FWS: Public Writing

Catalog description

We now live in a 24-hour news cycle that bombards college students with news every day--in multiple forms such as news apps, social media, and online news sources. Who has time to read all these articles and which news can we trust? How do we ever find news that isn't biased? This first-year seminar offers students an opportunity to read the news on topics they wish to read about and learn more about how to find reputable articles and discern when they aren't. As we analyze how journalists write to big, broad audiences, students will write to different members of the public about contemporary controversies in the news-in the form of investigative essays, blog posts, and short news digests.