Feature Writing, Spring 2009.
Email sent to my Feature Writing students after the Thursday, April 30 class:
Andrea Leon convinced me that I missed the big picture and that she has a story that no journalist, pro or student (in recent memory), has regarding Sharpton. So, I would really appreciate it if everyone in class would send her three or four sentences regarding their likes and dislikes about Sharpton. Try to be specific about why you like or don’t like or respect or disrespect about him.
Please let her know if you can use your name or not in this special she’s working on.
For pedagogical reasons, I will offer a brief recap and opinion at the beginning of class because the tiff illustrates some journalistic matters that can’t be taught via book/class and have to be learned via real-world experience.
Thanks,
gm
So:
Actually Leon’s perception at the time was that she had been sucker punched in a brawl, not drawn into a tiff. It was over the first draft of her  Reverend Al Sharpton lecture March 30 at Hunter. Leon thought I was cruelly criticizing her because I believed she disliked Sharpton. Students in the feature writing class didn’t like the way I was critiquing her article.
Thus, her final article of 2,500 words is to be published soon, hopefully by the weekend or thereabouts. And I will have to blog about what went on in class and what I thought I was doing as an instructor.
Tags: Al Sharpton, journalism, news reporting, Student Journalism