This course is designed for journalists and other
writers who want to learn how to use some techniques of literature to
tell the true stories of journalism. Although the kind of stories that
you’ll be writing could be published in several different media,
we’ll focus on stories most commonly found in newspapers and
magazines, including newspaper Sunday magazines.
We’ll cover
some theory and history,
but we’ll concentrate more on the practical and the concrete. At the
end of the course I want you to be able to use the
techniques of literary journalism,
not just to describe its place in the universe.
During our
discussions, we’ll concentrate on such tools as
characterization, narrative plotting,
scene-setting, point of view, tone and style.
We will also discuss
the techniques of reporting
for literary journalism, interviewing, story organization, first-person
writing, word choice, self-editing, invasion of privacy, libel, etc.
