J/MC 411 | Fall 2008
Dr. Denny Wilkins
School of Journalism
& Mass Communication
St. Bonaventure University

Murphy 210
375-2511

Course meets in Murphy 108
TTh 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.

Office hours:
Monday, Wednesday
12:30 - 2:15
Tuesday, Thursday
4 - 5:15 p.m.
or by appointment

dwilkins@sbu.edu

J/MC program goals

Course catalog description:
(Majors only) The intent is
to familiarize students with
the techniques of factfinding,
interviewing and writing
necessary to produce
editorials, columns and
reviews for the press.
Prerequisite: Juniors and
seniors only. 3 credits.

FINAL EXAM:
Wednesday, Dec. 10
1:10 - 3:40; Murphy 108

Worth a look:

National Conference
of Editorial Writers

NCEW statement of principles

National Society
of Newspaper Columnists

Organization of
News Ombudsmen

Art & Craft of Editorial Writing
[from Poynter Online]

Arts & Letters Daily

OpEd News.com

TownHall.com

Scholars & Rogues

lullabypit

felixwas

penshark

mediastarr

cwmackowski


Most of the time all
editorial writers do is
come down from the hills
after the battle and
shoot the wounded.

-- Murray Kempton

Just because they're
yelling at you doesn't
mean you're wrong.

-- Richie Garcia
major league baseball umpire

Anybody knows that corruption
thrives in secret places, and
avoids public places, and
we believe that it is
a fair assumption that
secrecy means impropriety.

-- Woodrow Wilson
28th U.S. president, 1913-1921

... we do not develop
a mind by giving it
more facts but by helping
it to judge relevance.

-- I.A. Richards

A vast quantity of (opinion
columns) -- perhaps half of all published -- are of a dullness
that makes a man weep; they
are pontifical, portentous,
pointless; their writers boil not,
neither do they grin.
They merely plod. Many others
suffer from a kind of grotesque sweetness, like a nursery cap
on a basset hound.

-- James J. Kilpatrick
syndicated columnist

1. Never lose sight of the fact
that there is a difference
between institutional opinion
and personal opinion.
2. Always remember that
being "right" is a matter
of persuasion, not assertion.
3. Don't compromise principle
but (and all maxims are self-contradictory) be kind.

-- Frank Partsch
Omaha World-Herald

1. Your lede is everything.
Make it sing.
2. Use specific words that
make your point and that
you can defend when the
nasty phone calls start the
day after the editorial appears.
Don't call the mayor "stupid"
if what you mean is
"inconsistent and short-sighted."
Avoid getting personal.
3. Headlines are important,
and most on most editorial
pages would make you fall asleep. Follow the "Ford to City: Drop Dead" rule; make it short, punchy and memorable -- like your editorials.

-- Maura Casey
New London (Conn.) Day

1. Don't get too far in front
of the parade lest you
lose your followers.
2. Much as you value your
opinion -- which if informed
is valid -- remember you are
writing for an institution
no matter how carefully you
and the publisher try to
make it seem otherwise.
3. Never get the idea that
people who call or drop in
are more trouble than
they're worth -- unless they
are being paid to call or
drop in, which makes it
a close call.
4. As a general rule,
letters from readers are
the most important thing
on your editorial page
no matter what the
syndicate salesman
tries to argue to the contrary.

-- D. Michael Heywood
Vancouver (Wash.) Columbian

Writing is a marriage
of creativity, critical
thinking and courage.

-- Chip Scanlan
teaching fellow,
The Poynter Institute


Comfort the afflicted,
and afflict the comfortable.

-- Finley Peter Dunne
18th-century U.S. journalist


1. Never assume you know
enough to write an editorial
based on reading current
news stories; there is always
more to matters than
meets the eye. Report!
2. When writing an editorial,
deal with only one idea.
An editorial is too short to
hold more than that. But
when supporting your point
with examples, give three
of them. Two seems paltry,
four overkill, three is
convincing. (Don't ask me why.)
3. Our rule of thumb at
Newsday is state your
opinion clearly in the first
paragraph if possible, no
later than the second. That
clues the reader in quickly
and forces you, the writer,
to understand what it is
you want to say before
you have to say it.
4. Try as a rule to address
the other side of the issue
and show why it is not
as good as yours.
5. When I started writing
editorials, I asked the
editorial writer for guidance.
He wrote: "Grasp the nettle firmly."
I ... came soon to understand
the importance of his advice.
Many questions don't have
easy answers. The editorialist's
job is to take on the hard
ones, come up with the
best answer that seems
possible and argue for it as convincingly as possible.

