Beginning Journalism, JOUR S-50

Harvard University Summer School

Monday and Wednesday, 1 p.m. -- 3:30 p.m., 112 Sever Hall
Brent Walth, brentwalth@aol.com
(617) 495-9144 x 92584 (messages) or (503) 860-6437 (urgent)
Office: 8 Prescott St. #32. Office hours: Tuesday, 2 p.m. 5 p.m.
Course website: www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/sum/31992

Beginning Journalism (JOUR S-50) is designed to provide you with the basic skills to work
as a reporter. In the classroom and through hands-on experience, you will learn how journalists find
stories, conduct interviews and dig out information. We will examine issues of ethics and the civic
role of the journalist: to seek truth, uncover injustice and give voice to the voiceless. We will also
spend a great deal of time honing the tools that will make you a better writer.
REQUIREMENTS. Seventy percent (70%) of your final grade will be based on four
reporting assignments. Writers improve by revising their work; you will be required to revise two of
the four assignments. Thirty percent (30%) of your final grade will be based on class participation,
which includes in-class discussions; writing exercises; a journal based on your daily reading of
newspapers, including the Boston Globe and New York Times; and brief reflection papers based on
your readings of the required texts. Harvard Summer School Writing Program courses proceed by
sequential writing activities. Your consistent attendance is essential. If you are absent without medical
excuse more than twice, you are eligible to be excluded and failed. After your second unexcused
absence, you will receive a warning notice.
PLAGIARISM & FABRICATION. Plagiarism and fabrication are not tolerated in
journalism. That goes for this class, too. Your work here must be original.
Please read the following policy from the Harvard Handbook for Students, p. 305: All
homework assignments, projects, lab reports, papers and examinations submitted to a course are
expected to be the students own work. Students should always take great care to distinguish their
own ideas and knowledge from information derived from sources. The term sources includes not
only published primary and secondary material, but also information and opinions gained directly
from other people. The responsibility for learning the proper forms of citation lies with the individual
student. Quotations must be placed properly within quotation marks and must be cited fully. In
addition, all paraphrased material must be acknowledged completely. Whenever ideas or facts are
derived from a students reading and research or from a students own writings, the sources must be
indicated.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast, and Online Media, by Brooks, Kennedy, et
al. Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.
The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, by Bill
Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. Three Rivers Press, 2001.
Letters to a Young Journalist, by Samuel G. Freedman. Basic Books, 2006.
AP Stylebook, by the Associated Press. Basic Books, 2004.
RECOMMENDED TEXTS
On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. 25th Anniversary Edition, Collins, 2001.
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. 4th Edition, Longman, 2000.

GRADING. The reporting assignments will include an obituary, 10 percent of final grade;
event coverage, 10 percent; a profile, 20 percent; and an issues story, 30 percent. I will grade
these writing assignments based on how close your work is to being ready for publication in a
community newspaper. You will receive two grades: one that reflects the quality of your
reporting, and the other based on the quality of your writing. The grades will carry equal weight
when blended for your final grade.
For the reporting portion, I will grade based on this standard:
A = The reporting is thorough and essentially complete.
B = The story requires a moderate amount of additional reporting.
C = The story requires a significant amount of new reporting.
D = The story could not be published without starting over.
E = The story shows no understanding of basic reporting.
For the writing portion, I will grade based on this standard:
A = The story is well organized and largely free of grammatical, style and punctuation errors.
B = The story contains basic elements but requires moderate rewriting and editing.
C = The story lacks basic elements and/or needs significant rewriting and editing.
D = The story lacks basic elements and requires significant rewriting and editing.
E = The story could not be published without a complete rewrite.
Accuracy and precision matter. So do deadlines.
Your grades will be affected by inaccuracies and late work as follows:
1) On the reporting portion of the grade, I will mark down two grades for each verifiable
error of fact that would, if it were to appear in a newspaper, require a published correction. For
example, an assignment that would otherwise receive an A for reporting quality would be
marked down to a C for the first error of fact. An assignment worthy of a B grade would be
marked down to D, and so on. Two fact errors guarantee an E, or failing grade.
2) I will mark down the reporting and writing grades one step each for every day your
assignment is late. (The day is measured by each 24-hour period following the deadline. The
clock starts ticking on the first day from the time the assignment is due.) For example, if your
assignment earns an A for both reporting and writing but is a day late, you will receive a B in
both categories. If its two days late, both grades will be marked down to C. And so on.
Class participation will include class discussions and a series of writing and research
exercises. Class participation will not receive a letter grade. Instead, you will earn points.
At the end of the course, Ill add up the possible points you could have earned, tally your
score, and convert your total to a grade point for calculating your final grade. (In-class discussion
and participation will make up one-fifth of the possible class-participation points.) Work that
comes in after the deadline will get a zero.