Beth haller phone: 704 2442 office: van bokkelen 205b who should take feature writing? students who have already taken mcom 255 newswriting. The records of all students on the class list will be checked in the computer to verify that they have the prerequisite. Feature writing uses all the tools of newswriting and adds and expands upon them. As an upper level writing class, the majority of the grade for this class comes from writing lengthy articles based on your own ideas.

Students interested in writing for newspapers, magazines, or online publications will need these abilities to work independently. Because you will be learning to how to market ideas and articles, each assignment includes several components in addition to the actual feature story. Sloppy writers are doomed because every typo, spelling mistake, grammar mistake, ap style mistake loses points and with long assignments that can mean a very low grade very quickly.

Students with plenty of time outside of class to devote to interviewing, researching, and writing your feature stories. advanced writing credit: this course fulfills the towson university general education advanced writing requirement and will give students extensive writing practice on feature articles for newspapers and magazines. Students should learn to develop ideas for articles, to find a market for articles, to write query letters to sell those articles, and to research and write the articles themselves. Three other mcom classes also fulfill the advanced writing requirement: pr writing, history of film, and broadcast/film writing.

required textbooks/supplies: story ideas list: 5 percent grammar/writing skills test: 5 percent newspaper feature story: 10 percent midterm: 15 percent student's choice feature story: 20 percent final long form feature story: 25 percent feature quizzes: 10 percent in class assignments/attendance/class participation: 10 percent grading criteria: 90 100 a amp a publishable work. It has good organization, effective quotes, smooth transitions and no spelling, grammar, or accuracy errors. The lead may be buried or fail to focus on the most important aspects of the story. Note: you must make a c in this class to receive credit for it in the mcom major. The story contains an unacceptable number of spelling, grammar, or accuracy errors.

Note: you can make a d in this class and receive credit for it as the advanced writing requirement. Fx this is an administrative failure for non attendance or failure to withdraw. If you do not withdraw from the course by towson's preset deadlines for the semester and stop attending the class, this is the grade you will receive. At towson university, students may only receive an incomplete with verifiable medical reasons or documented circumstances beyond their control towson university undergraduate catalog. After repeating the course, students will only receive credit for the course once and the highest of the grades will be calculated. The lower grade will remain on the transcript with an r before it to indicate the course was repeated. For the transcript to reflect the repeated course, students must submit a repeated course form to the records office.

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Transcript adjustments are not automatic towson university undergraduate catalog. form/content: on the major writing assignments, two grades will be given, one for form and one for content. This enables students to see specific areas where they may need more improvement. Also, it allows students to be rewarded for good story ideas or interviews, although they have not mastered all the technical skills of form. Form refers to spelling, grammar, punctuation, readability, order of information, general accuracy, etc. Content refers to topic selection, organization, use of quotes, completeness, good transition, appropriate sources, effective lead, accuracy, etc.

You can do rewrites on all writing assignments except the final draft of the final feature. Rewrites are due up to one week after the class period when the assignment was returned. Be prepared to revise an assignment several times before turning it in the first time. Also, if you are experiencing any difficulties with any assignments, please make an appointment with me. students with disabilities: if you are registered with the office for disabled students services dss , please see your instructor during the first two weeks of class to arrange your specific accommodations. If you believe you may need accommodation and have not registered with dss, please do so by calling ext. student athletes: you must have a letter from the coach explaining your place on the team and a schedule of any away games or competitions during the semester.

You must take any tests or prepare any assignments that conflict with this schedule before the test or due date, not after. guidelines for written work in feature writing: papers are due within the first 10 minutes of class. Any late papers will be docked a grade for each day they are late unless a verifiable excuse is attached.

The written excuse only counts for the exact day s the excuse covers the paper is then due in my box to avoid late penalties. no late papers will be accepted after the last day of classes for a semester. Punctuation, grammar, ap style, and factual errors will cause you to lose grade points.

extra credit: clips of your published works will make you more marketable in the real world. You can receive up to 5 points added to your final grade for features published during the semester. The points given for extra credit will be based on the length and placement of the feature article published during the semester. For example, if your feature is the cover story for the baltimore city paper. In that case, you might try to get three towerlight feature stories published during the semester for all 5 points. The article must be a feature story, not a letter to the editor, opinion piece, or entertainment review.

Your published clip should follow the criteria of a feature story presented in this class. It should not be a rewrite of a press release or a rehash of another publication's story. You may publish the assignments you do for this class and receive the extra credit. academic dishonesty: i do not tolerate plagiarism or fabrication of any kind. Journalists value their integrity and strive to present the truth to their audiences to the best of their ability.