COMM 353: Assignments for week of Feb. 28-March 1. Thurber, Ross and Bulldog Bytes ... and some recycled, but important stuff on "Years WIth Ross"

In class, we'll continue our juggling act:

• We'll touch base on copy and edits for the Bulldog Bytes, and take another look at the handout from Nancy Brigham's how-to book for UAW local newsletter editors. How does she talk about editing? How is it different from the way Carol Saller of the Univesity of Chicago Press talks about editing? How is it different from the way we talk about editing in college?
  
• We'll get some more experience with the Track Changes mode in Microsoft Word, by adapting one of the exercises on the website for British journalism students we looked at last week. I'd like to have you project your edits in class. WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS.
  
• We'll compare notes on our impressions of James Thurber's "Years With Ross," about the founding editor of the New Yorker, and we'll look at some of Thurber's writing in class. Let's compare notes on that, too. I MAY GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPRESS YOURSELF IN WRITING ABOUT THIS. WATCH THIS SPACE, TOO.

James Thurber

An animated version of "The Last Flower," Thurber's cartoon fable published in November 1939 (two months after the outbreak of World War II), is embedded below. There's a very nice soundtrack to the YouTube clip, but it isn't Thurber's. He drew "The Last Flower" as cartoons on the printed page. So after a minute or so I turned the soundtrack off. The book didn't have one, and we don't heed one either. I've always been impressed with how much emotion Thurber could convey with very simple line drawings. And, of course, his wry sense of humor. But I don't want to say too much about what I think. I'd rather hear what you think.



Let's read the following (did I say "let's?" What I meant was you are hereby commanded to read ...):

• A very good and mercifully brief biography of Thurber on Petri Liukkonen's Books and Writers website. It's off the beaten track, but it's an excellent source of literary biographies by a guy with a real appreciation for the arts. Liukkonen is director of The Kuusankoski Library, in Finland.
  
• A quick and painless way of getting into Thurber's head by reading some "brainy quotes" and aphorisms at, well, the brainyquotes.com website.
  
• Two stories by Thurber. They're short. Let's read them both: (1) "The Little Girl and the Wolf"; and (2) "Unicorn in the Garden" ... WHAT'S YOUR REACTION to them?

If you want to go deeper on Thurber, there's also a useful directory on the Big Eye website.

Here's some stuff recycled from last month's Mackerel Wrapper. We didn't do much with it at the time, but it makes some points from Adam Gopnik's intro to "Years WIth Ross" that we shouldn't forget:

... these are some of the things that struck me in James Thurber's "The Years With Ross" about the early glory years of the New Yorker under founding editor Harold Ross:

• First thing I learn right off the bat: I really ought to go back and look at the damn book before I write out assignments! This book doesn't have an "introduction." It has forewords. A couple of them. The first, and most important, is by the New Yorker's cultural affairs writer Adam Gopnik.
  
• Gopnik tells us what to look for in the book, too. Here's one thing: "... the story it tells [is] about how writers and editors together, in the years between [World War I Gen. John] Pershing and Pearl Harbor, made a new kind of American music ... a style emerged that still strikes a downbeat for most good American writing today." Gopnik is using "music," of course, as a metaphor from writing.
  
• And this: "... there is something permanent in The Years with Ross about how a writer learns to write, what an editor can teach him, and how the tone they shape together can be around for other writers when both of them are gone."
  
• A comment about Thurber, but it applies as well to the "music" or prose style that The New Yorker did so much to develop: "No one worked harder or went further to slim down the space between American speaking and writing voices, between the way we talk and the way we write."
  
• Gopnik writes for The New Yorker, and he says that style survives today. "Those of us who draw our paychecks at that particular window think it still goes on at the magazine itself, and we knock ourselves out trying to make sure it can. But it doesn't belong to us any more than it ever did. ... I sometimes think of Thurber's late, lovely fable of the last flower, where the world contines because one man, one woman, and one flower are left after the Apocalypse to continue it. Ross's years, Thurber's tone, will go on, I believe, if there remains only one weird and moving fact, one writer to point at it, and one reader to take heart at its presence."

