Lecture: 11:30 to 12:20 p.m. Mondays & Wednesdays 101 Paul Miller Building

Dr. Stan Ketterer, assistant professor 316B Paul Miller Building
Office hours: 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 1 to 3 p.m. Thursdays, or by appointment.
Office phone: 744-8270
E-mail: kstan@okstate.edu

Nerissa Young, visiting professor 307 Paul Miller Building
Office hours: Posted on the door.
Office phone: 744-8096
E-mail: yneriss@okstate.edu

Diane Varner, instructor 209 Paul Miller Building
Office hours: Posted on the door.
Office phone: 744-8262
E-mail: dianesv@okstate.edu

Course Description and Objectives

This course introduces you to the techniques of reporting and news writing and requires you to think and act like a journalist. These techniques include developing news judgment, covering a beat, backgrounding, finding and evaluating documents and other information, interviewing, and writing hard news stories on deadline, as well as an in-depth story. You also will learn legal and ethical principles of reporting.

The School of Journalism and Broadcasting is a professional school that will help prepare you for a career in journalism. Consequently, you will be expected to keep up with the news, to meet deadlines, and to report, write and edit news stories that meet the standards of publication.

After learning the basics, you will be assigned to cover a beat, develop your own story ideas, and write news and feature stories about the people, issues and events on your beat. As you do these activities, we expect you to develop skills and master concepts important to all areas of mass communication, including accuracy, attention to detail, clear and critical thinking, interviewing, fairness and balance, a sense of ethics and social responsibility.

You must have an e-mail account for this class. Because of problems with viruses, you will be required to send your stories for possible publication to the Daily O’Collegian as an e-mail attachment. To help O’Colly editors contact you, include your name, e-mail address and phone number at the top of your story. Moreover, a carbon copy must be sent to your lab instructor at the same time to verify that the story has been sent to the O’Colly. In addition, you will be required to take a printed copy of your story to the O’Colly and to talk with O’Colly editors to ensure that your electronic copy has arrived. The O’Colly’s e-mail address is: news@ocolly.com

If possible, write your story in Microsoft Word. It is easier for O’Colly editors to use because the coding will transfer. If you use any other word processing program, such as Word Perfect, save your file as plain text to eliminate coding problems.

Journalists must keep up with the news. Consequently, every day you must read the Daily O’Collegian and either the Daily Oklahoman or the Tulsa World. In addition, you must watch at least one local and one national newscast from an Oklahoma City or a Tulsa television station. Thus, we will take questions for current events quizzes from these media. We also recommend that you read national news magazines, such as Time, and listen to 91.7 KOSU-FM, Stillwater’s National Public Radio affiliate.

The main focus of this class is reporting and news writing, which is reflected in the grading. You will do nearly all of the reporting and news writing for your stories outside of class. Specifically, you will be writing six news stories, and three of these stories will be part of an in-depth reporting project. To help prepare you to write these types of stories, you will do exercises in the labs. Further, you will have other lab assignments that will help you gain a better understanding of how journalists function in newsrooms.

Early in the semester, you will be assigned to a beat. Your job will be to explore your beat, cultivate sources and find the news. After you have researched your beat, you will write a beat backgrounder and then submit memos about your beat to your lab instructor. Your stories must come from your beat.

As soon as you are assigned to a beat, you will begin to develop story ideas. Put those story ideas in your beat memos, so your lab instructor can give you feedback like a city editor in a newsroom. Don’t wait until the last minute, or you’ll have trouble finding a story or contacting sources. Develop alternative sources as well, so you will have other sources when your main sources are unavailable.

As the semester progresses and you get to know your beat better, you’ll write more complex stories. You will be required to write six stories outside of class, and you will get guidelines for each story telling you what is expected. The stories will include a news story, live event story, second news story, profile story, document story, and representative profile story. The first four stories must be NEW, ORIGINAL work. Each story must be about a DIFFERENT TOPIC, and they cannot be "ADVANCE" stories, i.e. a story that previews an upcoming event. When in doubt about whether the story meets these guidelines, contact your lab instructor. The length of time you have to do these stories will vary. As the semester progresses and as you become more experienced, the stories will count more toward your final grade.

The last three stories will be a part of your final project that will enable you to look at a person and a social issue in depth. First, you will find someone on your beat who represents a social issue or trend, such as a cafeteria worker who has retired but must work because Social Security does not pay enough to meet her bills. Your first project story will be a profile of the person that includes description. Next, you will do research about the social issue or trend, including finding original source documents in the library and on the Internet. Your second story will focus on the central theme that you find in the documents. Armed with your documents and your knowledge of your issue, you will interview various sources, including an expect on the topic, another person like your profile person, and a third person of your choice. Finally, you will put the entire package together for your in-depth story, a representative profile that tells the story of one person while informing readers about the trend or social issue that the person represents.

