Syllabus
Fall 2008 Syllabus, Writing for the Web, BJ Roche
Journalism 392W
Writing for the Web
Fall 2008
Mon.-Weds., 1:25-3:15 p.m.
Dubois Library, seventh floor Mac lab
Instructor: B.J. Roche
108 Bartlett Hall
Office hours: Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 12 noon and by appointment. For best results, sign up for an appointment on my office door. Quick question? E-mail me.
E-Mail: bjroche@journ.umass.edu
Phone: 545-5930
Instructor website: www.bjroche.com
Course website: Materials for this course will be posted on UMass blogs, address to be announced in class.
This course is designed to enhance journalism skills while also introducing students to the basics of writing for publication on the World Wide Web. Through readings and practice, students will produce a variety of web-based documents that incorporate reporting and writing with basic graphic, audio and video files. They will leave the course with their own on-line portfolio, and can continue this work in the Multimedia Reporting class.
Students should be prepared to do lots of traditional, shoe-leather REPORTING for this class. This means actually going out and interviewing real live people, and digging through public documents. You should also be prepared to do several public presentations, and to be able to speak about your work in a professional manner.
If there’s a subject you’d like to cover, or you need the class to slow down or speed up, tell me. If you have material or a website to suggest, please take advantage of the courseblog for this class.
Texts
Online Journalism: Principles and Practices of News for the Web, by James C. Foust
AP Stylebook
Please bring this book to class with you. All assignments will be written using Associated Press style.
Both books are available in the UMass Textbook Annex.
NYTimes.com
Please read the paper daily and take the New York Times daily newsquiz before class each day.
Your online reading should include both newspaper sites and technology sites that examine developments in technology and online journalism. These include:
www.poynter.org
The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Best roundup site on the web for journalism news, issues and tips.
www.journalists.org
The Online News Association
also, their great work gallery: www.cyberjournalist.net/news/004322.php
www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/
The Knight Digital Media Center
www.wired.com/wired/
Wired magazine
CNET.com
Technology news and reviews
www.bivingsreport.com/2007/top-10-best-newspaper-websites/
Best newspaper websites
websitemagazine.com
All things related to search engines and web publishing
Assignments
You will complete three major web projects for this class.
1. A three-part news series, using digital images
Due 10/15/08
2. A podcast essay for the NPR feature “This I Believe,” which you can learn about at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4538138, and at www.thisibelieve.org
Due 11/5/08
3. A major feature story that uses digital images and audio
Due 12/8/08
You will also be required to complete several smaller assignments and post to the courseblog.
We will work on these projects in class, but they require reporting outside of class.
Grades are based on:
attendance and class participation,
quality of completed work.
Deadlines matter. No work will be accepted after deadline.
No incompletes will be given in this class.
Great expectations
I expect everyone to attend every class, and to be on time.
I take attendance at 1:25. If you’re not here, you will be marked absent, regardless of what time you show up. Attendance counts toward your grade. I am not interested in excuses or reasons why you can’t make it, so please don’t offer them. If you’re not going to attend every class, please drop this course now and make room for someone who will.
I expect students to fully participate.
This means doing ALL the reading and homework outside of class, offering your thoughts and ideas, and contributing every week to the course blog. If you haven’t done the reading, don’t bother to come to class.
I expect every student to speak with me about an internship.
If you want a job after graduation, you must do at least one internship, preferably two or even three, before you graduate. Let’s talk!
FORMAT FOR HARD COPY SUBMISSIONS
Before your stories go online, they must be revised and edited several times, and I must see them in hard copy. All stories must be typed, DOUBLE SPACED, in a serif, 12 point font, (Optima, Palatino, New Times Roman) in traditional manuscript style, as follows:
First page: in the upper left-hand corner please include:
your name
your e-mail address
your phone number
Journalism 300: story assignment.
Start your story halfway down the page, with a headline, in all caps, bold, centered. Headlines include a noun and a verb. Then put your byline. It should look like this:
WHAT’S IN A NAME? MORE GEN-EXERS CHOOSING BABY NAMES FROM AMERICAN IDOL CONTESTANTS
by B.J. Roche
There should be about 15 lines of text on your first page, with a
–MORE– at the bottom, centered.
On subsequent pages, you should have 25 lines of text. At the top left hand corner of each page, should be your last name, a story slug and the page number, like so:
roche-american idol-2, and at the bottom, the MORE.
On the last page, end your story with the note –30–.
Story ideas should include the following:
Name and course in upper left corner
A headline with a noun and a verb
A 25-word story summation
Why the story is important and who will read it
Your sources. You must have at least five “live” (which means you will interview them) sources for your 1,000 word stories
Other background/source material you will use
Story outlines should include the following:
Two one-paragraph versions of a lead. This means you must come up with two different introductions to your story.
A detailed outline that spells out the Introduction, Middle and Ending of your story. The basic structure should go a bit like this:
The lead (introduction) should include an anecdote, a scene, or a bit of chronology that introduces your subject and the story itself.
The nut graf should tell the reader what your story is, why it’s important. Who’s affected by this situation? What does your introductory anecdote represent? What’s the cost of a problem? Why should readers care? And why are you writing about it now? Why is this subject timely?
Background may take the reader deeper into the subject, and bring the reader up to speed on the current situation.
Return to scene/anecdote introduced in lead
Tie up for the ending: what’s the situation looking forward?
WARNING! DON’T CHEAT!
“CHEATING”MEANS: making up sources, using other people’s work without attribution, taking material from the Web and passing it off as your own, submitting a story in this class that has also been, or is to be, submitted for another class. All work MUST be original for this class. Violators will receive an “F” for the assignment.
IF YOU WANT TO DO WELL
I will take a look at completed, polished, final drafts up to one week before the deadline for the story (no later). Please send them as Microsoft word attachments to my e-mail address. The students who do best in this class take advantage of this offer, and make time to do serious revisions of their work.
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