Newspaper Syllabus

2014-2015

Newspaper Advisor: Amanda Steger

Email:

Phone: ext. 308

I. Course Objectives: (students will)

a. write articles in all four journalistic styles

b. practice editing articles

c. interview necessary subjects for article completion

d. use software programs to create presentations

e. meet with business leaders to ascertain advertisements

f. study professionally published articles to see what “real” writers do

II. Course Structure:

a. Begin by developing an idea for an article you would like to write.

b. Locate the resources you’ll need in order to write the article (interviewees, resources, etc.).

c. Write article in appropriate style.

d. Revise article based on comments and discussions with page editor, editor-in-chief, and advisor.

e. Double check that article is complete and correctly placed on page.

III. Professionalism:

Your job is to write accurate articles for this publication. In order to do so, you must make sure your research is accurate and free from bias. You cannot write an article with an opinion in mind; you are to report the facts, not create them.

You must adhere to the due dates as they have been established. Missing just one deadline puts the entire paper behind and will not be tolerated. Deadlines must be met! An excused absence will not excuse you from emailing your story to the people who need to edit it. If there is a problem in meeting your deadline, you must inform both the editor-in-chief and your advisor (me).

IV. Order of Operations:

a. Submission of ideas to editor-in-chief and advisor. (Failure to have idea or rejection of poor idea(s) will

result in grade reduction.

b. Editor-in-chief meets with page editors to discuss layout and due dates are assigned.

c. With approval of idea, reporter types article and submits to appropriate page editor (with completed works

cited page).

d. Page editors edit article and return to individual reporters. Reporters: if you have questions, please first

see your page editor, then your editor-in-chief, then me.

e. Revisions and original draft are re-submitted to page editors who will a) okay your article for publication

(and will submit article to editor-in-chief) or b) reject publication pending another revision.

f. Editor-in-chief will edit article and return to reporter. If major revisions need to be done, conference should

be held between e-i-c, page editor, and advisor.

g. When editor-in-chief okays article for publication, she will hand a hard copy of article to me and reporter

will be given permission to put article on the page.

h. Advisor (me) will edit and grade article. Reporter should make all corrections on the page. 5 points will be

added to reporter’s score when article is reviewed on the page

i. Page editors will review their respective pages for approval. Pages meeting approval will be handed to

editor-in-chief, who will in turn, hand approved pages to me for final edits.

V. Grading: Please see rubric on back

Deadlines:

Meets all deadlines (ideas, articles to editors, on page, making corrections). (5) / Meets almost all deadlines and quality of work is acceptable. (4) / Meets about half of the deadlines but quality of work is acceptable. (3) / Many deadlines have been missed; quality of work is unacceptable. (2) / No deadlines have been met and quality of work unacceptable. (1)

Lead:

Reporter uses appropriate lead to draw reader in (5 W’s for news, attention-getter for editorial/ feature). (5) / Reporter draws reader in but some minor errors exist in phrasing. (4) / Reporter attempts to draw reader in but either information is missing or is phrased very awkwardly. (3) / Reporter uses an inappropriate lead for this article (i.e. non-standard lead for news) (2) / Lead is either so poorly phrased or is missing.
No Credit

Article’s research:

Reporter fully grasps purpose; uses significant and appropriate research to extend credibility of the article. This includes credible websites and interviews. (5) / Purpose is established but additional research would strengthen this piece; article uses two sources cite-additional sources needed. (4) / Purpose has been established but article lacks credibility without necessary research to support viewpoint (i.e. only one or two sources have been used). (3) / Purpose has not really been established as it lacks any credibility; uses a source but an inferior one at that. (2) / As no research has been conducted, this article cannot be accepted or published.
No Credit

Style

Within the conceptual framework of the article’s style, reporter creates an enjoyable read through varied sentence structure and vivid word choice. (5) / Within the framework of the article’s style, reporter creates an easy read but limited sentence structure variety or creative word choice usage appropriate for article. (4) / Reporter might struggle momentarily with style, writing in different styles (i.e. editorializing in a news piece) or might overuse sentence structure/word choice. (3) / Frequent errors within writing style (i.e. word choice or complex and incorrect sentence structure) creates too much confusion. Article needs to be revised. / Errors are too frequent and there is no basis for this article to appear on the type of page article proclaims to be (i.e. editorial on a feature page).

Professionalism:

Article is spelled perfectly including all names. All research has been verified. (5) / One spelling error in article or one small researching error. (4) / Two spelling or researching errors. (3) / Given the multitude of errors, no credit earned for this section.

Overall layout:

All information is present (headline, byline, photo cred, complete sentence for photo caption) when submitted to editor. Great photo choice to compliment article, saved in correct location in correct manner.(5) / All information is present but small problems with layout (dead space) which needs fixing or could find a more appealing picture, or article is not saved in correct location. (4) / All information is present but small problems with layout (dead space). Picture is not an effective compliment to article but is saved correctly. (3) / All information is present but small problems with layout (dead space). Picture is not an effective compliment to article, nor is it saved correctly. (2)

Editor’s rubric:

All articles have been proofread: no spelling errors, accuracy/research problems exist. (10) / All articles have been proofread: only spelling errors exist maybe in names, research has been verified. (8) / All articles have been proofread; many spelling errors or researching errors located. (6) / All articles have been proofread, many errors have been found and many researching errors have been located. (4)