Notice how the world wars, WWI and WWII, defined the New Yorker's moment in history? What defines our moment in history in the early years of the 21st century? How is it different? How is it the same? How can it shape our careers as writers and/or journalists?

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]

COMM 353 - ** ROLLED OVER FROM LAST WEEK ** proofreading and "subediting" exercises, and the Track Changes mode in Microsoft Word

PLEASE NOTE: Since half the class was absent Thursday, we couldn't do the exercises I'd planned, we'll do them Tuesday, Feb. 21.

How cool can this be? (Don't answer!) In class today we'll do some editing exercises ...

The purpose of these exercises is to get you familiar with the "Track Changes" mode in Microsoft Word. It's not the best software in the world, but it's the industry standard and the strike-through and underlining conventions it uses (especially if you turn off the @#$%! "balloon" revisions) are very commonly used to indicate deletions and additions respectively (how would you, by the way, edit this sentence that I'm writing right now?). To do the exercises, copy and paste them into a blank Microsoft Word document, double-space it and get into the "Track Changes" mode.

Uff. Oxford comma. Let's try that again: 'To do the exercises, copy and paste them into a blank Microsoft Word document, double-space it, and get into the "Track Changes" mode.' See the tiny red blob I added? It's a red comma, underlined, like you get in Track Changes. I don't claim it's perfect, but it's useful. And Microsoft Word already has it, so there's no extra cost. Worth learning.

The exercises are on a website called Journalism Careers by a British free-lancer named Sean McManus. He's selling a book, and I'm always suspicious of promotional websites, but McManus looks pretty knowledgeable. And his advice strikes me as kosher. From his blurb:

Sean McManus was first published in a computer magazine while at school and now has ten years experience researching, writing and editing for business and consumer publications. He has written for several magazines you've heard of (such as Personal Computer World, Marketing Week and Melody Maker) and plenty you probably haven't (including World Highways, Customer Loyalty Today and Bridge design & engineering).

So here's another guy who's out in the marketplace hustling free-lance gigs, and using the web to promote himself. Doing the kinds of things we have to do in today's economy, in other words.

McManus has journalism, proofreading and subediting exercises (subediting is the British word for what we call copyediting). In class we'll look at the exercises on:

• Broken sentences
  
• proofreading and subediting exercise
  
• Finding the angle

And do some of them.

COMM 353 - midterm test - due Feb. 23

PLEASE NOTE: (1) This draft of the midterm is substantially revised from what I posted earlier; and (2) I have gone back and stricken Sunday's version, so this is the "official" midterm. -- pe

Below are three essay questions – one worth fifty (50) points out of a hundred, and two shorter essays worth 25 points each. Please write at least two pages double-spaced (500 words) on the 50-point essay and at least one page (250 words) on each of the 25-point short essays. Use plenty of detail from your reading in the textbook, the internet and handouts I have given you, as well as class discussion, to back up the points you make. Your grade will depend both on your analysis of the broad trends I ask about, and on the specific detail you cite in support of the points you make. I am primarily interested in the specific factual arguments you make to support your points. So be specific. Remember: An unsupported generalization is sudden death in college-level writing.

1. Main essay (50 points). In his college textbook "Newsroom Management: A Guide to Theory and Practice" (1991), Robert A. Giles says, "Working in the newsroom is a highly social process, involving much discussion, challenge, give-and-take, and many questions in the sometimes fractious, sometimes agonizing process of deciding how to play the day's news. Contact between boss and worker is routine, a natural part of an environment in which aggressive, independent-minded individuals honor both teamwork and disagreement ." To what degree is the process of writing, editing and publishing collaborative? How do Carol Saller of the University of Chicago Press and Nancy Brigham of the United Auto Workers advise editors to foster creativity on the part of writers and give it direction? Is it possible, in your opinion, to do both at the same time? How can editors strike a balance between the need for creativity and direction?

