CWA Article write up.

Assignment #4: Reporting

 

For this assignment, you will be writing an article on a panel you attend at the Conference of World Affairs Week. The Conference of World Affairs Week is “a festival of ideas featuring 200 panels, 100 speakers and performers, over 5 days, attracting more than 70,000 attendees annually” (http://www.colorado.edu/cwa/about-cwa). Starting April 10^th and lasting through the 14^th, CU will host a variety of panels on a plethora of subjects, including politics, climate, writing, media, feminist issues, and more. You are required to attend one panel and write an article about the event.

 

Here is the link to the event schedule. I have no doubt you should be able to find one that you both have time to attend and is interesting to you! http://www.colorado.edu/cwa/attend/cwa-week-resources/schedule

 

For your article, you will need to note the title of the panel, who spoke on it, and what it was about. More importantly, you will need to include background information on the topic of your panel and relevant quotations from three (3) interviews you conduct with other people at the panel. You may interview someone you attended with, but at least two of your interviews must be from people you don’t know, ideally not peers. I know this can take you out of your comfort zone, but as a journalist you will need interview skills. You might ask your interviewees questions before about what they’re expecting from the panel, get their thoughts after it, or ask other relevant questions that pertain to the topic the speakers are addressing. You do not have to interview someone on the panel, but kudos if you do. It will not count as part of the interview, but you should include one or more quotes that the panelists say while they are speaking.

 

Your story should be at least 600 words long, double spaced with several quotes from at least three different people (try to get some variety of ages, gender). Your story should have a strong lead and headline. The main body of the story should clearly and concisely describe what people are most concerned about/interested in, and your conclusion should wrap it up. The interviewee’s name should come after the quote. Example: “… thinks the current administration’s stance on climate change is worrisome,” said John Smith, a 60-year-old plumber from Longmont. Make sure to put their age, profession and where they are from, or any other relevant contextual information. You can put it after the quote or mention it in an earlier sentence.

 

Check out other news sites like The Denver Post, The New York Times, or even The Daily Camera for examples of how to tie in quotes and relevant information journalistically.

 

I will be applying the following rubric, 1 points for each item, out of 5 points total:

1. shows clear engagement with and reflection of the journalistic material
2. includes relevant quotations from solid interviews
3. clearly unpacks and engages with background information and material
4. article is interesting, well-written, and flows like a newstory
5. the work was free of spelling and grammatical errors.

 

Assignment is due to the D2L dropbox no later than Friday, April 21^st at 11:59pm.