-- Phineas Fiske
Newsday

Read a lot.
Write a lot.

-- Stephen King
novelist

Stereotypes, generalizations
about a person or a group of
persons, are cliches of vision.
Although they usually reflect
prejudice, in journalists they
are often the product of
laziness and can be
countered by the
hard work of reporting.

-- from a textbook
by Christopher Scanlon

Americans still get most
of their information in
very shallow bites.
That's no way to
inform a democracy.

-- Jack Anderson
syndicated columnist

The use of short words is
an art. It takes a bit of time
to think them up, but once
you learn how to make your
thoughts known in short words
and to write with them, you
will find that they work well
and, as a whole, they tend
to make good sense.

Shorts words are sharp,
clear, and to the point. They
spark the thoughts of those
who read them, and they
urge them to read on. They
let you say what you want,
and they leave no doubt
as to what you mean.

-- Nat Bodian
author, book reviewer

If a man is pictured chopping
off a woman's breast, it only
gets an 'R' rating; but if, God
forbid, a man is pictured kissing
a woman's breast, it gets an
'X' rating. Why is violence more
acceptable than tenderness?

-- Sally Struthers
actor, 1984

Americans want the truth,
not just the news.

-- Bill Moyers
author and journalist

Journalism is not a science.
It is a craft ruled by the
iron law of "It depends."

-- Richard Cohen
syndicated columnist

The best way to know
your community is to
live in it -- at length.

-- Geneva Overholser
syndicated columnist
and former editor

A grammarian's funeral

Thou eunuch of language:
thou butcher, imbruing thy
hands in the bowels of
orthography: thou arch-heretic
in pronunciation: thou
pitch-pipe of affected
emphasis: thou carpenter,
mortising the awkward joints
of jarring sentences: thou
squeaking dissonance of
cadence: thou pimp of
gender: thou scape-gallows
from the land of syntax: thou
scavenger of mood and tense:
thou murderous accoucheur
of infant leanings: thou ignis
fatuus, misleading the steps
of benighted ignorance: thou
pickle-herring in the
puppet-show of nonsense.

-- Robert Burns' outburst against
an unidentified critic, circa 1791

Objectivity means trying
to give all sides a hearing.
It does not, in my view,
mean treating all sides as equal.

-- Christiane Amanpour
CNN correspondent

I hate to bash the media,
but these gasbags
feed the problem.

-- Bill Maher
former host, Politically Incorrect

Government secrecy
breeds stupidity.

-- William Strunk

[M]odern writing at its worst
does not consist in picking
out words for the sake of their
meaning and inventing images
in order to make the meaning
clearer. It consists in gumming
together long strips of words
which have already been set
in order by someone else, and
making the results presentable by sheer humbug.


-- George Orwell in 1946, from
Politics and the English Language

Just do it:
Get out there and
inform the public!

What is the worth, personally and professionally, of writing clear, concise opinion supported by facts and advanced with a sound argument?

Money? Fame? Power? Influence? Satisfaction?

They’re all possible. This course focuses on preparing students for entry-level positions in opinion writing — editorials and bylined commentaries — for print and online media. But the writing and analytical skills, knowledge and attitudes presented extend far beyond that context.

Consider situations in which people offer opinions:

• proposing specific advertising and public relations campaigns.
• explaining to a supervisor why your idea will work.
• writing letters to the editor of print and online media.
• writing a blog post that gets read and is widely linked.
• writing articulate comments to posts on blogs.
• writing speeches, particularly for politicians and corporate executives.
• creating listener commentaries for public radio stations.
• crafting arguments for grant proposals.
• advancing an argument for why you should get a raise or promotion.
• arguing a point of view in a graduate-school or law-school course.
• standing next to a water cooler Tuesday morning and arguing why an NFL wide receiver shoulda caught that pass Monday night.

Offering opinion is part of life. The content of this course is transferable to virtually any context in which opinion needs to be crisp, supported and focused. That adds versatility to your writing portfolio.

Writing professionally crafted opinion has become increasingly important in a media world where the ability to shout loudest is too often equated with the worth of the opinion.

That’s not true, and consumers of information suffer for it. Turning up the volume never increases clarity. A shoutfest will never provide the context that viewers, listerners, readers and browsers need to fully digest the variance of opinion on any issue.

