Students will be judged on their ability to handle different types of assignments, including: reporting and writing a wide variety of multimedia stories; writing breaking news pieces and slide shows; using social media for storytelling; researching and writing interactive news quizzes, graphics and maps; writing headlines, captions and smart Web links; coding and packaging Web content; selecting, sizing and cropping digital photos for story pages and special reports; collecting, editing and posting audio and video.

You'll be assessed on your ability to follow Associated Press style, to follow rules of good grammar and to write accurately and fairly. Your grade will also reflect your demonstrated news judgment -- since you'll be asked to help pick stories for display on the home page and elsewhere. And you will be judged on your creativity in suggesting interactive projects and special reports or other features for the site. 

It is essential that you meet deadlines and complete assignments.

In addition to the points noted above, your final grade will reflect on your work habits, time management, attendance, punctuality, attitude and demonstrated improvement.

In the bureau, you will get routine, informal feedback on your progress on particular assignments, an assessment on where your grade stands at the midpoint, and a final grade.  

Periodically, you will be given responsibilities for updating the home page and/or section fronts or special reports. This means as a news editor, you will have a say in what stories are selected for packaging, how they'll be displayed, and what photos, graphics, maps and headlines will be used to accompany text. You should always talk to me or Sean Mussenden before changing out a section front or home page. You'll be working from templates when you update.

In addition, you also will be juggling multimedia reporting, research and photo assignments, as well as building at least one special report and collecting, editing and posting video and audio. 

Here are the minimum requirements that grad students are expected to complete to earn a grade in the B range. To bump your grade up to the A range, you'll be expected to turn in superior work on these assignments (which means turning in publishable copy that requires little editing on first draft), and to go beyond the minimal story counts.

