We will start our Poynter Institute online grammar review. The online course has three categories: grammar, punctuation and word use. Each category has drills and test. You get three chances to take the test. Your best grade will go into our quiz category.

Before we meet in our first class next week, sign up for your section. We will go over how to navigate the site, and then you’ll work on modules after class.

• Section 1 (M/W 8:30 a.m.)
• Section 3 (M/W 10:30 a.m.)
• Section 5 (M/W 2:30 p.m.)
• Section 10 (T/TH 12:30 p.m.)

We are going to practice using Twitter as professionals. Check out this page for your section’s Twitter schedule, your time to tweet and our guidelines for Twitter.

You’ll tweet three times this semester. As a mass media professional, you will be using Twitter to promote your organization, client or product, and/or to transmit the latest news. So, this gives you practice in giving up-to-date information about an event – our class.

You can tweet about what is going on in class, what you learn that is new or anything other MC2010 students might want to know.

We won’t tweet profanity or vulgarity, words that hurt someone’s reputation, factually incorrect information, negative feelings about the class, or random info that doesn’t have anything to do with MC2010, mass media or current events: “I really wish I had a Kit-Kat bar. #manship2010.”  OR “My butt hurts … sitting 2hrs in #manship2010.”

Welcome to fall 2010. We will have a great semester if you commit to do the following:

• Come to class. Every time we meet.
• Be willing to learn. This is not an English essay class.
• Know that we will shake up your writing experience.
• Bring your AP Stylebook and textbook to class.
• Sleep the night before class. You need a clear mind.
• Spend about 30 minutes each day reviewing what you learned.
• Improve with each successive writing assignment.
• Have some fun while you learn.

Your feature is not an English Essay. It is a feature story for a mass communication outlet. The two are not the same.

Here is a reminder of what we discussed in class:

• Make sure you have sufficient direct quotes from the subject of your story.
  • Show us what’s in your subject’s heart and head.
  • Don’t use a direct quote for facts: “The road is 26 miles,” he said.
• Put commas after FANBOYS in compound sentences and after intro phrases/clauses
• Use semicolons properly. You get only one in this story, and it can’t be in the lead. Avoid semicolons and colons if you can’t remember how to use them.
• Be consistent in your tense for verbs of attribution. Pick either “said” or “says” and stick to the tense.
• Watch placement and punctuation of “however”
• Remember these banned words/phrases
  • When asked
  • Went on to say … would go on to say
  • Watch it/its/it’s. Its’ is not a word.
  • Don’t say “…and many others.” Either leave that phrase out or say what the others are.
  • Very
  • … said of …
  • A lot of (or lots of)
  • “Mentioned” as a verb of attribution
  • “Talked about” as a verb of attribution
  • “Claimed” as a verb of attribution
• Don’t use feel/felt for verbs of attribution.
• Don’t say he loved his Nike running shorts (Save the word “love” for your grandmother and BFF.)
• Properly set up quotes
• Avoid run-ons and fragments, especially in direct quotes.
• Watch for subject/verb agreement
• Watch for noun/pronoun agreement (Watch out for collective nouns: The group of girls likes to watch scary movies.)
• Keep a proper graf length (four typed lines MAX)
• Avoid essay endings/leads. Don’t wax eloquently. Let your subject do that instead.
• Don’t switch person. (Stay in third person for your story. Only use first/second person in direct quotes.)
• Sufficiently ID people/organizations in your story
• Don’t use abbreviations of organizations on first reference
• Don’t begin a sentence with “it was” or “there is”/”there are” … Avoid MMWs.
• Keep yourself out of the story.

We’ll begin tweeting the class as we would a news event,

Why are we doing this, anyway?

As a mass media professional, you will be using Twitter to promote your organization, client or product, and/or to transmit the latest news. So, this gives you practice in giving up-to-date information about an event – our class.

Here’s the schedule of when you’ll tweet for the rest of this semester.

See the full list of instructions. Here are some pointers to help you get started:

1. Tweets are 140 characters, maximum (that includes spaces and punctuation)
2. Include #manship2010 somewhere in the tweet (#manship2010 is part of the 140-character limit)
3. #manship2010 allows us to follow the tweets of our classmates
4. Here’s what a sample tweet would look like using the hashtag:
   1. Good media writers avoid passive voice in their storytelling. #manship2010
   2. Working hard in #manship2010 to make my leads sing