408A W21 Dadey

Writing for the Media (ENGL 408A)

General Information

Section Number: 041

Term: Winter 2021

Instructor: Bruce Dadey

Office: Hagey Hall 257 (not available in office during winter 2021)

Email: badadey@uwaterloo.ca

Contact: For general inquiries about the course and assignments, post to the Ask the Instructor Forum. For specific inquiries about your individual assignments, please email me.

Course Description and Objectives

This course will teach you how to write various types of texts within journalism and public relations. The course is production-oriented: you will write original stories in various media genres. The course will also involve some analysis of media texts using methods from genre theory, rhetorical studies, and linguistics, with the goal of helping you to better write your own texts.

By the end of the course you will be able to do the following:

• Produce a wide variety of texts for a range of media.
• Follow the conventions associated with various types of stories, articles, and PR documents, and accommodate the different audiences that read them either in print or online.
• Identify and evaluate the strategies used by other writers who are producing various types of media stories.
• Understand how social, technological, and organizational contexts affect the production and reception of media texts and how the shifting landscape facing media organizations is leading to changes in how journalism is being made and consumed.

Texts

Harrower, Tim. Inside Reporting: A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism. 3^rd ed., McGraw-Hill, 2013. The hard copy is available from the UWaterloo bookstore or Amazon. You can also buy or rent the the eText for various lengths of time from VitalSource.

Koenig, Sarah. Serial. Season 1, Episodes 1-3, from WBEZ Chicago, October 2014, https://serialpodcast.org/season-one

LEARN readings and links

Assignments

See the Syllabus and Assignments Section of the Contents for descriptions of the assignements.

Course Policies

Assignments and Class Procedures

• Unless otherwise specified, assignments are due on 11:55 p.m. of the due date.
• Assignments that are late without good reason will be penalized at a rate of two percentage points for every week day late (10% per week). There are no extensions on discussion or journal assignments except for documented serious illness—they will receive a zero if not submitted by the specified deadline.
• We will often be using email to communicate with one another. All email communication will occur through your UWaterloo account, which you should check regularly.

Academic integrity

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.

Grievance

A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline

A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Appeals

A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.

Note for students with disabilities

AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

Tentative Schedule

IR = Inside Reporting

See also the To Do list for supplementary readings