COMM304

This course will help to prepare students for a career in writing either as a freelance or as a full-time journalist/author. This is a course in non-fiction article writing; poetry and fiction are not included. Students will look at a wide variety of publications, article formats and writing styles as a means of finding their niche(s) and determining which publications are best suited to their particular talents, interests and strengths. Class work will cover editing, rewriting, article formulas, preparing/sending query letters, interviewing and research. Assignments will include writing three to four articles, completing in-class writing exercises, reading from the textbook(s) and compiling a writer's portfolio. Constructively critiquing the work of others will be just as important as editing and rewriting. The main goal is that by the end of the course students will have finished three articles that are ready for publication.