2A. Short essay (25 points). In “How to Do Leaflets, Newsletters and Newspapers,” Nancy Brigham of the UAW says in planning a publication, editors should: “Work backwards.” She adds, “Start with the date the paper must appear and then allow enough time for each process, from the printing through the paste-up, layout, typesetting, editing, writing and research or interviewing.” At what stage in the process does she suggest deciding on things like typeface, the size of body type and headlines, the placement of columns and pictures, and use of the Oxford comma? Why? What does she mean by working backward? Why does she advise doing it that way? How much, in your experience, have computers changed the planning process from what she describes?

2B. Self-reflective essay (25 points). What have you learned about COMM 353 so far that you didn’t know before? Consider what you knew at the beginning of the course and what you know now. What point or points stand out most clearly to you? What points are still confusing? In answering this question, please feel free to look at the “Tip Sheet on Writing a Reflective Essay” linked to my faculty webpage. In grading the essay, I will evaluate the relevance of your discussion to the main goals and objectives of the course; the detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the connections you make.

COMM 353: First draft of midterm ... due Thursday, Feb. 23

PLEASE NOTE: I have updated this draft of the midterm and posted the new version on Feb. 15. Basically, I took the first question and turned it around so the statement by Rober Giles is something you can agree or disagree with. The strategy I suggested below would be the same, though. If I were writing this exam, I would start by repeating what Giles, Saller and Brigham say, and then going on to state my own opinion. I would probably agree with parts of it, and disagree with other parts. -- pe

As I said last week, my examinations are take-home essay tests and I like to post draft versions to the Mackerel Wrapper as soon as I make them up so you can think ahead about the essays. When I was in grad school back during the Wars of the League of Augsburg, my best professors would give me exam questions that required a lot of thought and synthesis on my part - so I actually knew more when I finished writing the essay than I did a couple of hours before when I started writing it! That's what I try to do for you guys when I'm making out a test.

So, to get you thinking ahead of time, I post the drafts to the blog as early as I can. Here's an example from COMM 150 fall semester. You'll also notice I like to get feedback on the draft questions, and I'm willing to revise them if they're not clear enough. I'm more interested in getting you to go back through the readings and think about them than I am in playing "gotcha" with short-answer questions. I'll recycle below some general advice about my essay tests. But first, here's what you want to know now - what are the questions? The envelope, please:

D R A F T

Below are three essay questions – one worth fifty (50) points out of a hundred, and two shorter essays worth 25 points each. Please write at least two pages double-spaced (500 words) on the 50-point essay and at least one page (250 words) on each of the 25-point short essays. Use plenty of detail from your reading in the textbook, the internet and handouts I have given you, as well as class discussion, to back up the points you make. Your grade will depend both on your analysis of the broad trends I ask about, and on the specific detail you cite in support of the points you make. I am primarily interested in the specific factual arguments you make to support your points. So be specific. Remember: An unsupported generalization is sudden death in college-level writing.

1. Main essay (50 points). In his college textbook "Newsroom Management: A Guide to Theory and Practice" (1991), Robert A. Giles says, "Working in the newsroom is a highly social process, involving much discussion, challenge, give-and-take, and many questions in the sometimes fractious, sometimes agonizing process of deciding how to play the day's news. Contact between boss and worker is routine, a natural part of an environment in which aggressive, independent-minded individuals honor both teamwork and disagreement" (2). To some degree, the creative process is a collaborative process. And in their very different roles, Carol Saller of the University of Chicago Press and Nancy Brigham of the United Auto Workers stress the sometimes collaborative nature of writing, editing and publishing. Drawing on those sources, as well as our other readings, videos, classroom discussion and your own background knowledge, discuss how careful attention to group dynamics can help editors get a publication on the street. How can a knowledge of management and organizational behavior help you as a writer and/or a career in the communications industry?

2A. Short essay (25 points). I haven't formulated the exact question yet, but it will deal with the role that planning plays in getting a publication on the street.

2B. Self-reflective essay (25 points). What have you learned about ____________ in COMM _____ so far that you didn’t know before? Consider what you knew at the beginning of the course and what you know now. What point or points stand out most clearly to you? What points are still confusing? In answering this question, please feel free to look at the “Tip Sheet on Writing a Reflective Essay” linked to my faculty webpage. In grading the essay, I will evaluate the relevance of your discussion to the main goals and objectives of the course; the detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the connections you make.

