JOUR 21 B Green SheetJOURNALISM 21 B
Brad Kava
Professor, Journalism and Mass Communication
De Anza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014
Office: L-41 (La Voz office)
Class time: 1:30-2:45
Office hours: Monday: 2:45-3:45
Message Phone: 408.864.8588 (La Voz office)
cell: 408 656 1519
Email: KavaBradley@fhda.edu
bradkava@aol.com (better)
Web: http://faculty.deanza.edu/KavaBradley/
OBJECTIVE: This is an advanced writing course to introduce reporters to the longer feature story. My goal is to have you able to write publishable stories when you leave. We will work on developing ideas, crafting the stories, making them marketable and then selling them.
FORMAT: In class talks are important and tailored to shape the needs of the students. This is more a workshop than a lecture and you will write in every class. This can be tough for the shy, but ultimately, a great learning experience, as you learn to write up to standards. It’s the same thing you will face in the professional world, being evaluated by editors and later, readers.
I’m old school in believing that you can get more from in-class dialogue than from an Internet course. Grades will be deducted after two absences; you’ll be dropped after four.
EVALUATION: In class participation is crucial to your grade, as is a series of four or five articles, including a man on the street story, trend story, speech or event story, profile and editorial/review. A is publishable; B needs work; C, boring, but can be better. You may rewrite every assignment to improve your grade.
I try to shape the class around events going on: for example, if there are protests on campus, I want to get you to them to report on them.
Late works will be docked a grade for each day they are late. We are here to learn the old axiom: Write it tight; write it bright; and write it tonight.
There will be at least four major stories that will amount to 80 percent of your grade, including a profile, a news feature, a man on the street story and a review. Weekly writing in class and at home and class participation will account for the rest.
Stories must be double or triple spaced with 1.5 inch margins, so that I can comment on the hard copies. Please make a hard copy of everything you turn in, and keep them. At the end you will turn in a portfolio of everything you’ve written for evaluation.
You may and probably WILL rewrite everything you’ve turned in for a chance to raise your grade.
YOUR INSTRUCTOR: Is a published writer and former columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. I’ve been published in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle; Rolling Stone magazine and more. Google me.
I expect you to subscribe to a newspaper and be aware of what is being written there. Reading extensively is crucial to being a good writer, and we depend more on daily and weekly journalism than a textbook.
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