The author of this article describes an upper-level economics course where students learn to write economic news articles, which improves communication and audience-targeting skills. The course was created in partnership with a media outlet and designed around authentic assessments to provide students with a genuine experience based on academic…

Despite shrinking newsrooms, we have more journalism choices, in part because of freelance journalists. Freelancing creates workers who are particularly adaptive and creative; skills educators want to instill in students. I interviewed and surveyed more than 50 freelance journalists in several countries, including Turkey, Egypt, Colombia, Israel,…

This article is the first to describe the discoursal construction of an adolescent community of practice (CoP) in a non-school setting. CoPs can provide optimal learning environments. The adolescent community centered around science journalism and positioned itself dichotomously in relationship to school literacy practices. The analysis focuses on…

In a multisemester Popular Science Journalism course that met for 2 hours once a week at Clemson University, students produced science news articles for the university newspaper by using primary literature, the internet, and interviews with researchers. Short lectures were given on topic choice, story development, literature surveys, common…

At many HBCUs, students have invested time and energy into keeping their online and print publications afloat or reviving them from dormancy. However, at other schools the results are often less fruitful. "The Meter" at Tennessee State was an award-winning weekly just three years ago with a website that was updated frequently for…

For the past twenty years or so, the author has been fortunate to write for a fairly broad audience. While he was teaching, or running an educational program, or doing research, he was also composing opinion pieces or commentaries about the work he was doing. This process of writing with part of his attention on the classroom or research site and…

Cites the news story "lead," which tells immediately what the story is about, as necessary for "hooking" the reader. States that leads do not come that easily, but that they must deliver the news. Adds that a good lead should eliminate unnecessary words and select key words. Offers examples of good and bad leads. (PA)

Investigates large daily newspapers' coverage of education. Finds that most large daily newspapers have improved and expanded their coverage of education. Finds that the education "beat" has been upgraded so that is now considered a highly desirable assignment. (RS)

Interviews newspaper reporters to show that journalists, like scientists, usually have hypotheses in mind in working a story. Finds, however, that unlike those of scientists, journalists' hypotheses were both explicit and implicit. (MG)

Cautions that sports writing should be done out of love for both sports and the act of writing. Presents reasons for becoming a sports writer. Provides a list of do's and don'ts for sports writing. (PA)

A field experiment tested different reporting and writing techniques against standard practice. The underlying purpose of the project was to explore whether new techniques of writing might make the news more interesting to those who are "aliterate" (they can read but do not read). On each of four days, four reporters reported and wrote…

Provides specific information for vocational educators who wish to write feature articles highlighting their programs for the local print media. Topics covered include idea gathering, interviews, writing, manuscript preparation, and placement. (CH)

States that, to write a truly effective story, a writer must go beyond the basics and look for an "angle" or a hook. Defines an angle as having excellent lead focus and great interest potential, and makes a difference in the number of readers who will take interest. Defines "perspective" as used in journalism. (PA)

Presents a story package from the high school newspaper "The Northern Lights," called "Deadly Decisions." Includes an editorial, an eyewitness account, a timeline of the coverage itself, an interview with a local TV reporter, photographs, and a graph of the events the stories covered. (SR)

Magazine writing courses lean heavily on a model borrowed from journalism, but this is not the only, nor the most advantageous, model to apply to magazine writing. Despite the differences between the constraints that magazine writers and news writers face, many texts on magazine writing are reminiscent of textbooks on basic news writing. However,…