SYLLABUS

Journalism 2

Intermediate Reporting

JRNL 2201

Fall 2019
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 11:45 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.

Skip to the week-by-week schedule.

Dan Kennedy
139 Holmes Hall
Office phone: (617) 373-5187
Cell phone: (978) 314-4721 (call any time)
Email: dan {dot} kennedy {at} northeastern {dot} edu (best way to reach me)
Class website: jrnl2201fall2019.wordpress.com
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2 to 3 p.m.; Fridays, 1:15 to 2:15 p.m.; and by appointment.

By successfully completing Journalism 1, you demonstrated that you have learned how to conduct an interview, take good notes, check your facts and write a basic news story. In Journalism 2, you will learn how to push those skills to the next level by refining your research, interviewing and analytical skills.

You’ll learn how to get beyond Google and Wikipedia so that you can use online research tools that are both timely and reliable. You’ll learn what a “nut graf” is and how to use it to write sophisticated news features. You’ll learn some basic online-journalism skills, such as blogging, linking and how to use social media as research tools.

If you make the commitment to work and improve, by the end of this semester you will have emerged as a competent journalist who can report and write publication-quality news stories as well as in-depth features. These skills will serve you in good stead whether you seek a career in online journalism, print, television, radio or public relations.

Required reading

• “Writing and Reporting for the Media,” by John R. Bender, Lucinda D. Davenport, Michael W. Drager and Fred Fedler. Oxford, 2015 (11th edition). You should still have this book from Journalism 1. We will use it mainly for review. I am more interested in the Blundell book (below).
• Associated Press Stylebook. The School of Journalism requires that news and feature stories conform to AP style. You don’t have to memorize the entire stylebook, but you do have to memorize parts of it. There are also some good sections on grammar to which I will call your attention during the semester. Again, you should still have this book from Journalism 1.
• “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing,” by William E. Blundell. Plume Books, 1986. We will be reading this throughout the semester, and we’ll have student presentations on each of the nine chapters. The Kindle version is fine, and it is in fact what I’m using. This is an experiment. At the end of the semester we’ll talk about whether it was helpful or not.
• The Boston Globe, daily and Sunday. You may read it in print or online, but you must be familiar with its contents on a daily basis — especially the front page and the Metro section. You are required to subscribe to either the print or the online edition. As a Northeastern student, you can sign up for a digital subscription for just $10 every four weeks. When we discuss a Globe story in class, I will expect that you’ve already read it. We will also have a few current-events quizzes based on the Globe’s coverage.
• The Huntington News. Read it, bring it to class and — even better — write for it. Or volunteer for another student media organization — the Onyx Informer, Tastemakers, NUTV, WRBB Radio or other student media.
• Handouts and online reading as assigned.

School of Journalism attendance policy

The School of Journalism requires that you attend at least 80 percent of all scheduled class meetings. If you miss 20 percent or more of scheduled classes for any reason, you will automatically fail. Every absence will have some effect on my assessment of your class participation, which will be factored into your final grade. Chronic tardiness may result in my marking you down for additional absences. Journalism 2 is a hands-on, intensive course with a lot of class exercises. You will have a difficult time doing well if you miss more than two or three classes.

Given the purpose of Journalism 2, I also expect you to demonstrate professional work habits. Think of this class as a newsroom. Assignments are due by deadline — at the beginning of class — whether you show up that day or not. If you cannot attend class on any particular day, I expect you to let me know ahead of time, either by voice-mail or by email.

University statement regarding academic honesty

Northeastern University is committed to the principles of intellectual honesty and integrity. All members of the Northeastern community are expected to maintain complete honesty in all academic work, presenting only that which is their own work in tests and all other assignments. If you have any questions regarding proper attribution of the work of others, please contact me prior to submitting the work for evaluation.

A personal note: The two capital offenses of journalism are fabrication and plagiarism. Commit either of these and you can expect to receive an “F” for the course, with possible referral to OSCCR. My presumption is that you are honest. But as Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.”

And here is my attribution: Parts of this syllabus are taken from J2 syllabuses prepared by other instructors.

Special accommodations

If you have physical, psychiatric or learning disabilities that may require accommodations for this course, please meet with me after class or during conference hours to discuss what adaptations might be helpful to you. The Disability Resource Center, 20 Dodge Hall (x2675), can provide you with information and assistance. The university requires that you provide documentation of your disability to the DRC.

Course requirements

We will write a lot in this class. I will be your editor, and I’ll be available to discuss your work on an individual basis in person, by email and by phone. You should read the syllabus in detail now. You will see that assignments come up very quickly, and you will fall behind if you do not plan. All writing must conform to the Associated Press Stylebook. Interviews must be conducted in person or by phone. I will allow email interviews only in very rare instances, and only when I give permission in advance. Email interviews can be a valuable tool for working professionals, but you are trying to learn the art of interviewing — something you simply can’t do over the Internet. If you interview someone by email, you must make that clear in your story. It is unethical to make it appear as though you actually spoke with that person.

