SALEM STATE COLLEGE, Fall 2007

COM 470 – Feature Writing

Meeting time/place: online

Professor Brett M. Rhyne

telephone: 978-542-7088 office: MH100B

e-mail: brett.rhyne@salemstate.edu

Office hours: WF, 11 a.m.-12 a.m. and by appointment, MH 100B

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Catalogue description: Writing of non-fiction articles for newspapers and magazines.

Problems of staff writers and free lancers; how to market articles.

Global goals: This is the third course in the journalism sequence; it is a specialized

course focusing on the critical reading and production of newspaper and magazine feature articles. Students are expected

• to write good features, suitable for newspaper and magazine publication;

• to understand the business of freelance feature writing; and

• to be familiar with the processes by which staffers produce features for periodicals and

by which stringers make a living producing features.

Course objectives: By course’s end, students will be able to

• write short and long newspaper-style features and magazine-quality features;

• resource material for use in multiple stories; and

• go through the process of freelance feature writing, including developing marketable

feature story ideas; pitching features to newspaper and magazine editors; researching and fleshing out ideas that have been accepted; outlining, drafting and polishing feature

stories; and marketing themselves and their story ideas to appropriate publications.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT (GRADING)

The percentage values of graded assignments are in parentheses.

• One short newspaper feature (20 percent). A 500- to 800-word newspaper-style

feature to be pitched, discussed and filed by the date indicated on the course calendar.

• One long newspaper feature (20 percent). An 800- to 1,200-word newspaper-style

feature to be pitched, discussed and filed by the date indicated on the course calendar.

• One resourced magazine feature (20 percent). A 1,000- to 2,000-word magazinestyle

feature to be pitched, discussed and filed by the date indicated on the course

calendar, to be written using material resourced from the previous story.

• Textbook assignments (20 percent). Each week, students will read a chapter or two

from Cheryl Sloan Wray’s Writing for Magazines, as indicated on the course schedule;

students will then use WebCT’s bulletin board tool to respond to questions posed by

Wray (also indicated on the course schedule).

• Discussion participation (20 percent). Students will converse with each other via the

course’s WebCT bulletin boards, including commenting on each other’s story pitches and features; each other’s textbook assignment responses; and topics put to you by the

instructor.

Any writer who successfully pitches a story to a magazine during the course of the

semester gets an A in this class.

REQUIRED TEXTS

• Cheryl Sloan Wray, Writing for Magazines (second edition), available online and at the

campus bookstore; also on reserve at the library for 24-hour loan.

• The Boston Globe or The New York Times, weekdays.

• In addition, you should adhere to the adage, “In order to write, you have to read.”

Besides the newspaper, try reading as many magazines in your area of interest as you

can, as well as longer works of non-fiction.

Laptop policy: A laptop computer is becoming an increasingly important resource for

feature writers, in particular freelancers who are not on a publication’s staff. Given that

this is an online course, it would make sense for you to keep all your work — both your

features and your “classwork” — in one convenient place; i.e., your laptop. Please

remember that while many laptops are able to record conversations, if you want to record any conversation with your laptop, Massachusetts law requires that you ask the

permission of the person you are recording.

SECTION 504 OF THE REHABILITATION ACT AND THE AMERICANS

WITH DISABILITIES ACT

Salem State College is committed to providing equal access to the educational experience for all students in compliance with Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act and to providing all reasonable academic

accommodations, aids, and adjustments. Any student who has a documented disability

requiring accommodation, aid, or adjustment should speak with the instructor

immediately. Students with disabilities who have not done so should provide

documentation to and schedule an appointment with the Officer for Students with

Disabilities and obtain appropriate services.