Next-To-Last Week (Yikes!)

My dear, hard-working NewsHounds:

It’s the last two weeks of classes (gasp!)(Hooray!), and the stories that you do this week and next will be the best you can do, the apex of your journalistic endeavor so far. These stories will count more than anything else you’ve done this semester toward your final grade. I'm looking for Pulitzer Prize quality here.

Remember that your story idea(s) for this week (and your final story next week, if you're thinking ahead) are due to me Monday.

These stories, because they represent your best work, will be compelling topics, a minimum of 2-3 pages (double-spaced), with multiple (at least 3) sources, great quotes, excellent punctuation/grammar/mechanics. They should not be simple speech or event stories.

REMEMBER that if your story is about an event—a speech, a bike-swap, etc.—it’s due to me via email and on the blog within 48 hours of the event.

If you like, please discuss story ideas and ask for feedback from your fellow NewsHounds on the blog.

When pitching a story idea to me, please include:

a) the topic—what’s the story about?

b) what about it? (angle/focus);

c) three (or more) possible sources (either specific individuals or a kind of source--e.g., a mechanic or a Middle East scholar) and why? you want them for your story, what kind of info/perspective you want from them;

d) likely timeframe for completion. (All stories are due by midnight Friday. If you’re going to be late—and these things do happen—let me know ahead of time by email.)

Remember that we will not meet on Wednesday this week. There is a speech by Cory Flintoff of NPR on covering Iraq in the Performance Hall at noon Wednesday. Be there. Cover the story for any of the following kinds of credit:
a) to fill a hole if you owe me a story
b) to fulfill this week’s story assignment (IF you have not already done a speech/event as one of your last four stories)
c) as extra credit--on top of everything else you've done this semester.
Flintoff stories due by NOON FRIDAY.

ALSO: Wednesday, 4/16, 5:30-7:30 p.m., BIZ 317: For extra credit, come to a screening of the film, “The Paper,” about a year in the life of the student journalists of Penn State University's Daily Collegian. Find out more about the movie at the PBS website I sent you.