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.
- Teachers: Yuliya Goriainova