You are required to turn your first three stories and your last story into the O’Colly for possible publication. Although O’Colly editors make the final call about publication as outlined in university policy, this approach enhances your chances of getting your stories published. Such publications would give you clips that could help you get internships and jobs. Specifically, you are required to turn in a paper copy of your first three stories to your lab instructor and a paper and an electronic copy to the O’Colly and to your instructor at the same time. Both copies are essential if you hope to have your story published. The stories must be turned in to the O’Colly on or before the due date.

Your live event story must be turned in TO THE O’COLLY ON the day the EVENT occurs. The lab instructor will check the date of the story with the date on the electronic copy. If it is turned in on a different day, you will receive a ZERO for the assignment. The hard copy must be turned in to the lab instructor’s box by no later than noon of the next day. JB office staff must initial the time. Make sure you tell the O’Colly editors at least a day in advance that the story is coming to help increase your chances of publication. FAILURE TO TURN IN AN ELECTRONIC COPY OF ANY STORY TO THE O’COLLY AND THE INSTRUCTOR BY DEADLINE WILL RESULT IN AN AUTOMATIC ZERO.

You must turn your stories in personally to your lab instructor at the beginning of lab on the prescribed dates. Like editors, instructors will not accept stories that have been shoved under their doors or placed in their boxes, except the live event storY.

Because Media Style and Structure and passing the school’s language proficiency exam are prerequisites for this course, you are expected to know how to use correct grammar, word usage, punctuation, spelling and basic Associated Press style. Consequently, points will be deducted for these errors in lab quizzes and in stories. If you are unsure about word usage or style, look it up in the AP Stylebook or the dictionary. Working with Words has all you need to know about grammar and punctuation, but it also has these helpful sections:

We all learn from one another and have a variety of opinions about the issues facing reporters and writers. Consequently, we will form groups in class and meet periodically during the semester to share our views.

During most weeks, you will do exercises during labs. YOU WILL NOT USE LABS TO FINISH STORIES ASSIGNED OUTSIDE OF CLASS. The exercises will concern the application of the reporting and news writing principles previously discussed in class. Moreover, they will include the types of stories that you will be writing outside of class so you can learn how to do them under the direction of your instructor. You will be writing some stories on deadline much like a professional journalist. Bring Working With Words, the Associated Press Stylebook and a dictionary to every lab. You can use them as reference books for exercises. Take advantage of lab time to work with your instructor. We are here to help you.

You have the option of rewriting your first three stories for a higher grade. For your next three stories, you will be required to rework your story after it has been reviewed by your classmates during peer reviews.

If time permits, journalists often will rework a story several times before publication. It is important, however, that you write an accurate and complete story in the beginning because most journalists do not get a second chance. Consequently, the first submission of the first three stories will be graded. You can take that score or rewrite the story.

If you rewrite the story, you must number the grammar, punctuation, style and other mistakes on the original story. You also must correct those mistakes on the revised version and mark the corrections with the same numbers. Because preventing future mistakes requires knowing the applicable rules, you also must put the same numbers on a separate sheet of paper and write down the correct grammar, punctuation, spelling or other rule that applies. Include the appropriate page in Working With Words, the Associated Press Stylebook or Webster’s New World Dictionary. To receive credit for each correction, the changes must be correct and the appropriate rule must be cited.

If you correct only the editing mistakes, the highest score you can receive on the rewrite is the grade that you received for reporting and writing. However, if you correct the editing mistakes and the other mistakes that the instructor pointed out, such as not writing the story in High Five style or burying the lead, you can get a score of up to 100 points, depending on the changes made. If you make such substantive changes, you must number them and explain what you did and why on the separate sheet of paper with the corrections.

Because stories should be written correctly when they are handed in to an editor, the first version will count 55 percent of your grade for rewrites. The second version will count 45 percent. The resulting scores for the versions will be added together for your final grade.

If you miss the deadline for your original story, you will get a zero for the assignment and cannot submit a rewrite.

By the time you have written your third story, you should know what comprises a good story. As a result, you will begin evaluating and critiquing your classmates’ stories in lab, a peer review. The constructive feedback that you provide should enable your classmates to improve their stories when they rewrite them. On peer review days, you must bring four copies of your story to the lab. Your instructor will divide the class into small groups. Then, you will read aloud, evaluate and discuss one another’s work.

