Syllabus

Moorpark College

Jour M02

sdaniels@vcccd.edu

Writing and Reporting for the Media

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OVERVIEW

Journalism as a life skill: You will use what you learn in this class your whole life. You will use the logic and clear thinking skills in your other classes, in your career, relationships and life. You will use your clear writing skills on college papers, in graduate work, on job application letters, legal briefs, medical reports, interoffice memos, professional letter writing and love letter writing.

Course Goals: At the end of the semester, students know how to conceive, report, write and produce basic news, features and opinion stories in appropriate formats for print, online and broadcast. Two of these will be submitted to the Student Voice campus newspaper or other community news outlet for publication in print or online.

Course Overview: Through weekly assignments, together with in-class exercises, lecture, review and critique, student news gathering and writing skills will improve quickly. Students will write stories from exercises as well as from facts they have gathered about community news and events.

Texts: “Writing and Reporting News” Fifth Edition, by Carole Rich

Supplemental required text: "Associated Press Stylebook". The AP stylebook is the guide of daily news writing and must be brought to class each meeting.

Class Policies: Save copies of original, as well as any marked work in case of disputed or missing grade. Clip all published copies of your stories and save with date to include in a portfolio due the final week of classes.

Grading: Course grades will be assigned according to college structure, using the A-F scale. Assignments are graded according to a Writing and Reporting Rubric, which will be handed out during class or made available on the web. Late papers accepted up to one week lose a full letter grade. The course grading structure is as follows, but may vary slightly during the course of the semester:

Writing assignments 150

Published stories 75

Clip portfolio 25

Class exercises and quizzes 130

(These are timely and must be done on

time as the class progresses. No make-ups.)

Final (writing) 50

Final (quiz) 20

Total (total may vary) 450

NOTE: Students must demonstrate competency of the Inverted Pyramid writing format on the final with a ‘B’ or better in order to earn an ‘A’ in the course, regardless of cumulative semester points.

Class procedures: Students should check this website daily for class communications and additional assignments. Assignments cannot be made up beyond the week grace period. Late exercises and quizzes are not accepted beyond the posted expiration time.

Class Etiquette: Students who fail to turn off their cellphones, pagers or other communication devices, will be warned once before they are excused from the class. No non-class related IMing, web surfing or emailing during class will be allowed. You are expected to be on time and to attend class regularly. If you are late, please enter quietly and take a seat.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism and other forms of cheating are not tolerated. Anyone caught cheating will be reported to the dean and receive a failing grade for the course.

Diversity: Students in this course are encouraged to make every effort, with the instructor’s help, to include people in their assignments who have been traditionally overlooked by mainstream media.

Students with Disabilities: Students who may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact ACCESS at 378-1461. The office is located in the building just to the right of the campus center.

The Learning Center: Students enrolled in this course are encouraged to use the Writing Center in LLR 332 for tutorial services to support their efforts in this class. For further information call The Learning Center (805) 378-1556 or the Writing Center (805) 378-1400 ext 1696.

Smoking Policy: Moorpark College is a non-smoking campus.

All assignments, postings and directions are subject to change. Please check this website daily.

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