Journalism educators train students on Associated Press (AP) style, helping them navigate grammar, accuracy, and ethical issues. However, there is little peer-reviewed research testing which methods are most effective. This article used a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest methodology over six semesters to test three common methods: timed,…

Describes a three and one half hour class in which students must rewrite stories for four editions of a daily newspaper, with updates on a fire in progress, press releases, and obituaries added during the class period. (HTH)

Presents an exercise in which students must write five broadcast leads from five of the major newspaper stories reported on the day they were born. (HTH)

Describes a newswriting exercise to teach coverage of public speaking events in which students were asked to report on Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount. (HTH)

Suggests that "gatekeeper" studies about subjective judgments can be useful in helping graduate journalism students appreciate the role that personal preferences and prejudices play in the selection of news. (HOD)

Discusses "crazy world" stories, stories that are dramatic, usually violent, and contain no clues to the motivations of the people involved. Suggests how these stories can be used in the classroom to discuss the motives that news stories ascribe to actors. (MS)

Presents an editorial assignment that addresses students' inability to formulate and stick to a theme, and their lack of tight writing, by highlighting the similarities between editorial writing and magazine writing. (HTH)

Describes a journalism internship program at an Alaskan university that bridges the gap between theory and practice by requiring a series of reports that make students reflect on their media experiences and discover how these experiences relate to concepts studied in coursework within and outside the journalism department. (HTH)

Suggests having students write short summaries using the principles of the journalistic news "lead" to help them sharpen their abstraction skills. Includes samples of data blocks from which students would compose their summaries, kernel sentences from the samples, "kernel" kernel sentences, first draft summaries, and 30-word…

Recommends teaching journalism as an English course or in combination with an English course to ensure the continuation of journalism education in the face of more stringent graduate requirements. Describes such a course, which includes literature, a research paper, and regular composition assignments. (HTH)

Describes how two objectives--enhancing public relations thinking and producing an attractive showpiece of writing talent for the student--form the basis of a course in public relations at the University of Florida. (HOD)

Describes an exercise designed to help student writers expand beyond writer-based prose by having them write for a particular magazine or newspaper audience. (MM)

Describes a reporting exercise that yields a publishable story from a company's annual report. (HTH)

Suggests that few references to the important issues of audience awareness exist in news writing textbooks and that technical writing literature can fill this gap. Identifies two main aspects of audience awareness, three key reasons why it should be taught to journalists, and gives audience types. Provides classroom exercises. (MS)

A study conducted at Central Michigan University examined the effective use of undergraduate teaching assistants as small group leaders by the Journalism Department for its writing across the curriculum program (WAC). The teaching assistants who participated--students with a minor in teaching high school journalism--emerged as an important…