COMM 104 90011 course introduction PowerPoint LUTHER
- 1. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING Professor Eric Luther • TX Community College transfer student • SMU: Dallas, TX – Bachelors of Humanities • NYU: New York, NY – Masters in Arts & Humanities Education • 10 years in media production (mainly TV news) • Taught communications and media courses as adjunct at other community colleges, but came full-time to WCC as of Fall 2010 • Curriculum Chair, Communications & Media Arts • Communications, Journalism, & Media Arts Internship Instructor/Coordinator
- 2. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING • An introduction to reporting and writing news for all media, including defining what is newsworthy. Students will develop a mastery of the basic elements of newsgathering, interviewing and storytelling skills that conform to standards of clarity, accuracy and fairness. An emphasis is placed on gaining practical experience through reporting on campus and community events. • Basically, this class should help you be a better writer not only in journalism, but in other areas/types of writing, too.
- 3. TODAY’S OVERVIEW: • Go over Class Outline • Class Materials are posted on Blackboard • GO TO THIS COURSE SECTION ON BLACKBOARD NOW COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING
- 4. USING BLACKBOARD • All assigned class work and materials can be found in the corresponding WEEKLY LEARNING MODULES area of the course blackboard shell:
- 5. USING BLACKBOARD • Click into the appropriate module for class meeting
- 6. USING BLACKBOARD • There you will see all the assigned work & material for that week that you are to do in the order they are assigned
- 7. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING: GRADING • This course has four distinct graded/credit parts: • A. Weekly Writing Assignments + Quizzes (25%): Weekly news writing assignments + quizzes over course materials (lowest score dropped) • B. Online Participation (25%): You are expected to participate fully as instructed (lowest score dropped) • C. Associated Press Style Quizzes (25%): A series of online AP-style quizzes that you must complete and get a 100% on before passing this course. The quizzes cover basic Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation, and AP style and you can retake them as many times as necessary in order to achieve the 100%. • D. Final Exam (25%): Comprehensive examination of class quiz material. • TOTAL = 100% • Your current grade should always be available in BLACKBOARD: MY GRADES: CURRENT GRADE
- 8. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING: TEXTBOOKS •REQUIRED: News Reporting and Writing • Thirteenth Edition ©2020 The Missouri Group • (Access to LaunchPad SOLO will be provided for free) • Journalism is a dynamic field and, in addition to the textbook, we will also be using real-world current examples and instructor-supplied information as our course source materials.
- 9. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING: TEXTBOOKS •Other Required Supplies: • Steady Internet connection • Working web cam and microphone • Quiet location without noise or distraction • Desktop or laptop computer (rather than a phone or tablet)
- 10. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING: TEXTBOOKS •RECOMMENDED: CURRENT AP STYLEBOOK • A useful resource but much of this information is also readily available via online sources. • Print or Digital Copy is acceptable
- 11. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING: LATE WORK • LATE SUBMISSIONS: Journalism is all about deadlines so, typically, NO LATE WORK IS ACCEPTED FOR FULL CREDIT (50% credit maximum for late work)! Material will always be posted in the appropriate area/weekly class module of Blackboard and there will plenty of time allowed for any and all work and Blackboard will be consistently updated. The best way to ensure that you miss deadlines and are behind is to put things off until the last minute – train yourself to not procrastinate and you’ll be helping yourself in every aspect of your life, not just this class.
- 12. COMM 104: NEWS REPORTING & WRITING: ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION • ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION: Class participation and attention is essential to your success in this course. We don’t meet in-person so you are solely responsible for attention and adherence to due dates, assignments, etc. Everything covered and assigned will be contained in the appropriate Blackboard WEEKLY LEARNING MODULES area. • The surest way to do poorly in this class is to not participate and/or not do reading and assignments – students should take this online course and its work as seriously as they would any class.
- 13. LOOKING AHEAD •DISCUSSION BOARD #1 •READ CHAPTER #1 •AP-STYLE QUIZ #1 •Typically, all material/assignments for the coming week will be posted on Tuesday and due the following Monday by the end of the day