In 1792, trying to explain the French Revolution, William Godwin penned a line that still guides writers today. The Englishman wrote: "He that knows only what day the Bastille was taken and on what spot Louis XIV perished, knows nothing." What Godwin meant is that facts, in and of themselves, aren’t understanding, let alone truth. It's how you arrange them - in what order, against what backdrop and within what context -that imbues facts with meaning. “All historians know that facts never speak for themselves,” says contemporary American historian Mary Beth Norton.

 

This course, then, is about how to write with meaning.

 

You can’t write with meaning  unless you have something worthy to write about. Good material makes for a good story. It's the grist your intellect needs to mill insight.

 

Reporting, then, is the craft of gathering that grist. At its heart, reporting turns on a simple maxim: Asking the right question of the right person at the right moment. Developing that instinct requires years of practice.

 

Like writing, reporting is more an attitude, a way of being, than an occupation. Good reporters are knowledgeable, resourceful, probing and skeptical. They’ve learned how to find out what they need to know, when they need to know it.

 

How the best gather information may surprise you. It's rarely accurately portrayed in books. Good reporters are people of many hats. They'll play amateur therapists or anthropologists; historians, or talk show hosts. While reporters never behave unethically (at least, the good ones), they’re masters at doing the unexpected and the unconventional.
 
This course will look at the techniques used by the best reporters. It's primarily about the craft of reporting but pushes students to write bigger, more meaningful stories than in 110.

 

The class will be run as a writing workshop. Students will write and rewrite their stories, sometimes more than twice. All work will be displayed in class and critiqued by professor and students. Every student is required to participate in class discussions and critiques.

Succeeding in this class will require:

 

This class is not for the faint of heart or weak-kneed. Most students find it the greatest challenge of their academic life. But those who stick it out also find the class among the most rewarding, too. This class is the place to be if you really want to learn what it takes to report and write well.