English 227,
Feature Writing for Magazines
and Newspapers
Greenville
College, Fall Semester, 2006
MWF, 8:30 - 9:20. New Music Center 144 (MW) and Library Classroom Lab (F)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Dr.
Donna J. Hart
225 Hogue Hall
Office Phone: X 6805. Home Phone: 664-3863. Please feel free to call me at home.
Office Hours: All day Thursday.
Email:
Donna.Hart@greenville.edu
Course Description:
This writing course explores research, interview, and expository techniques appropriate for periodical publications and their diverse audiences. It also provides basic instruction in Adobe InDesign CS2 web publishing program.
Required Texts:
Friedlander, Edward Jay, and John Lee. Feature Writing for Newspapers and Magazines: The Pursuit of Excellence. 5th Edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004.
Classroom in a Book: The Official Training Workbook from Adobe Systems. Adobe InDesign CS2. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit, 2006.
I’d suggest that you also get yourself a good handbook of writing. There are probably several in the bookstore.
Course Objectives: We will--
1.
develop a clearer understanding of what a "feature" article is. (IO
A 2; ELAO 5, 10; TEO 1)
2. give attention to and practice all aspects of the "process" of
writing a feature article, i.e., developing the idea, researching background
and details, interviewing, writing.
3. identify appropriate research and interview sources, whether they be persons,
written texts, visual sources, online databases, etc. (IO A 1, 2; ELAO 1, 2,
12, 13, 14, 18; TEO 5)
4. discriminate between credible primary and secondary sources and between reliable
and flawed information. (IO A 1, 2; ELAO 1, 12, 14; TEO 5)
5. give attention to and practice creating the various parts of a feature article,
i.e., lead, bridge, body, closing. (IO C 8; ELAO 1, 3, 5; TEO 1, 5)
6. improve our writing skills, i.e., in terms of completeness, concreteness,
clarity, coherence, conciseness, citation, creativity, and correctness. (IO
A 2, C 8; ELAO 1, 3, 4, 5; TEO 1, 5)
7. keep a portfolio of all writing done during the semester, to get a sense
of growth and improvement and to use as a source for future writing. (IO C 8;
ELAO 1; TEO 6)
8. publish one or more articles, in the College newspaper or yearbook or in
a class-produced magazine. (IO C 8; ELAO 1; TEO)
9. understand publishing as both an incentive to and a reward for feature writing.
(IO C 7, 8; ELAO 1; TEO)
10. develop at least a minimal proficiency in the webpublishing program InDesign.
(IO C 8; ELAO 1, 15; TEO 1)
11. examine a variety of magazines in terms of their submission policies, manuscript
format requirements, reimbursement scale, etc. (IO A 2; ELAO 1; TEO 1, 5, 6,
9)
12. develop a sense of responsibility, as a Christian, always to write truthfully,
but humanely. (IO A 1, 2 B 3, 4, 5, 6 C 7,8; ELAO 8, 18, 19 TEO 11)
Assessment Activities:
1.
Objectives 1 - 5, 9, and 11 are assessed by class discussion and the papers
that the students actually produce throughout the semester.
2. Objective 6 is assessed by the student’s turning in the portfolio at
midterm and end of semester for my evaluation. (S)he will have a list of required
items that must appear in the portfolio.
3. Objectives 7 and 8 are assessed by the student’s actually having those
articles published in a class magazine, a popular magazine or the Papyrus
or Vista.
4. Objective 10 is assessed by successful completion of project lessons in InDesign
and successful completion of a class magazine.
Additional Information:
For information regarding the College’s—and MY—policies about
writing standards, portfolios, and academic honesty (plagiarism), go to the
College website at http://www.greenville.edu/academics/aa/assessment/syllabi/texts.shtml#writing
.
My Basic Assumptions:
We all start with a set of presuppositions--Christians do (varieties of Christians do), Muslims do, Hindus do, the KKK does, the NAACP does, men do, women do, children do. Everything we read, speak, write, or think gets filtered through those presuppositions or prejudices. Try to figure out what your own prejudices are and, as you interview, research, and write, try to question even them, as much as you possibly can. Believe it or not, using the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral" that we sometimes speak of at Greenville might help you avoid extremes of any kind. The "Wesleyan Quadrilateral" suggests that we make judgments based on
REASON, EXPERIENCE, SCRIPTURE, and TRADITION
(R.E.S.T. will help you remember them). These are the 4 supports I want you to use
To read each text I assign.
So
what do we mean by the elements of this "Wesleyan Quadrilateral”?
To be REASONABLE means that you must objectively
consider all the spoken and written evidence. You must be attentive (give your
whole attention) to a variety of viewpoints, whether they align with yours or
not. Anger, ridicule, ignore(ance)--none of these responses allows you to be
attentive or reasonable.
