Week 2

1. Here's a great read on a somewhat overlooked topic: receipt length. Firstly, what do you think of this topic? Know that this story ran on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Secondly, what interesting facet of MA life could we express in a similarly styled story? Note the topic has to be somewhat fun but serious enough to make the reader scratch her head.

2. Check out this opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal. It's about healthcare — the most heated topic of discourse in the press these days — but note the author. This is a perfect example of how it's important to consider a writer's intentions when expressing an opinion. Does the author's credentials bolster his claims or weaken them? How and why?

Share your thoughts, ideas, and moments of brilliance.

Week 1 — Happy New Year!

Two articles related to reading:

1. NYTimes writes about The Future of Reading. While many of the sources are from the middle school level, how do you think this issue manifest itself in high school? Pertaining to writing style, what do you think of the overall structure? Is it a straight news piece or does it lean toward a feature?

2. Wall Street Journal has a great piece on literature and how it's changing to more plot focused pieces. This is a great example of an opinion piece, but many people think this is a straight news piece. It's also raises questions about what people read and why we read what we read. How might this affect newspaper readers?

Edition 1 Article Ideas

Please post your ideas for the first edition of the year. Be sure to read the other ideas BEFORE you post your own. You can elaborate on another person's post (with a citation, of course). Be specific and try to format each idea as such:

Article Idea:
Must interviews:
Why will people want to read this:

Here we go!
mc

Contests to enter

Folks

Here is the website for the CSPA categories. Please peruse and think about what article(s) you'd like to enter. You will need to cut out the articles, affix them to the proper paper and fill out an entry form. I have entry forms in my office and will bring them to class. Please be sure to read submission instructions as well.

You can also check out the results from this year's awards and finally know what Josh and Natasha got second for. Very cool.

Any questions, let me know.
mc

Week 36: the last week

It has finally arrived and it's time to close out the year with some awesome posts. Hope you enjoy! I have loved reading your posts more than anything else we've done in class. You all have been insightful, reflective, and responsive to each other in ways I never imagined. Thanks for making this work and thanks for partaking in this part of the class.

1. Here is an amazing story about a school that has a segregated prom. This piece appeared in the NYTimes Magazine this weekend. The topic is what intrigued me the most, but the writing is pretty solid as well.

2. An interesting piece from the radio show On The Media. This particular piece digs into the health care issues facing America, but more precisely, the misinformation that killed the last attempt to change our system. Is the media to blame? Why didn't the media do more to find out the truth in 1994? How can we learn some investigative tips from this piece? How could this inform the depth we go to (or don't go to) in our own work?

Homework for 5.21

All
Look at the MA Handbook, specifically the style section in the back, and come up with 7-10 items to add to this section. Think of mistakes you've/we've made often (maybe how to write numbers, how to cite a source) and how we can add that to the style book.

Editors
Create a tutorial for use next year. This tutorial should be easy to understand and illustrative of quality writing. Be sure to include:

1. Five musts for a successful article in your section.
2. A good example to share with the class.

Others
If you could do things differently for The Voice, what ten things would you do? Be realistic and concrete.

Week 35 — almost done ...

1. NYTimes writer Maureen Dowd made a little mistake in a recent column. Eek. What do you think of her actions. Is this something that will surely face journalist in the future as more and more bloggers get the scoop?

2. Some interesting ideas on how to save journalism. In this Washington Post column, Sanford & Brown say that the government can help. What do you think of these ideas? Is this really the way to help journalism transform?

Share your insights. Next week will be the final post of the year! NNNNNooooooooooo.