Journalism 110: News Reporting

Professor: Melissa Wall, Ph.D.
Phone: 818/677-5677

Office & Hours: Manzanita 330

1-2 p.m. Mondays, 6-7 p.m. Tuesdays, 1-2 p.m. Wednesdays, 11-12 p.m. Thursdays or by appointment.

Information about the course

Schedule

Course description

Texts

A word about plagiarism

A word about diversity

Basics for writing a news story

Mechanics:

• Grammar
• Style
• Attribution
• Quotations

Leads:

• Basics of summary hard leads
• Which lead works?
• Soft leads

Writing news stories:

• Inverted pyramid
• More on inverted pyramid
• Interviews
• Where to find story ideas & Free! Story ideas!! ACT now!

Finding information:

Tools to help you search

How to use Lexis-Nexis

Specific topics:

Feature writing

Covering crime

The Trauma Project

Covering disasters

Covering an event

Covering the weather

Other stuff:

Resources for Journalists

Finding a job

Online journalism Password required

Diversity and the news

GRADING:
Class assignments: 60 percent. You will be writing nearly every day. Assignments are done both in and out of class.

Quizzes: 20 percent. Quizzes will cover AP Style, current events.

Exam/Final Project: 10 percent.

Participation: 10 percent. You must come to class in order to do well in this course. Students are expected to have completed the assigned readings.

Late assignments and factual errors or misspelled names are marked down.

Grading follows university's catalog: A= outstanding; B= good, solid work; C=average work; D= barely passing; F= failure. CSUN's plus and minus system will be used in this course.