News Writing

Catalog description

In this course, we will study and learn the fundamental skills of journalistic writing as well as discuss topics related to how different media outlets cover news. On the writing side, we will start with the basics - the importance of accuracy, clarity and fairness, writing for audience, striving for objectivity, judging newsworthiness, meeting deadlines. The core class work (and most of your grade) will be based on seven writing assignments due approximately every two weeks throughout the semester. Expect to do some writing each class period. We will learn how to write a story lead, how to structure a story and how to write different kinds of news stories, from crime news to features to editorials and commentary. We also will learn how to research a news story, conduct an interview and sort through mountains of information to discern what's important so we can write about it in a clear, concise manner. Course Website: http://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/index.html