Month: March 2017

ASSIGNMENT #2: PULITZER PRIZE

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ASSIGNMENT #2: PULITZER PRIZE

For the second assignment, you will be looking at the past and present Pulitzer Prize winners. You will be looking at one story in particular, and analyzing it for content (what is the story trying to say?), context (why is the story important?), and how it applies to the class material.

You can find a list of winners here: http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-categories. Anything from the journalism category is fair game, but it might be harder to find outside information sources for the older winners.

Things to include in the assignment:

  • What is the story? (What is the story’s name? Who is the author? Where was it published?)
  • What is the background behind the story or the author? (ex: If you are writing about Ebola, provide a paragraph describing Ebola and what we know about it, such as where the outbreak happened, how many were killed, how long the outbreak lasted, etc.)
  • What makes this story newsworthy?
  • What makes this story good journalism?
  • Analyze the story: why is this story important? What does this story contribute to the discussion of the topic? (For this, you might want to look at reviews of the story, interviews with the author, or other stories about the topic.)
  • Personal reflection on the story.

This assignment needs to be a minimum of 600 words, and written in traditional essay format (e.g., opening with a general thesis or position; providing evidence and arguments to support your position; and drawing conclusions from the evidence presented).

Grading: The categories I will be grading from are:

  1. shows clear engagement with and reflection of the journalistic material
  2. provides sufficient background information about the story and journalist
  3. applies class material to your analysis of the text
  4. the thesis statement and conclusion were clearly made and easy to understand
  5. the work was free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Like Assignment 1, I will be grading on a five point scale for each category, totaling 25 points.

Assignment 2 is due to the D2L dropbox labeled “Assignment 2” by 11:59 on March 10th.