Running List of Past Daily Assignments
(in reverse chronological order)
For Tuesday:
Come to your appointment time. Meetings take place in my office: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/4629103081.
Keep working on Major Assignment #4.
In-Class Monday:
Take 15 minutes to skim-read these 3 articles:
Read and respond to your assigned peers’ Feature stories: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ktrauUa5QhGBaWzwp7bg-3wVXVpgM921?usp=sharing
Read each and write them a paragraph (at the bottom of their documents; sign your names).
Just write them big-picture feedback—Suggestions would be things like: What did you think about with this story? What was most memorable/affecting? What did you notice about their voice? (Voice is especially hard to identify on your own; it can be helpful for others to help you know what you “sound” like, distinct from others.) Were there places where you became confused or lost momentum? What else would you like to see if you were reading a follow-up piece?
Our Plan for This Final Week:
Monday—Today in class, we’ll look at the components of your Major Assignment #4 (due Wednesday by 11:59 p.m. EST).
Tuesday—We’ll have 1-on-1 meetings to discuss your first 3 Major Assignments and your plan for Major Assignment #4.
Wednesday—Class is optional. I will be online during class time; you are WELCOME to come and bring your work in progress for input from me and any other classmates present. Final portfolios are due tonight.
Thursday—We’ll administer the Final Exam during class time. At the beginning of class time, you will be given a prompt on which to write, and you will have the duration of the class period to complete the assignment to a publishable quality, adhering to AP style guidelines. The word count will be manageable, but you will need to focus and give yourself time to plan, write, and edit before the end of the exam time.
Major Assignment #3: Due Saturday, 8/1, by 11:59 p.m. EST, to this Drive folder.
As a reminder, I recommend that you sign up NOW for a writing center session next week,
to help you with revisions as part of your final portfolios. You can sign up here.If you haven’t yet signed up for a conference time, please do so here.
If you can’t find a time that works with your schedule, text or email me so we can work out alternatives.
For Friday:
NOTE DELAYED START TIME: We will meet for class tomorrow at 11:30 EST—an hour later than usual.
We’ll spend most of the meeting time workshopping work-in-progress, some all together and some in small groups.
Keep working on your feature stories. Bring drafts-in-progress to class (go ahead and drop them to your folders, so you can share easily during class time).
Go ahead and sign up for a conference time. All individual conferences take place on Tuesday, 8/4.
In-Class Thursday:
Part I: Editing
In small groups, read and make big-picture edits to Issue #2 articles as assigned.<—click here
Read your assigned articles first in the “print” edition, for a big-picture sense of it. Just read as if it were a published story and kind of note your gut responses.
Open the editable document and work together to record big picture feedback in 2 rounds:
Note AT LEAST 2 favorite things in the comments.
Note at least 2 big-picture items for revision, with specific suggestions in the comments.
Work together and copy edit, based on the House Style and AP Style guides. Use the “Suggesting” function in Google Docs (not “Editing”).
Part II: Contribute to this thank-you note for JB.
Part III: Go ahead and start on Major Assignment #3.
It might be helpful to read/skim this additional chapter on writing “Alternative Leads,” from Writing and Reporting for the Media.
For Thursday:
I’ll post your Major Assignment #3 during Thursday’s class, so do as much work as you can on your story files between now and then, so you can start writing as soon as possible tomorrow.
Heads up: We’ll also be doing some editing exercises on Issue #2, so be prepared for that, and we’ll write a group thank you note to JB.
For Wednesday:
Keep working on your story files.
We’ll start Wednesday’s class with discussion, and then we’ll have our guest speaker, JB Smith, joining us around 11:15. So read up on JB and read some of his work:
Quick summary from me—JB has been a reporter for the Waco Tribune Herald in Waco, TX, for 22+ years; he’s now the managing editor. Waco ends up in the national consciousness for a weird range of reasons—when I was in high school, Waco was famously the location of the big Branch Davidian cult showdown (resulting in the deaths of 76 people); for College football people, Waco is the home of Baylor University; the city more recently has been known for hosting HGTV’s Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines. Etc. JB has done a range of beat reporting and feature pieces, among other work.
