Journalism 133: Prof. Craig: Final Project

Final Project

This semester, the final project assignment will be somewhat different than in previous editions of this class.  This time, everyone writes and everyone edits -- you will write a story and also edit someone else's story as part of the complete project.  The final project is 25 percent of your semester grade, but this total will now be divided into two parts: 10 percent for Part 1; 15 percent for Part 2.

Part 1: 

You will write a 1000-word (or more) main story and 500-word (or more) sidebar story about the general topic you have been assigned below.  It's up to you to narrow the subject down to story and sidebar topics that will be effective.  There should be a minimum of four interviews across the story and sidebar -- you can quote the same people in both, but try to avoid using the same quotes.

That story/sidebar will be due and submitted to me as a Word document on Tuesday, May 6 at class time.  Also at that time, your story will be assigned to an editor, and you will be assigned as an editor for someone else's story.  

Part 2: 

Having turned in the story you wrote, you will now edit another student's story.  Please use the Track Changes function of Microsoft Word to show what you have changed.  You will have complete latitude in editing this story, meaning you will be allowed/expected to:

• Check all names and facts, and correct them if needed
• Fix all style, grammar or spelling errors
• Rewrite and/or reorganize material as you deem necessary
• Add background information as you see fit
• Do more interviews if you think they would help improve the story

You may contact your classmate who wrote the story with any questions, but please try to keep this to a minimum. 

As this is an editing class, any errors introduced into the story during editing will severely harm your grade.   

The finished edit of the story and sidebar will be due on Thursday, May 8, the last day of class.  It will be submitted as a Word document, as required in the syllabus.

You have been randomly assigned a general topic for your story/sidebar writing portion of the project.  You may use the next few minutes to determine what subject you want to write about and possible subtopics for the sidebar story.  We will reconvene later and everyone can pitch their ideas, and you can all get to work moving forward.

General topics for final project: