Good high-school journalism course

An excellent-looking distance learning high school journalism course from Oregon, part of the COOLSchool website ... accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools.

A table of contents, with comments from Sue and Dean Barr, of Eugene, who copyrighted the curriculum:

Lesson 1. An Introduction. You'll be introduced to journalism through this first lesson when you write up a get-to-know-you profile as you learn the first rules of journalistic style.

Lesson 2. History of Journalism. Where we've been is important to knowing where we are going. The same is true for journalism. Journalism history will show us why we live with some of the protocols and constraints that we have today.

Lesson 3. Functions of Mass Media. In this unit you'll learn the qualities of a successful journalist and the functions of mass media in our society and its influence on our lives.

Lesson 4. Newswriting Qualities & Elements. It is important to be able to understand how a news article differs from other forms of writing, and how to distinguish between fact and opinion.

Lesson 5. Journalistic Style. If a news article is to be professional and consistent in its approach to titles, capitalization and abbreviations, it is extremely important that journalists learn and apply the rules of journalistic style.

Lesson 6. Interviewing & Gathering Information. You cannot write a complete article unless you know how to interview news sources and gather information from written sources and from the Internet.

Lesson 7. "Lead" Writing. Perhaps the most important part of the news story is the opening, called the "lead," which tells the reader what has happened. You must be able to evaluate information, select what needs to be included, and write a clear, concise lead.

Lesson 8. Newswriting. It is time to get to the real purpose of this course: to learn to write complete news articles. You'll be writing a number of different stories that will help you become a proficient journalist.