Home > JEM 200
JEM 200 - Syllabus
JEM 200 – Introduction to News Writing
Instructor:
Jim Stovall
School of Journalism and Electronic Media
333 Communications UEB
974-5109
stovall@utk.edu
Web site: http://www.jprof.com/courses/jem200/jem200.html
Thursday, 5:05 to 6:20 p.m., G2 Stokely Management Center
(We are no longer meeting in 307 Science and Engineering.)
Important note: The JEM 200 lecture will meet in the auditorium of McClung Museum at 5:05 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31. Our guest speaker will be Gary Thatcher, associate director of the International Broadcasting Bureau. His topic will be "Twice Burned: Gathering and Distributing News in Troubled Countries." JEM 200 students should sit close to their writing section instructors so they can be counted as present. The lecture will resume meeting in G2 Stokely Management Center on Feb. 7.
This weekly lecture section supplements the instruction and practice in news writing that you will receive in your lab section. The lecture will give you information that you will need to be successful in your writing lab.
Unless you have had professional experience of some kind, the kind of writing that you will learn and practice in this course is different from anything that you have been asked to do before. Media writing means writing in a professional environment and with professional standards. It means writing for an audience. It means meeting deadlines. We will explain many of these requirements and concepts in the lecture, and you will be expected to apply them in your work in your writing sections.
Grades
Thirty percent of the grade for JEM200 will come from this lecture section. (The other 70 percent will come from your work in your writing section.) We will usually begin the lecture with a news quiz, which helps us record your attendance and which will contribute to the 30 percent of your grade. There will be two exams covering the lecture and text material during the semester. Each will count about 10 percent of the grade.
Attendance
You are expected to attend all lectures, and you are expected to be on time. (Those who arrive after the news quiz will not be counted as present; those who leave the lecture early will not be counted as present.) If you miss three lectures, we will assume that you have dropped the course.
Individual section instructors will set attendance policies for their labs. In general, however, they will adhere to the following principle: attendance in this course is mandatory, not optional.
Academic honesty
University policies regarding honesty can be found in Hilltopics, the official student handbook. You can review this handbook at www.utk.edu. Go to Current Students and click on Hilltopics on the UT Office of the Dean of Students page. Your rights and responsibilities are explained in detail. In all JEM 200 labs plagiarism, misrepresentation or any form of cheating is a serious offense. In the lecture section, a minimum penalty would be a failing grade on a quiz. Each lab instructor will explain lab rules.
Texts
James Glen Stovall, Writing for the Mass Media (Sixth edition), 2006.
Linda Stern, What Every Student Should Know About Avoiding Plagiarism
AP Stylebook and Libel Manual
How things work
Each section of JEM 200 operates under the direction of the section instructor. Jim Stovall, the instructor for the lecture section, is the coordinator for the course. As such, he helps assure that all sections of the course are following the same track and that all students are getting basically the same experience. He is not a czar, however. Section instructors have the final word on policies and grading for their sections.
Weekly schedule - Fall 2007 (tentative)
Lecture - Jan. 10
Week 1 – Introduction to the course;
introduction to media writing
Chapter 1
• Lecture notes
• Simple words (short article)
• Principles of clear, effective writing
• Plagiarism
Lecture - Jan. 17
Week 2 – Basics: Grammar and style
Chapters 2 and 3
• Lecture notes
• A glossary of grammar terms (an extensive listing of terms, rules of grammar and punctuation and examples)
• Rules for using commas (HTML) (PDF version)
• An expensive comma
• Plagiarism
(Monday, Sept. 3 is Labor Day.)
Lecture - Jan. 24
Week 3 – Writing in a media environment
(news values, deadlines, attribution, etc.)
Chapter 4
• Lecture notes
• Verbs of attribution (short article)
• Expensive misspelling
Lecture - Jan. 31
Week 4 – The inverted pyramid
Chapter 5
• Lecture notes
• Inverted pyramid checklist
Important note: The JEM 200 lecture will meet in the auditorium of McClung Museum at 5:05 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31. Our guest speaker will be Gary Thatcher, associate director of the International Broadcasting Bureau. His topic will be "Twice Burned: Gathering and Distributing News in Troubled Countries." JEM 200 students should sit close to their writing section instructors so they can be counted as present. The lecture will resume meeting in G2 Stokely Management Center on Feb. 7.
Gary Thatcher presentation
Lecture - Feb. 7
Week 5 – Basics of reporting: sources and interviewing
Chapters 4 and 5
• Lecture notes
• Lisa Byerley Gary's lecture notes
• Verbs of attribution (short article)
Lecture - Feb. 14 – Test 1
• Test notes
Lab work for Week 6 will consist of writing speech stories, obituraries, features and other types of stories.
• Speech stories (handout) HTML, PDF
• Obituaries
• Obituary stories (handout) HTML, PDF
Lecture - Feb. 21
Week 7 – Editing and rewriting; speech stories, obits
Chapter 5
• Lecture notes
Lecture - Feb. 28
Week 8 – Writing for the Web I
Chapter 6
• Lecture notes
• Writing summaries (short article and examples)
Lecture - March 6
Week 9 – Writing for the Web II
Chapter 6
• Lecture notes
Jakob Neilsen: Microcontent: How to write headlines, page titles, and subject lines
• Bob Stepno's lecture notes
Lecture - March 13
Week 10 – Writing for broadcast I
Chapter 7
Note: Spring break/recess begins March 14 and runs through March 21. During the week after spring break, March 24-28, JEM 200 labs will be concentrating on broadcast writing exercises.
• Lecture notes
• In addition to reviewing the lecture notes, you should listen to or watch four short video clips about broadcast writing produced by Mark Harmon, a professor of journalism and electronic media here at UT. They can be found at this Volcasting link. The four clips concern news judgment, attribution, broadcast style and active voice. (All four videos will take less than 10 minutes to watch.)
Lecture - March 27
Week 11 – Writing for broadcast II
Chapter 7
• Lecture notes
Lecture - April 3
Week 12 – Writing for public relations
Chapter 9
• Lecture notes
Lecture - April 10
Week 13 – Review
Lecture - April 17
Week 14 – Law and ethics
Chapter 10
• Lecture notes
Lecture - April 24
Test 2
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