2021 – Spring

Journalistic Inquiry: The Written Word

Course Number: JOUR-UA 101, section 1

Day & Time: Tue, Thu | 6:20 PM – 8:10 PM

Location: 20 Cooper Square, room 652

Prerequisites: Expository Writing Requirement or the equivalent.

Note: This course is designed for students who plan to attend in-person only. If there is a possibility that you will need to attend remotely at any point in the semester, we encourage you to enroll in section 5, taught by Professor Julia Dahl, which meets at the same time and will be taught online.

To fully prepare you for a career as a journalist, you need to get down to basics. In this class, we’re going to analyze stories from the ground up—beginning with idea generation, continuing to interviewing fundamentals, all the way up to writing, rewriting and the editing process. You’ll spend some time in the classroom, looking at stories and analyzing construction and style, and writing, lots of writing. Equally important, you’ll hit the streets four to six hours every week for hands-on reporting experience, covering everything from breaking stories to news features. The goal: by semester’s end, you’ll be comfortable pitching ideas, producing a story on deadline, and approaching strangers and expert sources for comment. We’ll do all of this in 15 weeks. The class will be full of interesting experiences, covering the people and places that make this city great.

Notes: Required for the journalism major and both journalism minors.