Fundamental Journalism I 2nd Year 1st Semester Syllabus

EN 2109: Fundamental Journalism I

Higher National Diploma in English (HNDE) – 2nd Year 1st Semester Syllabus

Language for writing journals (20/10 hrs)
Looking at different news items in newspapers and journals. Examine them under the
following headings: vocabulary, sentence structure, prose style, organization. Discussion

News writing style (20/10 hrs)
• What characteristics does good writing demonstrate? Discuss the following under
two headings. Authoring (creating document) and crafting (actual writing)
– Authoring: a sense of the audience and style (appropriateness), a sense of
purpose (content), a sense of direction (developing the ideas)
– Crafting: organization-clear and in a logical manner, using the conventions spelling, lay out, getting the grammar correct, varied sentence structure,
linking ideas in different ways, having a good range of vocabulary

Writing news reports (20/10 hrs)
• Familiarization with headlines of different news items, sub-head/s, straight news,
lead. Writing in the third person point of view
• Planning, drafting, revising, re-drafting, publishing

Feature styles (15/ 08 hrs)
• How feature writing differs from ‘straight’ news. Examine the two types, can slip
into 1st person point of view, making the piece of writing more personal.
• List characteristics of different feature articles

Crafting a news story (15 / 07 hrs)
• Focus: how parts are linked together through cohesive devices, how sentence
structures can vary to develop meaning, the role that is played by punctuation.
• Use a checklist which focus on the overall content and organization Answer these
questions.

– Audience: who is your audience? What interest do they have in the subject?.
What do they already know about this subject?
– Purpose: What do you want to accomplish by wring this news item/feature
article? Is it to entertain/educate/ inspire them to do something/help them
understand something new/see something from a new point of view/change
their minds about something?

– Writing stage: write main idea in a complete sentence, ask yourself, Is it clear
to you/ your audience? Write support material .Ask yourself, do you need to
be more specific/develop any idea more? Does your discussion move
smoothly? Analyze your conclusion.