Objectivity has long been contentious in American journalism. Many practitioners call it essential to a news organization's credibility. Critics, however, hold objectivity is impossible and urge reporters simply to reveal their biases. For educators, teaching objectivity is challenging. Some, seeking a middle ground, instead urge fairness and…

This study examined introductory journalism writing courses and compared hybrid (part online/part classroom) versus online grammar instruction. The hybrid structure allowed for grammar topics to be taught online, with a pretest following, and then reviewing missed/difficult pretest concepts in class prior to a posttest. The quasi-experimental…

Journalism professors are concerned with how effectively students understand current news events and engage with mainstream news sources. This essay is based on a survey administered to students in a newswriting course and analyzed the kinds of current news that students followed in weekly assignments designed with a digital, interactive approach.…

Offers four ways to help first-year reporting students get on the right copy-editing track: copy edit three times, copy edit aloud, use a tape recorder, or read a story backwards. (Author/RL)

Shows how advanced journalism students fell for a hoax orchestrated by their teachers, indicating the need for journalism teachers to ensure that their students always check the facts before reporting any news story. (RL)

Beginning journalism students learned and adapted to the new Associated Press Stylebook more easily when they first studied the old stylebook with the most significant revisions added. (RL)

Finds that a beginning writing course for journalism students successfully developed news writing skills by first setting a goal for each student to produce publishable work immediately. Having something to write about encouraged increased attention to grammar, spelling, and other necessary news writing skills. (RL)

Students learn the value of research by conducting field studies and by sending copies of their stories to local news media. (RL)

Sending a questionnaire and story clipping to news sources provides feedback for students and gives instructors an indication of student behavior and accuracy while "on the job." (RL)

Tells how the author acquaints journalism students with the problems of poverty by having them develop profiles of poverty groups for a course in public affairs reporting. (RL)

Encourages students' natural responses in news writing, allowing students to develop personal writing styles that make standard or routine stories more interesting. (RL)

The use of computer assisted instruction (CAI) at Indiana University to provide basic grammar review to beginning writing students, and the results of an evaluation of the PLATO system as a learning resource are described. At the time of the evaluation, the CAI curriculum in use was the Language Arts Routing System (LARS). The evaluation involved…