Journalistic Writing Laboratory

The Journalistic Writing Laboratory is a training laboratory using eLearning, following a perspective where theory and code (the grammar) are the gateway and engine for fundamental action. The Journalistic Writing Laboratory is designed for journalists in the Portuguese language.

Aims of the course

Differentiation between oral and written records 

Students will gain a significant knowledge on the differences between oral information and written media in journalism.

Setting records 

Students will gain knowledge and experience on laboratory and pragmatic aspects about setting down the outgoing texts, whether via oral or written media. 

 

    Course structure and teaching methods

    The Journalistic Writing Laboratory is seen as laboratory training in distance learning (online), where theory and code (grammar) are the main engine forward.

    The course is based in weekly modules (one each week), with each module containing a short theoretical section with practical cases, notes and exercises. 

    Students will be dealing most of the course time with inductive texts, together with notes, practical examples and exercises that will allow students to learn about the inherent tools.

    The course modules are as follows:

    Module 1

    • Media, media society and news.
    • The event, the text and the media; an introductory theoretical framework
    • Various exercises.

    Module 2

    • Events and meta events.
    • Phrasing, syntax and sentence components 
    • Exercises on inductive texts (chaos situations, deconstrction and reemerging of classical examples) 

    Module 3

    • Writing with pleasure and rules: the chronicle case study.
    • Consistency (names, adjectives and adverbs).
    • Exercises that highlight the differences between adjectives and adverbs (media clippings, corrections and reconstructions). 

    Module 4

    • The interview.
    • Pronouns: uses and applications.
    • Exercises comprising the different pronoun levels (indefinite, interrogative, relative, demonstrative, possessive, personal, etc.)

    Module 5

    • Freedom, responsibility, disputes and competitors in the public media space.
    • Verbs, action and the heart of the sentence (with example framework).
    • Exercises on main and auxiliary verbs.

    Module 6

    • New technologies and online journalism.
    • Verb tenses (narration as leitmotiv).
    • Rewriting exercises on tense changes.

    Module 7

    • Coverage texts.
    • Verb moods. The sender's attitude, message and the possible contexts of the receivers.
    • Practical exercises on verb moods (pragmatic confrontation between indicative subjunctive and imperative moods).

    Module 8

    • Critical reviews, editorials and comments
    • Subordination and coordination: two expressive worlds.
    • Exercises on essencial versus accessory aspects (reconstructions, renacting past events, representation and rewriting).

    Module 9

    • Dissemination texts
    • Subordination and hierarchical expression.

    Module 10

    • Persuasion in public media and travel writing.
    • Practical exercises on the various topics covered across the course programme.

    Course duration

    The course lasts for ten weeks.

    Tuition fee

     250 €

    Assessment

    Assessment will take place during the final week of the Journalistic Writing Laboratory. Students and the course co-ordinator will assess the learning process mainly under a qualitative assessment. 

     

    Course certificates

    All students successfully completing the course will receive an official certificate.

     

     

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