• You must report, shoot and write at least one audio-photo slide show, produced in Soundslides (flash software) on a newsy event or a feature topic. Please clear a topic with me before setting out on it. Your pictures, audio and captions should tell a story. For inspiration, check out Karen Carmichael and Ilana Yergin's slide show on characters at the Renaissance Festival; Kelly Brooks' slide show on the execution of the Beltway Sniper; Emily Kimball's slide show on dollar day at the National Aquarium; Jon Sham's slide show on ghostly sounds at the Surratt House; James Sanborn's slide show on the Pentagon Memorial for victims of the terrorist attacks; Michelle Williams' slide show on an Easport sock-burning ritual and her slide show on a choir rehearsal before the pope's visit to Washington; Leila Taha's feature on a croquet rivalry in Annapolis; Hannah Kim's report on horse abandonment during the recession; Steven Mendoza's report on community gardening; Raechal Leone's "Fans Find Favorite Authors at Book Fest," and Carrie Dindino's "UMD Students Help Transform a West Baltimore Neighborhood." This page of audio interviews was done in lieu of an audio slide show; it accompanied a recession package.
• You must report, shoot and write at least one photo-text slide show, produced in Soundslides Plus (flash software) on a newsy event or a feature topic. Please clear a topic with me before setting out on it. Your pictures and captions should tell or complement a story. For inspiration, check out Md. Newsline and CNS staff's Primary Election Day 2010; Lindsay Gsell's slide show on green roofs; Kelly Brooks' and Emily Kimball's slide show on President Obama's health care pitch; Kelly Brooks' slide show on an H1N1 vaccination day at UMD; Steven Mendoza's slide show on cleaning the Anacostia; and Tamra Tomlinson's slide show on historic homes in College Park. All of these accompanied text stories also written by these reporters.
• You must report and write at least one profile of up to 1,000 words of a soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan or an interesting or quirky person, businessman or inventor, public official or candidate running for office. Multiple sources must be interviewed during the reporting phase; information must come from paper and people sources; LexisNexis should be used for backgrounding; and, preferably, some government records will be searched. Sidebar stories and boxes can be used to accompany the story, to fit in vital info that exceeds the 1,000 words in the main piece. The profile must include digital photos taken by you or archival photos retrieved and cropped by you and at least one audio or video clip collected by you and edited for the Web, which we will link from the story page. Extra points for using flash or a nonlinear format. If written in a linear format, you must include subheads in the body of the text, to aid in readability. (One subhead per screen length, please.) Please clear this assignment with me before beginning on it. For examples of other students' work, see Tami Le's "Former Gang Member Mentors Students to Keep Them Out of Crime"; Emily Kimball's "Maryland Entrepreneur a Key Player in Pitch Dingman's Success"; Raechal Leone's "Maryland Author Turns to Family for Inspiration," April Chan's profile of a New Orleans family displaced by Hurricane Katrina; and Mike Santa Rita's profile of a Maryland soldier killed in Iraq. In lieu of one long profile, you may write two short Webbie profiles for our intermittent series on folks with interesting jobs. See "Gluing History Together Piece By Piece," "Keeping College Park Clean Street By Street," and "Maryland's Winning Jockey: You Have to Be Fearless." Each of these mini-profiles must include at least two multimedia elements. Or you may report, edit and Web post a video profile, using multiple interviews and B-roll. For examples see Kelly Brooks' profile of the Maryland poet laureate and Jon Sham's profile of jousters at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
• You will be required to report and write one complex story of 800-1,000 words. Students should pitch their ideas to the editor. Possibilities include: a trend story: see Karen Carmichael and Rabiah Burks' "Finding the Right Language"; Laura Thornton's "Eroding Cliffs Endanger Calvert County Homes"; Ben Giles' "Scientists Warn of Smith Island's Demise"; Zettler Clay's "Laptops in Classrooms"; Lindsay Gsell's "Grain Bins: An Alternative Heating Source Attracts Interest in Washington Suburbs; " and "For Harford County Farm, Roofs are the Cash Crop," Emily Kimball's Young Entrepreneurs; Hannah Kim's "Cold, Recession Leave Shelters in Prince George's Struggling to Meet Need; Mike Santa Rita's "Wounded Soldiers Return from a Different Kind of War," Desair Brown's "For the Love of Anime: Middle Schoolers Plunge into Japanese Language Classes," Jessica Shyu's "Kids Partner With Adults to Conduct Research for Kids," Fanen Chiaheman and Amanda Karr's "Baltimore Struggles to Slow Spread of Drug-Fueled HIV." All stories must include at least two relevant Web links, at least one audio or video clip collected and edited by you, and at least one photo taken or collected by you. You must also write a proposed headline. It is strongly recommended that your story be included in a special report you or others are building on our site (see below).
• You must report and write at least one light, bright feature story. (The narrative for this will be driven more by the text, whereas the narrative for the photo essay is driven more by the photos and audio.) You must also include at least one photo -- either one you took or one you got permission from the copyright holder to re-use -- and one audio or video clip from your interviews or an interactive you create to accompany the piece.You must also write a proposed headline and caption. For examples, see Ilana Yergin's "Wizards, Other Costumed Fans Come Together to Celebrate Potter Premiere," Carrie Dindino's "Everything Must Go at the Watergate Hotel," Robert Klemko's "Medieval Role Players Battle With Foam Weapons in Weekend Games"; A.J. McComb's "Ghostly Tales Offered on University Tours," and Danny Conklin's "From Torts to Tarts." For grad students stationed primarily at the TV studio, please substitute a video feature story for this.