In all written work, your grades will suffer if you miss deadline, or if you make errors in facts, spelling, grammar, punctuation and AP style. Of special importance are the proper names of people, places, organizations and the like. Every misspelled name will result in a lower grade. And yes, if you spell Alan Macdonald’s name “MacDonald,” I will consider that a misspelling.

Rules of the road

You are required to submit most of your work by email. Please keep in mind the following:

• Please turn off your cell phone at the beginning of class.
• Most of you are probably using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, so file compatibility will not be an issue. If you are using another commercial program (such as Apple’s iWork), please be sure to save your stories as Word documents.
• Make sure you include a list of your sources with contact information (email addresses and phone numbers) at the end of each story. I will not grade your stories without that information.
• I expect you to file your stories with me before class. It is your responsibility to get your story to me by deadline and to make sure I have it, even if you are not attending class on that day. Make sure you remember to attach your story to your email.
• You will be required to post most of your stories this semester on your blog, which most of you probably set up when you took Journalism 1. You will take this step only after I have edited and graded your stories. This solves two problems: (1) when a source asks if your story will be published, you can honestly tell her “yes,” which may make it easier for you to get an interview that you need; (2) you will never tell me that a source agreed to talk with you as long as your story wasn’t going to be published, because your story will, in fact, be published online.
• Please respect your fellow students by gracing us with your presence mentally as well as physically. In other words, do not spend the class period checking your email or surfing the web. I am neither as entertaining nor as user-friendly as Facebook, but what I have to say will be more important to your success in this course.
• Have fun. I hope you’ll find that journalism is an enjoyable and rewarding craft.

Deadline policy

Journalism 2 is a professional course aimed at helping you to learn how to be a reporter in a newsroom environment. Deadlines are incredibly important. You will be marked down a full letter grade for every day that you do not turn in an assignment. For instance, if a story is due before class on a Tuesday, then you would lose a full grade if you turn it in late but sometime before 11:45 a.m. (our class starting time) on Wednesday. You would lose an additional letter grade if you turn it in after that but before 11:45 on Thursday, and so on.

As you can see, you would be far better off if you turned in an incomplete story. The idea is that your editor is counting on you. She might be able to run an incomplete story (grumble, grumble), but she has a big hole to fill if you don’t turn in anything at all.

Of course I can make exceptions for illness and family emergencies, but only if you let me know before class. In some cases I may ask for documentation.

Grading guidelines

• A: An extraordinary piece of work that in some way exceeds the expectations for the assignment.
• A-minus: A very good piece of work that meets all the expectations for the assignment.
• B-plus: A very good piece of work that meets all the expectations for the assignment but needs more editing than would be the case with an A-minus. Note, too, that a B-plus is the maximum grade you can earn if there are any misspelled proper names or factual errors.
• B: A good piece of work that meets the expectations for the assignment. It may have fallen short of the A-minus/B-plus standard for a variety of reasons, such as structural problems, uneven writing and factual errors.
• B-minus: An acceptable piece of work that nevertheless has problems with respect to not meeting all the expectations for the assignment, writing and structural flaws, or significant factual errors.
• C-plus, C, C-minus: A piece of work that meets some of the expectations for the assignment but has multiple problems with respect to research, reporting, sourcing, writing, structure and factuality. Pieces in the C-zone include some or all of these problems, with the difference between a C-plus, a C and a C-minus based on severity.
• D: A piece of work that meets few of the expectations for the assignment. Essentially an acknowledgment that some effort was made.
• F: Either the assignment was not done or there was a violation of academic integrity.

Assignments, deadlines and grades

• Sept. 13: Quiz on grammar and AP style (2.5 percent)
• Sept. 17: Profile of classmate, 600 words (5 percent)
• Sept. 24: Talker, 700 to 800 words (10 percent) with at least two links guiding the reader to additional information
• Oct. 1: Story pitch from a public record (5 percent)
• Oct. 11: Coverage of a government proceeding, 700 to 800 words (10 percent) with at least two links
• Oct. 22: In-class deadline news story, 500 words (2.5 percent)
• Oct. 24: Story memo on enterprise piece (5 percent)
• Oct. 31: Quiz on public records and computer-assisted reporting (2.5 percent)
• Nov. 5: Description of an online data resource (5 percent)
• Nov. 12: News or feature story from an online resource, 800 to 1,000 words, with photo and at least three links (10 percent)
• Nov. 15: Quiz on a reporter’s rights and responsibilities (2.5 percent)
• Nov. 19: Top 300 to 500 words of your enterprise story (2.5 percent)
• Dec. 3: Enterprise story, 1,400 to 1,600 words, with at least six interviews, three photos and five links (2.5 percent)
• Finals week: Rewrite of your enterprise story (20 percent)

Please note that the percentages add up to 85. Another 5 percent will be based on a class presentation each of you will make on the Blundell book. The other 10 percent will come from my assessment of your attendance, your participation in class discussions and your performance on in-class exercises, of which there will be quite a few.

Despite the seeming mathematical precision of how I will arrive at your final grade, I am most interested in seeing hard work and improvement. Low grades at the beginning of the semester will not necessarily drag you down if you are earning higher grades at the end. There will be opportunities for extra credit and for rewrites. I will explain how to do that in more detail during the semester.

