BEGINNING JOURNALISM COURSE OUTLINE AND REQUIREMENTS
© E. Wojcicki
 

BOOKS TO BE USED IN THE COURSE
SCOPE OF THE COURSE
GENERAL INFORMATION
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS
ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE
GRADING
ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

BOOKS TO BE USED IN THE COURSE:
 
Interviews that Work by Shirley Biagi

The Mass Media and the School Newspaper Dewitt Reddick

Scholastic Journalism

Elements of Style by Strunk and White
 
There will be handouts on Microsoft Word and PageMaker.
 
The primary texts for the class will be San Jose Mercury New, Palo Alto Weekly, S.F. Chronicle, New York Times, USA Today.
 
You are expected to subscribe to a daily newspaper at home and to Time magazine.
 
SCOPE OF THE COURSE:

The goal of the course is to teach the following skills:
 
1. how to write well under pressure
2. how to gather information independently and organize it effectively
3. how to use desktop publishing equipment and software
4. how to interview effectively
5. how to work effectively with your peers
6. how to write the following newspaper formats:
               
                                a. single feature news story
                                b. multiple feature news story
                                c. features: people, ideas, fads
                                d. reviews: restaurants, movies, concerts, books, shows
                                e. editorials and view points
                                f. columns
                                g. survey stories
                                h. sports stories
 
7. You will learn the following design elements:
                                a. advertising design
                                b. page layout
                                c. graphic design
 
GENERAL INFORMATION:

1. Late assignments will be penalized one grade, unless there is an emergency.  If you are absent, please give your assignment to a friend to bring to class.  This is in preparation for being in the Advanced Journalism class.  Being late in journalism usually means the story can't be published.  The whole newspaper can't wait for a late story.
 
2. Being admitted into the Beginning Journalism program does not guarantee acceptance into the advanced Journalism class.  This is determined by your performance in the Beginning Journalism class, and by your application.
 
3. There will be homework every night of the week and sometimes on the weekends.  The homework consists of one of the following: writing, reading the newspaper, reading Time, or doing research for your story.
 
4. We will discuss the articles in Time magazine once a week.
 
5. You will have other tests on layout and design.
 
6. PageMaker will be taught in a one day seminar during school.
 

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS – You need to do the following:
 
1. To subscribe to a daily newspaper and read it every day.
 
2. Subscribe to Time magazine and read it every week.
 
3. For every writing style, you will be required to cut out three articles, paste them to a piece of notebook paper, analyze them (about one paragraph long) and be prepared to discuss them in class.
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE:

WEEK 1, 2 – personality features and leads
 
WEEK 3, 4 – movie reviews
 
WEEK 5, 6 – restaurant reviews
 
WEEK 7, 8 – news leads & news
 
WEEK 9, 10 – editorial/opinion
 
WEEK 11, 12 – features
 
WEEK 13, 14 – columns & music reviews
 
WEEK 15, 16 – sports
 
WEEK 17, 18 – surveys and investigative
 
WEEK 18 – page layout, computers
 
WEEK 19 – page layout, computer BOOK REVIEWS DUE
 
WEEK 19 – final page due
 
WEEK 20 – final examination
 
The class will also be critiquing the Campanile (the school newspaper) every third week when it comes out.  We will also critique the new Paly magazine and the Paly TV show.

GRADING:

1. You will be graded on the following—
 
a. your writing—you will have one writing assignment every week.  The assignment will not be graded until it has been revised 2-3 times.  After the third revision, the assignment will be graded.  At that point, you will hopefully get an A.  Assignments need to be turned in on time to get a final A grade.  Some people might have to revise more than 3 times to get an A.
 
b. your classroom participation.
 
c. reading the daily newspaper and Time.
 
d. keeping an up-to-date notebook and turning it in at the end of each quarter.

SAVE ALL YOUR WORK

THE ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE IS AS FOLLOWS (one week period):
 
     New writing assignment due Monday of every other week.

     Assignments returned to students on Tuesday

     First revision due Wednesday

     Revision returned to students Friday

     Second revision due Monday.

Most weekends, you will be working on two assignments: the revision and the new writing assignment.  Both will be due on Monday.
 
SAVE all your writing assignments: at the end of each quarter , you will need to turn in all your writing assignments for the quarter.

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