This course helps students develop the basic skills necessary for speechmaking. This course helps students develop oral presentation skills through the reading of poetry, prose, and dramatic dialogue to improve vocal quality, projection, and enunciation for teaching, for the stage, or for other professional use. Students receive grades based on the quantity and quality of their contributions to these publications as well as their ability to consistently meet deadlines. Students are expected to have already overcome basic speech anxiety and have a working knowledge of the basics of public speaking.
Students learn to report and write hard news stories and several variations thereof.
Topics include backgrounding, interviewing, inverted pyramid style, lead construction, headline construction, style and stylebooks, beat reporting, media law, media ethics, and introductory publication design. In addition, students explore differences between print, online, and broadcast journalism and conduct an introductory investigation into non-journalistic forms of media writing for radio, television, and film. Topics include basic and advanced techniques of feature writing, in-depth personality profiles, essay writing, travel writing, opinion and editorial writing, and advanced reviewing techniques. Course participants also receive advanced training in publication editing and design and conduct a thorough investigation of influences on various types of journalistic message content. Early meetings enable course participants to prepare a range of news and nonfiction offerings for radio and television.