2017 interview w/JB: http://www.wacobusinessnews.com/the-latest/2017/4/21/downtown-depot-jb-smith (interview starts around 4:55 time stamp)
Example features (or feature-like) stories:
Post at least 2 questions for JB in this shared doc.
In Class on Tuesday:
Exercises—
Go to this containing folder. Create a new folder with your name on it and start putting all of your files, records, etc. for the week in that folder (which is now your story file for the week).
Copy this “Getting Started” document and start filling it out for yourself. Put your copy in your story file.
In Class on Tuesday:
Exercises—
Go to this containing folder. Create a new folder with your name on it and start putting all of your files, records, etc. for the week in that folder (which is now your story file for the week).
Copy this “Getting Started” document and start filling it out for yourself. Put your copy in your story file.
For Tuesday, July 28:
Add all of the newly adopted state newspapers to your course Twitter feed. Spend at least an hour exploring the stories you see coming through now.
Read these examples of feature stories:
“Guantanamo’s Darkest Secret” (Pulitzer Prize for best feature in 2020)
“Pearls Before Breakfast” (Pulitzer Prize for best feature in 2008—you may need to find the title and click to expand; they’ve reproduced to get you around a paywall)
series by Diana Marcum (Pulitzer Prize for best feature in 2015—click through the articles, all linked; read any one a little more in-depth to get a feel for what she was doing)
Read these examples of immersion journalism:
“Inside the Madhouse” (skim this article, from a series by Nellie Bly, first published in 1887—Bly admitted herself to an insane asylum to document what went on there; her articles were eventually published as a book, Ten Days in a Mad-House)
You might also want to skim this BrainPickings article that explains her project in more modern terms.)
excerpt from Friday Night Lights
excerpt from Without You, There Is No Us
excerpt from Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
Revisit the readings from Monday’s class:
“Feature Stories,” Writing and Reporting for the Media, Ch. 12
“Selecting and Reporting the News,” Writing and Reporting for the Media, Ch. 2
“Narrative Nonfiction: What is it and what does it look like?”
“Q&A: Ted Conover on mastering the art of immersion journalism”
You might also enjoy this podcast interview with Ted Conover+Adam Conover (from Adam Ruins Everything)
Be prepared to discuss questions such as:
What strategies do you see the various journalists using to:
shape the narrative?
portray full characters?
“get inside” the stories?
get readers to feel immersed in the stories (i.e., through sensory details, etc.)?
still achieve balanced reporting?
What differences are you seeing in your Twitter feed, having added more state/national-interest news?
What do you anticipate being different challenges in writing for a bigger/more diverse readership than for a local community?
What subjects are you considering covering this week, and what strategies can you reasonably employ to get close enough to observe your topic first-hand, over at least a couple of days?
What questions can you formulate about your topic, to get you started in pursuing your story? (I.e., since you don’t know what will happen, you can’t "start with the end in mind,” so you’ll need to give yourself some places to begin, instead, and a lot of that beginning turns on your own curiosity.)
Skim through the second issue of our class paper. We’ll be doing style exercises on Thursday, including some individual and group copy editing.
In-Class Monday:
Adopt-a-Paper Part II: Please take 20 minutes or so to (a) select a state flagship paper (generally the newspaper published out of a state’s capitol city, with some contestable exceptions) and then (b) begin adding details to this spreadsheet.
By the end of the exercise, please add all the new state newspapers to your course Twitter feed.
Take 45 minutes or so to fast-read the items below. Come back at 11:45 ready to discuss news writing with state and national audiences in mind, with an emphasis on feature stories.
“Feature Stories,” Writing and Reporting for the Media, Ch. 12
“Selecting and Reporting the News,” Writing and Reporting for the Media, Ch. 2
“Narrative Nonfiction: What is it and what does it look like?”
“Q&A: Ted Conover on mastering the art of immersion journalism”
Major Assignment #2: Due Friday, 7/24, by 11:59 p.m. EST, to this Drive folder.
Feel free to text me throughout today if you need input; I’ll be available until 9 p.m.
For Friday:
Map out your story in some physical way—on a white board, on a bulletin board with notecards, in whatever app you find useful—just try to take all the pieces you HAVE gathered in your story file and put them together VISUALLY according to the story shape you’re going to try (the inverted pyramid; the hourglass; or the focus style).
