This course teaches students basic reporting and writing skills. They learn newspaper style and use a computer to write basic stories that deal with accidents, obituaries, construction, statistics, speeches, interviews and polls. Students also learn how to write humorous stories and how to rewrite news releases. Students take weekly spelling and style quizzes to sharpen writing skills. This course stresses government reporting.
Students learn about the Sunshine Law and how to deal with government sources.
They use a computer to write stories about governing bodies, zoning and planning boards, school boards, budgets, arrests, hearings, arraignments, indictments and trials. Students cover a local community and write various meeting stories. Designed to develop competence in the writing of features, editorials, sports, reviews and columns, the course offers students ample opportunity to become familiar with each journalistic form through writing. Students get started as free-lance magazine article writers by conceiving article ideas, interviewing, researching and writing. The course provides instruction in adjusting style and slant to reach potential readers.