Your first VERSION must meet the miminum requirements of the assignment, SUCH AS LENGTH OR NUMBER OF SOURCES. IF THE STORY DOES NOT MEET THESE REQUIREMENTS, IT WILL BE GRADED AND YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO REWRITE IT. FURTHER, STUDENTS WHO DO NOT HAVE A STORY TO REVIEW WILL RECEIVE A ZERO FOR THE STORY.

You must give one copy of your last three stories to the instructor on peer review days. After the peer review, you must rewrite the story and you can incorporate the suggestions of your peers. In addition, you can ask your lab instructor to review your story.

You must submit three beat memos to your lab instructor when indicated on the class schedule in this syllabus. They will help you keep up with the course, especially with generating story ideas, and your lab instructor will give you feedback, including possible sources for your story. Beat memos will count 10 points each.

All memos MUST BE typed and double-spaced. They should be at least one complete page and no more than two pages. The memos will be graded on how well you have covered the criteria, not what you say. For example, a one-sentence explanation would be worth one point.

They must include the following:

• Ideas for your next story. (4 points).
• A synopsis of what you learned about beat reporting or news writing. (4 points)
• A list of the names, titles and phone numbers of the sources that you contacted since the last memo. (2 points).

Take advantage of the beat memos to get feedback from your lab instructor. If you are having problems on your beat, feel free to discuss them in your memos. The instructors will offer suggestions to help you deal with them. In addition, share what you have learned about beat reporting.

Because you are taking this course in a professional school, you will be expected to think and act like a journalist. Consequently, you will be expected to meet the standards of a journalist, including avoiding conflicts of interests, having an adequate number of sources for stories, ensuring the accuracy of the information in your stories, meeting deadlines, editing your stories, and keeping up with the news.

Journalists should be independent, objective reporters of the news. If you have a vested interest in the people, groups or organizations that you cover, the public likely will perceive you are slanting or biasing the news. In addition, you could unintentionally slant the news, fellow group members could put pressure on you to slant the news, or the public simply could perceive that the news is slanted because of your group membership. In any case, this perception could damage the reputation of the journalist and the media outlet where he or she works. As a result, the media outlet could lose credibility.

Thus, you WILL NOT be allowed to cover a beat involving groups, teams or organizations in which you, a relative, or a roommate is a member. In addition, you will not be allowed to cover the department or school in which you are a major, such as the School of Journalism and Broadcasting. If you are a member of an athletic team, you cannot cover another athletic team or athletic club. FURTHERMORE, YOU CANNOT USE RELATIVES, FRIENDS, ROOMMATES, MEMBERS OF THIS CLASS, OR JOURNALISM OR AGRICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS MAJORS AS SOURCES IN YOUR STORIES. IF YOU USE THESE SOURCES IN ANY STORY, YOU WILL RECEIVE A ZERO FOR THE ASSIGNMENT. You are required to IMMEDIATELY tell the instructor if you are assigned to a beat or are assigned to cover a story that involves a potential conflict of interest. If you have any doubt, consult the instructor.

When any out-of-class story is assigned, you will receive guidelines explaining the parameters of the story and the expectations of the instructor. A minimum number of sources quoted in the story will be specified, although you are encouraged to have more sources. This number is designed to meet the minimum standards of a professional journalist for the publication of a story. Sources are defined as people to whom you attribute worthwhile information and quote or paraphrase in the story.

You must have AT LEAST THREE PEOPLE SOURCES QUOTED IN the first three stories and four people sources QUOTED in the representative profile. These people sources must be from interviews that you have conducted. The O’Colly also requires three sources. Again, you cannot use relatives, friends, roommates, members of this class, and journalism or agricultural communications majors as sources. "Could not contact the source" does not count as a source. If you do not have the minimum SOURCES, YOUR STORY GRADE WILL BE DROPPED 10 POINTS FOR EACH SOURCE BELOW THE MINIMUM. The points will be deducted from the score that you would normally have received for reporting and writing. For example, if you would have received an 80 and had two sources instead of the required three, you would receive no higher than a 70.

Including the required number of sources, however, does not guarantee you a passing grade. Stories will be judged on their merits.

When dealing with sources, identify yourself as a student in a reporting class at the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at Oklahoma State University. Tell the source that your story will be submitted to the Daily O’Collegian for possible publication. As outlined by university policy, the O’Colly editors will determine publication.

The credibility of your story and ultimately the reputation of your publication depends on the accuracy of the information that you provide. Consequently, you must check the accuracy of the information in your story with your sources before you submit the story. This means that you must contact your sources and read back to them the part of your story pertaining to them. You will be required to change your story only if it is factually incorrect; therefore, we recommend that you tape-record your interviews to prevent disputes about quotes. When in doubt about whether to change your story after your accuracy check, contact your instructor.

