Syllabus:

Session 1: Sept. 9

How effective writing has changed the world.

In this session, you’ll:

• Be introduced to what this course will be and why it matters to you — and why some things about writing might not be what you expect.
• Learn about a brief history of writing as communication, as art, as persuasive argument.
• As an introduction to journalism, review some of AP’s top accomplishments in the writing and storytelling space.
• Come to understand how writing can change things — from freeing slaves in Southeast Asia to causing the end of a presidency.
• Examine the more intimate ways writing changes things: How can delivering facts help clear the fog? How can expertise and perspective prevent people from misinterpreting big events? How can writing inspire and move people? How is journalism the “first rough draft of history” – and what can the full version of that quote tell us?
• Be given examples of effective writing that you might not expect – things that aren’t journalism but are deeply impactful. Poetry. Advertising. Speeches (Kennedy inaugural, e.g.). Turns of phrase that have stuck with people through the decades.
• See how this all ties into what you want to accomplish, and pivot into the coming sessions.

Session 2: Sept. 11

Principles of journalism and writing and how they relate to you.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• Why journalism is a good model for overall communication, no matter the industry.
• How journalism in its modern form came to be.
• How the pursuit of, and the myth of, objectivity has shaped both journalism and the larger world. Why eliminating bias still matters, and how fairness plays a role in shaping journalism. What roles standards and ethics have in any nonfiction writing endeavor.
• AP’s background in all this and how its history is threaded through with the history of facts and journalism and effective communication.
• How learning journalism principles and practices can help YOU succeed.
• How good writing can be everywhere — even places you don’t expect (foreshadowing to week four).

Session 3: Sept. 16

Reporting/research, writing and editing to make you a better communicator.

In this session, you’ll learn:

WRITING

• A history of good writers – and why they were good.
• Why any writing is only as good as the thought and research behind it — and how to make that happen.
• How to think about writing before DOING writing.
• Things to do before you begin: a breakdown and task list.
• Putting facts together in the most effective ways
• What we mean when we say, “write not only to be understood, but not to be misunderstood.”

EDITING

• Basic principles of editing.
• Editing the idea/”the coaching model.” Why you should use it whenever you can.
• Different types of edits, from the content edit to bulletproofing to the word choice/substitution edit and beyond. How you can calibrate these to your subject matter and assignment.
• Developing an editing relationship with your writers (and their egos).
• Be disciplined: Self-editing and its role in the process.

Session 4: Sept. 18

Crafting a story and packaging it for readers.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• How without reporting, there is no writing. Or: Writing begins in the idea phase.
• How to write a lede and why it matters more than anything else in the story.
• Adding context.
• Story structures and choosing them consciously based on audience and what you want to achieve with the piece of writing.
• Storytelling on deadline and how that’s different — and how you can write faster than you ever believed.
• The process of one story from conception to delivery and how to extract the principles that you can use. Those principles will be presented as takeaways.