• You must report and write updates from the field on at least one breaking story, using only social media such as Twitter or Facebook for your storytelling. This should be done with an editor's consent/supervision.
• You must report and write at least one breaking story on a daily deadline, in inverted pyramid format. The story will likely be updated throughout the day. Photos/ audio / video are optional. For examples, see Karen Carmichael and Justin Karp's "Utilities, Md. Officials Prepare for Hurricane Earl"; Jon Sham's "Obama to UMD Students: 'I Need Your Voice' on Health Care," "Arelis Hernandez and David Byers' "Dry Spell Ends With Gentle Rainfall, More Possible"; and the Newsline staff's "Parade Spectators Claim Their Own Pieces of Inaugural History." You may be permitted to substitute a breaking video story for this, or write a combination of video/text. See Justin Karp's " Hands-Free Cell Phone Law for Drivers Takes Effect Oct. 1.
• You will be required to report and Web-produce at least one video-driven news or newsfeature story, using our hand-held video cams and Final Cut or iMovie for editing. For examples, see Ilana Yergin and Karen Carmichael's piece on an international walk-to-school day; Jon Sham's piece on a festival in Baltimore; Steve Mendoza and Hannah Kim's piece on the end of the 2009 legislative session; James Sanborn's video feature on the ship the Amistad (scroll to bottom of story page for video); Arelis Hernandez and David Byers' report on how much that proposed sales tax hike could affect prices on big-ticket purchases; and Arelis Hernandez and David Byers' reaction story from the UMD campus on race relations following the discovery of a noose hanging near a minority student cultural center. For grad students working primarily at the TV bureau, you may substitute one mini-documentary piece for this. Please see Alex Moe's story for Bay on the Brink as an example.
• You must research and write at least one interactive news quiz. We have recently had success using ProProfs.com as a free tool. Please clear your topic before proceeding. For strong examples of quizzes created to accompany text stories, see Leila Taha's "Inaugurations Through History"; Raechal Leone's "They Said What?," Rachel Mauro's "Invisibility in Books and Films"; Lisa Tossey's "Physical Traits of Presidents," Daina Klimanis' "Bartlett vs. Rolle, on the Issues," Nicole Albowicz's "History of Slots in America," Nicole Richardson's "How Well Do You Know Cole?" and Nikki Hawkins' Maryland symbols quiz. 
• You must create at least one interactive map. You may use google maps, or, if you are taking a Flash class, you may use Flash. For examples of google maps created to accompany text stories, see: on the presidential inauguration parade route in 2009; and John Wilkes Booth's escape route. (scroll down page)
• You must create at least one other visual to accompany a story, in Flash or Vuvox or another free tool. Here are examples of Flash interactives created to accompany stories: on Robert Ehrlich's bid for governor; on the 1st District congressional rematch; on challenges at Waxter's girls facility; on juvenile facilities across the state; on health insurance stats; on the federal health insurance reform bill; on slots bids in Maryland and on a proposal to abolish Maryland's death penalty. This Flash interactive on the Chesapeake Bay was produced in 2004 for a Maryland Newsline special report on the Chesapeake Bay.
• You will be asked to pull together archival and current stories, links, photos and video or interactive features and then build at least one major new package for the special reports area. You may be assigned to work on this with another student or even a larger team. Packages from previous semesters include: ""Making It in America"; FBI Probe in Prince George's County; "Elections 2010;" Under the Influence and Under 21; "Smith Island"; "Snowmagedden 2010," "The Health Debate," "The Execution of the Beltway Sniper," "H1N1," "Census 2010," "Inauguration 2009"; "The Death Debate"; "Slots in Maryland"; "Weathering the Recession"; "Economy in Crisis"; "Elections '08"; "The Pentagon Memorial"; "The Pope in Washington"; "2007 Special Session: Budget Crisis"; "2007 Maryland Inauguration"; "2007 National Cherry Blossom Festival"; Homeless in Maryland"; "Maryland Votes 2006"; "Teens and Technology"; "Final Auction"; "Katrina's Aftermath";"Casualties of War"; "Inauguration 2005"; "Uncovered: Maryland's Health Insurance Crisis"; "Maryland Votes 2004"; "Brown vs. Board of Education 50 Years Later"; "Saving the Chesapeake Bay"; "AIDS: Dealing With an Epidemic", "In War's Shadow"; "Census 2000"; "Political Ethics in Maryland"; "Reach the Beach"; "Farewell to Cole"; "State Symbols"; "The Death Penalty"; and "The Tobacco Industry."  Special reports will only be produced on ongoing stories with staying power. Please clear this assignment with me before beginning on it.

In addition, you will be asked to:

• update/add to existing Special Reports on the site, and to help build the new site;
• to demonstrate to others in the bureau any new tools you teach yourself to use during the semester;
• blog and tweet regularly;
• and to use your creativity to pitch ideas for new features and pages for the site.

Remember, employers want new hires to demonstrate a fearlessness about picking up new tools and technologies! 

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