Course info

Learn about journalism—including its foundations, ethics, and skills—and write articles, headlines and bylines, editorials, columns, and more.

Take “Business Writing 1: Professional Business Writing Essentials” with this course, and earn 16 weeks of business writing credit.   

Instructor Access (optional grading support) is available for this course. 

See the sidebar to the right for signup information!

NOTICE: This is an older course recorded with Adobe Connect and/or Vimeo recordings.
We are currently working to replace the recordings with new Zoom recordings. 
Please don't hesitate to email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com with any questions.

Dear Student,

This course is scheduled to be retired on Nov 30, 2024.  You may continue using this course; however, we highly suggest moving to the new, updated course.  

https://moodle.homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/course/view.php?id=4135#section-0

 Please check out the Live courses here: https://caravel.homeschoolconnections.com/catalog/

How to get the most out of Business Writing 2: Foundations of Journalism:

• Have an open mind and prepare to learn the who, what, where, why, and how of journalism.
• Watch each Recorded class session.
• Complete all quizzes and assignments.
• Complete/view all the materials available in Moodle (for example: view video editorial examples, etc.)
• The reading and work for each week can be found in that week's module.
• Once the course is completed to the parent's satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end to be filled in for your records. Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping.

Total Classes: 8
Prerequisite: High School Simplified Writing 1: Strong Foundational Writing Skills (HS 9-2) Take the prerequisite courses LIVE or through Unlimited Access. Alternative prerequisite: a passing assessment from the Aquinas Writing Advantage Assessment service.

Students should be able to use Microsoft Word competently. Your student will need Word 2007 or a later version or the ability to convert a document to a Word-compatible document 

Suggested grade level: 11^th grade; however, all high school students are welcome
Suggested credit: 2/3 a semester’s credit; add the composition of your own documents from the coursework to create a full semester's credit for writing. 
Instructor: Geralyn Rea, MA

Course Description: If you want to get all the must-have foundational knowledge about journalism and get hands-on writing experience, this course is for you! Introducing journalism in a sturdy overview, you’ll understand and practice writing skills in the genre of reportive writing as a journalist. Whether you’re interested in learning about how the news that you read is created, or you’re considering becoming a writer of news stories yourself – look over the course outline below. If you see yourself enjoying all that’s here, sign up for this course today.

Course Outline:

Class 1: What is a journalist? (Journalism Overview), a brief history of journalism, and First Amendment Freedoms
Class 2: Ethics in Journalism, quoting and Interviewing, and how journalists can shape a message
Class 3: News Today: what it is, how it’s reported and written, news leads, and headlines and bylines
Class 4: Features: multiple feature news stories, people, ideas, and trends; and investigative reporting
Class 5: Writing editorials and columns
Class 6: How reviews and opinion writing are a part of journalism today
Class 7: News magazines and writing news articles, online journalism, and broadcast journalism
Class 8: The brilliance of advertising, page layout, and graphic design in journalism

Course materials: All materials are provided FREE via the instructor. All documents are turned in as Microsoft Word documents. If you do not own Microsoft Word 2007 or a later version, you can use a system such as Google Docs that converts to Word documents FREE.

Homework: Weekly writing assignments, with direct feedback from the instructor with an estimated three (3) to four (4) hours per week for homework outside of class time, including reading, writing, and responding to feedback.