As food writers, we will harvest the exciting bounty of New York City, foodie capitol of the world. Our approach to this adventure is totally New York, which means savoring the Big Apple in all its glamorous and gritty glory. So expect to cover a wide range of food features -- from restaurant reviews and dining trends, to the politics and economics of how and what we eat. Guest speakers and field trips are on the menu, along with assignments designed to build confidence in your reporting/writing. The course's workshop setting also provides a supportive environment for exploring your personal writing style and developing your voice.

Broadcast interviews are a very different breed than print interviews. LIVE, and even pre-taped programs can be extremely tricky. There are strict time limitations. Interviewees may talk too much or too little or, like many politicians and corporate spokesmen, they can neatly dodge the tough questions to play out the time. A magazine journalist may spend hours with his “guest” and then spend more hours writing, editing and doing additional follow-up research. A broadcast interviewer rarely has that luxury after the fact.

BUT — the television or radio interviewer must deal with research before the broadcast and will have to know how to properly phrase the questions, how to draw out the guest and, especially how to follow-up on those "iffy" answers.

Around the country, on public and commercial stations and networks, there are several forms of interviews from tight five-minute segments to an hour. Charlie Rose on public television engages with international and national leaders, artists, educators, business executives. There are the Sunday morning public affairs programs on every major network. Local stations interview mayors, congressmen, city council members, consumer advocates etc.

Here in New York on WNYC Radio, Brian Lehrer and Leonard Lopate each do a two-hour interview program five days a week. Terry Gross on FRESH AIR is heard around the country.

During this summer session, we will explore the art of the broadcast interview. But not just as theory. We will do hands-on.

In On The Road in the City, students will go on a series of journeys throughout the city in search of snippets of ordinary life that say something extraordinary about the city and humanity. In the process, students will be in pursuit of the seeds of cultural change. The mission and challenge will be to present those seeds and portraits of life with prose that gives the reader a sense of making the same discoveries. You will also read three books that employ "road" journalism in different ways. The semester will culminate in your own major project that will require you to journey with a social or cultural world of New York.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry, The Beat

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry, The Beat

Do you have something to say? A story to tell? An original voice? This course will nurture that voice, help shape the stories, sharpen your skills. The personal essay is a popular form of nonfiction writing, cherished by both writers and readers, but crafting a successful essay is a difficult skill. How can we be self-revealing without being self-indulgent? How can we make our own experiences powerful for others? In this course students will read some of the best essays around, from Langston Hughes to Joan Didion to Oliver Sacks to Marjorie Williams, and write their own, taking each one through several drafts. The heart of the course will be close reading and editing of students' work.

This class is an introduction to photojournalism with an emphasis on developing the skills professionals use by shooting a series of nine photo assignments. Students are expected to provide their own SLR digital or film cameras, so the initial costs of the class are high. Digital cameras are preferred. The workload is demanding but also fun. Students are encouraged to explore new territory, i.e. venture off campus, to seek out interesting subjects and events worthy of coverage.The photo assignments range from shooting a basic environmental portrait, covering a scheduled public event and a sporting event (usually the New York marathon) to finding feature and pictorial photos in an everyday setting. The culmination is a final project, a photo essay on a single person, group of people or subject, utilizing skills learned throughout the semester. Additionally, every student will select and interview a working photojournalist. Students are expected to spend of time out of class looking at books, magazines, and newspapers and online for excellent photojournalism examples to help generate ideas for the class. Guest speakers from the profession will visit occasionally. By semester's end, students should have a basic understanding of the impact photographs have on society, the legal and ethical concerns of photojournalists, digital production of photographs, and the importance of captions and text accompanying photographs. Students will also produce a variety of photojournalistic images for an entry-level portfolio.

This course will focus on the arts scene in New York City: theatre, music, visual art, film, literature, etc. Students will gain experience writing arts previews, reviews, and profiles. In addition, students will assist in the editing of each other's work. Course Objectives: To develop critical writing skills, while capturing the multi-faceted and unique New York City arts scene on the page.

This course invites students to draw inspiration from the ways others have written about places and journeys that captivated them and to learn to write travel stories of their own. We follow Freya Stark and Tony Horwitz to the Middle East; Robert Kaplan to the Balkans; Mary Taylor Simeti to Sicily; Mary Morris to Mexico; and Neal Ascherson to the Black Sea. Students also develop stories from their own travel experiences, both in New York and further afield. Three stories of different styles, targeted to newspapers and magazines, are assigned. We look at how to choose compelling subjects and destinations; what to do once you arrive; writing techniques that make a story stand out; and how to pitch to editors. Several speakers--travel writers, editors, and potential sources for stories--will be invited to class.

Prerequisites: None

Why do we think that way? What do we mean by "women" and "men"? If you were a visiting anthropologist from Mars, how could you use our culture's media to understand our ideas about gender? Women & the Media is a collaborative seminar that examines the complex relationship (or different contradictory relationships) between those humans we call "women" and those forms of discourse we call "media." We will consider women both as subjects and objects, as artists and models, as creators of "media" in its many forms and as media's creations. What does our culture's "media" tell us about how we read gender? What, if anything, does our gender tell us about our readings of "media"? Student participation in this seminar is key: students are expected to attend all sessions, to complete all the reading (there's lots of reading!), to participate actively in discussion, and to lead one of the class sessions themselves. Leading a class means opening the day's conversation with a presentation, critiquing and elaborating on the assigned reading, bringing in additional relevant material, and suggesting questions or issues that seem particularly interesting or troublesome. The purpose of the course is to develop our critical and self-critical faculties as journalists, media critics, consumers of media, and women or men; to think clearly, challenge our pet assumptions, and have fun.

This seminar introduces students to some of the best reportage and nonfiction literature of the last two centuries, with a particular focus on work produced in and about New York City. We will analyze the reporting, sources, background, structure, and language in a wide range of genres, including social/cultural criticism, travel writing, profiles, essays, and autobiography. We'll look for New York City in these works as a place, a character, an idea. Good writing deserves good readers; good reading, one of life's enduring pleasures, is the purpose and promise of this course.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry, The Beat

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry, The Beat