Final is ready

The final is ready. It's 65 questions. You have 90 minutes to complete the exam once you start.

If you are still playing around with one of your news stories, I will consider any e-mailed updates as long as I have them by Monday, Dec. 20.

Good luck and happy holidays,
Rob

No class

I'm sick and won't be in this morning. E-mail me the latest revisions of your stories and I'll look at them this afternoon.

Bring your stories to class

E-mail copies of your most recent stories to yourself, or bring them on a thumb drive or some other removable media, and we will go to the computer lab and work on them after the quiz tomorrow.

Quiz stuff

Local news topics to be aware of:

Wolves poached
bypass
Turkey shortage
School discipline

National stories:

Bush tax cuts
House leadership
Senate and Arms treaty

On the Web

Montana's story is up at www.fvccnews.blogspot.com.

Troy's TAA story is next.

Olbermann takes on his critics

Keith Olbermann responds to his critics here. The link has both the text of his commentary from last night as well as the video.

Here's a link to the Ted Koppel column Olbermann references in his Special Comment.

Can both Koppel and Olbermann be right?

More story ideas

FVCC is gearing up for flu season. Last fall we had a special concern with the swine flu, but it didn't materialize as a problem. Is FVCC gearing up for an especially ad flu season again this year?

Chef's table gets underway. We'd need to find a good hook to hang this feature-type story on. But I bet it's doable.

Semester in Venice. A similar opportunity to Chef's table. A little featurey, but a news angle could be found.

Already taken for this round: Ivan Lorentzen is regional faculty member of the year; A progress report on FVCC sports; Thi Beta Gamma? hits an all-time high in membership; the child development center is nearly full.

Come to class Wednesday with an idea of what you intend to write for story No. 2. Time is running short.

Midterm ready

Your midterm is ready to go. You can take it any time between now and midnight Friday. There are 50 questions and you'll have 90 minutes to complete the exam once you begin.

When you get to the class page just click on quizzes. You'll find it there. Good luck.

Bullet in the Brain

Here's a link to that short, short story, by Tobias Wolff I talked about today. The link takes you to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog post. Don't read the blog post, just click on the "Bullet in the Brain" link in the first sentence of the blog. That takes you to a PDF of the story.

It's short, only four pages. But it is very good. Sorry, there are a couple typos in the PDF file. You'll need to buy the book and load it onto your Kindle if you want a mistake-free version.

This has nothing to do with news writing. But I promise you if you can ever craft a paragraph as brilliant and as perfect as the one that ends this story, you will go far as a writer.

Cheers,
Rob

Current events

You can take it to the bank that these two stories will be on Friday's quiz.

Miners rescued

Judge halts "Don't ask, don't tell"

Papers in Ed Services in Blake Hall

Edited papers will be available in education services in Blake Hall on Monday. Assuming things go as planned, I'll drop them off in the morning. If things don't go as planned I'll bring them by at lunch time. See you all on Wednesday.

BTW, those second drafts you showed me are much improved and coming together. Nice work!

Here's a link to one of my favorite poems. It's kind of funny in a morbid sort of way.

No current events quiz

Unless I get some angry feedback, we'll skip the current events quiz in the morning.

For those of you who missed class on Wednesday, we discussed submitting second drafts in class Friday so I can look them over this weekend. I'm going to miss class on Monday due to a work conflict at the high school, but I will figure out a way for you to get your story back on Monday so you can review my notes.

Have no fear

I know I warned all of you that there would be a lot of blood on the page when you turned in your first stories. Still, as a writer I know that all the warnings in the world don't mean squat when your work is shredded (it has happened to me more times that I care to remember). Just keep in mind that you are all learning a new, and somewhat unique writing style. You cannot be expected to just get it right out of the gate. It takes some time and perseverance to learn how to write a news story. What I can assure all of you is that if you stick with it, you will succeed in this class. I will work with you until you get it.

Failure is not an option.

Wednesday I'll be available in the Eagle's Nest for about an hour after class to talk with you about your stories. If that time doesn't work for you let me know and we'll make an appointment. I can usually get away from my job at Glacier High to meet during the day.