YOU MUST INCLUDE A LIST OF THE NAMES, TITLES, AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS OF YOUR SOURCES AT THE END OF EVERY STORY THAT YOU SUBMIT. IF YOU DO NOT INCLUDE THE LIST, 30 POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FROM YOUR GRADE.

Instructors may check with sources to ensure that the information in the story has been verified. Sources also will be called if the instructors have any doubts about whether the interviews or accuracy checks were conducted. IF THE INSTRUCTOR DETERMINES THAT THE ACCURACY CHECK HAS NOT BEEN MADE, YOU WILL RECEIVE A ZERO FOR THAT STORY. A SECOND OFFENSE WILL RESULT IN AN AUTOMATIC "F" FOR THE COURSE.

Stories must be submitted to the O’Colly and in lab by the deadlines in this syllabus. Professional journalists must meet daily deadlines, and you must meet your deadlines as well. IF YOUR STORY IS NOT SUBMITTED BY THE DEADLINE, YOU WILL RECEIVE A ZERO UNLESS YOU HAVE ONE OF THE ACCEPTABLE EXCUSES OUTLINED UNDER THE CLASS ATTENDANCE POLICY AND YOU HAVE NOTIFIED THE INSTRUCTOR IN ADVANCE!

Journalists must do their jobs daily. They must get to work on time, cover events on time, write complete and accurate stories, and make their deadlines to serve their readers, viewers and listeners. Reporters who frequently miss work, arrive late for events such as news conferences, or miss deadlines will be fired. Missed deadlines can mean late papers and canceled subscriptions or missed broadcasts and frustrated viewers who change the channel.

Current events and other quizzes will be given first. If you arrive late for class OR LAB, you will receive a zero for the quiz.
Besides writing stories, you will take quizzes and do exercises nearly every week. If you miss quizzes, exercises, and exams or do not turn in your stories on time, you will receive a ZERO for that work unless you have one of four acceptable excuses.

The acceptable excuses are: the death of a family member, personal illness, required attendance at an official school function, and verifiable emergency. YOU MUST NOTIFY THE INSTRUCTOR BEFORE YOU MISS A CLASS OR A LAB, EXCEPT WHEN AN EMERGENCY HAPPENS ON THE WAY TO CLASS. If an emergency happens on the way to class, you must notify the instructor or school on the SAME DAY. If the instructor cannot be reached, leave a message with an office assistant at the School of Journalism and Broadcasting. The phone number is (405) 744-8260.

STUDENTS WHO FAIL TO NOTIFY THE INSTRUCTOR BEFORE MISSING A CLASS OR LAB WILL RECEIVE A ZERO FOR WORK DUE AND/OR PERFORMED DURING THAT CLASS OR LAB UNLESS IT IS A VERIFIABLE EMEGENCY.

Your illness must be serious to be excused. Thus, you must see a medical practitioner and get a signed note on official stationary from your doctor or the student health clinic.

For an official school function, you must present a signed note BEFORE missing class or lab. The note must be on official school stationary, and it must be signed by the appropriate university official. If you do not have a signed note on official school stationary, you will receive a ZERO for the work due or that you missed.

For a death in the family, you must notify the instructor BEFORE missing class or lab. When you return, you must give the instructor a copy of the program for the funeral. If you do not have a copy of the program, you will receive a ZERO for the work due or that you missed.

If you have an emergency, you must provide documentation to the instructors, such as an accident report or towing bill. If you do not have documentation, you will receive a ZERO for the work due or that you missed.

When you have an acceptable excuse, you are responsible for finding out what you missed and arranging to make it up with the instructor. Missed work must be MADE UP WITHIN ONE WEEK OF WHEN YOU RETURN TO CLASS, or you will receive a zero.

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 work alone. In journalistic writing, plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Using someone else’s material and claiming it is yours, including all or parts of stories written or broadcast by others and passages taken directly from stories in the morgue or off the Internet without attribution.
• Handing in someone else’s work as your own. This includes collaborating on a story with another person. It also includes having someone rewrite or edit your work.
• Making up quotes, taking quotes from other news sources, inventing sources, and not interviewing sources who appear in your stories. You must accurately quote and represent all sources.
• Not giving appropriate attribution or citation of a source where information has been obtained, including documents, books, articles, World Wide Web sites, etc.

During the semester, you will write six stories, a beat backgrounder and three beat memos. The backgrounder will help you get up to speed on your beat and give you ideas for your stories. You will learn about the history of your beat, the key issues facing it, and key people who must deal with those issues. In addition, you will do writing exercises and quizzes during labs. In class most weeks, you will take a quiz focusing on current events and the assigned readings in your reporting textbook. You also will take a midterm and a final examination, which is required under university policy.

