J110: WRITING, REPORTING, ETHICS I

SYLLABUS
Spring 2015
** EMAILED ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

ONLINE RESOURCES
MOODLE: https://moodle.csun.edu
JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT: http://www.csun.edu/journalism

THE COURSE:
The goal, during the next 15 weeks, is for you to develop the skills necessary to report and write
basic news stories for various media audiences traditional and electronic as well as basic ethical
standards. It emphasizes the obligation of the professional journalist to cover the news with fairness,
balance, accuracy and credibility.

Class Structure: News gathering by Blog/Twitter; AP Style Exercise; Lecture/Demonstration;

Writing Lab
Weeks 1-7: You will learn basic skills including how to write a lead (the first paragraph of a
news article), and story organization.
Week 8 +: You will be required to take your own notes and report at least one story outside of
class.
Basic Skills: Note taking, interviewing, story organization, multimedia reporting and using
your Associated Press Stylebook.
Stories: Include general news, breaking news and speech coverage.
Other: News judgment, ethics and career options.

This is NOT an English class. You are expected to have basic grammar and writing skills.
REMEMBER: This is YOUR class. If you don't understand something, ask. If something you are
interested in is not being discussed or otherwise dealt with let me know and I will try to address your
concern.
PREREQUISITES:
1. A "C" or better in a basic English/grammar class.

2. Basic typing/computer skills.

TEXTS/SUPPLIES:
1. Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method, 8th Edition by Carole Rich
2. Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, 2014 edition
3. Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless
Surveillance by Julia Angwin
(For Required Class Assignment)
4. A recent edition dictionary.
5. A daily news source
6. Student Response Apps Nearpod, Socrative, Remind (others may be added); all are free for
iPhones, iPads and Android devices
7. A portable jump/USB drive or other means of saving your in-class work.
OPTIONAL:
1. The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
(or similar grammar book/aid)
ONLINE MEMBERSHIPS:
1. Twitter
2. Blogging Platform: Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, Posterous, etc.
3. News University (NewsU/Poynter Institute)

COPY PREPARATION & SUBMISSION:

1. All writing exercises must be uploaded to your designated folder on Moodle by the designated due
date in a basic text or Adobe .pdf format.
2. All assignments must be typed and double-spaced with paragraphs indented at least five spaces.
Stories that dont meet these criteria will NOT be graded.
3. All spelling/typing errors must be corrected and you must adhere to AP Style and standard
Proofreading Symbols. Your grade on each assignment will be lowered significantly if the article
contains spelling and/or news style errors. (Also see grades section.)
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4. Stories and other assignments MUST be uploaded to the designated Moodle folder by the assigned
Deadline. Stories/Assignments submitted AFTER the deadline risk not being graded at all or will
have points subtracted.

ATTENDANCE:

Attendance will be monitored by assignment since something is due at the end of each class.
Three or more unexcused absences, missed assignments and/or underdeveloped writing skills due
to absenteeism will significantly lower your grade. For example, an "A" student's grade could
drop to a "B" due to excessive absences.
University policy defines an excused absence as illness/injury, family death/emergency,
religious holiday, jury duty/other government obligation or a CSUN-sanctioned activity. You
must submit proof to have an absence excused.
You will not be able to make up missed in-class assignments or quizzes unless there are
extenuating circumstances and you have gotten permission.

CLASS CONDUCT

Computers must be off during class except when noted by instructor. Students Caught using
their computers during class will receive a lower grade for all assignment submitted that
evening.
NO EXCEPTIONS.
Cell phones and pagers must be on silent alert.
Private conversations are not permitted during lectures.

*GRADE BREAKDOWN:

AP Style Quizzes =
Blog Reports =
Maintain Blog =
Class Exercises =
MidTerm =
Book Review =
Final Exam =

14 points (1 each)
140 (10 each)
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300 (10 each)
200
100
240
1000

*Points may be adjusted to maintain 1,000 point limit.

