Reporting and writing courses in the mass communications department attempt to develop the students' skills in these areas to a level acceptable to industry professionals who make decisions on recruitment for jobs. Because writing skills are extremely important in all areas of the mass communications industry, students majoring in this field must make a determined effort to do their best in the reporting and writing courses. Moreover, they must learn to work under pressure while excelling in reporting and writing.
With this philosophy in mind, the print journalism faculty of the mass communications department will require students enrolled in reporting and writing classes -- MC 210 Media Writing, MC 309 Reporting, MC 310 Copy Editing (when a writing component is involved), MC 405 Computer-Assisted Reporting, MC 410 Investigative Processes and MC 496 Mass Communications Seminar (when applicable) -- to meet the following standards consistently in all writing assignments:
1. No assignment should contain a fact error. Fact errors include misspelling of names, incorrect job titles of sources, incorrect names of organizations, incorrect dates, incorrect numerical calculations and other incorrect "facts." The instructor will give an F grade to an assignment containing a fact error. A student can re-submit a revised version within a week, but such a revision will not receive better than a C grade. If the revised version also contains a fact error, the F grade will remain. The students should, therefore, use available data bases (e.g., telephone and campus directories) to double-check names of people and organizations, title, etc.
2. No assignment should contain spelling errors. Students may use a spelling checker such as that available with Microsoft Word. Use a dictionary as you wordprocess an assignment. Each spelling error (including "typos") will cost you 2 percent of the maximum score possible for that assignment.
3. No assignment (in advanced classes) should contain style errors. While enrolled in MC 210, students must reach a high level of competence in wireservice style with particular reference to capitalization, abbreviations, punctuation and numerals. Each style error in an assignment submitted to an advanced reporting or writing course will cost you 1 percent of the maximum score possible.
4. No assignment is acceptable unless it meets the specified deadline. Reporting and newswriting assignments must strictly meet the deadline specified in the course outline. In addition, you must submit reports on events (e.g., meetings, speeches, celebrations, etc.) no later than an agreed-upon time. (The signature of the departmental secretary with the time of submission will provide evidence of meeting the deadline.)
5. Each assignment submitted (in an advanced course) must show evidence of interviews with more than one source. Single-sourced assignments (with the exception of speech stories) will not receive a grade better than a C.
6. Active voice must be the norm in news reporting and writing. Excessive use of passive voice will lower your grade. Remember that in active voice, the actor precedes the action.
Note: A student should enroll in MC
309 Reporting as soon as he or she possibly can after completing MC
210 Media Writing to enable continuity in learning the reporting and newswriting
process.
Nov. 30, 1987
Dec. 3, 1990 (revised)
Dec. 1, 1995 (revised)
Jan. 29, 2001 (revised)
cc: Academic Affairs, MSUM
Mass communications faculty, MSUM