomy of Multimedia News

Examples:

• Washington Post: Traumatic Brain Injury
• Los Angeles Times: California Budget Balancer
• San Jose Mercury News: Torn Apart
• Global Post: The Drone Wars
• ProPublica: Fracking
• New York Times: The Maestro’s Mojo
• Los Angeles Times: pop.u.LA.tion
• The Guardian: London 2012 Olympics

Resource:
Multimedia Possibilities

Later in the week, we’ll discuss shorter forms of writing – like blog posts – and how to best write them to bring in readers and convey information efficiently. And, finally, we’ll address our last grammar topics. You know you want to watch Passive Pete again.

Added 5/9 for class on 5/10: Passive vs. Active Voice Quiz; Word Placement Activity

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We’ll experiment this week with writing for broadcast media, specifically news. There are a few key differences between writing for print and for broadcast that we’ll want to highlight. We’ll end our work in this area with an activity that will let you experience firsthand what it’s like to read the news during a broadcast.

We’ll get started by analyzing a broadcast story from CNN.

This week, we’ll also use these links (yep, some of them are coming back again!):

• Inverted Pyramid Story 1
• Broadcast Story Drafts Google Doc
• Summary Lead Writing Activity

Added 5/2 for class on 5/3: colon quiz and dangling modifier quiz.

Continue reading »]]> This week, we’ll continue talking about different types of PR writing, including email story pitches and fact sheets.

If you haven’t watched the video below (also linked on the syllabus), you might like to check it out to see the journalist’s perspective on receiving story pitches from PR folks.

We’ll also talk about commas and essential/nonessential clauses on Wednesday of this week. Yay grammar! Here’s a great preview of that topic. As a Texas Longhorn, I hesitate to praise something produced by Texas A&M Aggies…but I have to admit that this is a good explanation.

Finally, Thursday will be a workshop day for you to ask questions about your email pitch and fact sheet drafts, get classmates’ comments if you wish, and then revise the assignments during class time.

Here’s to another great week of #mscm175!

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This week we’ll start studying the purposes and processes of public relations writing. During our unit on this style of writing, you’ll produce two press releases, an email story pitch and a fact sheet. These basic PR skills will be useful in a variety of positions that you might pursue, and will also give you a good foundation if you choose to take the PR Writing course in future.

In class this week, we’ll use these two items:

• PR Newswire
• Anatomy of a Press Release assignment (used for discussion during class)

We’re also going to cover another grammar topic this week (apostrophes and possessives, woo-hoo!) and do a peer review workshop for your resume drafts.

Its/It’s Quiz

Possessives Quiz

Looking forward to another great week!

Continue reading »]]> This week, you’ll complete the first draft of your profile story and have it reviewed by two classmates. The copy you bring on Tuesday for the peer review is only seen by you and your peer reviewers…but the closer the story is to completion, the more useful the feedback you receive will be. Please bring a draft reflecting as much progress as possible.

Here’s a checklist of important points to remember as you write and revise your story. I expect you to use the checklist – which summarizes errors that students consistently make in drafting this kind of story – before you turn in the first graded copy of your story to me, and to have corrected all of the items on the list.

Check out these stacks of resumes! How will yours stand out?

We’ll also be discussing resumes this week. You need to have a correctly formatted, well-written, updated intriguing resume on hand at all times! In our field, you never know when an opportunity might present itself, and you want to be ready to respond immediately.

Finally, Thursday will be a grammar day, covering subject-verb agreement. Check out the crazy flowchart below for a preview — and consider sticking a copy on a bulletin board near your computer! This area of grammar was also one of the most problematic on your diagnostic test at the start of the semester, and so we’ll spend some time clarifying it. **UPDATE 4/11: I found one small error in the chart; for “number, majority, total,” the next question should read “is it preceded by the or a?” rather than “followed.” Drat! I’ve corrected the current version on Scribd.**

Subject-Verb Agreement Chart

Continue reading »]]> We’re starting to work on your next project this week: the profile story. We discussed it a bit before Spring Break, but now it’s time to really get going!

This week, we’ll talk about some key aspects of the longer story you’ll be writing, including structure, descriptive detail and voice. I think you’ll find these activities fun. We’ll also look at how you can sell this story to a publication or website if you wish.

I’m excited about working with all of you to tell more in-depth stories that you are personally interested in! More and more we talk about “storytelling” as a concept relevant to all kinds of work and careers, so thinking about how to best tell a story is an important task for you.

The Evolution of Storytelling from Maria Popova on Vimeo.

Continue reading »]]> This week, we’ll spend a fair bit of time on grammar, but will also cover some of the information you need as you prepare for the profile article assignment, which we’ll begin right after Spring Break.

We’ll watch this “Colbert Report” interview as a fun way of getting into our discussion of interviewing:

For homework on Tuesday night, you’ll read three of the stories below (your choice) and complete the Anatomy of a Profile Story assignment. Be prepared to discuss your findings in class.

• After Hardship and Homelessness, National Science Fair Honors
• Into the Light
• Meet the Man Who Lives on Zero Dollars
• Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World
• David Graeber, the Anti-Leader of Occupy Wall Street
• Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan: The Story Behind the Photograph that Shamed America
• The Genius Who Lives Downstairs
• A Woman’s Place
• The Prettiest Boy in the World
• The Lonesome Independence Day of Kobayashi, Eater In Exile
• Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

And because I’m sure you want to spend more time with fun grammar, here’s a (cheesy but good) video on parallel construction for a quick review:

Let’s have a great week…and then we’ll have Spring Break!

Continue reading »]]> This is one of our catchall weeks. We’ll recover briefly after finishing our busy unit on newswriting, and cover some additional topics that will shape your writing for the remainder of the semester.

First this week, we’ll discuss libel and ethics, which will likely be a review for many of you in terms of the principles we discuss — but we need to see how these principles play out in practice and within our writing choices. We’ll also consider the role of bias and stereotypes in media, including the TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie below. I think Adichie’s talk and the satirical reading you’re assigned (“How to Write About Africa”) are also relevant to a certain social media campaign you may have heard about…

We’ll discuss another grammar topic this week. After all, what is a sentence, anyway?

Finally, on Thursday, we’ll get the chance to do the interview and speed-writing activity we had to reschedule from last week. Be ready to write quickly!

And, for a laugh: here’s one of my favorite stereotype-highlighting photo projects ever. Enjoy.

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Image by Tjo3ya in the Wikimedia Commons.

This week we’ll have our first “official” grammar day and take a good, hard look at pronouns. What are they and what do they do for us? It may have been a while since you asked those questions. This topic will be one of the first we’ll examine together based on the results of your diagnostic test in January. We’ll use this site in class to work through some exercises together.

On Tuesday, we’ll use a wiki to combat one of the challenges students sometimes face in doing research: moving beyond Wikipedia to find more sources of information for media projects.

On Wednesday, we’ll test your on-deadline writing skills with an in-class newswriting activity. Sharpen your pencils (well, warm up your fingers) for some speedy writing.

On Thursday, you’ll stay cozy in your pajamas and do the online NewsU course “Sources, Verification and Credibility” while I travel to the Southeast Colloquium of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication at Virginia Tech. I know you’ll miss me terribly, but I’ll at least ensure you have an educational experience in my absence.