I wrote my second-ever editorial while editing local stories on the copy desk one day. While vacuuming a story about a nearby town dumping raw sewage into a local river, I realized the town's outlet pipe dumped the damn stuff just upriver from where I paddled my kayak.

That ticked me off. I called a few people, got the facts and wrote a blistering edit in 10 minutes. I gave it to the edit-page chief. He toned down the self-righteousness ("You have much to learn, grasshopper," he told me) and shipped the edit to composing for the next edition. (There's nothing quite so exciting in the news business as seeing your opinion in print. It's a rush.)

Anger and social outrage fuel many editorials. Many, if not all, of you have known such anger at some point in your lives. You see a wrong; you wish to right it. That's human — and desirable in an effective professional opinion writer.

But understand two points right now.

1. Controlled anger and outrage — backed by facts — produce far more evocative and provocative edits and commentaries than the uninformed spewing of raw venom.

2. The world won't roll over and right the wrongs you perceive just because you say it ought to.

Begin your careers as opinion writers with these points in mind. Why? Regarding 1: I won't put up with uncontrolled and uninformed anger and outrage in your work. Regarding 2: Chill. Why give yourself an ulcer?

A principal goal of this course is to help you learn how to do 1 while dealing with the frustration of 2.

And the raw sewage dumped by that town? Despite my "barking dog" editorial, town and state officials did nothing. But over the years, my "dog barked" again and again. Annoying those officials. Irritating them. Goading them. Eight years later, faced with the loss of federal money as a penalty for stalling, the town built a sewage treatment plant. End of problem.

Did my editorials on the sewage issue (about a dozen over those eight years) bring about change? Maybe yes, maybe no. But those edits did what I consider the opinion writer's job: Illuminate problems. Highlight injustices. Propose solutions.

To answer those callings effectively, learn to argue and seek to persuade — with charm when possible, with controlled anger and outrage when necessary. Writing opinion pieces is a mixture of craft and art. I'll bring the craft to the table. You bring a willingness to learn that craft. Then, perhaps, the art will emerge.

Here's what Barbara Mantz Drake, former editorial page editor of the Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star, argues are the elements of good opinion writing (the commentary after each element is hers, too). Consider these your learning objectives for this course:

1. Good reporting. This is the element most often forgotten. Not long ago I was talking to a young aspiring journalist who was astonished to learn we editorial writers reported. I told him that opinions had to be based on facts, and somebody had to report them.

2. Good writing. Facts alone do not carry an editorial. Inventive, persuasive, readable writing is necessary. Editorial writing is a writer's craft.

3. Good thinking. When I moved into editorial writing, the then-editor said he knew I could write. Now, he said, he'd find out if I could think. I thought the comment puzzling — to write is to think, I believed — but since have come to understand the degree of "thinking-through" a position that editorial writing requires. To be a good opinion writer requires one to be well-read, to be inquisitive and to listen to people.

4. Passion. Editorial writing helps you learn what you care about and what you don't. That is a great personal service.

Follow Ms. Drake's advice. In particular, you should strive for good reporting and thoughtful, focused research. These always precede good opinion writing. And find your passion. Bringing passion to the recitation of a well-researched argument will, I promise, make your blood boil.

Challenge yourselves in this course. Challenge authority. Learn how to effectively challenge "the system." Bring to your challenge your best critical thinking, your best writing, your best sense of socially responsible outrage. You'll learn about opinion writing by doing it.

Here's what you'll do in this course:

• research and write at least five editorials and two bylined commentaries (20 points each).

• answer a final exam question (10 points).



• The Associated Press Stylebook 2007 and Briefing on Media Law (42nd ed.) or newer.

Strongly recommended:

Media Writer's Handbook (4th ed.), by George T. Arnold.
On Writing Well (6th ed.), by William Zinsser.

N.B.: Other relevant readings, many from the Web, may be assigned. If you find readings that might be pertinent to what we discuss in class, please pass them along to your colleagues and me.

If you haven't been, begin reading editorials immediately. With so many newspapers now online, let alone numerous blogs, finding opinion to examine is easy. Your instructor will frequently send you opinion pieces to examine.

If you wish to brown-nose your instructor, read his Scholars & Rogues community blog.

READ THIS: How to submit stories



You will primarily be evaluated on:

• clarity and quality of expression.
• appropriate use of supporting facts/evidence.
• integrity of argument/opinion.
• proficiency in use of grammar, punctuation, spelling and AP style.

