COMM 353: Assignments for week of Feb. 21-23

STUDENTS PLEASE NOTE: The blog post below, which I originally posted before Thursday's class session, has links to some exercises on editing. I want to use them to get you up to speed on the Track Changes mode in Microsoft Word. We'll go to the exercises as soon as we're clear on this week's assignments per this post.

This week we're going to shift gears. Your articles for Bulldog Bytes and your midterm are due this week; please email them both to me, and let me have the email address you want to use as we schlepp copies of your articles around. Unless we come up with a better idea, I plan to use email and the "reply all" mode to get material to you for editing and discussion.

In the meantime, we're going to pick up speed on the reading and writing components of the course as we start reading James Thurber's biography "The Years With Ross." It's a biography of Harold Ross, founding editor of The New Yorker. (There are those who say, with some justice, it's as much an autobiography of Thurber as it is a biography of Ross. But you can decide for yourself on that.) I hope to have a handout for you from "Newsroom Management: A Guide to Theory and Practice" by Robert A. Giles on leadership styles. As you read about Ross, you'll discover he had a very distinctive management style -- if you can even call it that! -- and you'll want to be able to evaluate it in terms of management theory.

We'll follow two related threads:

1. Starting now, blog your reactions to "Years With Ross." Our readings so far haven't lent themselves to blogging on your part, so I haven't been requiring it. (Although if you *have* been blogging without my prompting you, I'll make sure you get credit for it!) Now, however, you'll notice the weekly reading assignments ask specific questions I want you to blog about.

2. You'll also notice I want you to read and blog about the New Yorker's website. It's the continuation of Ross' magazine, and as you read more you'll be able to make comparisons. For now, though, just start reading it. Surf around and try to find something you're interested in. How has it changed from what Thurber describes? How is it the same?

Here are the assignments from last week and this week in our syllabus. They are lightly heavily edited:

Week 5 (Feb. 14-16)
• Reading: Thurber, ix-35 (this includes reading Thurber’s foreword and re-reading [Adam] Gopnik’s [we read it the first time back in January], which may give you some indication of how important I think it is). Keep Start following the New Yorker’s website at http://www.newyorker.com/.
• Writing: Keep blogging if you've started a blog, and start blogging if you haven't. As you start reading Thurber, ask yourself how this story of a very idiosyncratic guy who founded a magazine nearly 100 years ago can have any relevance to our world of bewildering change in media. Blog about it. Keep it in mind as you read on.
• Editing: [deleted - we're going to handle the edits differently in class, but for now the main thing is to get going on Bulldog Bytes]

Week 6 (Feb . 21-23)
• Reading: Thurber, 36-99. Keep Start following the New Yorker’s website at http://www.newyorker.com/. As you read more of Thurber, you’ll notice he isn’t exactly writing a straight biography. He’s tricky. What’s his attitude toward Ross? How does he convey it? What can you learn about editing – and about writing – from reading it? Are there principles and practices, tricks, techniques or odd little bits of information you can apply you own career?
• Writing: Keep blogging about your experience and your reading. My questions under the reading assignments are intended to be blogworthy, and you should address them in the blog.
• Editing: [deleted - see above]