Class outline for Nov. 1

Sports Reporting Class: November 1, 2011

Quote of the Day:
“Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.’’ – Saint Jerome

Attendance: Reminder of attendance policy.

Assignments due today

--Final story topics and source list!
--Are you as confused as I am? OK. We can summarize things from last week …
--Bottom line: You need to submit eight (8!) articles, of which your Breen article was one, by the end of the semester. You cannot "double up" by handing in 2 in one week, either.
--Bottom line #2: You need to submit seven (7!) article critiques now (this week was a PASS)
--Due today: Article #4 or Article #5

New breakdown of due dates ...

November 1:
--Final story topic and source list due
--Article #4 or #5 is due

November 8:
Article #5 or #6 is due

November 15:
Article #6 or #7 is due; Critique #5 is due

November 22: NO CLASS. THANKSGIVING BREAK

November 29:
Critique #6 is due;
Article #7 or #8 is due is due

December 6:
Critique #7 is due;
Last call for Article #8

December 13:
Final project is due

December 20:
Final grades to be posted by Coach Pete

In class discussion and assignments for tonight ..

--Philosophical question of the day:
WHY DO WE WRITE?

After a brief discussion of this, let’s narrow the focus to these questions that pertain specifically to this class:

Why do we write the following types of articles …
--Game stories?
--News stories
--Feature stories?
--Columns?
--Previews?

--Preview stories or “advances”
Let's read this Lance Berkman blog post from Grantland as an example

Elements of an excellent advance
--Snappy lead that makes you want to read the story
--Snappy lead that makes you interested in the event – even if you are not interested in the event
--Nut graf essentials: This is EASY

In-class writing assignment for tonight:
We are going to write two preview articles in class, on the following topics:
1-Previewing the Marist women’s basketball season opening game (Suzzette does not have to do this one)
2-Previewing the Marist women’s soccer team in the MAAC (Jessie does not have to do this one)

Looking ahead to next week: We will continue our discussion of preview articles, and we will use your in-class writing from tonight as examples.