Class meets M-W, 9-9:50, Allen 301A
Labs: 9 or noon Friday--check your CRN!
Russial's office hours: Monday, 10-11, Tuesday, 10-11, Wednesday 1:30-3, or by appointment, or stop by the office. He can be reached at: jrussial@uoregon.edu
The GTF for the class is Finn John, a master's student in literary nonfiction. He can be reached at finn@uoregon.edu. His office is in Room 210, and his office hours are YYYYYYYYYYYY.
Prerequisites: J101, WR 121; WR 122 or 123
Other books you might consider getting if you don't already have them are a grammar and usage handbook such as When Words Collide by Kessler and McDonald and the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual. The stylebook is used in several reporting and writing courses.
Readings for the week appear on the tentative schedule. Assume the readings are to be completed by Monday's class.
I'll expect you to keep up with the news. One of the best, and easiest, ways to do this is to read a local paper. I suggest reading the Register-Guard and the Emerald at least. This will help in lectures, because I often use current events in examples.
The catalog description is: "Introduction to the process and practice of writing for the several mass media channels. Discussion of the rights and responsibilities of the public communicator."
This is an introductory course that lays a foundation for writing courses in the major sequences. Lectures and exercises are organized around three basic strategies: Writing to inform, writing to analyze and writing to persuade.
Much of the course will focus on the first of these, because there is a substantial informational component in most, if not all, media writing. Within this context, we will discuss and produce writing for different media fields.
Class meets twice a week for lectures and once a week for a lab run by the GTF.
You must attend the lab for which you have registered.
Attendance at the lectures is important. Much of the material will help you prepare for the writing assignments. Lectures often will include specific information about assignments as well as suggestions, examples and as much discussion as possible. Other lectures will be guest presentations by professors who have teaching and writing experience in different media areas. Students have found these guest lectures to be an excellent introduction to work in different media fields.
Attendance at the labs is important. Labs will include discussions of assignments as well as exercises in media writing.