Online Writing -- My Journalism Class Lecture Notes

Is there such a thing as "news writing style for the Web"?
Over at my usual blog (which also has a copy of this item), I've been updating my notes about news writing on the Web, in preparation for two bigger-than-usual classes this week. I want to be prepared, just in case the students show up... and I hope the no-shows will still learn something if they just read my notes.

Here they are: http://tinyurl.com/a3pf7

(Actually, the verbose notes are a trap. Students who attend will watch me follow some links and wander away from those notes. Something I say or do during that wandering will be on the exam. Guaranteed.)

Those notes mostly apply to newswriting, but one of my presentations will be for a more general intro-to-communication course. I'll feel free to digress even more there -- and I'll probably be more entertaining. (If all else fails, I'll let http://Rocketboom.com, http://Fark.com and http://TheOnion.com take over.)

The intro-newswriting course is Thursday. I teach three 18-student writing-lab sections of that course, but the Thursday session is for all sections -- well over 100 students on a good day. However, by the luck of the calendar I'm delivering the large group's last lecture before spring break -- and a Thursday evening lecture at that, probably the last class before vacation for everyone.

I've been warned that even on routine weeks, half the class may get up and leave as soon as they've finished their weekly current-events quiz... the part of the weekly lecture that "affects their grade." I think we're about 10 years past the time that the magic of the Web would compel full attendance. To make matters worse, I'm sending out a page of "lecture notes" that will take students many hours to read, if they follow all the links and get as distracted by them as I do.

I'll try to keep things interesting. Come to think of it, I've rarely lectured to this large a crowd before. As a former student, I don't remember walking out of any big lectures part-way through, maybe because my classes were rarely large-hall affairs, or maybe that shows I was as boring a student as I can ever be as a lecturer? I do remember falling asleep in class a few times, which was rude too, but I didn't do that on purpose. Should I bring my banjo to class to liven things up? We'll see.

One link I didn't put on my Web-writing-for-journalists page is a 12-year-old article by Jon Katz. It's not about writing style, but I still think it's instructive: Online or Not, Newspapers Suck, which asks, "How can any industry which regularly pulls Doonesbury strips for being too controversial possibly hope to survive online?"

That one is better for a discussion session, not a lecture. But I'll tell the class whether I agree with it... and maybe that will be on the exam, too.

Meanwhile, this being a weblog, if you have any suggestions for things to add to my lecture -- or take out -- feel free to use the green "comment" link on my other blog's copy of this note.

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Note for students in JEM 488 Online Publishing: This page was posted to Blogger by e-mail. Here's how: http://tinyurl.com/acyoa
(I had to go back in and edit it to make the links work. If there's a way to do that by e-mail, I haven't searched the Blogger help pages for instructions. If you know how to e-mail blog items with links intact, add that to the comments on my other blog, or just mention it in class.)

JEM 488 Class, March 9
I think I've put too many links on today's section of the page, but with any luck some of the students will follow some of them, some of the time.

Suddenly, a Rebellion in the G.O.P. on a Signature Issue - New York Times

Another quick example of BlogThis at work.

2006 (2008) Elections are Heating Up | KnoxViews

Today in class we're seeing how the "blogthis" button makes life easier.

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ?

Oops. I gave my class a bum steer about Blogger's "Blog This!" tool today, thanks to being a little rusty about using this page. The "Blog This!" link at a the top of any Blogger weblog page (including this one, in light blue at the top center of the screen) is a way for readers to quickly link their own blogs to your site.

The Links/Toolbar "Blog This!" I was talking about in class is available on this help page. It is a Javascript program that allows you to quickly blog about any page you're reading on the Web.
Just drag the "Blog This!" link to your browser toolbar, go off browsing the Web, then click it when you're reading a page you want to write about. If you're already logged in to Blogger, the Javascript will launch a little text-entry window already linked to the page you were reading and automatically put the title of the page in place, fully linked. You can edit the page title, or just add comments.

That certainly makes a comment-on-sites-I've-visited weblog easy to do.

Uh oh. I've done it again... Pointed another University of Tennessee professor toward Blogger and sent her off shopping for that special type-in-your-pajamas blogger nightwear.

The last one was Mark Harmon, a professor professing liberalism on the radio, and now on the Web -- complete with (almost fully functional) podcast.

The new addition is Barb Kaye, who is headed for Italy next semester and plans to blog her adventures back to us in Tennessee.

Hello 'Hershman,' Goodbye Woodward? This item is almost two months old, but following a trail of blog comments just led me there today -- even though I get weekly e-mail alerts from the story's source. I don't know how I missed it, but I'm glad to have added it to my bookmark list. Thanks, Mountain Laureate, for that pointer, and also this one. All three links are about the difficulty of staying optimistic in the journalism business, and the satisfaction of finding reporters who are still fighting the good fight. Belated or not, I'll link this up to my main blog too.