Students will receive a participation mark for the unit. This will be based on:

• Contribution to class discussion, including editing of other students' work.
• Completion and bringing to the appropriate class of four (4) copies of:
  • writing exercises in Weeks 3, 4 and 5 for editing by and discussion with peers. Students are encouraged to build on any or all of these exercises for Writing Assignment 1.
  • 3 x 200-word sections of the Narrative Journalism Assignment in Weeks 7, 8 and 9 for editing by and discussion with peers.
  • the lead (approx first 200 words) and then the whole draft of the Sydney Writer's Festival article in Weeks 11 and 12 respectively for workshopping with peers.

Note: students will not be marked on the above work they bring to class; rather, failure to submit this work will result in significant loss of participation marks and students may find the writing they submit for formal assessment is not competitive with their classmates' work.

Assessment Criteria:

Students will be assessed on their attendance and participation in class discussions, as well as on their role in the workshops as readers and editors of their own and their fellow students' work. 

Writing Exercises

Due Date: Week 5, Wednesday 30 March, 5pm.

Weight: 15%

Task: To workshop 3 writing exercises in class. These should then be submitted online together as ONE assignment on Friday 28 March, 5pm.

The 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. Do NOT use any adverbs or adjectives. Instead, use strong verbs.

Writing Exercise 3: (Due Tutorial Week 4) Visualise a place. Be there, see the details. Now write about it as if you love this place, but without telling the reader directly that you really like being there (150 words). It could be a corner of your bedroom, an old tree you sit under on Saturday afternoons, a table at McDonalds, a place near the ocean. What colours are there? Sounds? Smells? When someone else reads it, she should know what it is like to be there and understand how you feel about it. Now, do the same thing but write about the SAME place as if you really hate it. Again, don’t tell the reader directly how you feel but use your description of the place, and the tone of your writing, to convey your feelings (150 words).  

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

Assessment Criteria: Please also see appropriate rubric. Students will be assessed on their "storytelling" skills; their ability to "write for the senses"; their ability to convey meaning through their choice of words, syntax and structure; and the clarity and accuracy of their grammar and spelling.

Narrative Journalism Article- Part 1 - Research. Due Date: Week 7, Friday 29 April, 5pm Weight: 15% Students will submit a research portfolio (8 pages) and report (500 words) based on original research they have conducted towards their narrative journalism article. Research will take the form of fieldwork, interviews and archival research (including published articles; reference works; web-based and library-based archives; government records, etc.) The report will include: i) A separate one-sentence statement that sums up the point (angle) of the article; ii) explanatory information about the choice of research approaches; what each has revealed that is of use to the proposed article; how they will be used in the final article. Any ethical issues and/or other difficulties encountered in the research should also be mentioned. 

Assessment Criteria: Please also see the appropriate rubric. Students will be assessed on the thoroughness of their research; their ability to draw out an angle or point around which the story can be based, and the clarity of writing contained in the report.

Narrative Journalism Article - Writing. Due Date: Week 9, Friday 13 May, 5pm  Weight: 25% Task: Submit a 1200-word original article based on research conducted in part 1 of this assignment (as well as subsequent research). Note that 2 x 300-word sections of your article will already have been workshopped in class.

The topic is of your choice (under the guidance of your tutor). 

When writing your article, make sure you tell an interesting story that has a point. Your piece should include facts and information, anecdote, observation, and description and possibly quotes and/or dialogue. 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 below).

While you are encouraged to show your work to your student colleagues for feedback, please be aware that the piece you submit must be your own work. Substantial editing by other people - family, friends, colleagues or professionals - is not permitted.

Append to the story a 300-word reflection on the process of writing the story. Consider:

• Why you chose this particular story/topic. Why is it important to you?
• What issues you faced in researching the story and in converting the research into a narrative.
• 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.
• What you learned from writing this piece. Why do you think it helped you to learn this/these thing/s?
• Other comments you would like to make.

SWF Article Due Date: Week 12, Friday 3 June, 5pm Weight: 25%

Note that this article will have been workshopped in two stages in class before you hand it in. 

The purpose of this assignment is two-fold - to encourage participation in the Sydney Writer's Festival and to give students practice in getting to the nub of a factual story quickly and in few words.

Students are required to attend the Sydney Writers' Festival and write a 500-word article about one seminar that they attended.

Assessment Criteria: Please also see appropriate rubric. The article should give the reader enough information to get a solid impression of the content of the seminar. It should be written with an interesting lead. The article should answer all the reader's questions regarding the who, what, when, where and why of the seminar. It should contain quotes and/or dialogue. It should be written with flair, using some of the literary techniques discussed in the course. The clarity of the writing is important, including correct syntax, grammar and spelling. While you are encouraged to show your work to your student colleagues for feedback, please be aware that the piece you submit must be your own work. Substantial editing by other people - family, friends, colleagues or professionals - is not permitted.

Students will be asked to complete a short quiz in their lectures in Week 6 and Week 13. Each quiz will be worth 5%. Students will be required to answer a number of multiple choice questions relating to the lecture content and readings. The purpose of the quizzes is to ensure students understand the principles of narrative journalism discussed in the lectures and demonstrated in the readings.

Assessment Criteria: Correct answers chosen from the multiple choices in the quiz.