As I said, I hope to go over this draft in class Tuesday and revise the questions as needed. Plus, I'll fill in more detail on question 2A.

If you're wondering about that strange Robert Giles newsroom management book, don't worry. It just came in from Amazon.com, and I've been reading it over the weekend. I'll have copies of pertinent portions of it for you Tuesday by Thursday (I promise)! In the meantime, here are some general tips about my essay tests:

1. How to study for them. Since they're an open-book tests, you are very strongly encouraged to open the book(s)! - i.e. to consult Carol Saller's "Subversive Copyeditor"; the handouts I've given from Brigham's guide to leaflets and newsletters and newspapers; the handout you're going to get from Robert A. Giles' newsroom management text; and the stuff I've posted to the blog. Include a lot of quotes. As you quote from Sallers, it's a good idea to put the page number in parentheses after the quotation. But I don't demand a Works Cited or References page. You're doing two things, which aren't as contradictary as they might seem at first - you're showing me you read the book, and you're showing me you can think for yourself.

2. How to write the essays. Here's what I've been telling my students since I was teaching freshman English. You guys aren't freshmen anymore, but it never hurts to go back over the basics. A good strategy for essay tests I developed in grad school was: (1) to answer the question with facts from the text(s) and lecture notes, i.e. parrot the conventional wisdom; and (2) then go on and give my own opinion and analysis of the issues raised by the test question, i.e. show I could think for myself. Even when I was stating my opinion, I learned to always back it up with facts, statistics, quotes and examples. Even? Especially when I was stating my opinion! Your teachers are probably looking for two things when they grade a test: (1) your command of the basic facts; and (2) your ability to analyze and evaluate the factual information. So give 'em both.

Some pretty darn useful links to "how-to" websites I found today while drafting a query letter for a freelance story

So with that introduction, and no further ado ...

Paul Lima, a Canadian freelance writer and writing coach, has a page "How to Structure a Query Letter; Sample Query Letter" that I hadn't seen before. He takes it paragraph by paragraph. Like this:

• Opening graf. An attention-getter, like the lede in a newspaper story.
  
• Support graf. Lima says he likes to put some statistics here, anything to show he knows what he's talking (writing) about. I usually dispense with it.
  
• Source graf. Where'd you get your information? Tell 'em.
  
• Ask for the order graf. Lima's word for an essential part of the query. Salespeople call this a "close," and you can't make a sale without it. Says Lima, "Literally, ask if the editor is interested in the article."
  
• About you graf. Why you're qualified to write the story.

Here's an "about you" graf from Lima's website: "An English major from York University, Paul Lima has worked as an advertising copywriter (print and broadcast), graduate placement coordinator, continuing education manager and instructor and magazine editor of Northern Lights and Toronto Computes." In a word, it says why he's qualified.

I can't show you the query I'm sending out today (bad luck and questionable ethics to do that). But here's a couple of queries that got me published a couple of years ago, along a little graf-by-graf explanation I wrote for another class last semester.

Another website called AboutFreelanceWriting.com has the standard stuff about queries. But it also has a link to a page titled "No Writing Clips? No Problem!" I have published clips, so I didn't read it in detail. But you might be interested if your writing so far has been mostly for school.

COMM 353 - notes on tentative assignments, copy flow for Bulldog Bytes ** UPDATE AFTER CLASS 02-14 **

Bulldog Bytes – mini workouts for the athletic mind –

pdf in 8.5 x 11 format

John led discussion, serving in a de facto editorial role


article / by ........ / length

• yoga, pilates on campus - Robyn 500
  
• baseball /fitness feature(Mike Reese) - Josh and Nick 1200
  
• crossfit craze van 500
  
• new sports on campus John 600
  options for Stacie -- 600 ... ?? fatass 5k – running piece

copy deadline – feb 21

first edits – feb 23 – march 8

ADDED IN CLASS Feb. 14: robyn and van – first tier editor, back to reader the writers by feb. 28 -- edit for commas, grammar – typos – awkward wording – pass it on to John …

second (final) draft – march 13
layout and design process – march 15-april 5

camera ready - printed by april 10

COMM 353: Upcoming assignments - WATCH THIS SPACE

*** PLEASE WATCH THIS SPACE! I WILL POST MORE DETAILS OVER THE WEEKEND ***

In class today (Thursday): We should devote the class period to planning Bulldog Bytes. I will convene the class, to act as an editorial committee with three items on today's agenda:

1. Organization. Choose a leader (managing editor, king, queen, mother superior, generalissimo, whatever) and assign duties to other members of the class. You should probably function like the editorial committees described in Nancy Brigham's "How To Do Leaflets, Newsletters and Newspapers."
   
2. Sketch in a budget, i.e. a tentative list of stories, artwork, etc. You already have a good start on this from earlier class discussion. But I think it would be a very good idea to start filling in the blanks and make a composite list, using the discussion of editorial budgets in Rachel Kanigel's "Student Newspaper Survival Guide"; Brigham's example of a scheduling wall chart [see below]; or a combination of the two as a guide.
   
3. Work out a tentative copy flow schedule - spelling out who does what and when, who it goes to next, when each step has to be finished and so on, working back from a publication date in mid-April. You need to track this on a single wall chart, spread sheet or whatever so you don't get multiple copies of the same article floating around with different revisions. Don't ask me how I know this! Again, Brigham's wall chart [below] would be a good model.

Brigham's wall chart shows budget, copy flow (click to enlarge)
Before the midterm (due Feb. 23): Read or re-read Carol Saller's "Subversive Copy Editor"; the handout I gave you from Nancy Brigham's guide to newsletters, leaflets and newspapers; and the material I have posted/photocopied for you relating to: (1) Editing as a management function; and (2) the collaborative nature of creative work. Your midterm will be a take-home essay test with questions on these issues. As I formulate the questions, I will post drafts to the Mackerel Wrapper so you can begin thinking ahead of time about how you want to answer them.

For class Tuesday, Feb. 14: Complete reading Saller's "Subversive Copy Editor," if ou haven't already. Let's also look at the related blog at http://www.subversivecopyeditor.com/.

COMM 353: Revised assignment for Thursday, Feb. 9

[For the original discussion of this assignment, see also my post for Thursday, Feb. 2. Your writing assignment for this coming Thursday, Feb. 9, is at the bottom of this post. Please have it completed before class on Feb. 9. - pe]

As we plan what's going to go into Bulldog Bytes, let's pay attention to process.

Edge Leadership Consulting, LLC of Portland, Ore., has a good summary of different Decision-Making Styles on its website. I strongly recommend that whatever else we do, we deliberately incorporate a combination of the consensus and delegation models into our decision-making process.

Here's why. We're professionals. To quote one of our readings for Thursday, Edge Leadership LLC, we want the "high quality input and commitment, with follow-through, [that we can get] from a group."

Also, we'll learn some management skills while we're at it.

Editing is a management function. You've heard me say that before, and you'll hear it again. Here's something one of my J-school professors at Penn State told me when I was complaining about my newsroom management course, "we're not preparing you for your next job, we're preparing you for what you've going to do three or four jobs down the road when you're breaking into middle management." And in the communications industry, editing is typically the entry-level management position.

Even if you don't break into management, you'll probably be doing side projects where you're calling the shots. Even as a free-lancer, you're part of an editorial team. (You're been reading Carol Saller on that issue, right?) It's a lot like herding cats, and you'll be herding cats -- one way or another -- the rest of your professional life.

Which leads me to another point: We're on the creative side of mass communications. That's true whether our ultimate genre is poetry, advertising layout or television news. According to a Newsroom Management "toolkit" published by the European Broadcasting Union, "Journalism means teamwork. Always begin with an editorial meeting, always review scripts for accuracy before they are broadcast, and end by reviewing what went right, and wrong with the day." And this: "Internal communication has to be multi-faceted to be effective. Oral communication (or email) alone does not work. Reinforce all communication verbally, and leave a written trace (bulletin board, internal memo, electronic database, etc.) ... Intelligence, good will and teamwork are more decisive than equipment and money." There's more, and it's all good.