Identify gaps in information or details that you’re going to need to assemble your story, and go track down the missing pieces! Make your story file as complete as possible upon coming to class tomorrow, so you can jump right into writing.
Review my proof notes (all rescans now posted here) and other grading/edits to your Major Assignment 1 (i.e., notes from peer editing on Thursday; the grading rubric you should have received from me via email). If you want to set up a meeting with me to discuss revisions, feel free! I’ll post the details about submitting revisions by Monday, July 27.
In-Class Thursday:
Work together to copy edit your articles, based on our House Style sheet, AP Stylebook, and my proof notes.
Skim the rest of the “Body of a News Story” chapter and discuss alternative story shapes.
For Thursday:
Continue gathering information for your story file.
Listen to some sample interviews—to get a feel for different interview styles and strategies (and different ways of cutting the material later for a story). The first three are pretty short; the last one is longer:
“A Tale of Two Camdens” (a Planet Money episode)
From StoryCorps, a project where regular people interview each other (often feel more like a conversation): https://youtu.be/l3MF7pwrQrk
“Nightline’s Historic Nelson Mandela Interview” (an interview about an interview, with clips from the original—:-D—you may need to turn on the closed captioning option—stick through to the end
Dan Rather interview with Billy Ray Cyrus (ha—so sorry; you really should watch a Rather interview, but most of his are behind a paywall; Cyrus’s people posted this one, so it’s one of the few I could find full-length and free; it’s kind of fun, though—if you want to stop this one after 20 minutes or so, feel free)
Go ahead and contact 1-3 people for original interviews.
Be sure to follow legal process in conducting interviews (only record if they okay it on the record; and for the sake of our class, fact-check all quotes with them—over email or text is fine).
Draw on the “Interviewing” chapter and “Interviewing the Interviewer” article from Wednesday to help you in preparing for, organizing, and conducting your interview(s).
If you’re able, go ahead and conduct your interview(s). If you’re not, try to set them up for tomorrow/Friday.
For Wednesday:
*Just one note to clarify—as you are selecting your story topics, the only major thing you should be keeping in mind at this time is scope—you’ll be writing an article for a community-level publication, so keep your story local to a particular community. You do NOT have to write anything controversial or scintillating, even though most of the examples in our reading/viewing are both; the “exciting” stories are usually the ones that help us see/talk about the tricky issues that come up. But you could be covering local artists or science research or a feel-good story about a kid going somewhere on a scholarship, etc. Your grade on this week’s Major Assignment will NOT be attached to whether you chose a controversial or not-so-controversial story.
Be sure to submit both Exercise 1 and Exercise 2 by 11:59 p.m.
*Exercise 2—you ARE allowed add additional material before Friday, but what you submit tonight should be enough for someone else to pick up what you’ve collected and write a complete story from only that folder.Read:
“Interviewing” (Ch. 11 from Writing and Reporting for the Media, 12th ed.)
“Interviewing the Interviewer” (skim this one if you’re running low on time)
Also, here is a PDF of the Boston Globe article published at the end of the Spotlight film—it’s from a library database, so the formatting has been stripped (i.e., it’s not pretty anymore in terms of layout), but the text is complete.
In-Class Tuesday, 7/21:
Ex1: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1U4oRBZylPOCgiPkAN5e17KMBMp5Hyvnp
Ex2: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18DQU2L1XksELWwTJJojK3dxryLFTnGEs?usp=sharing
For Tuesday, 7/21:
Be sure to finish responding to the Discussion threads in Collab. If I didn’t ask a question that lets you address things YOU thought were most important in the film, feel free to tag on anywhere and let me know what you think deserves additional attention.
Read “Journalists Have a Responsibility to Conscience” (Elements of Journalism, Ch. 10)
Read the three articles below and be ready to discuss ethics in representing others and telling their stories. Feel free to go down the Internet rabbit hole for a while on this question—if you Google “Who gets to tell other people’s stories?” or similar, you’ll see a LOT of relevant material. I kept pretty generic responses below, but they get interesting when centered on specific groups or peoples (like people from Appalachian, for example, or Australian aboriginal people, or the subjects of case study work, etc., etc.).
