J201 Advanced Writing and Reporting

J201: Advanced Writing and Reporting for Story

One of the most valuable skills in the industry is clear, concise writing and storytelling. In this course, we’ll produce one doable story every 1-2 weeks with the goal of making it sing. The focus: line edits, feedback, workshopping, and going narrow but deep with our subjects. You can aim for publication, locally and nationally, or treat it as an opportunity to really drill down on your core skills. Or, better yet, both. We’ll target sprawl and hedging and throat-clearing.  It can take just as much skill – if not more – to tell a compelling, complete story in 900 words as in 9,000. We’ll take on challenges to help you get better. Can you make a short narrative specific but universal? Write a killer 1,000-word reported column? You’ll get a chance to be creative, try out techniques, and find your voice. This will be a user-friendly course. Students are encouraged to overlap with other production classes (radio, TV, etc) and follow passions. Writing should be fun sometimes, after all. We’ll also talk with guests from an array of fields – from political operatives in the State Department to screenwriters – to provide windows into different worlds and processes.