Course Goals: To acquaint students with the backgrounds of American journalism, news style and the types of stories and strategies that make for good print journalism. Journalism is a competetive, demanding, fast-paced profession, and the course will reflect that.

Course Requirements:

• Attendance is mandatory. More than THREE unexcused absences will affect your grade.
• ALL writing assignments must be completed for students to receive a grade for the course. Students are also required to make themselves available for Argus assignments, and may turn in clips (tearsheets or photocopies) of their best Argus work during the semester. Up to three Argus stories (news, features, and sports--not editorials, reviews, or columns) can replace lower-graded class assignments. For example, a B Argus news story can replace a C class sports story. Due dates will be announced in class (which is one more reason to attend). Papers may be penalized up to one grade for every day they're late.
  
• All papers, including drafts, must be typed, double-spaced, with standard 1 to 1 1/2" margins. Computer work should be in 12pt Times or Times Roman. Only hard copy will be graded.
  
• Students are responsible for reading assigned handouts (provided) and are expected to read a newspaper on a daily basis. Recommended for the poverty stricken are ISU's Daily Vidette and IWU's The Argus, both free at Memorial Student Center. The Ames Library also subscribes to a number of major newspapers.
• Students will also be expected to choose one campus "beat" to scour on a weekly basis for an in-class "editorial board" meeting when possible stories will be discussed and rated in terms of newsworthiness, shelf-life, research, angles and interview possibilities. Beats: Student Senate, Faculty, Schools of Fine Arts, School of Nursing/Science Division, Social Sciences Division, Athletics, Alumni, Residence Halls & Programs, Greeks and Campus Improvements/Maintenance.
• Finally, students will be required to have at least one conference with the instructor, more encouraged.

10 Assignments (out of 11, lowest three eligible for Argus substitution)-----------------------5 percent each, 50 percent total
Deadline Midterm----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 percent
Deadline Final Exam-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 percent
AP Stylebook Quizzes-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 percent
Class Participation----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20 percent

Tentative Calendar:

Week 1 (Aug 25, 27) What's News?-------------------------Exercise: Three campus story ideas; critiques of newspapers

Week 2 (Sept 1, 3) Leads-----------------------------Exercise: Three leads from best of three story ideas and online exercise

Week 3 (Sept 8, 10) Basics/Organization------------Assignment 1: Accident Story (from fact sheet)

Week 4 (Sept 15, 17) Crime----------------------------Assignment 2: Crime Story (from police blotter and phone-in questions)

Week 5 (Sept 22, 24) Speakers---------------------------Assignment 3: Speaker Story (actual campus event)/1st AP Quiz

Week 6 (Sept 29, Oct 1) Meetings-------------------------Assignment 4: Meeting Story (actual campus or town meeting)

Week 7 (Oct 6, 8) Rewrites & Conferences--------DEADLINE MIDTERM (real story, surprise topic, start to finish, with interviews prearranged)

Week 8 (Oct 13, 15) Press Releases--------------------Assignment 5: Press Release (for upcoming IWU event)

Week 9 (Oct 20, 22) Advances-----------------------------Assignment 6: Advance News Story from Release (from fact sheet)/2nd AP Quiz

Week 10 (Oct 27, Oct 29) Research Methods----------------Assignment 7: Round-up or Trend Story (actual, individually generated)

Week 12 (Nov 3, 5) Sports----------------------------Assignment 8: Sports Story or Sports Feature (IWU only)

Week 13 (Nov 10, 12) Sidebar/Follow-up-----------------------Assignment 9: Sidebar or Follow-up (to previous story) and 3rd AP Quiz

Week 14 (Nov 17, 19) Brights--------Assignment 10: Bright

Week 15 (Nov 24, THANKSGIVING ) Editing & Headline/caption writing-------------Exercises: in-class assignments, including cutlines/headlines

Week 16 (Dec 1, 3) Post-mortems-------------------------Assignment 11: Your own obituary (the consolation: you're a celebrity!)

DEADLINE FINAL EXAM:  TBA. As with the midterm, students will have a real deadline assignment to complete from start to finish.