Brendan Hall visits class

Interviewing assignment

JOURN 300/Interviewing for information, meaningful content and quoteworthy quotes

Assignment: Interview a classmate about his or her home town. Get a basic feel for the city/town. For instance, how big approximately? Urban or rural? What is it known for? How do people there describe it? How is it described by outsiders?

Make it personal. Ask your subject to recall a moment he or she may recall when he/she reflected on the nature of the town. Did he or she always want to leave there? Does he/she want to go back?

Identify some QUOTEWORTHY quotes. Don’t just throw the quotes in. INTRODUCE them. Look for specific, concrete, colorful details. AVOID clichés. Think about every word. Think about the tone etc.

Spell check. Proofread. Post it on the class blog.

Example from a past class:

Moving from the Bronx to White Plains, NY at age 5, Shamique White was surprised at how small her new town was. (DOESN’T JUST SAY THE SUBJECT IS FROM WHATEVER CITY/TOWN BUT ESTABLISHES THE THEME OF THE PIECE, WHICH IS ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF MOVING FROM A BIG CITY TO A MORE SUBURBAN COMMUNITY/INTRODUCES THE FOLLOWING QUOTE.)

"I called it a ghost town," she said.(KEEP PARAGRAPHS SHORT FOR READABILITY AND IMPACT.

When she was young, White would spend her summer days playing at the park down the street from her home with other kids from her neighborhood when she was in White Plains. (CONCRETE IMAGE)

But on most weekends, sometimes for weeks at a time, White would go to the Bronx to go to church with her grandmother. (CONCRETE IMAGE)

"I went to school in White Plains, but I didn't hang out in White Plains," White says of her younger years. (MEANINGFUL QUOTE)

As she entered into middle school and then on to high school, White Plains began to grow more metropolitan. Lots of people moved from the city to her town and commuted to work in New York City, only a half hour south. Businesses also began to flourish in a downtown section that had a city-like feel. But the town still maintained some of its rural charm in certain neighborhoods. (GOOD DEMOGRAPHIC INFO PUTS THE SUBJECT’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE INTO CONTEXT.)

The kids of White Plains joined into one public high school after being in five different elementary schools and two middle schools. White made close friends in high school, where the arts and basketball and track were popular activities for students.

Even though White went back and forth between the Bronx and White Plains at first, she still calls White Plains home. (NICE ENDING, BRINGS US BACK TO THE THEME. THE PIECE HAS A NARRATIVE “ARC.”)

Visiting "The Pawn Shop - Fox Proprietors"

Visiting "The Pawn Shop - Fox Proprietors"
Free exhibit by Tim Winn and Zehra Khan runs Sept. 11- Thursday, Oct 6, 2011
Hampden Gallery, Hampden Commons, Southwest Residential Area
UMass-Amherst, MA,
(413) 545-0680

Artist Zehra Khan's website
"Pawn Shop" catalog at Blurb.com

Articles and AP Tip schedule

SEPT 7

SEPT 12
SEPT 14 Steve and Jenny

SEPT 19 Michelle W. and Brittney
SEPT 21 Nelly and Felicia

SEPT 26 Chelsea, Alex
SEPT 28 Michelle L, Tanya

OCT 3 Katie, Lacy
OCT 5 Patrick, Jared

OCT 10 NO CLASS
OCT 12 Jenny, Steve

OCT 17 Michelle W.
COT 19 Nelly

OCT 24 Felicia
OCT 26 Chelsea

OCT 31 Brittney
NOV 2 Alex

NOV 7 Michelle L
NOV 9 Tanya

NOV 14 Katie, Lacy
NOV 16 NO CLASS

NOV 21 Jenny, Steve
NOV 23 NO CLASS

NOV 28 Patrick, Jared
NOV 30 TBA

DEC 5 Watch video
DEC 7 LAST DAY

FALL 2011 Syllabus

JOURN 300 :NEWSWRITING and REPORTING, FALL 2011 -- M/W 1:25-3:30 p.m. -- DuBois 720

