For Tuesday, March 4

"Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light."
--Joseph Pulitzer

Read: Chapter 18 in the text--Accidents and Disasters
Then go to www.pulitzer.org and click on "Current Winners and Finalists" on the left column. Then click on the subhead "Breaking News Reporting." We ARE NOT reading the winning story but one of the Finalists, so scroll down to Finalists and then click on "The Denver Post Staff." Read the first story in the list - "State of Alarm" - dated June 26, 2012 - about the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Use that story as the basis for your assignment "Accidents and Disasters. Deconstructing a Story" which was handed out in class.

On Thursday, March 6, there will be a quiz on Obituaries. You will need to know the Obituary Checklist in Chapter 19 of the text (pg 363).
Have a great weekend!

For Tuesday, Feb. 25

"Everybody's got one good story to tell. If you talk to them long enough, you'll find it. Nobody has lived a totally uneventful life." -Alan Richman, writer for GQ magazine.

For Tuesday:
1) Read chapter 19 in the text (Obituaries) and write an obituary for a prominent person or celebrity who is still alive. Gather information for your obit from news clips, social media, online sources, magazines, etc. The cause of death must be included in the story as well as comments the person has made and comments about the person made by others. The source of these comments should be included, as demonstrated in the examples in the text. Length: 550 words (give or take 20 words).

2) Rewrites of the news story on Board of Ed. vs. high school biology student due

3) AP Stylebook exercise due

4) Due Thursday, Feb. 27: Compare, contrast and generally analyze the front page of The Tulane Hullabaloo and the front page of the WCSU Echo. Consider story choice, the quality of the writing (brief and clear, long and wordy, etc.), and the visual presentation. I am not looking for an opinion on which is better, but more an objective analysis of each. Choose one or two stories to focus on specifically in each paper. This is due Thursday, Feb. 27. Length: 600 words.

The test on writing leads will be Tuesday.

SNOW DAY!!

Due to the snow day we will slightly alter the plans for upcoming classes. THE LEAD-WRITING TEST WILL NOW BE TUESDAY, FEB. 25.

For this Thursday, Feb. 20:

We will have a news quiz covering news from last week until Monday, Feb. 17 (as usual).  We will also do an open-book AP Stylebook assignment.

1) Bring in the three story ideas for the WCSU Echo previously assigned. Please check previous post for details of that assignment.
2) Bring in your copy of the Tulane Hullabaloo distributed last class.
3) You no longer need to bring in the hard copy news stories previously assigned with the different leads. I will no longer collect those.

For Tuesday, Feb. 18 and Thursday, Feb. 20

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
--Thomas Jefferson

BRING YOUR AP STYLEBOOK TO CLASS!

For Tuesday:

1) Prepare for the Lead Writing test by looking over your graded work and reading my comments. The test will be Tuesday.

2) There will be the usual news quiz

3) Bring in again the hard copies of the 2 news stories that were assigned last week, but we didn't get to during class. To refresh your memory, that assignment was: Bring in a news story (hard copy) with a "delayed" lead relating to the weekend's Olympic events (refer to delayed leads in your text if you still aren't comfortable with what exactly they are), AND bring in a story with an "updated" lead related to the latest development in the Philip Seymour Hoffman case.

For Thursday:
1) AP Stylebook open-book quiz
2) Bring in your copy of the Tulane Hullabaloo that I handed out. We will be using it in class. Bring in a copy of the WCSU Echo as well.
3) Bring in 3 story ideas for the Echo. These should be stories that you personally would like to write or read. Please write about 3 sentences for each one on what exactly you think they story should be about/should include. These will be collected and should be typed using MLA format, heading, etc.

I am postponing the reading homework in your syllabus for a week - so no reading homework this week.

Enjoy the snow day and the long weekend!

For Tuesday, Feb. 11

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple." Oscar Wilde
 
For Tuesday: Using the information on the homework handout, write a five - six paragraph news story. Follow the guidelines we discussed Tuesday from the text on story structure and used when writing the in-class story today.

--Bring in a news story with a "delayed" lead relating to the weekend's Olympic events (refer to delayed leads in your text if you still aren't comfortable with what exactly they are), AND bring in a story with an "updated" lead related to the latest development in the Philip Seymour Hoffman case.

For Thursday: Prepare for the test on lead writing.

There is no reading in the text this week.

For Thursday

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”– Voltaire

--Locate and bring in a hard copy version of a news story with a delayed lead, as discussed today in class. If it is a lengthy story, you need only bring in the first 6 paragraphs (assuming the nut graph falls in the first 6 paragraphs).

--Check the previous post for the reading homework, due by Thursday, and for the extra credit assignments.