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Sample SyllabiMedia Writing Links
Discussion QuestionsExercises and AssignmentsOnline Media Writing ExamplesInstructor ResourcesWriting And Gathering Information
 Writing Across the MediaCh1. Writing with Clarity and CoherenceCh2. Writing with ResponsibilityCh3. Writing for AudiencesCh4. Writing and Gathering InformationCh5. Writing the OpeningCh6. Writing Basic StoriesCh7. Writing with Visual and Audio ImagesCh8. Writing Complex Stories

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Online Writing Examples

LINK 1: www.africanews.org

You work as a media consultant for a firm that does public relations and advertising for Student Volunteers Overseas, a nonprofit group that organizes trips for American college students to other parts of the world. Your boss wants you to write text for a brochure about Central Africa, where volunteers are urgently needed but hard to come by.

Thinking about your responsibility to use a variety of information sources ("Writing Across the Media," p. 79) and the ability of the World Wide Web (pp. 80-81) to access information from a distance with relative ease, point your Web browser to www.africanews.org, the Internet site for Africa News Service. Find the section of the Web site on Central Africa, particularly Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Gabon and Zambia. Prepare brief (200- to 250-word) summaries of each country, including items you think are important for potential student volunteers to know. Include in your summaries where students can go for more information on each country.

LINK 2: www.facsnet.org

FACS is an organization dedicated to assisting journalists and other media professionals in doing their work. Co-sponsored by the San Diego Supercomputer Center, FACSNET is an online resource for media members interested in a myriad of subjects and people. The FACSNET Web site is divided into four sections: Top Issues, Reporting Tools, Internet Resources and Sources Online. Top Issues is useful for detailed information on topics currently in the news; Reporting Tools gives tips, guides, lessons and backgrounders for journalists; Internet Resources provides invaluable links for public relations professionals, journalists and others to other Web-based information; Sources Online offers links to experts from academia, government, business and other fields who have proven to be good resources in the past.

Use the FACS site to research information about a Fortune 500 company. You are a public relations professional for a carbonated beverage company and your supervisor asks you to write a brief memorandum on your major competitors for a meeting with a potential client that afternoon. The client is trying to interest your company in a new kind of carbonated beverage that tastes like coffee. Time is of the essence. Using the FACS site, click on the Internet Resources link. Under the Business menu, pull down to the phrase Company Profiles. Using this link (and other links in the Business menu) find out more about the food industry. Who are the top players in the food business? What types of products do they sell? How is the market divided? Is the industry growing or stagnant or in decline? Are parts of the industry growing? Which parts? Would this be a good fit for your company?

 
Sample SyllabiMedia Writing Links