COMM 337: Assignment for Nov. 16

The following assignment sheet, together with a hard copy of the article in the Nov. 1, 2007 issue of Rolling Stone, will be handed out in class tomorrow. Students who are absent that day are responsible for securing a copy of the article, either from me or from a library that takes Rolling Stone. -- pe

COMM 337: Beyond Newswriting
Benedictine University at Springfield
Fall Semester 2007

www.sci.edu/classes/ellertsen/comm337syllabus.html

"There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers." -- H.L. Mencken

Fourth analytical paper (due Friday, Nov. 16). Attached is a profile of environmental scientist James Lovelock in Rolling Stone. It was written by Jeff Goodell, who writes for that magazine and the New York Times Magazine, on the basis of several interviews with Lovelock in Norway and in England. Analyze his story in terms of its news value – timeliness, impact or importance, etc. – and Goodell’s organization and narrative technique.

What is the main point of Goodell’s story? Does he have a nut graf? If so, be sure to quote it. Where is it? If not, how and where does Goodell let his readers know the main point of the story? How does he organize the interviews with Lovelock to support that point? In discussing the things that keep a story moving, Donald Murray, author of our textbook Writing to Deadline, speaks of conflict and tension. "That tension may be between one individual and another; between a new idea and an old one; between an individual and society; between a belief and a newly discovered fact; between what is said and unsaid, seen and unsaid; between the writer and the world; between what is being done and what should be done; between cause and effect; between reality and illusion" (64). How does Goodell develop that tension in this story?

How effective is the story as a whole? Is it newsworthy? Does Goodell develop it so it would interest readers in a general interest magazine like Rolling Stone? Consulting Don Murray’s "Notes on Narrative" (152-55), analyze Goodell’s story for its mastery of the story-teller's art. See how many of the narrative techniques Murray describes you can find. How effective is the story’s ending? Does the rest of the story fully prepare readers for the end?