Note that as part of the journalism major or minor you must earn a “C” or better and a passing grade on the final project.

TRACE evaluations

We take course evaluations very seriously. You will be strongly encouraged to participate in the TRACE evaluation process toward the end of the semester.

Semester schedule

We will try to stick to this schedule as closely as possible. However, we need to maintain some flexibility to accommodate guest speakers and special events, so expect some tweaks here and there.

Week 1: Sept. 5 and 6

• Class topic: Course overview and review; the ethics of journalism
• Reading: Fedler, Chapter 6; start reading The Boston Globe and The Huntington News.

Week 2: Sept. 10, 12 and 13

• Class topic: Grammar and style; obituaries
• Reading: Fedler, Chapters 3 and 4 (review) and Chapter 16 (section on obituaries).
• This week’s assignment: You will write a 600-word profile of a classmate. You’ll have to interview a classmate and at least two other people, including a family member. Due on Sept. 17.
• Note: On Friday, we will have a quiz on grammar and AP style.

Week 3: Sept. 17, 19 and 20

• Class topic: Finding sources and interviewing them
• Reading: Fedler, Chapters 10 and 11; Blundell, Introduction and Chapter 1.
• This week’s assignment: You will write a “talker” — a news feature for which you will interview at least five people, including three experts. You will be given a topic related to a current event and write a short article based on those interviews with at least two links guiding the reader to additional information. Length: 700 to 800 words. Due on Sept. 24.

Week 4: Sept. 24, 26 and 27

• Class topic: Local public records and setting up your blogs
• Reading: Fedler, Chapters 1, 15 and 18; Blundell, Chapter 2.
• This week’s assignment: Go to a local government agency and find a public record that captures your interest. Make a photocopy of the record and come to class with an idea for a story that you could pitch based on that record. Due on Oct. 1.

Week 5: Oct. 1, 3 and 4

• Class topic: Covering a government proceeding; more about interviewing
• Reading: Blundell, Chapter 3.
• This week’s assignment: You will cover a government proceeding — a court session, a city council hearing, a planning board meeting or the like — and write a news story. Your story must incorporate a public record related to the proceeding and at least two links.
• Length: 700 to 800 words. Due on Oct. 11.

Week 6: Oct. 8, 10 and 11

• Class topic: Enterprise story ideas
• This week’s reading: Fedler, Chapters 17 and 19; Blundell, Chapter 4.
• This week’s assignment: Write a half-page or one-page pitch, single-spaced, about your final project. Your final article will be an enterprise piece, about 1,400 to 1,600 words long, and must include a computer-assisted-reporting component and at least six interviews. Your pitch is due on Oct. 24.

Week 7: Oct. 15, 17 and 18

• Class topic: Enterprise reporting, continued; midterm deadline-writing test
• Reading: Blundell, Chapter 5.
• This week’s assignment: On Tuesday you will be given a topic for which you must conduct at least three interviews before Friday’s class. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, you must come to class with your notes and in one hour write a 500-word news story.

Week 8: Oct. 22, 24 and 25

• Class topic: Computer-assisted reporting
• Blundell, Chapter 6.
• This week’s assignment: Find an online data resource to share with your classmates. Write a one- to two-page description of the site and include your thoughts on how it might be useful for a reporter researching a newspaper article. List three story ideas for which you could use the data you have found. Make enough copies to pass out to everyone in class. Due on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
• Note: On Thursday, Oct. 31, we will have a quiz on public records and computer-assisted reporting.

Week 9: Oct. 29, 31 and Nov. 1

• Class topic: Computer-assisted reporting, continued; structuring and organizing a news feature; basics of web photography
• This week’s reading: Fedler, Chapter 5 and (plus review from Week 1); Blundell, Chapter 7.

Week 10: Nov. 5, 7 and 8

• Class topic: Moving ahead with your feature stories
• Blundell, Chapter 8.
• This week’s assignment: Using data from your online resource (or, if you prefer, a different online source), write an 800- to 1,000-word news or feature story, with at least five interviews, at least one photo and at least three links. Due on Nov. 12.

Week 11: Nov. 12, 14 and 15

• Class topic: A reporter’s rights and responsibilities
• Reading: Blundell, Chapter 9.
• Note: On Friday, Nov. 15, we will have a quiz on a reporter’s rights and responsibilities.

Week 12: Nov. 19

• This week’s assignment: Write the top of your enterprise story, 300 to 500 words, single-spaced. I’m looking for your lead, your nut and some idea of how the rest of your story will begin. (Your enterprise story will be 1,400 to 1,600 words long with at least three photos and at least five links.) Due on Nov. 19.
• Note: There will be no classes the rest of the week. The Thanksgiving recess begins on Wednesday.

Week 13: Nov. 26, 28 and 29

• Class topic: Moving ahead with your enterprise stories

Week 14: Dec. 3

• Class topic: Wrap-up

Finals week

• There is no final exam in this course. The rewrite of your enterprise piece will be due on a date and time to be announced.