A very different kind of explanation of the consensus model comes from ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a gay-lesbian-transgender advocacy group that has more of a reputation for street demonstrations and civil disobedience than management style. But it's very sound. Here's what the New York chapter of ACT UP says about the consensus model:

What does consensus mean?

Consensus does not mean that everyone thinks that the decision made is necessarily the best one possible, or even that they are sure it will work. What it does mean is that in coming to that decision, no one felt that her/his position on the matter was misunderstood or that it wasn't given a proper hearing. Hopefully, everyone will think it is the best decision; this often happens because, when it works, collective intelligence does come up with better solutions than could individuals.

Consensus takes more time and member skill, but uses lots of resources before a decision is made, creates commitment to the decision and often facilitates creative decision. It gives everyone some experience with new processes of interaction and conflict resolution, which is basic but important skill-building. For consensus to be a positive experience, it is best if the group has 1) common values, 2) some skill in group process and conflict resolution, or a commitment to let these be facilitated, 3) commitment and responsibility to the group by its members and 4) sufficient time for everyone to participate in the process.

Forming the consensus proposals

During discussion a proposal for resolution is put forward. It is amended and modified through more discussion, or withdrawn if it seems to be a dead end. During this discussion period it is important to articulate differences clearly. It is the responsibility of those who are having trouble with a proposal to put forth alternative suggestions.

The fundamental right of consensus is for all people to be able to express themselves in their own words and of their own will. The fundamental responsibility of consensus is to assure others of their right to speak and be heard. Coercion and trade-offs are replaced with creative alternatives, and compromise with synthesis.

When a proposal seems to be well understood by everyone, and there are no new changes asked for, the facilitator(s) can ask if there are any objections or reservations to it. If there are no objections, there can be a call for consensus. If there are still no objections, then after a moment of silence you have your decision. Once consensus does appear to have been reached, it really helps to have someone repeat the decision to the group so everyone is clear on what has been decided.

FOR CLASS THURSDAY: Please read the three documents linked above and decide what, if anything, in them might apply to our group project of editing and producing Bulldog Bytes or other creative projects you might undertake in the future. Post your thoughts as comments to this blog post.

COMM 353: In-class assignments, week of Feb. 7-9

This week I'm going to recommend that we put together an editorial budget that: (1) lists the articles, or individual pieces, that will go into Bulldog Bytes; and (2) sets out a timeline for copy flow, i.e. writing, editing and production of the publication. I will copy the discussion of budgets from Rachele Kanigel's "Student Newspaper Survival Guide" (Ames, Iowa: Blackwell, 2006) for you in class Tuesday.

Also this week, we will start getting ready for a midterm exam over Carol Saller's "Subversive Copy Editor" and other readings to date, including handouts like those you got in class last week and will get Tuesday. It will be a take-home essay test tentatively due Thursday, Feb. 16. Since we haven't talked much about Saller yet, I'm willing to move that deadline back a week to Feb. 23. But I'll let you know well ahead of time what the essays will be about, so you can focus your reading.

(You can already guess, can't you? If I don't ask about editing as a management function and the collaborative nature of publishing, I'm not doing my job. And if you're not thinking about how you want to write about those issues, you're not doing yours. Right?)

In class Tuesday we'll start off by watching a couple of videos. According to a behind-the-scenes report about the Puppy Bowl programming this weekend on Animal Planet, the two-hour broadcast involved a great deal of collaborative effort. (See where I'm headed with this?) Here's an excerpt from the report by Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News:

"We've been trying to take it up a notch every year," Melinda Toporoff, executive producer of the Puppy Bowl since 2008, told Yahoo News, "while trying to keep the poop off the field."

