FEATURE ARTICLE WRITING COMM 325

Fall 2009 Professor Iris Krasnow Office: 117 Dunblane/TenleyCampus Wed. 2:10 p.m.- 4:50 p.m. Media Production Center - Room 102 [email protected] 202-895-4914

PURPOSE : This course is designed as an upper-level journalism writing skills class that builds on the basic Reporting class. It will teach you the fundamentals of solid feature reporting and writing, as well as how to market your stories to magazines and newspapers. The emphasis will be on learning to write clear and strong features, focused on the people, places and issues surrounding Washington, D.C.

The heart of your work this semester will be four five-page feature stories on subjects of your choice, within boundaries of my choice. Features are the gems of journalism, an area of writing that crackles with life. You will work on becoming an artist with language, creating compelling features that fill the audience's imagination and bombards their senses, this while telling them a new, great story. You will come away from this course knowing the difference between good and great.

SKILL MASTERY : You will develop the following skills:

 Perfecting the core elements of feature article writing. This breaks down into choosing a subject, the art of the interview, cultivating sources, proper quotation, coherent organization, and weaving it all together with your best lead, anecdotes, details and clear voice.  Analyzing feature articles, all kinds and lots of them. While our required text and handouts will serve as your guides, mostly this course is about your own interviews, observations and writing experiences. A portion of each session will be spent working on your stories, with class critiques.  Getting published! You will learn how to conceive story ideas that are focused and provocative, and how to compose query letter pitches to newspapers and magazines.  Getting you to read a good mix of publications. Devouring a range of feature- oriented publications will not only keep you current, it fuels your writing. All great writers read, read, read.  Along with voracious reading, you are expected to speak out in class. The open sharing of your thoughts and challenges about writing will inspire every student to do his/her best work. REQUIRED READING : Handouts to be distributed each week, from newspapers, magazines and online publications. Required text for the course is: On Writing Well , by William Zinsser. Please bring your book an handouts to class each week. You are also expected to read daily, and to be avid readers of feature articles online and in print form.

ASSOCIATION PRESS STYLEBOOK ONLINE: The School of Communication now has the AP Stylebook Online for SOC students. To access the Stylebook, go to: http://www.apstylebook.com/american/ . You are expected to edit your stories for the appropriate style using the online stylebook.

The four major assignments are as follows, in the order they will be due. I'm looking for stories that drill deeply into the heart of your subject, layered with thorough reporting, colorful anecdotes and finely tuned quotes. We will cover all aspects of these writing forms in class well before the due date.

NEWSFEATURE: This is a feature article with a hard news edge. In an election year, there lies a bounty of political and social issues at the forefront of the news to report on n a long-form feature, issues such as healthcare, the environment, civil liberties and the Iraq war.

PROFILE: This will be a profile spotlighting a Washington area personality, be it a blown-dry senator, gritty cab driver or an Adams Morgan chanteuse. By the end of this profile, readers should feel they know your subjects intimately, their pitfalls, passions, primary relationships, aspirations.

LIFESTYLE FEATURE: A lifestyle story reflects cultural shifts in how we live. Topics to choose from range from spotlighting trends in fitness, fashion, food, travel and relationships.

ESSAY: This is your chance to cut loose and write your heart. The personal essay can be an opinion piece that is a tirade on hot-button issues such as gay marriage or abortion. Or, this essay can be purely personal, patterned after the My Turn column in Newsweek.

(You will also be given shorter writing drills periodically throughout the semester, for example, a book review or restaurant review.)

COURSE ORGANIZATION : The heart of this course is the reporting and writing you will do outside of class, supported by the practice and discussion of writing techniques you will do in class. For outside assignments, each of you will be expected to propose story ideas in class and deliver them according to the above deadline structure. You will have three weeks to complete each of the first three assignments, two weeks for the essay. Class discussions will center on developing and honing story ideas, choosing sources and interview techniques – just like professional newsroom editorial meetings. For September 2 : Come prepared to discuss issues and people you’d like to excavate during the course of this semester and transform into multi-textured GREAT newsfeature articles. We will also go right to work on some writing exercises.