Here’s how your final grade will be determined:

We will be using the standard 100-point scale, and the following grades will be given:

If your score falls just below a higher grade -- 1.5 points or less -- the instructor will consider the following in determining your final grade: the grades on your representative profile and final, attendance, effort, improvement over the semester, participation and attitude.

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

During the semester, you will be required to write a beat backgrounder, six stories outside of class, and submit beat memos. The beat backgrounder will help you get up to speed on your beat, so you will know the issues and key players before you start covering stories. Stories will count more as you become more proficient at writing them and spend a longer time working on them. The following shows how much each story, your backgrounder and memos will count toward your story grade, which counts 55 percent of your total grade:

Final Project stories

You will be assigned to a beat and will do six stories from that beat throughout the semester. These stories must be ready for publication in the Daily O’Collegian. First, you will receive a grade for reporting and writing. This grade will reflect how well you gathered the news and communicated it to your readers.

On the next page is a checklist of criteria that every story must meet. To ensure that you have written an acceptable story, you should go over this checklist before you turn in each story.

Your lab instructor will grade each of your stories and complete the checklist. You will also receive specific feedback regarding how to improve your story. Use the checklist and feedback to rewrite your story. Refer to this feedback in your rewrites when telling the instructor what substantive changes you made in your story.

Writing [ ] Does the lead contain the news?
[ ] Is the lead backed up in the story?
[ ] Is the story written in High Five style? Are the elements all on top?
[ ] Does your story have a clear focus or theme that holds it together?
[ ] Have you tailored the story to its intended audience, O’Colly readers?
[ ] Have you attributed quotes and information correctly?
[ ] Is the story well organized? Have you developed it logically?
[ ] Does each paragraph develop a single idea? Are paragraphs three sentences or less?
[ ] Does the story flow well? Do you have transitions that guide readers?
[ ] Is your writing clear and concise? Can readers understand all of your words
and sentences?
[ ] Are all opinions attributed to a source? Has the writer kept out of the story?

Editing
[ ] Is your information accurate? Have you double-checked all of your facts?
[ ] Have you corrected for spelling? Have you triple-checked names and proper nouns?
[ ] Have you corrected for grammar and word usage?
[ ] Have you corrected for punctuation? Have you double-checked quotes?
[ ] Have you corrected for Associated Press style?

Please note if you only fix the editing and source problems, the highest grade you can get on the rewrite is 85 because you did not address the reporting and writing problems indicated by the instructor. However, if you address those problems and do a good job of rewriting, your rewrite score could go up all the way to 100 points. Then, the weighted original and rewrite scores will be combined for your final story grade.

When you get back your original story, you will receive a checklist and a sheet that assesses its strengths and weaknesses. Your instructors, however, will use minimal marking on the story itself, especially for grammar, spelling, Associated Press style and punctuation. Minimal marking means the instructors will only indicate the nature of the problem with your story. You will be responsible for finding the mistake and correcting it during the rewrite.

For example, the instructor might write "word usage" above a sentence. That means you have used the wrong word in the sentence below, such as "affect" instead of "effect." You must look up the problem in Working With Words, the AP Stylebook or a dictionary and fix it. If you fix it correctly and cite the appropriate page, you will receive the points back on your rewrite. If you cannot find the problem or do not understand the rule that governs your mistake, contact your lab instructor for assistance.

During most weeks, you will take quizzes in class focusing on current events and the assigned readings. Reporters must keep up with the news to evaluate its newsworthiness, to advance the story, and to ensure accuracy, balance and completeness. The current events questions will focus primarily on local news, and major state, national and international news. Most quizzes also will include questions from your assigned readings to help ensure that you are prepared for class. IF YOU COME IN AFTER THE QUIZ HAS STARTED OR MISS CLASS WITHOUT AN ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE, YOU WILL RECEIVE A ZERO. Class quizzes usually will be given once a week and will count 5 percent of your overall grade.

If you have special needs as addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act and need assistance, please notify the instructor immediately. We’ll do whatever can be reasonably done to accommodate your special needs.

You will be communicating in various ways throughout the semester with the instructors and your classmates. Consequently, you are required have an e-mail account to participate in this class.

The syllabus, some readings and links to Internet sites will be posted on the class Web site. Readings can be read with a Web browser or printed out. The URL is:

http://www.cas.okstate.edu/jb/faculty/ketterer/report.htm

* NOTE: The instructor reserves the right to change this schedule to meet the needs
of the class.

JB 3263 Reporting