Two takes based on classroom and other interviewing.
This is a warm-up exercise designed to re-introduce you to basic journalistic skills most of you tried out in "Writing for the Media."
The subject: How students have adjusted to returning to the classroom.
You will have to talk to several students and take notes on what they say.
The key review, as far as I'm concerned, is of attribution and quoting. Be sure that you keep yourself and your views out of the story. Make your story a mix of direct and indirect quotations. (The punctuation of quotes is covered in your text on P. 110 and following.)
Assignment #2
A simple profile of a classmate.
Think of this assignment as further review or practice of interviewing, note-taking, and quoting and attribution. You'll have 25 minutes to interview one of your classmates. You are trying to find out what is interesting about and what interests the person you are interviewing.
You'll need some basic information: name, age, major, home town etc. as well as information on the student's status at WSC: year, major, commuter or resident, and the like. From there you'll be looking for something about the student that may become a major piece of your profile. Is he or she someone who works 50 hours a week to support a family? Is he or she the lead in the latest theater production at the college? Is he or she a fanatical Yankee fan, someone who travels to Yankee Stadium every weekend? Does he or she belong to Circle K? Does he or she plan to anchor for ESPN in the future? Work in Los Angeles? Play for the New England Revolution?
You get the idea, I hope.
Length: Three takes.
Assignment #3
A profile of a professor or administrator at Westfield State College, excluding members of the Communication Department. You must have a minimum of four sources -- the person profiled and three others.
This assignment differs from the simple interview some of you may have done in "Writing for the Media" in the multiplicity of its sources. Your central interview with the subject will be of primary importance, but you will also seek the views of others to shed additional light on your subject.
You should prepare carefully for this assignment, getting in touch with the subject early to set up the interview, writing down questions in advance, and obtaining your subject's resume or curriculum vitae (cv) as a resume is called in academic circles.
You should consult the short section on profiles in "The Basics of Journalism."
Length: Three to four takes
Assignment #4
A study of summary, hard-news leads:
Find and copy six leads that display the characteristics of hard (breaking) news leads in printed or online newspapers.
(See your text, "The Basics of Journalism," and class discussion.)
Write a brief essay explaining WHY those six leads display the characteristics.
Assignment #5
A research assignment on the business and finance beat. Assume that you're writing a story on the merger of the XYZ Corporation and Mestek Inc. of Westfield. Write several paragraphs of background on Mestek to include in the story. The information should include the names of the key officers of the company, the kinds of products it makes, the names of subsidiaries if any, basic financial data such as the amount of sales, revenues, and profit for the most recent year. I'd like to see a bit on the history of the company as well. Please also include the price of Mestek stock on the day you do the assignment adn whether it increased or decreased compared to the previous day's price.
Assignment #6
An analysis of five online newspapers and the comparison of one online newspaper to its print version. You should note in broad strokes the similarities and differences among the five newspapers. Then, in detail, using a number of examples, you should compare one of the online versions with its print version.
Assignment #7
A story on a speech.
Assignment #8
A story on a meeting.
Assignment #9
An extensive feature story