Journalism 218 Syllabus
Journalism 218 Syllabus
Journalism 218
Practical Editing (CSU) – 3 Units
Los Angeles Valley College
Fall 2016; Section 8115
Monday and Wednesday 9:20 a.m.-11:50 a.m.
Tuesday Lab: 12 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Room: BJ 114 (Newsroom)
Instructors: William Dauber
Office: BJ 114 Office C
Telephone: (818) 947-2574; e-mail:
Office Hours: Monday/Wednesday 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Tuesdays 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursdays by appointment.
Text: “The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law 2016” (required)
Harrower, “Newspaper Designer’s Handbook” (required)
Associated Press, “The Associated Press Guide to Punctuation” (recommended)
William Zinsser, “On Writing Well” (recommended)
Prerequisite: Journalism 202 with grade C or better, or Journalism 101 and instructor’s approval.
Course Description: To produce the campus media outlet (The Valley Star) and thevalleystar.com by using the skills learned in introductory news writing classes. This class will also give sudents a chance to practice deadline writing, spot-news reporting, headline writing and editing.
Assignments: Reporters are required to submit at least three story ideas in budget-note form to the editor-in-chief and the instructor by each Thursday, including beat notes. Each reporter is required to file at least TWO stories per week. Each staff member must help distribute the newspaper.
Tests and Quizzes: Quizzes on AP style, libel, and these guidelines will be administered throughout the semester (maximum one per week). Quizzes will be given at the start of the class period and cannot be made up.
Clip Book: Keep all completed work in a hard-copy or electronic clip book. The clip book will be reviewed twice, once midway through and once at the end of the semester.
Grade Percentages:
Weekly stories: 60 points each (70 percent of grade )
AP style quizzes 10 points each (20 percent of grade)
Libel, guidelines quizzes 10 points each (10 percent of grade)
Grades are earned on a points system. Your final grade is determined by the total points you earned at the end of the semester. I recommend you keep track of your points, so you always know where you stand in the class. Here in the grade breakdown in percentages:
A – 100 Percent to 90 percent
B – 89 percent to 80 percent
C – 79 percent to 70 percent
D – 69 percent to 60 percent
F – 59 percent and below
Below you will find the grading rubric for all completed stories:
/ Woodward(10 points per category) / It Prints
(7 points per category) / Blair
(5 points or fewer per category)
LEAD / A good lead grabs a reader’s attention while getting across vital information and matches the tone of the article / A passable lead gets the primary information across, but it doesn’t grab the readers’ attention / A failing lead is missing essential information and is not attention grabbing
ORGANIZATION / A good article is well organized with like information together and quotes from each source grouped / A passable article might jump around a bit but maintains overall organization with its information and quotes / A failing article is choppy and unorganized with no cohesion of information or quotes
SOURCES / A good article has a minimum of three sources, the sources are relevant to the article / A passing article has at least two sources of relevance to the story being covered / A failing article has one or no sources or has sources that are not of relevance to the article
AP STYLE/
GRAMMAR / A good article contains correct grammar and AP and shows effort was put into spellchecking and referencing your AP Stylebook / A passing article contains moderately correct grammar and AP and shows effort was put into spellchecking and referencing your AP Stylebook / A failing article contains numerous grammar and AP mistakes and shows no effort was put into spellchecking and referencing your AP Stylebook
WORD COUNT / A good article meets the assigned word count without being under or over / A passable article comes close to the assigned word count, going just over or coming just under / A failing article is significantly under or over the assigned word count
DEADLINE / The story came in by 6 p.m. Thursday. / The story came in within 24 hours on the assigned deadline / The story came in past 24 hours after the assigned deadline
Note: Any story that is plagerized will recive zero points for the assingment, and the student will be prohibited from publishing articles in The Valley Star and thevalleystar.com. You will work with the adviser to earn back your publishing rights. Examples of plagiarism are clearly outlined in the Valley Star Guidelines.
Drop Dates: The college policy states that it is the student’s responsibility to drop a class no longer being attended. Your failure to drop a class in accordinance to the school deadline may result in a “W” or “F” on your academic record. Deadlines are listed in the schedule of classes.
SSD Assistance: If you are a student with a disability requring classrom accommodations, and have not contactd SSD, do so in a timely manner. SSD is located in the Student Services Annex, Room 175 or call SSD at (818) 947-2618 or TTD (818) 947-2680 to meet with a SSD councelor. If SSD has already sent the memo to your instructor confimring accommodations required by a student for this class, please meet with me to discuss arrangements.