To use your EXPERIENCE means to ask yourself how
being what you are (as in my case, a Christian--Southern Baptist turned Free
Methodist and married to a Roman Catholic, a white woman, a farm girl, a mother
and grandmother, a remarried divorcee) informs your view of the world. What
does your experience of the world tell you that some of your classmates may
not know? What does your personal experience with God through Jesus Christ tell
you that perhaps much of the rest of the world does not know?
To use SCRIPTURE means to consider carefully what
God has said through His prophets and apostles. Of course, this means you must
really seek to know WHAT HE SAID and not just what a particular denomination
(such as the Free Methodist or the Baptist) says He said. It will take your
getting back to the Hebrew or Greek and to the context in which it was written.
To respect TRADITION means that you do not reinvent
the wheel. What have the Church Fathers (and Mothers), Catholic and Protestant,
said about this issue? What have historians, sociologists, economists, psychologists,
teachers--all scholars--said about this issue in the past? What are wise people
saying about it now? How do all these voices stand up under the scrutiny of
your own reason, experience, and Scripture?
Such an approach calls for your listening to a multitude of voices--your own
and others--and sorting through what makes sense to you in the lights of reason,
experience, Scripture, and tradition. As Andrea Lunsford and John Ruszkiewicz,
assert, "It is not a tennis match of ideas, one that will yield winners
and losers. Rather, we are interested in how we all come to know and to take
positions on various issues, how to nurture open and realistic exchanges of
ideas" (The Presence of Others xvii). Nonetheless, I agree with
John Henry Newman, nineteenth century British theologian and educator, that
we listen to all these voices--our own and others--to arrive at "the attainment
of truth, which is their common end" (The Idea of a University).
Attendance Policy:
You can best meet the course objectives by attending and participating in class.
We cannot share information and views if you are not here. Your education depends
not only on your compliance with reading a certain number of pages or turning
in a stipulated number of papers; it also depends on the interaction between
your voice and others' voices. Thus, I will allot 2 points toward an "attendance
grade" for each MWF class session. So, for example, if we were to
meet 3 times a week for 15 weeks, your total possible points would be 90, which
would just about equal two papers. Of course, the total will actually
be just a bit less than that, because we will dismiss class on some occasions
for research, etc. Whenever you are not in class, you will not earn the
points.
ATHLETES: All athletes are excused for all games. See me about your
makeup work ahead of time. Don't expect absences on top of your games;
save your absences for your games.
***As far as tardiness is concerned, I do not intend to play that game.
If you are repeatedly late, I'll just start counting you absent.
Grading Criteria:
There will be no tests; this is a writing course. You will write about 6 feature
articles during the semester and at least 2 analyses/critiques of professional
feature articles. They will be graded at 50 points each, this in addition to
the attendance grade mentioned above. You will also receive 10 points for every
insightful and helpful evaluation of a classmate's paper that you are assigned
to do. Grading of writing is always subjective, but I will try to give you as
clear guidelines as I possibly can. My grading scale is 90 - 80 - 70 - 60 %.
As far as your major features go, after several readings, I determine a "letter"
grade for your paper. This grade reflects
how it
compares with an “ideal” performance on the grading matrix (which
I will hand out to you).
how it compares with the papers
completed by your classmates.
how your paper compares to my
"Eight C's" of expectations (which I will hand out to you).
Once I decide your letter grade, I assign your paper a number of points to reflect
that grade.
Late Papers:
Papers are due by class time on their deadline date, unless otherwise indicated
on the syllabus.
Study Time Expectations:
College students should, realistically, expect to spend two hours outside of
class for every hour they spend in class. Frankly, when you have a feature article
to finish, it will take you more time than that. Good interviewing takes time;
good research takes time; good writing and revising takes time.
Portfolio:
Keep a portfolio of everything you write for the class this semester, as per
the instructions I will hand out.
Tentative Schedule:
Week One—(August 30)
W - Introduction to the class, requirements, syllabus, portfolio, etc. Introduction to Adobe InDesign CS2.
F - Meet in the Library Computer Lab Classroom every Friday!! Read and Discuss Chapter 1 of Classroom in a Book (CB), "Getting to Know the Work Area," pp. 45 - 73.
Week Two—(September 4)
M - Read and discuss Chapter 1 of Feature Writing for Newspapers and Magazines, (FW), pp. 1 - 23.
W - Read and discuss "Life on the Land," FW, 46 - 51.
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Setting Up Your Document," 75 - 111.
Week Three—(September 11)
M - Read and discuss Chapter 3 of FW, pp. 65 – 78.
W - Read and discuss handout article featuring a "place." Writing Assignment #1: Write a place feature. Post this on the Blackboard class site, under the Discussion Board feature, by Friday night. Everybody evaluate one other person’s paper by next Monday. Don't leave any paper without a response.
