Midterm Update
Midterm Grades
Your midterm grades have been posted and emailed to you. Grades ranged from F to A. Your midterm grade is an average of your first blog post and the slideshow. If you did not submit your work, you did not receive any credit. Keep in mind that this represents only about 10 percent of the final, overall grade. So, if you’re doing poorly, you can turn things around and get a great grade. If you’re doing well, it’s important to keep up the good work and not get complacent. Your overall grade can change significantly between now and the end of the semester.
Blog Feedback
I sent each student feedback on their first blog post. Many of the blogs could use work. There were some common issues, including:
News Video Feedback
You should have received feedback from me on your proposed news video topic. A few of you either need to submit your ideas or tweak the proposal you sent me. If you did not receive feedback from me, let me know ASAP. Your news video topic must be approved by me. You may change it, but you must inform me immediately and get my approval. Your news video is due at the start of class on Nov. 10. If you're absent, it must be emailed to me before class begins. For more details, click here.
Your midterm grades have been posted and emailed to you. Grades ranged from F to A. Your midterm grade is an average of your first blog post and the slideshow. If you did not submit your work, you did not receive any credit. Keep in mind that this represents only about 10 percent of the final, overall grade. So, if you’re doing poorly, you can turn things around and get a great grade. If you’re doing well, it’s important to keep up the good work and not get complacent. Your overall grade can change significantly between now and the end of the semester.
Blog Feedback
I sent each student feedback on their first blog post. Many of the blogs could use work. There were some common issues, including:
- Grammar mistakes and writing errors. This is a journalism course and good writing is a fundamental skill. Look at this grammar for journalists tutorial for help.
- Ethics: Plagiarism is a serious violation of both journalism ethics and SJU's academic honesty policy. Do not submit work for this class that you did for other classes, internships or publications (that's self-plagiarism). If you copy material from somewhere else, you must cite it and give credit to the original source.
- Primary sources: each substantive post should contain at least one primary source -- an expert in the field. This requires you interview people. A primary source offers the best and most reliable information on a topic – information that’s essential to your blog post. Often a primary source is an expert, someone recognized as a leading authority on a topic. Or a primary source may be a person with firsthand information on a topic. A primary source may also be an original document or an official report. Always find at least one primary source for each substantive blog post. But don’t just stop at one. Use as many as you need to tell the story. A secondary source offers reliable second-hand information on a topic. Reference books, newspaper articles and other media are common secondary sources. People with informed opinions on a topic can also serve as secondary sources. For example, you may quote a student’s opinion on a guest speaker. Use secondary sources to expand your information. Note: always avoid using anonymous sources.
- Visuals: Blog posts should contain photos, sound clips, slideshows or videos. Just having all text is boring. The internet is the #1 source for news because it allows for storytelling in dynamic ways that are not possible in the newspaper.
- Hyperlinks: Link phrases and words in your blog posts to useful content that your readers might want more information about.
- Blog URL: your blog's address [whatever].wordpress.com should reflect the topic of your blog, not your name.
- Headlines: should be literal and include keywords that reflect what your post is about. Avoid puns, vague headlines, cliche headlines, etc.
- Journalism fundamentals: Remember your journalism fundamentals when blogging. Posts should be about newsworthy things. Keep your audience in mind. Cover the 5Ws: who, what, when, where and why? Explain terms; avoid jargon and sounding too "insider-y". Have a good lead that entices the reader to read the rest of your post. Punctuate quotes properly ("First sentence of quote," said source. "Second sentence, if necessary. Etc." When quoting sources, provide full names and qualifications (age, title, etc.)
- Remember that writing a good post requires time and effort. It's not something that can be done in 10 minutes, off the top of your head. You need to gather information, content, write and then revise. Yes, this takes work. That's why the blog accounts for a majority of your final, overall grade. If you're averse to research, writing and hard work, don't be a journalist!
- You should view this as more than an assignment. If you do a good job with this, you will grow as a journalist. Practice makes perfect. In addition, you can use this blog as a work sample when applying for internships and jobs.
- I will send you my next round of feedback around Nov. 20. In the meantime, you should be posting regularly -- at least one substantive post per week.
- Here are a couple examples of student blogs that are pretty good so far: A vegetarian blog and a college lifestyle blog.
News Video Feedback
You should have received feedback from me on your proposed news video topic. A few of you either need to submit your ideas or tweak the proposal you sent me. If you did not receive feedback from me, let me know ASAP. Your news video topic must be approved by me. You may change it, but you must inform me immediately and get my approval. Your news video is due at the start of class on Nov. 10. If you're absent, it must be emailed to me before class begins. For more details, click here.