Write a piece of a feature story on Westfield State students' responses to the election and inauguration of President Barack Obama. Your editor is particularly interested in whether the students think Obama will be successful in improving the economy and reducing the U.S. military presence in Iraq. You should have a minimum of three students as sources.
Remember that an editor will write the lead on the broad story. You are simply providing raw material for the story.
Be sure to identify each source by first and last name and by any other attributes that might be relevant to the story. A political science major might be expected to follow politics and government more closely than do students in other majors.
Focus on attribution. Check the test suggested in my piece on quoting and attribution that you can find on my home page and in "The Basics of Journalism."
LENGTH: Two full takes. Remember to prepare the copy according to the copy preparation guidelines.
Assignment #2
Do an interview (you might think of the story as a mini-profile) of a Westfield State professor or administrator.
It is not a full-blown profile because it will be based on only one central interview and not on interviews with multiple sources.
A good way of thinking about this assignment is that you are going to let a professor or administrator talk about him- or herself.
You will be quoting them extensively, letting them do the talking.
Your subject should not be a student. I do not want you to choose a student government officer or an RA or even an RD. If you want to focus on residential life, you should choose someone like Jon Conlogue, the director, or the person in charge of housing.
Note: You may not choose a professor in the Communication Department.
LENGTH: Three full takes.
Assignment #3
Do a feature article on a campus subject. You have already done a shortened version of the most common kind of feature story -- the profile. For this assignment, you may do one of two kinds of feature stories:
1. An issues piece. You would pick one issue of concern to people at Westfield State and ask several sources for their views on the issue. Take as an example the physical growth of the campus. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
2. A general piece on something of interest at Westfield State. Have you ever wondered, if you don't normally go to services there, about what goes on at The Interfaith Center, that little building near Wilson? I -- and I think other readers -- would be interested in reading a story about it. Again, you should have multiple sources.
Length: Three-to-four takes.
NOTE: Assignments #4 and #5 are broadcast writing assignments. In assignment #4, you'll analyze the difference between broadcast writing and newspaper writing. In assignment #5, you'll demonstrate your understanding of the difference by writing three broadcast stories based on newspaper stories.
Assignment #4
A comparison of two versions of the same story, one on radio and one in a newspaper. The instructor will supply the radio story and the newspaper story. Your job is to do a one-page analysis of how the stories are alike and how they are different. The simplest way to do this is to set up a little table showing how the two stories compare in six categories: overall length, length of sentences, structure of sentences, verb tenses, attribution, and language. Be sure you are specific. You should count the number of words, count the words and the number of sentences to get the average sentence length, etc. Vague, impressionistic comments such as the newspaper story seems to have more compound sentences will not be acceptable.
Here's some elaboration on the six points:
1. Broadcast stories are generally much shorter than newspaper stories. Remember that we're not considering the long feature stories produced by National Public Radio and occasionally by other radio networks and stations. We're analyzing the stories contained in a typical top-of-the-hour five-minute broadcast.
2. Broadcast sentences are short, even shorter sometimes than newspaper sentences, which themselves tend to be short.
3. Broadcast writers prefer simple sentences and compound sentences, which, as you know, are basically two simple sentences joined by "and" or "but" or one of the other seven coordinating conjunctions.
4. When possible, broadcast writers use the present tense, trying to take advantage of the immediacy of the medium. The newspaper says, in effect, "Here's everything that happened YESTERDAY." The broadcast says, in effect, "Here's what's happening now.
5. The preferred verb of attribution in broadcast writing is the present tense, "says" or "say." And attribution MUST come at the beginning of the sentence. In newspaper writing, the person who said what's being reported can be placed at the beginning, middle, or end of the sentence. Not in broadcast writing.
6. Broadcast writers have to choose simple language. The listener or viewer has only one chance to hear the words. He or she can't go back and look at the words again. Broadcast writers also have to avoid any language that might trip up the person who reads the story.
Assignment #5
Broadcast versions of three stories you choose from a newspaper. The newspaper stories may be on any subject, but each of them must be at least 10 inches long. They should be hard-news stories, not features. The copy for each of the broadcast stories should be between 50 and 100 words. Attach the newspaper stories to the script.
Assignment #6
Design and write a full-page ad on a real product (or service or institution or company or non-profit organization) of your choosing.
Here are the elements of the assignment:
1. A dummy sheet showing the layout and design of the ad.
2. A text for the ad of at least 100 words.
3. A hefty paragraph describing the research you did on your product and the audience you aimed at, including the demographics and psychographics of the audience. Also include a sentence or two on how you hoped to get readers' attention and what you considered the dominant element.
NOTE: You should assume you have top-notch graphic designers to produce any art you want to use on the page. All you have to do is show where it would go on the page.
Assignment #7
A press release.
Write a feature story in the format of a press release to publicize anything you think worthy of publicizing. To take a couple of examples, students in the past have written about a sky-diving place in Connecticut and the work of a local charitable organization. Remember that this is a press release, not an advocacy piece such as an op-ed article, a letter-to-the-editor, or an ad.
Here are the elements of the assignment:
1. Sources: As with your earlier newspaper feature, you need to talk to several sources. If you were writing about the sky-diving place, for example, you would talk to the owner or manager and a couple of people who had tried it.
2. Format: The piece must be presented in the appropriate format for a press release.
3. Length: The press release should be two to three takes