CLASS POLICIES

STORY IDEAS : As you work and play on campus and in Washington, observe the people, places and events around you. This city is filled with fascinating people and stories, so it will be easy to conjure up superb material for this class. Although feature article writing is built on creativity, this backbone of this form, like all good journalism, is facts: Therefore, remember you are writing creatively about real events and real people and not entering a semester of creative writing or stream-of-consciousness blogging. Story ideas will only be approved if they meet these standards:  Worthy of publication in a newspaper, webzine or magazine  Fresh and a breakaway from clichés  Viable: That means a story you can reasonably expect to produce in the time allotted.

GRADING: Stories that earn As are ones that sing, stand out, make you laugh, make you cry. These are the polished articles that could be published tomorrow in the Style section of The Washington Post. To achieve this standard, you will need to interview perhaps two to three times the amount of sources as the required five persons that must be cited in each article. Your A paper will be edgy, focused like a laser, impeccably organized and tightly written, with spare, powerful language. No fluffy, cliché-ridden work allowed. Stories that earn Bs are the ones that are very good and can be catapulted into the A category with some minor additional reporting, re-shuffling and proofreading. Stories that earn Cs are the ones that need lots more focus and work. Stories that earn Ds and Fs are the ones that reflect a writer who is distracted, disinterested, unfocused and late with deadlines. Here is how the assignments and classroom participation will shake out in your final grade:

WEIGHTS: Newsfeature – 18 percent Profile – 18 percent Lifestyle story – 18 percent Essay – 16 percent Spot stories– 10 percent Classroom participation/attendance/in-class work – 20 percent

DEADLINES: As in this case with a professional journalist, making your deadline is essential. Missed deadlines will swiftly deflate your grade. All stories must be typed, double-spaced and stapled, with a source list attached, and ready to be handed in at the beginning of the class they are due. I will extend deadlines solely for health emergencies. You are expected to turn in stories free of spelling errors. Stories will be docked one grade level with each word misspelled. SO PROOFREAD CAREFULLY AND CONSISTENTLY. USE A DICTIONARY, not Spellcheck.

REWRITES: You will be allowed to rewrite any major story earning a B-plus or lower. My edits on your original draft will be very detailed and prescriptive, so you should be able to improve dramatically by my notes. However, I welcome you to sign up for individual sessions during my office hours. I will count the higher of the two grades as your final grade. If you earn a C- or lower on a story, you are required to rewrite that story, for practice. Rewrites are due one week after the story is returned. When handing in a rewrite, you must attach the original graded version of the story.

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENTS: Many weeks we will practice writing different elements of feature stories in class. These assignments will be turned in at the end of class. Other weeks you will be working on your feature assignments, and while I will offer in-class commentary, computer-side, I do not read drafts.

OFFICE HOURS : I am the professor of Washington Journalism Semester on the Tenley Campus, and my office in the Dunblane building is room 102. My office hours there are Wednesday noon until 2 p.m. Since that is a hike from MGC, it is likely more convenient to meet students by appointment on main campus. I will respond immediately to any emails sent to [email protected] . My American U email is [email protected] but I sometimes do not read that on weekends. A message left on my office phone, 895-4914, will also receive a quick callback, as will a cell call at: 410-533-0859.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY CODE: Plagiarism is considered a serious ethical violation in journalism and academia. Standards of academic conduct are set forth in the University’s Academic Integrity Code. By registering, you have acknowledged your awareness of the Code and are required to know your rights and responsibilities as defined by the Code. Violations of the Academic Integrity Code will not be treated lightly and will be prosecuted. Please see me if you have questions about the academic violations described in the Code in general or as they relate to particular requirements for this course. In short, do your own work. It’s the only way you will really learn it for yourself. If you are tempted to plagiarize, buy or steal material, or cheat in any way, please come see or call me immediately and together we will find a better way to deal with the problems you are encountering.

