Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the contents of this syllabus,
especially the sections regarding Class Participation, House Rules,
Format For Written Assignments, and all other details regarding
assignments. Then consider the following items in this section
("Plan ahead" etc.):
Plan ahead. You're asking for headaches if you wait until finishing one assignment
before thinking about the next. Start thinking about the profile in week 1, the final project
in week 2 or 3. Pick your interviewees and schedule appointments weeks before
deadlines; if you hit a snag, you'll have time for a contingency
plan. Occasional snags are inevitable — count on them. Often sources are unavailable when you need them, so advance
calling gives you time to plan a contingency. Source unavailability
will never excuse a poorly researched story.
Learn to juggle: Work on a couple of projects at a time, perhaps rewriting one
while starting the next. That's how professionals work. Few of
us have the luxury of concentrating on one project at a time.
I'll say it again: Start thinking about the profile in week 1, the final project
in week 2 or 3.
Criticism. By definition, journalism addresses an audience; your first audience will be fellow students and your GTF. They will analyze and discuss some of your work. Editors and readers often focus on the negative aspects of a story simply because the good things (accuracy, clear writing, etc.) are sometimes taken for granted. Don't get discouraged by criticism. It's just life in the journalism biz. You'll be getting a lot of criticism here. Welcome it. Criticism here, where it's safe, can save us from embarrassing ourselves in front of thousands or millions of readers, listeners, or viewers. Don't take criticism from your GTF or your classmates personally, and don't make your own criticisms personal: keep the focus on the work itself.
Help each other out in class discussion. Unlike most classes,
this one allows you to contribute to other students' success.
Make friends in the class; talk about common problems or ideas.
Research. Good journalism requires good research. Content is more important
than style. You should know where to look up information in the
library and on electronic databases, and be familiar with basic
interviewing techniques. (I will make available to you a research
paper written by a GTF which details several ways to get started
using online resources.)
Accuracy. Factual accuracy is crucial in journalism, and errors require
media to run embarrassing retractions or even subject them to
lawsuits. Errors can undermine a publication's or a station's
credibility, destroy a writer's career and injure the reputations
of people or institutions, not to mention deceiving or misleading
readers and viewers. Accordingly, major fact errors (such as misspelling
the name of a source, or misstating a fact, or improperly attributing
cause or effect) will result in failure.
Attitude. If you love to write, you will be happy in this course, because
you will be doing a lot of it. Professional writers write almost
every day, so self-discipline is important, as are self-reliance
and initiative. Many journalists are expected to generate their
own story ideas, so understanding what is newsworthy is important.
All journalists are expected to deliver their assignments on deadline,
and manage their time to balance research, interviews, outlining,
drafting, and rewriting.
Deadlines. Your GTF will be just as willing to hear excuses regarding late assignments as an employer would be regarding missed deadlines — not at all. Late assignments will be marked down one letter grade per day, so please plan your calendar with care.
Food for thought: This is a professional school. Our classroom experience differs in several respects from typical experiences in elementary school or high school. In those earlier classrooms, your progress was often neatly plotted with lesson plans. But here, while we do have many schedules and plans, you also have one foot in the real world. Journalism students practice journalism, which entails getting off campus to interview sources, to observe events, to track down details, to follow up on a lead, and so on. And the real world doesn't always accommodate us quite as neatly or conveniently as we might like.
So here's a tip: Finish early. We all tend to look at deadlines as the moment when we finish a story. But that leaves little time for unplanned contingencies: the writing takes longer than expected, or a source leaves town, or your computer breaks, or your printer runs out of ink, or Brainerd lab is closed. None of these will excuse late work, so give yourself a cushion for emergencies.
Assignments will be handed in at the beginning of the specified class. Assignments turned in any time after that will be downgraded based on one full letter grade per day.
This syllabus is long, but it's loaded with instructions that you will be expected
to follow to the letter. Keep it handy; refer to it often. Make
it your friend.
See your GTF, or me. Some of the best learning in a writing class comes from an instructor going over a student's work one on one. If you have questions about an approach to a story, problems you're having on assignments or your grade, make an appointment to see your GTF. If you want to pursue any of those topics further, or just want to talk about careers (or anything else, for that matter), please come to see me.