ENGL 408A
Writing for the Media
General Information
Section Number: 001
Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 1:00 – 2:20 p.m.
Location: HH 139
Term: Spring 2022
Instructor
Bruce Dadey
Office: Hagey Hall 257 (not available in office during Spring 2022)
Email: badadey@uwaterloo.ca
Contact: For general inquiries about the course and assignments, post to the Ask the Instructor Forum. For specific inquiries about your individual assignments, please email me.
Course Description and Objectives
This course will teach you how to write various types of texts within journalism and public relations. The course is production-oriented: you will write original stories in various media genres. The course will also involve some analysis of media texts using methods from genre theory, rhetorical studies, and linguistics, with the goal of helping you to better write your own texts.
By the end of the course you will be able to do the following:
- Produce a wide variety of texts for a range of media.
- Follow the conventions associated with various types of news stories, articles, and PR documents, and accommodate the different audiences that read them either in print or online.
- Identify and evaluate the strategies used by other writers who are producing various types of media stories.
- Understand how social, technological, and organizational contexts affect the production and reception of media texts and how the shifting landscape facing media organizations is leading to changes in how journalism is being made and consumed.
Course Platforms
- In person: It’s essential that you attend the in-person lectures, where you’ll get additional information and we’ll be doing activities that reinforce course concepts and practices.
- LEARN: Pitches, exercises, and final assignments will be submitted on LEARN.
- Microsoft Teams: In-class exercises and peer feedback will be done on Teams. Please bring your laptops or other input devices to class.
Texts
Harrower, Tim. Inside Reporting: A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism. 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill, 2013. The hard copy is available from the UWaterloo bookstore or Amazon. You can also buy or rent the the eText for various lengths of time from VitalSource.
Koenig, Sarah. Serial. Season 1, Episodes 1-3, from WBEZ Chicago, October 2014, https://serialpodcast.org/season-one
LEARN readings and links
Assignments
Exercises (15%)
Breaking news stories (15%)
Beat news stories (20%)
PR Package (15%)
Feature Article (30%)
Participation (5%)
See the Syllabus and Assignments Section of the Contents for descriptions of the assignments.
Course Policies
Assignments and Class Procedures
- Unless otherwise specified, assignments are due on 11:55 p.m. of the due date.
- Assignments that are late without good reason will be penalized at a rate of two percentage points for every week day late (10% per week). There are no extensions on exercizes except for documented serious illness—they will receive a zero if not submitted by the specified deadline.
- Class discussion is a prominent part of the course, so students are expected to attend all classes and to come with the readings completed. In my lectures and in my questions to the class and individuals I will assume the assigned readings have been done. Perfect attendance will result in a participation base mark of 4.5; missing one class will result in a participation base mark of 4. Students have two grace classes; after that, 1% will be deducted from the base participation mark for each class missed. The participation mark may be further adjusted depending on the degree of in-class and online participation.
- We will often be using email to communicate with one another. All email communication will occur through your UWaterloo account, which you should check regularly.
Academic integrity
In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.
Grievance
A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline
A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.
Appeals
A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.
Note for students with disabilities
AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.
Tentative Schedule
IR = Inside Reporting
L = LEARN readings
Note: Some readings are unlinked because they are still to be determined.
|
Week |
Dates |
Topic |
Readings and Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
May 2 |
Introductions |
|
|
May 4 |
Newswriting Basics |
IR 2, 14-15, 18-23, 28-30, 35-51 L: Newswriting Basics |
|
|
2 |
May 9 |
Reporting Basics |
IR 67-89, 128-29 L: Reporting Basics and Broadcast Journalism |
|
May 11 |
Broadcast Journalism |
IR 181-91 L: Broadcast Journalism Pitch due: Breaking news Stories |
|
|
3 |
May 16 |
Style, Roundups, and Basics Review |
IR 52-61, 246-47, 298-303 Deadline: Exercise 1 |
|
May 18 |
Law and Ethics |
IR 142-43, 148-53 L: Law and Ethics |
|
|
4 |
May 23 |
No Class: Victoria Day Holiday |
|
|
May 25 |
Intro to Beats Beat 1: Disasters, accidents, and fires |
IR 94-95, 98-101, 230-37 L: Beat 1 Readings Deadline: Exercise 2 |
|
|
5 |
May 30 |
Workshop |
Draft Due: Breaking News Stories |
|
June 1 (online class) |
Beat 2: Crime, courts |
IR 102-05, 240-41 L: Beat 2: Readings |
|
|
6 |
June 6 |
Beat 3: Speeches and meetings |
IR 106-09 L: Beat 3 readings Deadline: Breaking News Stories |
|
June 8 |
Beat 4: Politics, sports |
IR 110-13 L: Beat 4 readings Deadline: Exercise 3 (Fri.) |
|
|
7 |
June 13 |
Beat 5: Obituaries, Profiles |
IR 96-97, 124-25 L: Beats 5: Obituaries and Profiles Pitch Due: Beats Assignment |
|
June 15 |
Beats 6: Editorials, columns, reviews, short-form structures |
IR 123, 132-37 L: Editorials, Columns, Reviews Deadline: Exercise 4 (Fri.) |
|
|
8 |
June 20 |
Public Relations |
IR 193-203 L: Public Relations |
|
June 22 |
Workshop |
Draft Due: Beats Assignment |
|
|
9 |
June 27 |
Public Relations 2 |
L: Public Relations 2 Pitch Due: PR Package |
|
June 29 |
Feature Stories, Enterprise projects |
IR 116-23, 126-27, 130-31 L: Features 1 Deadline: Exercise 5 Deadline: Beats Assignment (Thurs.) |
|
|
10 |
July 4 |
Feature Stories 2 |
L: Features 2 |
|
July 6 |
Workshop |
Draft due: PR Package Pitch due: Feature story (Fri.) |
|
|
11 |
July 11 |
Feature Stories 3 |
L: Features 3 |
|
July 13 |
Digital journalism 1 |
IR 157-80 L: Digital 1 Deadline: PR Package Deadline: Exercise 6 (Fri.) |
|
|
12 |
July 18 |
Digital journalism 2 |
L: Digital 2 |
|
July 20 |
Digital journalism 3 |
L: Digital Journalism 3 Deadline: Exercise 7 (Fri.) |
|
|
13 |
July 25 |
Workshop |
Draft due: Feature Story |
Aug. 2 - Deadline: Feature Story
Territorial Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are living and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River.