2017 - Spring
Advanced Reporting: On the Road in the City
Course Number: JOUR-UA 301.004
Day & Time: Tues 6:00pm-9:40pm
Location: 20 Cooper, 655
Instructor: David Dent
Prerequisites: Foundations, The Beat
This is the Capstone course. Subject matter varies from section to section, but the basic skeleton of the course is the same across sections: the emphasis is on development of the ability to produce writing and reporting within a sophisticated longform story structure. The course involves query writing, topic research and reading, interviewing, and repeated drafts and rewrites, leading to a full-length piece of writing aimed at a publishable level and the ability of the student to present the reporting orally.
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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.