Writing for a professor is one thing. Writing for a general audience is another. In this class, students will learn the basics of conceiving, reporting and writing stories for publication. We will cover news value, leads, story structure, attribution, AP style, libel law, and ethics. Students will learn to read and write news critically and to understand how newspapers and the stories within them are structured; how a news story differs from a press release or an academic paper; and how a hard news story differs from a news feature. During an additional lab hour each week, students will generate story ideas, write stories on deadline, and potentially prepare their work for publication in the student newspaper.