GRADE SCALE
Points

Percentage

Performance

GRADE SCALE
Points
A

Percentage
940 -1000 points

Performance
Excellent Work

A-

900 - 939

Nearly Excellent Work

B+

870 - 899

Very Good Work

830 -869

Good Work

B-

800 - 829

Mostly Good Work

C+

770 - 799

Above Average Work

730 - 769

Average Work

C-

700 - 729

Mostly Average Work

D+

670 - 699

Below Average Work

630 - 669

Poor Work

D-

600 - 629

Very Poor Work

less than 600

Failing Work

How Graded

Writing Assignments: Graded for style, punctuation, grammar, spelling, accuracy,

organization, clarity and content. In addition, assignments will be judged on whether they
include all of the key elements discussed in class.
Errors That Hurt: Grammar, spelling, AP style, sentence structure and accuracy such as
repeated misspellings of names or other key words will result in your assignment grade
being lowered.
Deadlines Matter: Unless there are extenuating circumstances (cleared with the instructor) all
written assignments must be turned by the end of class, or the designated date/deadline.
NO MAKEUPS.
You must earn a "C" or better in this class in order to enroll in J210, J300, J310 or J315.

EXTRA CREDIT - There will be limited to no opportunities for Extra Credit. If

such opportunities DO arise, you can do no more than 100 points (one assignment)
during the semester.

BLOGGING/TWEETING THE NEWS:

Starting Jan. 28, you will be required to maintain a Blog with links to what you consider to be
the most important story of the week. This can include national, international, Los Angelesarea/California, sports, entertainment, technology, business, etc. stories.
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This should include a Blog entry with your assessment of how well or poorly you think the
story was reported/covered by the media and/or why you think this story is important.
(At least 100 to 150 words).
You must also Tweet a scaled down version of your link(s) and assessment, including proper
tags. This can usually be automated with your Blog. (Discussed in more detail on the class
Webpage and lecture/demonstration.)
To get credit for this weekly assignment, you will be required post a link to your Blog post +
the Tweet to Moodle. (Will be discussed in more detail on the class Webpage and
lecture/demonstration.)
NO MAKEUPS.
You can work on this assignment on your own, and during the first 30 minutes of each
class.

AP STYLE EXERCISES:

Before each class, you must and complete ONE of the AP Style exercises posted on the Class
Webpage.

CSUN JOURNALISM POLICIES:

Honesty The Journalism Department of California State University, Northridge is committed to
the highest standards of academic excellence and integrity. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating
will not be tolerated. Anyone caught cheating will be reported to the Dean of Students possible action
and will receive a failing grade in the class. For a further explanation of the behavior defined as
academic dishonesty, and a more detailed discussion, consult pages the 2010-2012 CSUN Catalog.
Please also remember that most the information posted on the Internet is protected by U.S.
copyright laws. Passing this information off as your own is a violation of CSUN's plagiarism policy
and carries the penalties outlined above.
PUT ANOTHER WAY: All of your written work for this class should be in your own words, not
copied from a book/magazine/newspaper or the Internet. When words/work from other sources
are used, the information should be credited to the proper source.
Diversity Students in this course are strongly encouraged to broaden their journalistic experiences,
with the instructor's help, by including sources and subjects from a variety of ethnic, racial and religious
backgrounds; senior citizens; the disabled and poor; gay men and lesbians; and similar groups. The
intent is to ensure that your work reflects the diversity of the community.

STUDENTS LEARNING OBJECTIVES

To successfully complete this course, students will:

Begin to master the skills of good journalists: Be smart, quick, courteous, curious, pleasant,
honest and courageous;
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Start to foster curiosity and observation skills; develop deadline writing and informationgathering techniques; master the concept of writing leads;
Explore how to organize information in a reader-friendly format and to write stories for an
audience;
Learn the essential elements of how to conduct and record an interview
Understand basics of interactive engagement with online audiences
Explore the techniques for summarizing information for distribution across multiple platforms
Begin to develop discipline in writing/reporting with accuracy, clarity, style, objectivity and
sensitivity;
Be introduced to critical thinking skills with an emphasis on reading and understanding the
news;
Explore the importance of a free press as well as the various ethics codes and canons that guide
the profession;
Pay attention to current events.

