Sunday, September 12, 2010

Profile Assignment

PROFILE— Report and write a minimum 750-word biographical story about an interesting person you don’t already know. The subject does not need to be rich, famous or powerful; some of the most compelling profiles focus on ordinary, overlooked people. Unless I agree in advance to an exception, profiles of close friends or relatives are not allowed. Your finished story must contain original, current reporting and quotes from a minimum of three interviews. It must be suitable for publication with all sources fully identified. Your story must be accompanied by a publication-quality photograph and a source list.


Deadlines:
•    Sunday, Sept. 19: Post story proposal on class website.
•    Sunday, Sept. 26: Post billboard on class website.
•    Sunday, Oct. 3: File first draft in D2L dropbox.
•    Sunday, Oct. 17: File revised profile in D2L dropbox.

Stories must contain:
•    original, current reporting.
•    quotes from a minimum of three interviews (in addition to the profile subject, a mix of friends, family, associates, competitors, critics, experts and others, depending on the subject matter and type of profile).
•    biographical and historical information, as needed.
•    supporting facts and statistics, as needed.

Stories must not contain:
•    profiles of roommates, friends or relatives (unless approved in advance and disclosed in story).
•    quotes from any of the above.
•    quotes taken from other stories (unless approved in advance and fully attributed).
•    information attributed to other news media that you could have reported yourself.

Grading criteria:
•    idea  (originality, scope, difficulty).
•    reporting  (effort, resourcefulness, difficulty).
•    writing  (creativity, structure, style, errors).
•    mechanics (spelling, grammar, style)

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