So what does all that mean?

Clarity of expression

Your writing must be free of language-use errors: no grammatical, punctuation, spelling, word use or style errors will be tolerated. At this point in your career, you simply can't be making such errors. Work containing language-use errors will not receive high grades. Readers, viewers and Web browsers will not find your opinion credible if your ability to use the language is not credible. So vacuum your copy. Make sure your copy is clean.

But clarity of expression is more than producing clean copy. Good editorials and commentaries use language with a sense of elegance. Does that mean "elegant language" should be used? No. It means thoughtful, emotive opinion pieces are braced with language that conveys moral purpose, argumentative precision and emotional power. Usually, such language is straightforward (even blunt), simple and clear. Be aware that good writing has a sense of cadence, rhythm and pacing that underscores the message.

For examples of work that demonstrate clarity of expression, see:

"Tobacco lobbyists have earned their pay" by 1997 Pulitzer winner (editorials) Michael Gartner.

"What the hell were her parents doing?" by 1997 Pulitzer winner (commentary) Eileen McNamara.

"Of America as a splendid junk heap" by 1998 Pulitzer winner (criticism) Michiko Kakutani.

Read the work of 2005 Pulitzer commentary winner Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writing about the underprivileged.

Read the work, particularly "Poor little big man's pity party," by the 2007 winner of the commentary Pulitzer, Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Use of supporting facts/evidence

Opinions unsupported by appropriate facts and evidence will not receive high grades. Opinion writers cannot simply write whatever pops into their minds. If writers believe that all politicians are liars, then they must provide evidence that all politicians are liars — a tall order. Editorials, commentaries, blog postings and reviews are news stories first: Facts are required to support any analysis or opinion.

For examples of how facts, carefully interwoven with opinion, produce strong editorials, see:

"Fit places for learning?" by 1998 Pulitzer winner Bernard Stein.

"The political dimension" by 2001 Pulitzer winner David Moats.

"The endangered West" by 1996 Pulitzer winner Robert B. Semple Jr.

"Making Chris take his 'meds'" by 2002 Pulitzer winners Alex Raksin and Bob Sipchen.

"Disparities on death row" by 2003 Pulitzer winner Cornelia Grumman.

John C. Bersia of The Orlando Sentinel wrote a 10-part editorial series attacking predatory lending practices. The series —"Fleeced in Florida" — resulted in changes in lending practices and won him the 2000 Pulitzer for editorial writing.

The strength of Bersia's work lies in his original reporting. Research thoroughly the topic on which you offer analysis or opinion. Your readers expect it. So do I.

A powerful series by 2005 Pulitzer winner Tom Philp of the Sacramento Bee calls for restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley in California, dammed to provide water. It is the sister valley of Yosemite.

Read the series by 2006 Pulitzer winners Rick Attig and Doug Bates of The Portland Oregonian on abuses inside a forgotten Oregon mental hospital.

Examine the editorials of 2007 Pulitzer editorial winners Arthur Browne, Beverly Weintraub and Heidi Evans of the New York Daily News "for their compassionate and compelling editorials on behalf of Ground Zero workers whose health problems were neglected by the city and the nation."

Integrity of argument/opinion

This follows naturally from proper use of facts and evidence: Your editorial, commentary or blog post must "make sense." It can be controversial. It can be an opinion I would vigorously denounce. But your constructions of opinion must be sensible. The work must flow naturally and logically from one step to another. Arguments will be inspected closely to see if they're warranted by dint of supporting facts and evidence. Make no assumptions; make no assertions. Always make arguments.

For examples of editorials that meet this standard, see:

"The crime of hatred and the crime of silence" by Bernard Stein.

"Don't stop free speech; just enforce the laws" by 1997 Pulitzer winner Michael Gartner.

"The campaign speech you'll never hear" by 2001 Pulitzer winner Dorothy Rabinowitz.

"Naked Air" by 2002 Pulitzer winner (commentary) Thomas L. Friedman.

"Reinventing California: Yank the 'for sale' sign" by 2004 Pulitzer winner William R. Stall.

This course follows a straightforward format: You write, I critique, you rewrite. Assessment of writing can never be free of subjectivity, but I'll do all I can to be fair in determining your grade. I've written more than 2,000 opinion pieces — editorials, columns and reviews — and a few hundred blog postings. I've been an editorial-page editor as well. I know what a "good" opinion piece is. I know what improvements rough drafts need for the piece to "work."

