JEM 200 – Introduction to News Writing

Weekly lecture section

Instructor:
Jim Stovall
School of Journalism and Electronic Media
333 Communications UEB
974-5109
stovall@utk.edu

Web site: http://www.jprof.com/courses/jem200/jem200.html

Thursday, 5:05 to 6:20 p.m., 416 Doughtery Engineering

This weekly lecture section supplements the instruction and practice in news writing that you will receive in your lab section. The lecture will give you information that you will need to be successful in your writing lab.

Unless you have had professional experience of some kind, the kind of writing that you will learn and practice in this course is different from anything that you have been asked to do before. Media writing means writing in a professional environment and with professional standards. It means writing for an audience. It means meeting deadlines. We will explain many of these requirements and concepts in the lecture, and you will be expected to apply them in your work in your writing sections.

Grades

Thirty percent of the grade for JEM200 will come from this lecture section. (The other 70 percent will come from your work in your writing section.) We will usually begin the lecture with a news quiz, which helps us record your attendance and which will contribute to the 30 percent of your grade. There will be two exams covering the lecture and text material during the semester. Each will count about 10 percent of the grade.

Attendance

You are expected to attend all lectures, and you are expected to be on time. (Those who arrive after the news quiz will not be counted as present; those who leave the lecture early will not be counted as present and will be penalized for academic dishonesty.) If you miss three lectures, we will assume that you have dropped the course.

Individual section instructors will set attendance policies for their labs. In general, however, they will adhere to the following principle: attendance in this course is mandatory, not optional.

Academic honesty

University policies regarding honesty can be found in Hilltopics, the official student handbook. You can download this handbook as a PDF file at this page. Your rights and responsibilities are explained in detail. In all JEM 200 labs plagiarism, misrepresentation or any form of cheating is a serious offense. In the lecture section, a minimum penalty would be a failing grade on a quiz. Each lab instructor will explain lab rules.

Texts

James Glen Stovall, Writing for the Mass Media (Seventh edition), 2009.
AP Stylebook and Libel Manual

How things work

Each section of JEM 200 operates under the direction of the section instructor. Jim Stovall, the instructor for the lecture section, is the coordinator for the course. As such, he helps assure that all sections of the course are following the same track and that all students are getting basically the same experience. He is not a czar, however. Section instructors have the final word on policies and grading for their sections.

Weekly schedule - Spring 2009 (tentative)

Lecture - Jan. 8
Week 1 – Introduction to the course;
introduction to media writing
Chapter 1
• Lecture notes
• Simple words (short article)
• Principles of clear, effective writing
• Plagiarism

Lecture - Jan. 15
Week 2 – Basics: Grammar and style
Chapters 2 and 3
• Lecture notes
• A glossary of grammar terms (an extensive listing of terms, rules of grammar and punctuation and examples)
• Rules for using commas (HTML) (PDF version)
• An expensive comma 
• Plagiarism
(Monday, Sept. 1 is Labor Day.)

Lecture - Jan. 22
Week 3 – Writing in a media environment
(news values, deadlines, attribution, etc.)
Chapter 4
• Lecture notes
• Verbs of attribution (short article)
• Expensive misspelling 

Lecture - Jan. 29
Week 4 – The inverted pyramid
Chapter 5
• Lecture notes
• Inverted pyramid checklist

Lecture - Feb. 5
Week 5 – Basics of reporting: sources and interviewing
Chapters 4 and 5
• Lecture notes
• Lisa Byerley Gary's lecture notes
• Verbs of attribution (short article)

Lecture - Feb. 12 – Test 1
• Test notes
Lab work for Week 6 will consist of writing speech stories, obituraries, features and other types of stories.
• Speech stories (handout) HTML, PDF
• Obituaries
• Obituary stories (handout) HTML, PDF

Lecture - Feb. 19
Week 7 – Writing for the web I Introduction to the web | The web as a word medium | How readers use the web | Important concepts
(Make sure you are reading the correct lecture notes and that they include the topics listed below.)
Chapter 6
• Lecture notes

Lecture - Feb. 26
Week 8 – Writing for the Web II The Tennessee Journalist | Important concepts (continued) | Technology | Writing for the web - the basics | Headlines
(Make sure you are reading the correct lecture notes and that they include the topics listed below.)
Chapter 7
• Lecture notes
• Writing summaries (short article and examples)
• Bob Stepno's lecture notes
• Writing headlines for the web

Lecture - March 5
Week 9 – Writing for the Web III Inverted pyramid | Visual variety | Lists | Summaries | Microcontent | Links
• Lecture notes
Jakob Neilsen: Microcontent: How to write headlines, page titles, and subject lines

Lecture - March 12
Week 10 – Writing for the Web IV Twitter | Photojournalism | Audio | What you need to do to get ready to work in the web environment
• Lecture notes

March 19 - Spring break

Lecture - March 26
Week 11 – Audio journalism I
Chapter 8
• Lecture notes

The lecture notes have been revised. Make sure you are looking at the ones for audio journalism.

• In addition to reviewing the lecture notes, you should listen to or watch four short video clips about broadcast writing produced by Mark Harmon, a professor of journalism and electronic media here at UT. They can be found at this Volcasting link. The four clips concern news judgment, attribution, broadcast style and active voice. (All four videos will take less than 10 minutes to watch.)

Lecture - April 2
Week 12 – Audio journlism II
Chapter 8
• Lecture notes

Lecture - April 9 (April 10 - Spring recess)
Week 13 – Audio journalism III
Chapter 8
• Lecture notes

Lecture - April 16
Week 14 – Law and ethics
Chapter 12
• Lecture notes

Lecture - April 23
Week 15 – Test 2

Classes end Friday, April 24

There will not be a final exam for the JEM 200 lecture. Your writing section instructor may schedule a final exam for the section, however.

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