The articles you submit at noon on Monday are the graded version. Stories are graded based on how they arrive, not how they end up.
Student journalists can informally submit their draft articles for editorial suggestions. You may only do this once per enterprise story. Make it count. This “free” advice and feedback will not be graded. Help in this form only occurs if you get the draft into the editor’s hands early enough for the editor to look at it — and for you to take the edits and rework the article — before Monday’s deadline.
Regardless, you will also receive additional feedback, editorial suggestions, and some questions (about things like attribution) before publishing on Tuesday morning. Before the public sees your work on the Wash, you must meet a professional standard. Editors reserve the right to provide a grade but not publish articles.
We will grade social media teases on Tuesday afternoon. You should have a draft done. There is no guarantee you will have time to work on this element during class.
Grade Breakdown
(100 points total)
News content and value (50 points): Execution of a professionally written news story within the assigned timeframe on the student’s publishing day. This includes strength and depth of research, news timeliness, community impact, uniqueness, quality of interview subjects, memorable quotes, readability and publish-ability. Nutgraph, story flow, order of facts and transitions are part of this grade.
Visual Elements (20 points total):
(10) Required featured image and at least two other images for the interior of the article. Graphics/charts that enhance the reader’s understanding of the topic count as one of the images and are encouraged through weighted grading.
(10) A social media posting that provides news content and entices the reader to visit The Wash for the full version. Top scores go to edited video packages.
News gathering effort (20 points): This includes field reporting efforts. Did you spend time on location with people in your community? This also includes the use of data or investigative reporting techniques.
Writing basics (10 points) Grammar, correct AP-style, headlines, excerpts, and following the Wash style guide are part of this category.
