JB2413 News Editing I Syllabus

Class

Class meetings: 9:30 to 10:20 a.m. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 208 Paul Miller Building
Lab 001: 1:30 to 4:20 p.m. Wednesdays, 201 Paul Miller Building
Lab 002: 2:30 to 5:20 p.m. Thursday, 201 Paul Miller Building

Instructor

Stan Ketterer, assistant professor, 307 Paul Miller Building
Office hours: 9 to 11 a.m. Mondays and 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays or by appointment
Office phone: 744-8096
Home phone: 372-1754
E-mail: kstan@okstate.edu

Required Texts

The Editorial Eye (EE), Jane T. Harrigan.
How Grammar Works (HGW). Patricia Osborn.
The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual (AP).

Recommended Texts

Webster's New World Dictionary, Third Edition.

Required reading

The Daily O'Collegian and either the Tulsa World or the Daily Oklahoman.

Recommended reading

Stillwater News-Press

Course objectives

The course will introduce students to the basics of news editing and design. Students will learn how to edit stories and design pages on paper and computers while critically assessing the content of the news.

After exploring the role of editors and the copy desk, students will learn macroediting, i.e. editing with the big picture in mind. Topics will include accuracy, completeness, fairness, balance, sensitivity and legal issues. The focus then will shift to microediting, i.e. editing with precision. Grammar, punctuation, word usage, Associated Press style, and trimming stories will be discussed. Next, students will learn how to write headlines, decks, and captions that tell and sell. Finally, students will learn how to design news pages. Design basics will include picas and points, modular design, news judgment and photo cropping.

Course goals

At the completion of the course, students should:

• Understand the role of editors.
  
• Be able to spot holes in stories and remedy them.
  
• Edit copy precisely and consistently, using correct grammar and eliminating libelous passages and items in poor taste.
  
• Have a solid grounding in English grammar.
  
• Have a firm grasp of wire style.
  
• Be able to write clear and accurate headlines, decks and captions.
  
• Be able to design basic news pages.
  
• Understand the basic ethical issues confronting editors.

What You'll Do

Class meetings will focus on the principles of editing and design, whereas the labs will focus on their application. Consequently, it is imperative that you attend class and read the text so that you can apply in lab what you have learned. The School of Journalism and Broadcasting is a professional school, and you must learn to work and act like a professional journalist, including meeting all deadlines and stressing accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. You must be the eyes of the reader and the guardian of your publication's credibility.

Labs

Each week students will edit stories or design pages in lab. You will be editing stories much like working journalists. Most of the stories will come from actual newspapers or the Associated Press wire. You also must meet deadlines.

Grading

You will take weekly quizzes in class on current events. Editors must keep up with the news in order to evaluate its newsworthiness, ensure accuracy, balance and completeness, and write headlines, decks and captions that stress the latest developments. Current events quizzes will focus primarily on local news and will acquaint you with local issues and people in Stillwater about whom you must become knowledgeable. You also will be quizzed on state, national and international stories of significance. I require you to read The Daily O'Collegian and either the Tulsa World or the Daily Oklahoman.

During most weeks, you will take quizzes in lab. The quizzes primarily will help familiarize you with Associated Press style, which is used by nearly all news organizations. Most editing exercises during labs also will be graded.

There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. In addition, students will complete a design project, which will consist of designing a front page of a newspaper using Quark Xpress, a pagination program.

Attendance is required in order to do well in this class. The instructor will not take attendance, but tests will include items from nearly every class and lab period. In addition, you are responsible for all work assigned in class and the work assigned in labs. If you miss a class or lab and do not have a legitimate excuse, you WILL NOT be allowed to make up the work. If you have a legitimate and verifiable excuse, you will be allowed to make up the work. Makeup work must be completed within two weeks of the missed assignment. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL MISSED WORK BE ACCCEPTED AFTER FRIDAY, NOV. 20. I will work with you to help you make up a grade if you have a legitimate excuse. Legitimate excuses are: death in the family, a family emergency, or a personal illness requiring that you miss class.

If you are a member of an official OSU team or organization required to participate in sanctioned competitions, meet, or events, you should notify the instructor of your travel schedule if you must miss a class, labs, tests or other assignments. You will be allowed to make up missed work. Because you know your schedule in advance, however, you should make up labs, if possible, by attending the other lab. Tests and quizzes must be taken IN ADVANCE.

Because I know "things" do occur, the grading system has some flexibility. Your lowest current events quiz and lab quiz scores will be dropped.

Here's how your final grade will be determined:

	Class
	Current events quizzes	10 percent
	Midterm exam	20 percent
	Final exam	20 percent
	Lab
	Lab quizzes	10 percent
	Lab editing excercises	25 percent
	Design project	15 percent

When a student's score falls on the borderline between grades, the following will be considered: class participation, attendance, effort and professional attitude.

Students who have questions about the grading of assignments and tests should talk first with me. If we cannot resolve the matter, you may visit or write Dr. Paul Smeyak, director of the School of Journalism and Broadcasting. Dr. Smeyak will appoint a committee to look into the situation.

Academic honesty

Honesty has a special meaning for journalists because our credibility depends upon truthfulness in communicating with thousands of people each day. Academic honesty also is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. Members of the university community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed and presented. All the work you do in this class must be your own. In journalistic writing, plagiarism is using someone else's material and claiming it is yours, handing in someone else's work as your own, using faked quotes, not giving appropriate attribution or citation of a source where information has been obtained, or any other form of misrepresenting your work.

The academic community regards plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty as an extremely serious matter, with serious consequences. If plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty is suspected, the instructor will follow the procedures and policies governing student behavior as outlined in the Acts of Academic Dishonesty and Misconduct of Oklahoma State University and the Board of Regents.

E-mail

We will be communicating in various ways, including electronic mail. Students should have an e-mail account to participate in this class.