Table of Contents:

• Course Goals
• Texts
• Student Requirements
• Grades
• Participation
• Attendence & Lateness
• Cell phones
  
• Exams
• Academic Integrity
  
• Missing & Late Work
• Publication of Work and Editorial Review Process
  
• Special Accommodations
• Email
• Office Hours
• Respect
• Assignment Due Dates 
  

Course Goals

Welcome to CMN 131 – Journalism I. The purpose of the class is to give students a basic understanding of the fundamentals of journalistic writing, reporting and ethics

• Write well under pressure
• Gather information independently and organize it effectively
• Use desktop publishing equipment and software to produce coherent articles
• Interview subjects effectively and check facts to ensure accuracy
• Describe and analyze ethical issues in news writing
• Identify major historical figures and incidents in the field of journalism
• Write five articles (opinion, review, feature, hard news, sports) that show understanding of how each type is organized and their necessary components
• Be able to apply the basic principles of editing for content, clarity, length, tone and maintenance of fair and balanced position to create articles that are well organized and unbiased

Texts

Student Requirements

• Students must read all materials assigned including online materials
• Students must participate in all class discussions and activities including distrubution of the college newspaper which will showcase their strongest work
• Students must conduct interviews and obtain documents, synthesize the information gathered and present their work in five journalistic articles
  
•  ==> ==> ==>  ALL ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TYPED  ⇐ ⇐ ⇐
• Students must take six reading quizzes (the lowest of the six quiz grades is dropped) 

Grades

Participation

Class participation is mandatory. Journalism requires students to work together and also to step outside their comfort zones to interact with people outside of class. Active engagement is essential and required.

Attendance & Lateness

The term "attendance" does not mean simply being physically present in the classroom. Attendancer means: being present, having your texts and notebook with you, have all assignements due with you at the start of session and being prepared to discuss the readings. Students can be absent three times for any reason and do not have to explain their reasons to the instructor. Any student who is absent four times, no matter what the reason, will be automatically withdrawn from the course. Furthermore, chronic lateness will lower the student's final grade. If you come to class late, please get seated quietly; do not disrupt a class in progress.

Cell phones

Turn your phone off at the beginning of class. If your phone rings during class you may face any number of consequences. If you have an emergency that requires you to keep your phone on, discuss it with the instructor before class begins, sit near the exit and keep your phone on vibrate. Students caught text messaging in class will be marked absent.

Exams and Reading Checks

A reading check is an unannounced check to see that each student has made adequate notes in his or her text book and kept a notebook with additional, legible and detailed reading notes. Students who prefer not to make marks directly in the textbook can insert post-it notes which can be removed later. Highlighting must be accompanied by hand written notes. The goal is to see that you are reading and interacting with the text and have completed each reading assignment fully.  Both the mid-term and the final are 75 minute in-class examinations comprised of four sections: 1.) 20 multiple choice and fill in the blank questions; 2.) three short answer essays; 3.) a long answer essay which analyzes a sample article, and: 4.) a lead construction section.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism is simply not tolerated. We will cover this topic in class. Familiarize yourself with the school’s academic integrity policy, at www.mccc.edu/admissions_policies_integrity.shtml. We will cover proper citation procedure, but it is each student’s responsibility to abide by the rules described in the policy, in this and every course he or she takes in college. Failure to do so will result in swift and severe disciplinary action. Your instructor may use the various Internet plagiarism tools, such as Turnitin.com to randomly check your work or if she suspects a plagiarism violation. The consequence of plagiarism is course failure and all violations will be immediately reported to the academic integrity committee.

Missing & Late Work + EARLY work bonus

This is a fast moving class. Learning about journalism means learning about deadlines. On rough draft days students must bring in three copies of their rough draft (one for the instructor and two for their peer partners). A missing rough draft reduces the final article grade by 30%. On final draft days the final draft must be submitted electronically BEFORE class time AND must be submitted in hard copy form in class itself. Any work that arrives after class time will be marked down by 5% on the due day and 50% for each day following. No extensions are granted. Any student who does not submit all assignments will receive a failing grade in the class. Bonus points are awarded to those who turn final drafts in EARLY.

Publication of Work + Editorial Review Process

All articles written by students in CMN 131 are considered for publication in Mercer's student newspaper, The College VOICE. Students may, however, request that their submitted work NOT be considered for publication; they must do so by writing "Not for publication" prominently at the top of submitted work (whether submitted in hard copy or via email attachment or both). Students who allow their work to be considered for publication must be aware that if their work is selected, it will be edited for content, clarity, conciseness, form and style by the editorial board of The College VOICE. Many times these edits are small and the article that appears in the VOICE is nearly identical to the original submitted work. In some cases, however, the changes are substantial. When editors change more than 25% of the original material, byline credit is given to both the student reporter and the editor.

Special Accommodations

Any student needing special accommodation because of disabilities should contact the instructor during the first week of class. She will be happy to help. Students with documented learning disabilities should see Arlene Stinson in the Learning Center in FA 129 so they can provide their instructors with an accommodations letter. In Communications classes students with documented LD's are often allowed to take tests untimed. If you think you may have an LD but have not been tested, you should go to the Learning Center and ask them to help you set up testing. You may be entitled to accommodations.

Email

Students must use their Mercer email accounts to send electronic copies of final drafts to the professor at mathewsh@mccc.edu. Please identify yourself on all emails sent to the instructor and strive to use proper grammar and punctuation in your correspondences, particularly if you expect a reply.

Office hours

Office hours are held on the West Windsor campus in LA 131 Monday through Thursday from 3:15-4:30pm and by appointment. Students seeking academic advisement are also welcome.

Respect

Assignment Due Dates