Fall2026

Newswriting skills is a practical course in reporting and writing news for contemporary media.
The course focuses on the core skills journalists need to produce reliable news: identifying a story, finding and evaluating sources, conducting interviews, verifying information, writing leads and news stories, using quotations and attribution, and editing copy for publication.
Most class time will be spent practicing these skills. Students will report on real events and issues, work with sources, write under deadlines, edit each other's work, and revise their stories.
This course also develops critical thinking and responsible journalism. Students will learn to question information, compare sources, recognize missing evidence, consider different perspectives, and make editorial decisions based on accuracy, fairness and public interest.
The course follows a simple newsroom process:
find the story → report it → verify it → write it → edit it → revise it.
By the end of the semester, students should be able to take a real event or issue and produce a clear, accurate and publishable news story based on their own reporting.