ATTENDANCE: This course attempts to simulate a news reporter’s work environment and foster the skills and discipline necessary to compete as a working writer. Therefore, you are required to attend every session. An excused absence is one caused by a medical emergency. If you are too sick to come to class, go to the infirmary or a doctor and please leave me a phone message prior to missing class. If you have more than two unexcused absences, you may be asked to drop the course. If you miss more than five class sessions for any reason, you may be asked to drop the course. Please do not skip class so you can make your deadlines for an assignment for me.

RULES TO LIVE BY THIS SEMESTER:

1. You may not write in the first-person in any major article EXCEPT the personal essay. The personal essay must be first-person. 2. Each story must have at least four named sources. You must provide a list of your sources for every story, including names, titles and phone numbers . The numbers must be real— I check. 3. You may not interview people who present a conflict of interest for you, including your boss, a professor of a course you are taking this semester, your family members, your boy/girlfriend, roommate, etc. 4. If you interview an anonymous source, such as an undercover cop or a drug addict, that person must be comfortable with you telling me who he or she is, and how they can be contacted. This should inspire you to try and get everyone to go on the record. 5. You may not engage in any illegal activity or undercover reporting to do stories for this class. 6. Except for the personal essay, major stories should be six pages, maximum. 7. BE BRAVE. TELL THE TRUTH. HAVE FUN.

THE AMERICAN UNVERSITY’S ACADEMIC INTEGRITY CODE. As journalists it is always important to note when and when you are not using sources. It has been said that a journalist is only as good as their last source, but perhaps it is more important to remember that a good journalist always gives proper credit where credit is due. Therefore, please take a moment to review the ’s Academic Integrity Code before you begin your first assignment.

Academic Integrity. Additional standards of academic conduct are set forth in the University’s Academic Integrity Code that was provided in the registration packet and is available online. By participating in this program, every student has acknowledged her or his awareness of the Academic Integrity Code, and is obliged to become familiar with her or his rights and responsibilities as defined by the Code. Please see me if you have any questions with regard to the code. Violations of the Academic Integrity Code will be taken seriously, and disciplinary actions will ensue should such violations occur. You can learn more about the Code by going to http://www.american.edu/academics/integrity/code.htm .

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

In the event of a declared pandemic (influenza or other communicable disease), American University will implement a plan for meeting the needs of all members of the university community. Should the university be required to close for a period of time, we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of our educational programs will be delivered to our students. These may include altering and extending the duration of the traditional term schedule to complete essential instruction in the traditional format and/or use of distance instructional methods. Specific strategies will vary from class to class, depending on the format of the course and the timing of the emergency. Faculty will communicate class-specific information to students via AU e-mail and Blackboard, while students must inform their faculty immediately of any absence due to illness. Students are responsible for checking their AU e-mail regularly and keeping themselves informed of emergencies. In the event of a declared pandemic or other emergency, students should refer to the AU Web site (www. prepared. american.edu ) and the AU information line at (202) 885- 1100 for general university-wide information, as well as contact their faculty and/or respective dean’s office for course and school/ college-specific information.

About Iris Krasnow:

My journalism career started in my hometown of Chicago as a freelance contributor to Chicago Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. In 1981 I became a feature writer for the Dallas Times Herald, a position I held until 1984 when I moved to Washington, D.C. to join United Press International as the national feature writer.

My specialty at UPI was celebrity profiles, and I hade the exciting opportunity to interview an array of stars, ranging from to King Hussein to to Mr. Rogers. I became a freelance writer in 1989, and my work has appeared in many publications, including The Washington Post, Life, Self and . I am the author of four books, Surrendering to Motherhood, -bestseller Surrendering to Marriage, Surrendering to Yourself and I Am My Mother’s Daughter. This work has landed me guest spots on dozens of national radio and television shows, including twice on Oprah, the Today show, and several times on CNN.

My husband and I live in Annapolis, Maryland and we are parents of four teenage sons..

Let the fun begin!