PREREQUISITES: NONE
RECOMMENDATIONS:
COMP 0900 or placement in COMP 1101, and READ 0960 or placement in
READ 1106
MNTC Goals: Goals 2a and 2b
COURSE AND CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
Students
earn credit for journalism experience gained as a member of the student
newspaper staff. They may register for 0, 1, 2 or 3 credits per semester; they
may take the course more than once, but a maximum of 6 credits will be awarded.
CONTENT AREAS:
Reporting, writing, editing, news page design,
photojournalism, illustration, advertising design and sales, publication
management, online journalism
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Students
will gain experience in one or more of the following skill sets:
•
Reporting - interviews and research for news and feature articles
• Writing
- constructing news, sports, feature and opinion articles
• Editing
- working with reporters, photographers and artists to prepare material for
publication; copy editing; writing headlines and cutlines/captions; publication
planning
• News
page design -Planning and designing news pages for publication
•
Photojournalism - Making photographs, both traditionally and digitally, for
publication
•
Illustration - Creating illustrations with various media, including computer
drawing programs, for publication
•
Advertising design and sales - Working with clients to create and place ads in
student publications
• Online
journalism - Planning, designing, creating, and publishing Web pages for an
online version of the newspaper
EVALUATION SYSTEM:
Comm 1115
will be offered in 0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-credit options. Assessment and evaluation
will be based on a combination of:
• work
produced for publication and
• attendance
at meetings and small-group seminars.
0 credits
– Students must register for Comm 1115 if they want to participate in the
newspaper activity. If they choose not to register to earn credits, they still
must register for the 0-credit option.
1 and 2
credits – Assessment will be based on attendance at weekly meetings and work
produced for publication, which would include articles and stories,
photographs, paper and electronic page designs, story editing, illustrations,
and ad design and sales. A point system based on attendance and work completed
will be used to determine a grade for the course. (See the attached syllabus
for an example of a point system). Students registered for the 2-credit option
will be asked to complete approximately twice as much work for publication as
students who have registered for one credit.
3 credits
– In addition to the meetings and work-completion requirements outlined in the
2-credit option, students will be required to attend 16 hours of small-group
seminars designed to build journalism skills.