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Working with Frames," 113 - 141.
Week Four—(September 18)
M - Guest Speaker. "What is a feature article?"
W - Read Chapter 4 of FW, pp. 113 – 122. [***I will be gone to a conference, "Journalism through the Eyes of Faith," at Bethel College, MN, Sept. 20 - 22. I'd love to take several of you.]
F - Read "Death of a Playmate," FW, 96 - 109. Over the weekend, work through CB "Importing and Editing Text," 143 - 181.
Week Five—(September 25)
M - Read and discuss Chapter 5 of FW, pp. 139 – 179.
W - Read and discuss handout article featuring a "person." (You might also want to look at the personal profile on p. 168 and another on p. 178.) Writing Assignment #2: Write a person feature. Post to the BB Discussion Board by Friday night, and, again, everybody respond to one other person's paper by next Monday.
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Working with Typography," 183 - 210. ***DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO SET UP YOUR INTERVIEWS FOR NEXT WEEK! DO IT NOW!
Week Six—(October 2)
M - Read and discuss Chapter 6 of FW, pp. 181 – 188, 203 - 207. Interviewing Assignment #1. Make an appointment with someone in the newspaper or magazine business, and interview them about how they do their job. Write a 2 - 3 page report of your most interesting findings about either this interview or the next one. Post to me in the DDB by Monday, October 9. For the other interview, just post a note of who you talked to and where and when.
W - No formal class. Interviewing Assignment #2. Interview someone(s) in relation to either your person or your place feature, someone whose perspective can add depth to your first draft.
F - No formal class. Revise any one of the features that you’ve written so far. Post it to BB. Practice with InDesign.
Week Seven—(October 9)
M - Fall Break/Reading Day. No Class.
W - Read and discuss Chapter 7 of FW, pp. 225 - 258.
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Working with Color," 213 - 260.
Week Eight—(October 16)
M - Read and discuss a handout of an "event" feature. Writing Assignment #3: Write a feature article about some interesting/important event. Post it to the Discussion Board of Blackboard by Friday evening. As usual, comment on each other's papers before class time on Monday.
W - Read and discuss a several short samples of event features. What could be done to improve them?
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Working with Styles," 263 - 293.
Week Nine—(October 23)
M - Read and discuss Chapter 9 of FW, pp. 285 - 310.
W - Discuss what else can be done to improve the research and interview bases for the 3 articles you've written so far.
F - ***Instead of working in the lab, take this day to set up interviews with appropriate people and do more research to improve your features. Rewrite any one of the 3 features that you've written so far. Post it to BB. Practice with InDesign.
Week Ten—(October 30)
M - Read and discuss Chapter 10 of FW, pp. 311 – 324.
W - Guest Speaker.
F - We will analyze a major publication. Let's do sports this first time.
Week Eleven—(November 6)
M - Read and discuss a handout of a sports feature article.
W - No class. Do some reading, interviewing, and research to write a sports feature. Writing Assignment #4: Write a sports feature. Post by Friday night; evaluate someone else by Monday, class time.
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Importing and Linking Graphics," pp. 295 - 327.
Week Twelve—(November 13)
M - Read and discuss a handout of a Christian magazine feature article.
W - No class. Do some reading, interviewing, and research to write a feature about something in religion. Writing Assignment #5: Write a religion feature. Same deadlines as always.
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Creating Tables," pp. 329 - 351.
Week Thirteen—(November 20)
M - We will analyze a popular women's magazine this time. Writing Assignment #6: Write a feature that focuses on a woman or on women in some way. Post it to the Discussion Board of BB by Monday night, November 27. W - ***Thanksgiving Break, November 21 - 26! Be safe going and coming back.
F - ***Thanksgiving Break, November 21 - 26! Be safe going and coming back.
Week Fourteen—(November 27)
M - Read and discuss Chapter 8 of FW, pp. 259 - 284.
W - No class; Common Day of Learning. Writing Assigment: Pick any 3 of your 6 features and revise them for a serious and final grade. All are due by the scheduled exam time. ***These and your magazine pages will be your only final exam!!
F - Lab, working with InDesign. CB, "Working with Long Documents," pp. 373 - 388.
Week Fifteen—(December 4)
M - Final Guest Speaker. Work on your revisions and your magazine pages. ***Conferences are welcome!!
W - No formal class. Same.
F - Lab, let's all work together in getting a really nice-looking magazine put together.
Week Sixteen—(December 11; EXAMS.)
M - We'll work in the Lab, if we can, finishing the magazine. **Conferences are welcome!! Your portfolio (of all drafts and alll revisions) and your completed magazines pages due by scheduled exam time, which is Wednesday, December 13, 8:00 - 9:50 a.m.