Last year, the production moved from a small soundstage in Silver Spring, Md., to a six-camera shoot at a full-on studio in New York. Nearly 100 people work on the Puppy Bowl—from animal wranglers to stage managers to directors and producers, and, of course the referee, Dan Schachner, a commercial and voiceover actor from Oceanside, N.Y., who calls the penalties on the field ("illegal retriever down field," "excessive cuteness") and cleans them up, too. ("Intentional grounding" refers to, well, you guessed it.)

Taping of the Puppy Bowl occurs in the fall, something viewers Toporoff said are "flat out shocked" to learn.

This year's affair was shot over two days in October, with 58 dogs of varying breeds—all of them from shelter and rescue groups, adoptable, and most about 10-weeks-old—rotating in and out of the 19-by-10-foot Animal Planet Stadium in 20-minute shifts, so as to not tire out their paws. Crew members often adopt the puppies during the production, meaning most of the dogs are not available by the time the game airs. And they all "compete" for the coveted MVP: Most Valuable Puppy.

More than 70 hours of footage was whittled down for the two-hour broadcast, which Animal Planet smartly replays in a 12-hour marathon that goes on well after the real Super Bowl ends.

"It's a behemoth editing job," Toporoff said.

There it is: Editing. Collaborative effort. Teamwork. Cute puppies, 9.2 million viewers in 2010. Nothing ever happens by accident in the communications industry. See where I'm heading with this? These are the kinds of things you can mention on an essay exam.

Here, by popular demand, are a couple more videos you can watch Tuesday and mention on the midterm if you're so inclined. As you watch them, ask yourself: What evidence do you see in these videos of the collaborative nature of the creative process? How much of it involves teamwork? How much planning goes into it? What evidence do you see of planning -- e.g. storyboarding, writer's conferences? Take notes as you watch, and post your observations as comments below.

The first video is a spoof by freelance film director Joe Nicolosi of "Kittywood Studios," a fictional film production company that does cat videos. Shot in a real studio (Rooster Teeth of Austin, Texas), it's a nice satire of production agencies and the communications industry in general. Check out the "Steve Jobs"-like product roll-out. Oh, and, of course, the collaborative nature of creative work. (You already know where I'm heading with this, right?) It's an effective satire because it picks up on some of the things that really happen in the industry.



Kittywood Studios came out in August. In November, the Toronto ad agency john st. (pronounced "John Street" as in the agency's address in Toronto) came out with a video titled "Catvertising." Its blurb: "To stay on top of the ever-changing advertising landscape, john st. has opened the world's first cat video division. With production, filming and seeding all in-house. Ask yourself, what can cat videos do for your business?" Again, the satire is effective because they've got the process nailed. And the creative process is ... not to be too blindingly obvious about it ... collaborative.



ALSO THIS WEEK: Before class on Thursday of last week I posted links to: (1) a summary of management styles; (2) a how-to handbook for television professionals; and (3) a discussion of the consensus model of decision making. I asked you to read them and answer a discussion question I posted to the blog. Since no one posted an answer to the question, let's say the opportunity to do so is still open to you. Capice? And I will be noticing whether you take that opportunity or not.

So here, with light editing and updating, is last week's question again: Please read the documents linked above to last week's post and decide what, if anything, in them might apply to: (1) Our group project of editing and producing a magazine project; and/or (2) any other editorial or other creative projects you might undertake in the future. ... Please post your thoughts as comments to Thursday's blog post. Click here to reread last week's post and follow the links.

COMM 353: How do you decide how to make a decision? A couple of websites on the fine art of herding cats

Measure twice, cut once. -- Anon. carpenter's proverb.

* * *
Alwaies measure manie, before you cut anie. -- John Florio, Second Frutes 1591. Qtd. in www.bookbrowse.com

As we plan what's going to go into Bulldog Bytes, I want us to pay careful attention to the steps we follow in planning. We could slap together a publication in less than half the time we're going to spend in COMM 353, and it wouldn't look bad. I have a lot of confidence in the skills and attitudes you bring to the class as upper-division students in Comm Arts and Writing and Publishing. But I also want you to learn something you didn't know before you signed up for the course.

Or at least put what you did know together in new ways. That's the point of all the self-reflective writing we're going to do as the semester goes on.