I'll be assessing your work mostly from this point of view: How does it measure up to entry-level professional standards? Many, if not most, of you are near graduation. By now you should be routinely producing work of professional quality in your journalism courses. An "A" will be awarded to superior work that represents appropriate entry-level performance in the professional world.

You won't have a midterm; you will have a modest final exam. Your grade will be calculated on the basis of points earned out of those possible. In other words, 90 percent of the total possible points will earn you an A minus; 80 percent, a B minus, and so on.

Note: Competent class participation is expected. I will not reduce your final grade for a lack of in-class participation. But I may significantly reward those who do participate competently.

Competence in this case includes appropriate preparation:

• assigned readings are completed and thoughtful comment offered.
• appropriate research is done for class editorial conferences and shared.
• an awareness of current events and their historical perspective is demonstrated.

I reserve the right to alter the syllabus as unexpected circumstances warrant. Here's how I will evaluate and grade your written work (in the interest of attribution, I appropriated, and subsequently "adjusted," this from Prof. Ray Chavez of the University of Colorado at Boulder).

A (20 points) — Editorial/commentary is publishable as is; needs only very light editing, if any; has no grammar, punctuation, spelling or factual or style errors. Editorial/commentary shows mastery of supporting facts, judgment, logical flow, proper style, bright writing and clearly expressed opinion. In short, the piece contains tight writing and tight reasoning.

A-/B+ (19, 18) — Well-written editorial/commentary supported by appropriate facts. May lack completeness in argument or need some additional supporting material. Needs light editing; has one or two (total) grammar, punctuation, spelling or style errors.

B (17) — Handled assignment fairly well. Lede needs strengthening; lede needs to get to the point. Argument needs strengthening. A few more supporting facts needed. A few (total) errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling or style errors. Copy needs some tightening and polishing before publication.

B-/C+ (16, 15) — Several errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling or style. Weak or wordy lede. Overall weaknesses in clarity of expression: wordiness, cluttered or awkward wording, poor syntax. Needs better organization of argument or additional appropriate supporting facts.

C (14) — Several organizational and writing problems. Contains inaccuracies or lacks sufficient, appropriate supporting facts. Weak, muddy, poorly organized argument. Weak lede; opinion delayed too long. Many style, spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. A half-hearted effort that produces a barely adequate or cursory editorial or commentary. Needs considerable editing.

C-/D+ (13, 12) — A weak, inadequate editorial or commentary marked by carelessness in organizing the argument and providing sufficient and appropriate facts. No clearly discernible opinion. Cannot be published without major editing. Needs extensive rewrite and additional research. Poorly proofread; frequent spelling, grammar, punctuation and style errors.

D/D- (11, 10) —- A poor editorial or commentary that demonstrates only minimal ability to acquire, organize and present facts and opinion. Needs complete rewrite and shows carelessness in editing and proofreading by numerous grammar, punctuation, spelling and style errors.

F (9 and below) — An unacceptable editorial or commentary. OR contains an error with a proper name. OR contains plagiarism or libel. OR missed deadline. Or any editorial, no matter how well written or organized, that contains an error in fact.

Any grade of 16 points (B-) or below requires a rewrite. You may rewrite any piece once no matter what the grade. Only significant improvement will result in a higher grade on a rewrite. Your grade on an assignment will be, at minimum, the average of the first draft and the rewrite.

READ THIS: The rules: Attend class; meet deadlines, don't cheat
READ THIS: Avoid the intolerable no-nos

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The bulk of what you will learn will be based on the 20 years of professional experience of your professor in writing more than 2,000 editorials and commentaries and 10,000 news stories and editing nearly 40,000 news stories. Nevertheless, the university requires a bibliography for this course. Here are appropriate readings for entry-level professional opinion writing:

• Casey, Maura and Zuzel, Michael. Beyond Argument: A Handbook for Editorial Writers. Rockville, Md.: National Conference of Editorial Writers, 2001.
• Rystrom, Kenneth. The Why, Who and How of the Editorial Page. State College, Pa.: Strata, 2003.
• Sloan, W.D. and Anderson, L.B. (eds.). Pulitzer Prize Editorials: America's Best Editorial Writing 1917-1993, 1994. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1996.

N.B.: The Masthead, the quarterly journal of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, provides numerous articles on the mechanics and motivations of editorial writing. I have back issues for the past decade in my office should you wish to review them.

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posted 8.21.08