Feature Writing, Spring 2009. They All Passed?
299.47
May 17th, 2009Attention Savvy, Enterprising Journalism Students: “Programming for Everyone”
May 16th, 2009I posted the following on Hunter-L, the College listserv:
Someone has been posting notices in the North Building about this course, “Programming for Everyone,” CSCI, 133, Registration Code: 5020. Only 23 seats. Summer session.
I strongly suggest savvy, enterprising J-students to enroll ASAP if possible. A brief description from http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/csci – “If you’re in any of the sciences or maths then you know you’re going to write some programs eventually, and, if you’re in the arts, then you want to create new media.”
Whoa! Sounds like a prescription for journalism students, especially those with entrepreneurial instincts. It’s only a matter of time before serious journalism programs start considering programming instruction (uh oh, turf war) for their best students.
Hop the wave now before the stampede. Can’t get in the class? Do the minor later on.
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WORDPRESS has shown me the way.
Murray Kempton Awards for Undergraduate Journalism
May 16th, 2009I am urging bunches of my students to apply.
Submissions for the CUNY 2009 Murray Kempton Awards for Undergraduate Journalism are now being accepted.
Wikipedia: 1, Journalism: 0
May 14th, 2009Subject: Fwd: Wikipedia: 1, Journalism: 0 To: gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu Hi, Greg, Check this out. Really fascinating study of the use of Wikipedia by professionals. PFW Patricia Woodard Hunter College Library [Originally from Sarah Laleman Ward to Library Staff A real-life example of the need for source evaluation and fact-checking:]
Irish student hoaxes world’s media with fake quote
My Response to P. Woodward (a confession of sorts):
D:F/M – Ethnic News Reporting: 399.31
May 13th, 2009Because Blackboard at City University of New York is down* (“Blackboard Down” makes me think of Ridley Scott’s and Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down, about a crash-and-burn crisis ever there was one), some  D:f/M instructors are hawking their “wares” to students on fm-l and, of course, a teeny-weeny few like me hawk on Hunter-L as well:
Students:
This experimental class uses multimedia via the WORD, Youtube, podcasting, blogging, twitter, facebook, myspace, et. al – to teach students how to tell and disseminate stories about issues in immigrant and ethnic communities.
Writing
May 9th, 2009Hi. Just a reminder that you are scheduled to attend a Focus Group for W-course instructors on Thursday, May 7th, from 4-6 p.m. in room 409B in the Thomas Hunter Building. You will receive a stipend of $75.54 (two hours on a Non-teaching Adjunct line) for participating. Notes will be taken, but all comments will be kept anonymous.
The Writing Across the Curriculum Program appreciates your help in exploring the issues involved in teaching Significant Writing courses. We hope to use what we learn at these sessions to better serve Hunter’s faculty, and we hope the sessions are useful to you in preparing to teach future W-designated courses.
See you tomorrow,
Dennis Paoli
Co-coordinator,
Writing across the Curriculum Program
So, I went. And I participated. And I didn’t do what I had said in an email to the co-coordinator about what I was thinking about doing at the focus group: Outing my colleagues whom I feel undermine students’ writing efforts, especially those colleagues who don’t make rewriting an essential part of their Significant Writing classes.
Let’s get real. Writing is about rewriting. Don’t teach rewriting? Then it ain’t writing they’re teaching.
So, I sent the following to Dennis Paoli after I completed the focus group:
A 30-40P Episode Ever There Was One
May 8th, 2009I came across this student-instructor correspondence [provided later in this post] while searching for other material on my hard drive. The Student-In-Question was an excellent writer as well as considerably bright. He was in his late 20s or early 30s.
In my class, he also was functionally indolent.
I plan to use this anecdote and others for my tome about The Four Barnacles of the Apocalypse.
Lori Berenson Update: Her Newborn Baby Is Salvador Anespori Apari Berenson
May 6th, 2009From Mark & Rhoda Berenson:
To Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson – Despite the odds she faced owing to compromised health after 13.5 years of incarceration in harsh Peruvian prison environments, Lori gave birth Wednesday morning May 6 in Lima. Salvador Anespori Apari Berenson was delivered via Caesarian-section due to Lori’s precarious back condition that will require delicate spinal surgery to prevent permanent nerve damage.  Surgery will be scheduled after she recovers from childbirth.
File Photo: Lori in a Lima Courtroom, March 22, 2001
Twitter & the WORD
May 6th, 2009I’ve been experimenting with Twitter, essentially twitting to announce what the WORD writers are publishing, such as covering the PEN festival this year or Julia Porfido’s “Children of the Night.” As I say, it’s an experiment.
But lately when I’m checking on the latest of the WORD’s new followers, I get this whacky owl logo, saying, “Sorry, the account you were headed to has been suspended due to strange activity. Mosey along now, nothing to see here.” A few days ago, the WORD got three in a row.
So, I wonder.
Anyway, Twitting is an experiment.
PEN Update: Hannah Levine Scores
May 3rd, 2009The PEN May 2, Event, The PEN Cabaret, featuring Laurie Anderson, Carrie Brownstein, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Patricia Clarckson, Steve Connell, David Conrad, Mark Z. Danielewski, James Franco, Peter Hirsch, Nick Laird, Walter Mosley, Parker Posey, Lou Reed, Sekou and Sean Wilsey, sold out weeks ago. But WORD writer Hannah Levine, who works for the Hunter Envoy as its Entertainment Editor and who blogs at My Soul Is a Butterfly, had been for several weeks feverishly hoping as well as feverishly persisting to get access even though we guessed the odds were a 1,000 to one.
I got this email from her last night: “I am ecstatically happy.”