Who Gets to Tell Other People’s Stories? by Anna Holmes
Who Gets to Tell Your Story? by Shanna Peeples
Who Gets to Tell Your Story? by Christopher Castellani (same title as above, different article)
Read all of your classmates’ articles in response to Major Assignment #1 (linked above, and also here), with special attention to:
Sorry for the “boring” one—AP style. What inconsistencies do you notice among the articles in terms of style/format? Look up the AP rules associated with those inconsistencies and be prepared to point us to specific rules (page numbers/Kindle locations as you have them) to help us determine correct usage, etc.
Compare/contrast treatment of recurring items—for example, a lot of you used the same quotes from UVA administrators, so how do you see each other setting up the quotes the same or in different ways? And for the two articles focused on UVA athletes (thanks for the variety, Scott and Sam!), what do you see in terms of similarities/differences?
Scope and approach—the Major Assignment #1 prompt was to be straightforward and stick to facts, so it seems predictable that a lot of the articles read similarly to one another. This week, you’ll have a more open prompt that will include independent research, so there’s bound to be a lot more diversity in the submissions. But you will also have the chance to revise MA#1 in week 4, bringing in different angles and sources, etc. So what kinds of variety might you have hoped to see? Or, what might you have thought about trying, “played it safe,” and now wish you had tried, etc.?
In class Monday—
I’ll be actively posting discussion threads to Collab during the film. Please respond to each before class time tomorrow.
Note: I will also be posting an assignment for tomorrow that includes reading/responding to your classmates’ Major Exercises. This assignment will go up by 2 pm EST.
For Monday, 7/20:
Read/watch the following sources on community newspapers:
“The cost to all citizens in a community when a newspaper closes” (read the whole article, but I did want to draw your attention to this line: “Community newspapers are the most trusted source of local news – more than all other media combined.”—this statement is mostly accurate, though there are of course complications—still, worth noting as you read through the examples below)
Examples of community papers:
Black Newspapers:
“Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords” (documentary trailer)
“Independent Black-Owned Newspapers in the United States” (read the copy on this page; watch the interview with Sacramento Observer president Larry Lee, and visit a few of the linked papers and just read a few of the articles)
Spanish-language Newspapers:
El Diario de El Paso (read a few articles from the paper—feel free to let Google translate to English for you! :)—and skim the Wikipedia page to get more “About”-type content)
Newspaper for People Experiencing Homelessness
The Contributor (explore the website to figure out how this paper works and read a few published stories—written by local journalists and people experiencing homelessness in Nashville, TN)
Prison Newspaper Projects
Military Newspapers:
“Veterans point to value of Stars and Stripes amid proposal to strip funding from news organization” (read the article; also spend some times on the Stars and Stripes website and maybe looking at their social media+comments sections to get a feel for the publication, then skim through some of the branch-specific papers—you might feel a little deja vu on the next few links:)
College newspapers:
Cavelier Daily (explore our UVA student paper’s website; read a few articles)
Free, small-town newspapers: (just explore a few and get a feel for what they’re doing; feel free to find the free local papers near you)
Add comments to each of the discussion questions on this shared Google doc (respond to the questions and others’ comments, as relevant). This doc will replace our live discussion for Monday, as we’ll try to watch Spotlight that day.
Come to class prepared with drinks and popcorn or whatever will help with your movie viewing experience. :) If you are unable to join Zoom that day, or you just really don’t want to watch synchronously, please make arrangements to watch the film on your own. I’ll be posting either a Google form or another open document for you to fill out prior to Tuesday’s class (in response to the film and our theme for the unit—writing for local communities).
Oh, and finally, a note—I realized that the article I was thinking about that argued that we shouldn’t equate objectivity with just finding “a midpoint between opposing sides and calling that neither/nor impartial” is the one we read but didn’t explicitly discuss for class on Thursday. I’ll re-post that article as a reading for this coming Tuesday and have the objectivity issue as a point of discussion (tied to community journalism).
Major Assignment #1: Due Friday, 7/17, by 11:59 p.m. EST, to this Drive folder.
Feel free to text me throughout today if you need input.
For Friday, 7/17:
Be sure to submit your final drafts of Thursday’s exercise to this Drive folder by 7/16, 11:59 p.m.