So as we plan the issue, let's pay attention to process.

Edge Leadership Consulting, LLC of Portland, Ore., has a good summary of different Decision-Making Styles on its website. I strongly recommend we deliberately use a combination of the consensus and delegation models.

Here's why. We're professionals. (Have I treated you yet to my speech that you are already media professionals if you're majoring in Comm Arts or Writing and Publishing? You are.) "[We] want high quality input and commitment, with follow-through, from a group," to quote Edge Leadership LLC, and we can get that level of quality.

Also, we'll learn some management skills while we're at it.

Editing is a management function. You've heard me say that before, and you'll hear it again. Here's something one of my J-school professors at Penn State told me when I was complaining about my newsroom management course, "we're not preparing you for your next job, we're preparing you for what you've going to do three or four jobs down the road when you're breaking into middle management." And in the communications industry, editing is typically the entry-level management position.

Even if you don't break into management, you'll probably be doing side projects where you're calling the shots. Even as a free-lancer, you're part of an editorial team. (You're been reading Carol Saller on that issue, right?) It's a lot like herding cats, and you'll be herding cats -- one way or another -- the rest of your professional life.

Which leads me to another point: We're on the creative side of mass communications. That's true whether our ultimate genre is poetry, advertising layout or television news. According to a Newsroom Management "toolkit" published by the European Broadcasting Union, "Journalism means teamwork. Always begin with an editorial meeting, always review scripts for accuracy before they are broadcast, and end by reviewing what went right, and wrong with the day." And this: "Internal communication has to be multi-faceted to be effective. Oral communication (or email) alone does not work. Reinforce all communication verbally, and leave a written trace (bulletin board, internal memo, electronic database, etc.) ... Intelligence, good will and teamwork are more decisive than equipment and money." There's more, and it's all good.

A very different kind of explanation of the consensus model comes from ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a gay-lesbian-transgender advocacy group that has more of a reputation for civil disobedience than management style. But it's very sound. Here's what the New York chapter of ACT UP says about the consensus model:

What does consensus mean?

Consensus does not mean that everyone thinks that the decision made is necessarily the best one possible, or even that they are sure it will work. What it does mean is that in coming to that decision, no one felt that her/his position on the matter was misunderstood or that it wasn't given a proper hearing. Hopefully, everyone will think it is the best decision; this often happens because, when it works, collective intelligence does come up with better solutions than could individuals.

Consensus takes more time and member skill, but uses lots of resources before a decision is made, creates commitment to the decision and often facilitates creative decision. It gives everyone some experience with new processes of interaction and conflict resolution, which is basic but important skill-building. For consensus to be a positive experience, it is best if the group has 1) common values, 2) some skill in group process and conflict resolution, or a commitment to let these be facilitated, 3) commitment and responsibility to the group by its members and 4) sufficient time for everyone to participate in the process.

Forming the consensus proposals

During discussion a proposal for resolution is put forward. It is amended and modified through more discussion, or withdrawn if it seems to be a dead end. During this discussion period it is important to articulate differences clearly. It is the responsibility of those who are having trouble with a proposal to put forth alternative suggestions.

The fundamental right of consensus is for all people to be able to express themselves in their own words and of their own will. The fundamental responsibility of consensus is to assure others of their right to speak and be heard. Coercion and trade-offs are replaced with creative alternatives, and compromise with synthesis.

When a proposal seems to be well understood by everyone, and there are no new changes asked for, the facilitator(s) can ask if there are any objections or reservations to it. If there are no objections, there can be a call for consensus. If there are still no objections, then after a moment of silence you have your decision. Once consensus does appear to have been reached, it really helps to have someone repeat the decision to the group so everyone is clear on what has been decided.

IN CLASS TODAY: Please read the three documents linked above and decide what, if anything, in them might apply to: (1) Our group project of editing and producing a magazine project; and/or (2) editorial or other creative projects you might undertake in the future. They might be as ambitious as a university press anthology (say for Carol Saller and the University of Chicago) or as down-home as a three-fold brochure for a local retailer. Post your thoughts as comments to this blog post.