J203, Media Writing

Final project proposal example

The following is an example of a final feature project story idea. The story can focus on an issue or perhaps a program, or it can focus on the people involved in an issue or program. In any event, it needs to have people in it. It's not a term paper; it's a feature story. The idea is to come up with a topic that would be of interest to a campus audience and narrow enough that you can reasonably handle it in about four pages

A club sports story

The university has a variety of club sports teams--teams that besically get by because of the dedication of members. They are largely invisible to the campus community, except for the times when they hold fund-raising events. A final story might look at one of these, say the rowing team or the Ultimate disc team, and examine what it takes to compete at that level, why students do it, what are the challenges and the problems, whether the members are trying to raise their sport to the status of an NCAA-level activity, etc.

(A proposal should indicate why this particular sport would make an interesting story, say, if it is particularly difficult for a participant who is not on athletic scholarships to balance a practice schedule with classes and work. Or, perhaps you know that there is one person who really makes the program work, say a player-coach.

Background
A little research on the history of club sports at the university, the way they are funded and their relationship to the athletic department--probably through interviews, though there may be written material in a variety of places.
Possible interviews:
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