Continue reading articles from your course Twitter feed, esp. your adopted paper, and be prepared to report on any 1 article you think we’d find interesting (both in terms of content and approach).
Come to class ready to tackle your first major assignment, which will be a slightly longer version of Thursday’s exercise (longer word count, more involved work in terms of gathering supporting details, etc.).
In-Class on Thursday, 7/16:
Work on today’s exercise, found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OEfI_mPXfVEsbGULQhHtPUYCAufoeBZWJPfqkn-TlKc/edit
For Thursday, 7/16:
Read:
Continue reading articles from your course Twitter feed, esp. your adopted paper. We’ll open tomorrow’s class with a check-in discussion on what you’re seeing there—I’ll call on a few people at random, and you’ll be able to volunteer other interesting observations or story examples.
Also read https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/public-editor/when-reporters-get-personal.html.
Respond to this brief survey on whether you want to watch Spotlight, and if so, how.
Investigate a bit on your own, and select 2 articles to bring to share tomorrow.
1 article that you “don’t trust” for whatever reason (clear author/publication bias, skewed information, whatever)—preferably even though it’s from an established news source (so for example, a New York Times article that you find sketchy)
1 article that you DO find especially trustworthy, as an example of what seems to be going right
Come to class ready to discuss and write!
For Wednesday, 7/15:
Be sure to complete your exercises and submit to Drive by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night (see details below).
Read and come prepared to discuss challenges facing journalists in 2020:
an hour’s worth of your course Twitter feed, emphasis on your adopted paper
On the loss of newspapers and commercial consolidation of ownership:
On the lack of U.S. trust in the media:
On the “dislocation” of journalism [e.g., from newsrooms to social media]:
On reading through bias or all-out propaganda:
Optional—I found this podcast episode helpful, but it’s not flashy—feel free to listen if it’s helpful:
https://itsalljournalism.com/223-are-you-part-of-journalisms-lost-generation/ (You can stream it on this website; I downloaded it on iTunes.)
And this is a press piece on the interviewee’s book: https://news.ku.edu/mk%20new%20journalism%20book
In-Class Tuesday, 7/14:
Part I: Reading Discussion—We’ll divide up into 4 breakout groups to begin. You’ll need to open and type in this document.
—coffee break—Part II: Exercises—We’ll begin all of these together in class; submit YOUR files by 11:59 p.m. tonight to our shared Drive folder. All file names should be as follows!
Ex1_7.14_FirstNameLastName
*And of course, modify the Exercise # and your name in the file name.Ex1—
Read about News Leads
Work on this exercise
Ex2—
Review the News Leads piece as needed, then
Work on this exercise
Ex3—
Read about “The Body of a News Story”
Work on this exercise
For Tuesday, 7/14:
Read “What Is Journalism For?” (excerpted from The Elements of Journalism).
And be prepared to discuss—to help you focus, try noting 3 main ideas or quotes that you’d be willing to open a conversation about during class time.
Order a copy of the AP Style Manual (2019 or 2020 edition; print or digital—whichever year/format you prefer, just so you have the legitimate reference guide available).
Review the syllabus, schedule, and website, and let me know if you have any questions.
Finish the Adopt-a-Paper exercise from Monday’s class, including:
Set up a new course-specific Twitter feed, and ONLY follow the outlets listed in this exercise (but follow ALL of these).
Spent at least 1 hour reading stories from this Twitter feed (emphasize reading from YOUR “adopted” paper) and be prepared to report on your reading in class. Things to watch for:
What are they reporting?
HOW are they reporting it?
Are there differences in their styles, perspectives, sources, etc.?
What do you not understand in what you’re reading?
Are the same gaps coming up over and over for you?
What do you see that’s worth discussing in class?
Come to class ready for studio time (we’ll start with discussion of the readings, then complete several starter writing/editing exercises together)—if you can’t make it, check in with me via email, and plan to complete the exercises still (the prompts will appear here during class time).
For Monday, 7/13:
Arrive on time (10:30 am EST) and be ready to jump in! Our classroom address is https://virginia.zoom.us/j/93892619794.
Please contact me ASAP if you will be unable to join the first class session. You can email me at hn3dg@virginia.edu or text me at 615.509.7448. (Please include your full name in your first text message.)
Looking forward to meeting all of you!