To introduce you to journalistic writing and principles of good journalism. Upon successful completion of the class you should:
1. develop a news sense and have the ability to write a news story
2. know about AP style
3. possess the ability to conduct an interview and gather information
4. understand basics of covering general news, meetings and speeches
5. be able to work under deadline pressure
Each student must write three stories suitable for publication in The Wichitan. Each must be three to five pages in length. All copy must be typed and double-spaced and in Times 12-point font, black ink. Topics must be approved by the instructor beforehand. Coverage should be thorough with multiple sources, if appropriate. Students are expected to come up with their own story ideas. You can write news and features but not editorials or personal columns or reviews. Keep yourself out of stories. It’s not all about you. An enterprising student journalist should tune him/herself in to campus life. Check the calendar of events to see what is coming up and be ready to pounce. You get ideas by listening to people, by talking to professors, by checking bulletin boards, by reading other college newspapers and by running your “beats.” Students will be assigned beats, places they should check on a weekly basis. Think ahead. Stories must be timely or they will not work. Be alert to interesting/controversial guest speakers. Stories should have depth (a meeting is seldom interesting unless something happens at that meeting). You’re writing only three stories so I expect them to be good! Feel free to bounce ideas off me. Come by my office. You won’t be bugging me. I’ll help you as much as you help yourself. I’m a very approachable guy so talk to me and don’t wait until the last minute.
If you do not come up with an acceptable idea by the due date one letter grade will be deducted from that story’s final grade. Hit me with your idea early if you wish or submit a backup idea or two. Prior to handing in each story, you must turn in your rough notes of the actual interview. That lets me know you didn’t wait until the last minute. If you fail to submit your notes on the due date you’ll be penalized one letter grade also. Not having an idea or notes tells me you’re not interested in the course. Remember this: No matter how good you think you are you can’t knock out a good story at the last minute. It’s not hard to put together a story, however, if you do things in increments.
Story 1 – Jan. 31, idea due; Feb. 9, notes due; Feb. 14, story due
Story 2 – Feb. 21, idea due; March 1, notes due; March 6, story due
Story 3 – March 27, idea due; April 12, notes due; April 17, story due
These three major assignments will be due at the beginning of the class period on the due dates. They must be ready when the professor calls for them. If they are being printed at that time on the printer in the classroom they will not be accepted so have your work ready BEFORE you come to class. Have your name on it and be ready to hand it in.
Rewrites may be required. Don’t be offended because 99 percent of students do rewrites. Usually, additional information is needed or a lead needs to be reworked. Failure to rewrite a story within a week will result in an “F” for that assignment even if it has a grade on it. If your story is timely you may be expected to do a rewrite in a narrower time frame because news, like fruit, is perishable. It’s vital that you finish what you start and strive to do your best. Stories must include names of persons interviewed, dates they were interviewed and their phone numbers. Put this information at the bottom of your story. Failure to do so will result in the loss of one letter grade for that story. You will still be required to furnish this information or the story will turn into an “F”.
Students are also expected to run “beats.” A beat is a place you go to every week or persons you see weekly. You should run it weekly. If you find out a major speaker is coming to campus a week after s/he has been here then it’s no longer newsworthy. Finding about things after the fact is too late. Stay on top of things. Each week give me a summation of where you went and whom you talked to. It doesn’t have to be a story, just a line or two. Put your name on it and hand it in every Tuesday. Too often, we miss things that are happening on campus. Beats will help improve our coverage of the academic community.
Late work will not be accepted. Journalism requires strict deadlines. If you know you will be out of town on the due date then turn your story in early. You can also email the story to me at: randy.pruitt@mwsu.edu. I must be able to open it so paste it in instead of sending it as an attachment. If I can’t open it then it won’t be accepted so paste it in. My email server tells me the exact time you sent it. Make sure it’s before the deadline or it won’t be accepted. The only exception to this late rule would be if a student were involved in some emergency beyond his/her control that can adequately be documented (a car wreck on the way to class is one example; a heart attack is another). If I learn you attended your grandmother’s funeral and she didn’t die or has been dead for years then I will give you an “F” for the course. I have no qualms about phoning a police station or funeral home to verify information. Attending a second cousin’s out-of-state wedding does not constitute a family emergency. If you make up sources or quote people without actually interviewing them you will receive an “F” for the course. This has, unfortunately, happened.
In the lab, you’ll write about real world happenings such as drownings, robberies, murders, etc. Some exercises may be given as homework. A tip: Don’t hurriedly slop through your lab stories and leave. Polish them. Give me two versions if you wish. Take this work seriously. Be thorough. I count off heavily for misspelled words and inaccuracies. If you don’t care then why should I?
Since no formal textbook is being used (think of the $$$ you’ll save), you are expected to take notes. Get a notebook specifically for this class and put down notes, observations, etc. Periodically, I may ask you to turn it in. Have it with you each class period. I may give a grade on any or all of it to see if you’re paying attention. This notebook will go into figuring part of your grade. I do not give midterms or final exams because this is a writing course. Any class quizzes will be short and not involve a lot of memorizing. They’re easy if you come to class and take notes.
Attendance will be kept. Students who miss more than four class periods and/or lab sessions will be automatically dropped from the course. Students who come in after the class roll is checked will be counted absent. I may lock the door so tardy students can’t enter after class begins and disturb everyone. Please don’t knock on the door. Come back next time on time. Makeup work will be allowed in the case of official school activities if the student furnishes me a letter or note from the sponsoring coach, professor or dean. In the spirit of fairness to everyone I will drop the two lowest lab scores at the end of the semester to compensate you for any bad luck you might have had.
