Sexual assault and other cases in collge campuses around tennessee
Reporter- at-Large Essay (250 points)
Honing the skills you developed in the Profile essay, the Reporter-at-Large essay casts you as an investigative reporter. In the Profile essay, you investigated a person; in this essay, you will investigate a local issue or phenomenon of interest to your audience. (Note how the New Yorker selects issues pertinent to the current news cycle and connects particular stories to cultural trends. You too will want to gauge your audience when selecting a topic to write about.) Do keep in mind, however, that this is not a straight opinion piece. You might choose to reveal your own biases, but that’s not the point of the essay. The point is to draw on multiple sources and perspectives to inform and educate your reader on an important topic.
A local issue is of interest to Belmont, Nashville, your family culture, or another subculture you belong to. Depending on who you profiled for your last essay, you might use this essay to research a similar topic, expanding your perspective beyond one person to the issue at large.
To complete this essay successfully, you will need to conduct both primary and secondary research. (If you’re not familiar with these categories, we will talk about them in class).
Papers should be 10-12 pages long, typed and double-spaced, with one-inch margins 12-point font.
A successful paper will do the following:
• Choose a local topic (see above)
• Interest the reader and answer the “So what?” question
• Give a fair representation of the issue and consider multiple viewpoints, even as you reveal your own investment in the story
• Calibrate the research to interest the audience and address the issue fairly
• Integrate at least seven sources, five of which must be academic (accessible through the library catalog or database system)
• Use research judiciously—enough to provide rich context but not so much as to overwhelm the reader with details that don’t seem to matter.
• Smoothly integrate researched material—using a balanced mix of direct quotes, summary, and paraphrase, and relying on signal phrases and post-quote commentary
• Demonstrate thoughtful and sophisticated—as opposed to lazy—research. It’s evident that you picked sources because they made sense and not because they were the first five hits in the database.
Oct 1 field day for reporter-at-large pieces
Oct 3 TTS part 6
Workshop reporter-at-large pieces
Oct 8 Workshop reporter-at-large pieces
Oct 10 Workshop reporter-at-large pieces
Oct 13 No Class/Fall Break
Oct 15 Copy-edit reporter-at-large pieces.
Oct 17 Reporter-at-large pieces due to me.
Go over choose-your-own genre assignment.
Interest the reader and answer the “So what?” question
Give a fair representation of the issue and consider multiple viewpoints, even as you reveal your own investment in the story
Calibrate the research to interest the audience and address the issue fairly
Integrate at least seven sources, five of which must be academic (accessible through the library catalog or database system)
Use research judiciously—enough to provide rich context but not so much as to overwhelm the reader with details that don’t seem to matter.
Smoothly integrate researched material—using a balanced mix of direct quotes, summary, and paraphrase, and relying on signal phrases and post-quote commentary
Demonstrate thoughtful and sophisticated—as opposed to lazy—research. It’s evident that you picked sources because they made sense and not because they were the first five hits in the database.