MARY CAREY maryelizacarey@gmail.com, 413-549-4595

Class blog: Journ300.blogspot.com

REQUIRED TEXT: Melvin Mencher, News Reporting and Writing (latest edition)

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED READING

AP Style Guide online

Daily newspapers and news magazines. Try to scan online and in print at least one of the local newspapers including the Collegian, Daily Hampshire Gazette or Springfield Republican every day. Also be aware of what’s on the front page of, for instance, the Boston Globe and New York Times. Each class, three or four people will bring in a newspaper article and comment on some aspect of the news, news coverage, style, choice of stories or contrast between coverage. Being conversant with what is in the news is essential to writing it.

GRADES

Grades are based on timely and thoughtful completion of in-class and out-of-class writing assignments and quizzes, multi-media blog, attendance and in-class participation. Writing criteria include news judgment, clarity of writing, grammar, accuracy, organization, spelling, conciseness, use of AP style, and meeting deadlines. Although the big picture things like news judgment and solid reporting are important, misspelling names and other seemingly minor shortcomings can ruin a story and your reputation, so they will count. Numerical equivalent of grades: A=95, A-=92, A-/B+ =90, B+88 etc.

ATTENDANCE

Not making appointments or missing the action will also undermine your career and the class. You MUST tell me BEFORE class if you are going to be absent and it has to be a legitimate excuse. (I read my e-mail regularly and have a phone message machine at home.) Otherwise you will receive zeroes for the day’s assignments. Please do not be late or leave early. More than three absences and/or repeatedly being late or leaving early will result in a significantly lowered final grade, with the grade being lowered by a full half grade for each absence over three.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

In-class writing assignments usually won’t be longer than 2-3 typewritten pages. Most major assignments are 1,000 words or 4 pages. First drafts must be in turned in on-time for credit. Not turning in a first draft or turning in an insufficiently complete first draft will result in a zero for the first draft and a significantly lower final draft grade. Among your assignments are a profile (counts for 15 percent of final grade), feature (15 percent), coverage of a speech (10 percent), issue piece (20 percent) and review (10 percent), minor papers, including first drafts (10 percent), blog (10 percent), participation/homework, worksheets and quizzes etc (10 percent).

HONESTY

There’s no excuse for any dishonest use of material. Any instance of plagiarism or any other form of cheating is ground for course failure.

Journ 300 blogging assignment/FALL 2011

Journalism 300 blog assignment/FALL 2011/ M-W 1:25-3:30 pm/DuBois 720

We'll do the blogs in pairs and there will be time to work on them in the computer lab. Midway through and at the end of the semester, the blog pairs will do a presentation on the blogs, projecting them on the screen in the computer room. Class members are expected to post constructive comments on the blogs.

Using Blogger or other blog-publishing service, start a blog that can function like a website with a

I) HOME PAGE

1) Should briefly describe the blog and 2) Have links or tabs to the following pages:

II) PAGES

1) List of EVENTS of interest to journalism students in the UMass area. The class may attend one or more of these, if possible. Each entry should include the following information 1) speaker/presenter 2) Topic/Title 3) Where 4) When 5) )Brief blurb about the event 6) Link to more/related info

2) EXAMPLES from work produced for the class by one or both of the blog partners A) Speech story B) Profile C) Feature D) Issue story . These should be thoroughly proofed and polished. One or more of these stories should be accompanied by a SLIDESHOW. (If your sources do not want their names published, you can use partial names AFTER completing the assignment that you turn in for a grade.

3) A blog post describing what went into CREATING THE BLOG, for instance why you decided to pick a certain template; how you decided which stories to include as examples, which one would include a slideshow and what went into getting the photos for the slideshow. The piece should also mention any interesting data you are able to gather using a service like Google Analytics or Statcounter about who is visiting the blog and why.

4) A page with topic of YOUR CHOICE.

III) SLIDESHOW should enhance/illustrate the story that accompanies it. It should include thoroughly proofed captions

IV) EMBEDDED DATA COLLECTING service like Statcounter or Google analytics