In the meantime if you haven't seen this story about FVCC enrollment in the Daily Inter Lake, take a look, especially you Ally.

No current events quiz this week

We will skip the current events quiz this week. Spend the extra time crafting your brilliant news story. We'll talk a little about the week's events on Friday.

BTW, that sample news story is posted online. It's in Unit 2, titled "Sample news story." Make sure the story you turn in Friday looks just like that, including the final paragraph.

Unemployment declines slightly

This will be useful for all of you as you work on your stories. It will probably also be on the quiz Friday.

A couple other possibilities for the quiz can be found here and here.

Sorry, but I'm a sucker for any story that presents humans in a place other than at the top of the food chain.

Montana and Wendell came up with a handy sheet that has the enrollment for all state colleges for the last 10 years. I made extra copies. Make sure you ask for one on Friday if I forget.

Montana, if you haven't called Tech yet I'm sure its at the top of your list. Once you have Tech's preliminary numbers you can compare them to the FVCC numbers provided a few posts down, and then we'll know how big a story you have. (Actually, now that I look at those FVCC numbers from Fall 2009 and this semester I can see that they are different than the number you received today, so we'll need to figure out why.)

Update, go here for a story on Tech enrollment.

No quiz Friday

Sorry for the disappointment, but we will skip the current events quiz this Friday in order to spend the entire class working on story assignments. See you in the morning.

When a Fringe Figure Becomes News

Take a look at this interesting conversation about the media coverage of the Koran-burning controversy. Post a comment by 8 p.m. Friday for a grade. There may be a question on your quiz as well.

Current events

We talked about three stories that are pretty certain CE quiz questions:

— Obama announces a new stimulus proposal

— Obama says he won't support a compromise to allow the Bush tax cuts on families with incomes of more than $250,000 to continue (notice I used "more than" rather than "over," its an AP style thing)

— The general leading U.S. forces in Afghanistan says the Koran-burning event in Florida endangers the troops

You'll find plenty of coverage on these stories at www.nytimes.com

You'll find a local story with a good shot at making the cut here:

Judge nixes relocating trial for boat crash.

We spent a lot of time talking about this story when it happened a year ago. Scroll down to posts from the fall 2009 for more background if you're interested.

See you Friday.

FVCC enrollment up again

I received this e-mail from Faith Hodges, FVCC executive director of enrollment planning, Tuesday morning.

Good Tuesday Morning. Just a quick message with the latest enrollment numbers. This morning’s counts are as follows:

FTE: 1857.6 (on the 2nd day of Fall 2009, FTE was 1754.53; at 3rd week it was 1794.7 and the final FTE was 1820.40). Today’s FTE represents a 5.9% increase over the FTE on this day last fall.

Headcount: 2433 (on 2nd day of Fall 2009, headcount was 2347 and at 3rd week it was 2501). Today’s headcount represents a 3.7% increase over the headcount on this day last fall.

FYI, FTE stands for full-time equivalent. Two part-time students may count as one FTE. Extra credit goes to the person who correctly answers this question:

What is significant about the FVCC enrollment numbers from Fall 2009?

Are embedded reporters independent?

This is just an FYI for now. This New York Times has an ongoing blog post discussing the implications of embedded reporters during the Iraq (and I suspect Afghanistan) War. The question is, can reporters be independent from the military when they are relying on the military for their ability to move about during war?

Keep in mind that the process of embedding troops with military units is a recent development. In previous wars reporters often travelled relatively freely and covered events of their choosing.

Remember, Act Independently is one of the four main principles of the SPJ Code of Ethics.

Welcome News Writing and Reporting students, Fall 2010

We'll, you found our class blog. The first thing I'd like you to do is to add a response to this post. Just click on comments below, type in your name and you're good to go. I want to check to make sure everyone is able to find the blog and post.

I will use this blog as my primary form of communication with you. I will post instructions, reading topics and future assignments right here. So bookmark this site and check it on a regular basis throughout the semester.

If you're interested, scroll down a take a look the posts from last fall. It will give you an idea of some of the things we'll be discussing this semester.

Remember, post your name below just like I've added mine, so I know you've been here.