Journalism I: Fundamentals of Newswriting

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

• This writing-intensive course focuses on building basic journalism skills and on understanding the issues facing a free press in a democratic society. Subjects include accuracy, attribution, objectivity, audiences, and styles of writing commonly used by journalists.

• Analyze written texts to understand how they relate to particular audiences, purposes, and contexts as a way to inform one’s own writing and/or revision.

• Create and revise written texts for particular audiences, purposes, and contexts.

• Through oral or written reflection, demonstrate awareness of one’s writing choices as well as how one’s own writing contributes to ongoing conversation.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
Writing/reporting assignments	45%
Activities, including quizzes, exercises and forums	45%
Final portfolio	10%

Grading Scale

Percentage	Letter Grade
93.0 and above	A
90.0 – 92.9	A-
87.0 – 89.9	B+
83.0 – 86.9	B
80.0 – 82.9	B-
77.0 – 79.9	C+
73.0 – 76.9	C
70.0 – 72.9	C-
67.0 – 69.9	D+
63.0 – 66.9	D
60.0 – 62.9	D-
Below 60.0	F

Attendance/Participation:

Attendance in this asynchronous course will be gauged through your timely completion of all required activities, including submitting drafts, engaging in peer review, posting to the discussion board, and completing readings, quizzes, and all other activities by their deadlines. Missed work can be completed according to the late work policy below. You should expect to visit our course Canvas site every day and to submit work routinely if you hope to be successful in this course.

State law requires that students be allowed two absences due to religious holidays; please notify me at least 48 hours prior to your anticipated absence. Intercollegiate athletes should provide official documentation of anticipated absences early in the semester. Absences for religious holidays and documented athletic events might be treated as exceptions according to the late work policy below.

If you have extenuating circumstances such as a chronic illness, an injury requiring prolonged medical treatment, prolonged psychological issues, etc., you should make your instructor aware of these circumstances as soon as possible and keep your instructor informed until you are able to return to class. You should also contact the Dean of Students Office, which can review documentation and notify multiple instructors on your behalf, especially if hospitalization or distress prevent you from doing so yourself. You should be aware, however, that the Dean of Students Office will not override any individual instructor’s attendance policy and that decisions about whether and how to accommodate students in distress are made by individual instructors. The Dean of Students office is located at 210 Elliott University Center and can be reached at 336-334-5514 or deanofstudentsoffice@uncg.edu.

It’s essential to meet deadlines in journalism. This means that all work should be turned in by the due date. Also, the work in this class builds on previous assignments, so it’s important to keep up with the class. That said, I am aware that problems arise that prevent work from being turned in on time. I will accept late work, but I may take off points down to a 50 for work handed in past the deadline, especially if you have not contacted me ahead of the deadline about circumstances, such as illness, that are preventing you from completing the assignment. There is no late extension for the portfolio.

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

Resource links, documents and PowerPoints are on Canvas.