The purpose of this assignment is to develop skills in reporting and writing a short news article, a common type of article in print journalism.

Using what you have learned from the Stovall text and in class, choose a story to cover and write an article of 600 to 800 words in proper journalistic style.  The story must be timely and of interest to the UWB community, especially to students.  You may use archival materials, interviews, and any other information-gathering techniques available to journalists.

You and your peers will have an opportunity to critique each other's articles in class on the due date.  Meeting deadlines is crucial in journalism, so articles that are not in class on the due date at 8:45 a.m. sharp, by the classroom clock, will not get the benefit of peer critiques.  You must bring three copies of your double-spaced article to class on the due date.  Remember to type -30- at the end of your story to indicate "the end."

You then will revise your article and submit it electronically in your midquarter portfolio, which is due no later than 8:30 a.m. sharp on Monday, Feb. 4.

The midquarter portfolio version of your article will be the final version, which I will grade according to these criteria:

Timeliness (how current)	10%
Likely interest to readers	15%
Depth of coverage	25%
Accuracy	20%
Structure and organization	20%
Prose	10%
TOTAL	100%

This assignment is worth 15 percent of your final course grade.

This page last updated January 16, 2008.

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