Assessment Task 1

Class Participation

Due Date: Throughout Semester

Weighting: 20%

Students must attend lectures and tutorials. As part of your participation in the course, you will be asked to complete three writing exercises and submit three sections of draft material from your Literary Journalism Article. Note: You will not be marked on this work; rather, failure to submit any or all of the exercises or draft material will result in you losing the total of your participation mark. The participation mark is also based on your contribution to discussion in class, and your contribution to the editing of other students' work.

The following 3 Writing Exercises have been designed to:

• sharpen students' writing skills appropriate to the aims of the unit
• provide students with feedback early in the unit on their progress
• identify early in the unit areas where students may need extra help or encouragement with their creative work

Writing Exercise 1: (Bring to tutorial in Week 2) Pick 10 people you know and write a one-sentence description of each of them, focussing on what makes each person unique and noteworthy.

Writing Exercise 2: (Bring to tutorial in Week 3) Pick a smell or aroma - eg, the smell of garlic or rose petals or a wet dog... - and recreate in 200 interesting words a memory associated with that smell. Avoid using any adverbs or adjectives. Instead, use strong verbs.

Writing Exercise 3: (Bring to tutorial in Week 4) Sit in a restaurant or a crowded area and write down the snippets of conversation you hear. Listen to the people around you. Listen to how they talk and to what words they use. Once you have done this, choose one conversation, record it and then add your version of what comes next in the conversation. Match their style.

(Exercises 1 and 3 adapted from http://poewar.com/fifteen-craft-exercises-for-writers/)

Literary Journalism Article Drafts: Bring 8 copies of 1 x 200-word draft section of your final article to your tutorials in weeks 8, 9 and 11. Each week, bring along a different draft section.

Assessment Task 2

Research Portfolio

Due Date: Week 6, Friday 22 August, 5pm  

Weight: 25% Students will submit a research portfolio and report based on original research they have conducted towards their final article. Research will take the form of fieldwork, interviews and/or archival research. Please attach evidence that you have used Twitter in the process of research. 

Assessment Task 3 

Exhibition Report

Due Date: Week 10, Friday 26 September, 5pm   

Weight: 20%

The purpose of this assignment is to give students practice in getting to the nub of a factual story quickly and in few words.

Students are asked to attend ANY gallery exhibition or museum in Sydney. While attending, send at least five tweets that, taken together, convey an accurate overview of the content of the show. Print out your tweets and submit with a cover sheet that gives the name, date and time of the session, plus a short description of the topic (from the program) and the artists (if applicable).


Tweeting: Please open a new twitter account specifically for this exercise. Once the exercise is finished, please close the account. DO NOT USE YOUR OWN NAME. Use a made-up name and username. Do NOT add a location to your tweets.
Most importantly of all - TICK THE PRIVACY BOX to protect your tweets. We do not want your tweets to go public. Your tweets are only for the purposes of this assignment. You may add other students in your tutorial group to be your followers.
When tweeting, please read the information about DEFAMATION carefully - particularly the material concerning the incident involving Julie Posetti. Defamation is an issue we take very seriously here at the university and in the field of non-fiction writing generally.  

Assessment Task 4

Literary Journalism Article

Due Date: Week 14, Monday 13 October, 2014  

Weight: 35%  

Task: Submit a 2,000-word original article based on research conducted for your research portfolio (as well as subsequent research).

The topic is of your choice (under the guidance of your tutor) but travel stories will not be approved.

Your story should be written with a publication in mind. The publication must be approved by your tutor. Attach to your final version of your assignment, a a covering letter that pitches it to the editor of the publication you have chosen. Note that the editor's contact details must be correct.

When writing your article, make sure you tell an interesting story that has a point. Your piece should suit the publication you have chosen. It should include facts and information, anecdote, observation, and description. Remember to "show, not tell". Use concrete details. Write for the senses. Feel free to write passionately and to take risks with your content and expression. You may build on any of the exercises done in class to write your story. Work into the story any relevant insights gained from writing the reflection (see next par).

Append to the story a 500-word reflection on the process of writing the story. Consider:

• Why you chose this particular story/topic. Why is it important to you?
• Whether you found it confronting to write - and if so, how you moved through that stage to complete the piece;
• Whether you faced ethical issues in the writing (what were these? how did they affect your approach? how did you ultimately resolve them?).
• Whether the types of literary techniques you used were well chosen and worked the way you wanted them to (e.g. dialogue, a seductive
• opening/lead; observation and description, anecdotes, structure, etc).
• What you learned from using those techniques.