Sissel McCarthy
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    • NYU: Journalistic Inquiry Fall 2014 >
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    • Emory News Video >
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    • Emory News Literacy in a Digital Age >
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Syllabi and Assignments

I view my syllabi as living documents that I update regularly.  They provide a blueprint for course content and objectives as well as my expectations and course policies. I try to include as much information as possible to head off any misunderstandings before they occur and use the course syllabus to highlight the Journalism Program’s policy on accuracy, plagiarism and the Honor Code. 

My assignments are designed to challenge students to develop three core competencies: critical thinking skills first and foremost but also communication and collaboration skills.  I view every assignment as an opportunity for students to show me they have synthesized the latest concept they’ve learned with what they‘ve mastered already from my class and other courses. Since most of my courses fulfill the post-freshman writing requirement, the assignments involve staged writing and multiple drafts. I give students a checklist of key points to consider for each assignment and also share models of excellent work from previous students to set the bar for the quality of work I expect. 

In “News Literacy in a Digital Age”, students focus on expository rather than journalistic writing and learn how to construct an essay with a well-defined thesis, compelling evidence and a reasoned conclusion in biweekly 700-800 word papers.   The first assignment is an essay on their required 48-hour media blackout, which for most students is quite a painful exercise. They work their way to a final assignment that asks students to form and defend an opinion about an issue in the news, synthesizing everything they learned about accessing reliable information and evaluating and following a story over time. For many, this is their favorite assignment because it is the culmination of their intellectual discovery and semester long efforts to become more discriminating news consumers. 
Copyright © 2017 Sissel McCarthy