This intensive course delves into English-language reporting and newswriting, including interviewing, news judgment and polishing your prose. The class functions as a kind of boot camp, with lots of writing practice on deadline, including from mock press conferences and outside assignments.
Students will learn to size
up a story, collect relevant information efficiently, boil it down, frame it in
a meaningful context and write tight, accurate and compelling accounts, often at
considerable speed. The course’s readings, discussions, exercises and
assignments are designed to help develop news judgment and other critical
thinking skills. Students are taught to weigh information like a journalist and
to practice their craft ethically. The
grading system penalizes errors of fact and missed deadlines. Be prepared to
work hard, as if in a newsroom. The skills and concepts you master in this
course should improve the way you listen, read and communicate. DShass
- Teacher: Jim Wolf