3/9 Editorial Assignment: open letter, revised PART ONE: OUTLINE DUE TODAY

  1. Here’s the scenario: You are an editor of a high-school student newspaper -- call it “The Prospector” -- and your editorial team has learned that the University of Oregon is planning to cut 10% off of the budget for the journalism department.
    Your task is to write an editorial in the form of an open letter to U of O President Michael Schill, protesting the cut and affirming the value of journalism to our democracy. TODAY YOU’RE WRITING AN OUTLINE FOR THAT EDITORIAL.
  2. In the scenario, your plan is to send the letter as a guest editorial submission to “The Daily Emerald,” the student newspaper for the U of O.
  3. Editorial paragraph guide: this outliine guide is recommended but not required.
    USE THIS OUTLINE BELOW AS A BASE FOR YOUR OWN OUTLINE: USE OR ADAPT ANY OF THE LANGUAGE. ADD 1ST SENTENCES AND SENTENCES YOU CAN USE FOR YOUR 1ST DRAFT. KEEP THIS OUTLINE FORMAT, FINISH AND TURN IN TODAY FRI. 3/10
  4. Start withGreetings: from the Editors of “The Prospector” “Dear President Schill… welcome to the Pacific NW…”
  5. Pres. Schill is new. Note that in your greeting and say something nice about his background.

a)Click on the link, look President Schill up here, find out where he’s from, where he went to school - highlight and copy short notes from that webpage; paste in HERE

  1. “We are student journalists from… our paper is the… “
    Write a couple of good sentences about “The Prospector” your student paper and what you like most about it;
  1. NEXT: Introduce the timely item (remember: that’s what makes it news): The recent proposed budget cut to the Journalism Department --
  2. Write a few sentences protesting this cut, and request that Pres. Schill reconsider because of the importance of a vigorous professional press corps to a healthy democracy.
  3. Your first argument agains the cut: “We find this proposed cut surprising in light of your award-winning student newspaper…”
  4. Look up the University of Oregon’s Daily Emerald here. What award did they win in 2016?
  5. Your second argument:“ Journalism has an important function in keeping government honest and accountable to the public they serve, for example, as student journalists ourselves, we have been learning about…”
  6. (How Willamette Week’s stories uncovered influence-peddling in the Kitzhaber administration in Salem)

a)Look here for the Nigel Jaquiss interview we worked with Wednesday in class:

b)Add a sentence about the need for training journalists in presenting the facts without bias

  1. (Honors English I-A add the role of the Washington Post in uncovering the Watergate scandal )
  1. The third argument: While Willamette Week’s reporter, N.J., went to Columbia, “...we are Oregonians and would like the option of attending a quality journalism program in our own state. Oregon deserves…
  2. In conclusion, “Again, a sincere welcome...if you haven’t been over the Cascades yet, come out to John Day.”