SKILLS
As students move to J210, they should be able to:

Write a basic news story containing these elements: lead, lead backup, lead quote, attribution,
elaboration, background and ending;
Conduct a one-on-one interview with a source in which they have prepared a set of questions;
Capture, edit and upload an audio quote to pair with a text story.
Understand basic ethical standards, including proper use of quotes and attribution, and
connections to libel and other fundamental media law issues;
Distill content into brief summaries written for online distribution
Select and follow an area of specialty (a beat) through the use of a social networking tool such
as Twitter.
Employ simple Associated Press Stylebook rules for numbers, dates, legislative titles, ages,
obscenities, etc.
Appreciate journalists concerns for diversity and sensitivity in relation to developing and
quoting sources.

OUTCOME
To ensure that our majors can perform in J210, the J110 students should:

Complete at least four out-of-class reporting and writing assignments, including a one-source
profile, an issues-based interview, and NEW! coverage of a campus event, which could include
but is not limited to a speech, Associated Students meeting, etc. At least one of these
assignments will include an audio soundbite and be posted to the course Moodle or other site
that meets department privacy recommendations.
Learn the basics of summarizing information for multi-platform distribution and engagement of
audiences (such as with Twitter or other similar tools). This includes being able to create tags
(keywords) for their work as well as selecting and following an area of specialty (a beat)
through the use of a social networking tool such as a blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

COURSE OUTLINE:
NOTE: Occasionally, the course schedule may be revised to accommodate guest speakers, campus
events or other unforeseen circumstances. You will be given as much advanced notice as possible.

HOMEWORK: Reading assignments are noted as follows: Rich = Writing and Reporting News.
Week 1/Jan. 21

Registration; introductions; review syllabus; class survey

Blog Exercise: Set-up + Bio
Homework: Rich/Pages 3-4, 9-16; Chapter 3

Week 2/Jan. 28

Blog Report #1
Review editing symbols/stylebook
What is news? News judgment?
In-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Chapter 7; Review AP Stylebook

Week 3/Feb. 4

Blog Report #2 +AP Exercise

How to write a news lead
In-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Pages 20 - 35

Week 4/Feb. 11

Blog Report #3 +AP Exercise

Still more on leads
Rewrites, in-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Chapter 8

Week 5/Feb. 18

Blog Report #4 +AP Exercise

Story structure/Organization
In-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Chapter 9

Week 6/Feb. 25

Blog Report #5 +AP Exercise

More on story structure
In-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Chapter 5

Week 7/March 4

Blog Report #6 +AP Exercise

Conducting interviews, taking notes
In-class exercise/Review for the MidTerm
Homework: Study for MidTerm

Week 8/March 11

MIDTERM
Homework: Rich/Chapter 4

Week 9/March 18

Blog Report #7 +AP Exercise

Online Research/Polling Exercise
MidTerm (Assigned Readings/AP Style)
Homework: Review Polling Resources (online)

Week 10/March 25

Blog Report #7 +AP Exercise

Breaking News
In-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Chapter 21

Week 11/April 1

Blog Report #9 +AP Exercise

More Breaking News
In-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Chapter 17

April 6-11

SPRING BREAK

Week 12/April 15

Blog Report #10 +AP Exercise

Obituaries
Homework: Rich/Chapter 18

Week 13/April 22

Blog Report #11+AP Exercise

Speeches, news conferences

In-class exercise
Homework: Rich/Chapters 15 & 16

Week 14/April 29

Blog Report #12 +AP Exercise

Ethics, professional responsibility
In-class exercise
Homework: Rich 13, 14; Finish Reading Dragnet Nation

Week 15/May 6

Blog Report #13 +AP Exercise

Review For Final Exam
Review/Class Discussion: Dragnet Nation
In-Class Book Review
Homework: Study for Final Exam

LAST CLASS OF THE SEMESTER

May 13

FINAL EXAM (5:30 7:30 p.m.)

FYI: Final Grades Due by May 22

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* Email responses only
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