My grading system: Your three major stories will be averaged and count as one-half of your final grade. Lab assignments, quizzes, homework, beats and class notes will be totaled and averaged and count as one-half of your final grade. Letter grades will be awarded on all assignments (A, B, C, etc.)
Plagiarism and cheating: The MSU Student Honor Creed, written and adopted by the 2002-2003 MSU Student Senate, includes the statement:
“As an MSU student, I pledge not to lie, cheat, steal, or help anyone else to do so.”
You are expected to abide by it. Plagiarism and cheating include, but are not limited to: fabricating stories and sources, copying material from other publications without crediting the author, turning in another student’s work as your own, and copying quiz answers from another person. ANYONE CAUGHT CHEATING OR PLAGIARIZING OR MAKING THINGS UP WILL RECEIVE AN ‘F’ FOR THE COURSE. By enrolling in this course, the student expressly grants MSU a “limited right” in all intellectual property created by the student for the purpose of this course. The “limited right” shall include but shall not be limited to the right to reproduce the student’s work product in order to verify originality and authenticity, and educational purposes.
All major stories will be handed over to the editor of The Wichitan for possible publication. On request, I may ask you to furnish the story to the editor either on a disk or by email (wichitan@mwsu.edu). Whether a story is published or not will not affect your grade. The determination for publication rests solely with the editor. As adviser to that publication, I have no control over what runs in The Wichitan. When you interview a subject make it clear that what you write may end up in the paper. Don’t interview roommates, close friends or people with whom you are engaged in a relationship unless you clear it with me. Don’t interview family members or close relatives unless you talk to me first. Don’t write about yourself unless you talk to me first. Reporters rarely write about themselves but there are exceptions. Avoid using anonymous sources. As a practice, publications frown on quoting unnamed parties. There are exceptions to this rule such as not naming a rape victim so talk to me first.
Note: Periodically, the editor of The Wichitan has story ideas that need completion. If you take an assignment from the editor (which must go through me if it is for this class), you must complete it by the editor’s deadline not the class deadline. Even though I might require a story on a certain date, if the editor wants it earlier then that’s when it’s due. Students who agree to do one of these stories MUST DO IT. Failure to do so will obviously leave the newspaper staff in a bind. Students who say they will write a story for The Wichitan and fail to do so will receive an “F” for that assignment. That person will get to take no more Wichitan stories for class credit.
Deductions will be made for mistakes in spelling, AP style and grammar. Consult your AP Stylebook frequently. Keep a folder of all your stories and lab work in case a question arises about your grade.
Compliance with American Disabilities Act: Any student with a disability that may prevent full participation in this class should notify the instructor to ensure that alternatives may be found to provide the student with full class participation.
Other stuff I wish I didn’t have to talk about: Fix cellular phones so I can’t hear them. No text messaging either. I consider phones annoying and disruptive so keep them turned off and out of sight keep them turned off and out of sight keep them turned off and out of sight keep them turned off and out of sight. Last semester, five students had their grades lowered because they didn’t heed this warning. I didn’t like doing it but then I didn’t like listening to a girl’s cute, loud phone ring, ring, ring, ring, ring while she floundered around in her purse to dig it out and turn it off. Your final grade will be reduced by one letter grade each time a cell phone or other device goes off in class or you’re caught text messaging or if I see you being distracted by such devices. Keep iPods and the like out of your ears or I’ll confiscated them. Class is not the place to surf the Internet, check email or play with the computers. Anyone caught using the computers during lectures for anything but notes will be dropped a letter grade each time s/he is caught. One girl had 26 hits on cheerleading during one lecture. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. Anyone being disruptive will be dropped from the course. Do not bring food or drinks into the classroom/lab. This is a departmental rule that will be enforced. I consider you adults but if you act like children I’ll treat you as such. It’s up to you.
Parents: I don’t do parents. If your parents want to know your grades or talk with me about them or your stories tell them to forget it. I won’t, under any circumstance, give out grades or talk with parents about your performance or lack of it. This is a private matter between you and me. If you think you have been treated unfairly you are, of course, entitled to appeal any grade or complaint through normal university channels. A committee has been set up for this specific purpose. Fight your own battles. Don’t expect your parents to do it for you.
Ideas discussed in class are not to be given to other publications on or off campus without first discussing it with me. I probably won’t allow it. Would you like it if we discussed your story idea in class and it turned up in The Times Record News written by someone else? Use common sense. Ideas discussed in class cannot be used for the campus television station until after they are published in The Wichitan. Likewise, don’t steal an idea from the campus TV station and use it as the basis for a story for this class. Be clear that I am not talking about spot news events that occur but special and often unique story ideas that arise in the classroom. If you think you’re confused seek me out. If I can prove this rule has been violated that person will receive an “F” on that assignment. It is not our job to “feed” other publications. Any worthy newspaper or magazine would fire you if they discovered you were giving ideas and/or stories to competitors.
Other tips: Bring a Jump Drive to class so you can save your stories. Save frequently in case of computer crashes. It is your responsibility to pick up papers or stories handed back in class during your absence. It is your responsibility to turn in your rewrites without being asked.