Publishing 3011 W Fall 2009
Trecker Office: CLAS 102A. Office hours, Tu Th 10:45-11:30. Office phone, 486-9105. Home phone, 455-0175, anytime before 9 p.m.
e-mail:Janice.Trecker@uconn.edu.
Webpage: http://web.uconn.edu/english291 (the website retains the original course number)
This site has a link to web magazines from 2007 and earlier at http://web.uconn.edu/english294 which you should examine carefully. Textbook: the packet for Publishing, English 3011C. I'll put a chapter from Book Publishing by Dessauer and selections from a couple of other publishing texts on Vista webct. Notes for the Magazine from Cover to Cover selections in the packet are posted on WebCt.
We will have web storage space, but you may want a floppy disk, CD-R, flash drive or other device for transporting files from home as backup. Obsessive backing up of all your writing is one of the keys to professional writing happiness!
Publishing is a writing intensive course. Papers are short but they must be done in the journalistic style and finished to as close to a professional standard as possible. This mean a good deal of revision and close attention to analyzing the model articles in your packet. A list of the major pieces is at the end of the syllabus, but there will be other in-class exercises as well as a final exam which will be a short essay incorporating notes from our various speakers and short answer questions on our various readings.
Week 1,Sept 1-3. Tuesday, introduction to the course, a look at sports media guides; begin student interviews for guides in class. Your student media guide profile, typed but not laid out, is due Thursday.
Thursday: introduction to InDesignCS when we will lay out the profiles in InDesign CS. Reading Assignment for next week: Read over the sample PR releases in our packet and Chapter 5 of the Magazine from Cover to Cover selections(p108-121)
Week 2 Sept 8-10. Tuesday. Show and tell on magazine types, with emphasis on regional magazines as preparation for our speaker on Thursday. Intro to public relations and the format of the PR release. You will write your PR release from the Thursday presentation by Lynn Woike, Editor and Tom Krazit, Editorial Director of Hartford Magazine.
Thursday, meet in the Stern room (CLAS 217). Take good notes. Your PR release will be due Tuesday the 15th. Reading Assignment: the live event samples in your packet for our next class. Try to see the pattern of these pieces.
Week 3, Sept 15-16. Tuesday, PR release due. We will learn the format for the live event piece which you will write on the presentation by Jennifer Huber,a senior writer for the UConn Foundation, who speaks on Tuesday the 22nd. I will have some examples of Foundation material to show you. Also introduction to the three-fold brochure. Reading Assignment: A careful examination of UConn's Traditions Magazine which we will use for our next assignment: a three fold promotional brochure.
Thursday: Traditions exercise begins. You will use your in class time to write copy for a three fold brochure which we will lay out in InDesign CS. You will work with a partner on the composition, but the layout should be done individually so that you can practice with InDesignCS. Copy is due next Tuesday Sept 22.
Reading Assignment: chapter 6 in Magazine from Cover to Cover.
Week 4. Sept 22-24. Tuesday, meet in the Stern room (CLAS 217) for a presentation by Jennifer Huber. Don't forget your three-fold brochure copy. Come with questions and take good notes. Your live event piece based on her talk will be due Thursday, Sept 24.
Thursday, Lay out the brochure in InDesign CS and flow in your text. Completed brochure due next Thursday, Oct 1.Reading Assignment: the Q& A and feature interview samples in your packet and the catalogue selections pp21-23. These will be our models for two short in-class exercises. Copying these styles is harder than it looks, so study the catalogue copy closely
Week 5, Sept 29-Oct 1. Tuesday, preparation for interview features (2). Your Q& A is due Oct 8 and the conversion of the Q&A to a feature will be due Oct 15. Important: pick your interview subject carefully and take complete notes. In class, begin the style exercise using the catalogue samples in your packet. Reading Assignment: chapter 7
Thursday meet in the Stern room for Jerry Trecker, long time sportswriter, on interviewing technique.
Assignments: look over the html cheat sheet and the html handbook in your packet. Look at previous class webpages and magazines on line and think about a possible mock magazine you'd like to work on. Read the first part of chapter 11 in Magazine from Cover to Cover.
Week 6, Oct 6-8. Tuesday, Introduction to basic HTML, moving toward XHTML. You can use the style exercise copy and pictures to lay out a simple sample page. Reading assignment: the second part of chapter 11.
Thursday, Q &A due. More HTML (mounting pages on the web)and our preliminary magazine planning.
I'll bring in some of the print magazines from previous years so you can get some ideas. The important thing is to have the article you plan to contribute ready for me to proofread and correct by Oct 20 (or earlier), so that all articles can be put up on the web promptly. The sooner you can hand in a draft for proofreading and correction, the less work you will have to do later. Remember to save your piece twice, once in regular Word (for use in our InDesign CS version), the second time as text or text only (this will be coded for HTML).
Week 7, Oct 13-15. Tuesday, HTML- making tables, columns and simple layout. Thursday, conversion to feature is due. Introduction to Style sheets for HTML. Remember, the first draft of your mock magazine article is due Tuesday, Oct 20.
Week 8, Oct 20-22. Tuesday your magazine article is due. More HTML. Thursday, correct your proofread article and begin coding. Make links, get graphics, and put on the web. On Huskyct, read Dessauer, chapter 3, How Books are Created. Read over How to Do article samples in packet.
Week 9, Oct 27-29. Tuesday- web articles up and linked. Someone in each group needs to make a table of contents page which will link all your articles. Analyze How to do articles. Your How to Do article due Nov 12. Thursday_ InDesignCS- review and intro to master pages as preparation for the print version of your magazine. Each group needs to be thinking about cover, type faces and style of layout, ads (make your own, collect or use some of each. Begin laying out magazines.
Week 10,Nov 3-5. Tuesday _Magazine layout. Reading Assignment: On huskyct.uconn.edu, read book publishing, Greco, Chapter 6, Editors, Book Acquisitions, and Editorial Practices.
Thursday _ if all the coded work is done, an introduction to Dreamweaver. To get the most out of Dreamweaver, you should decide on a simple project - for example, start a professional looking personal web page or a web page for a community/ religious group, or youth team.
Week 11, Nov 10-12. Magazine work. Thursday, How to do article due.
Week 12. Nov 17-19. Tuesday, magazine work, Dreamweaver practice.
Week 13, Thanksgiving Vacation
Week 14, Dec 1-3, Magazine work, Dreamweaver practice.
Week 15, Dec 8-10,Tuesday: finish mock magazine layout, clean up any troublesome web pages.
Thursday: Final presentations with print and web versions of magazines ready to show rest of class.
Requirements: Since one of the goals of the course is to introduce students to such common formats as the public relations release, the interview, and the review, we will have a number of short, 2 page papers. In addition, everyone will be expected to contribute to a magazine mock up properly laid out in InDesignCS and to put up one Web page. Attendance counts. To avoid misunderstandings, arguments, and hurt feelings, you cannot receive an A if you have more than 6 cuts. Note that amounts to 3 full weeks of class! You cannot receive a B if you have more than 9 cuts. Late papers will be penalized a grade no matter what the circumstance. The reason for this is that in the publishing world, lateness can result in dismissal! If you have to rewrite a paper, your revision is due in one week. Deadlines are important and you are responsible for meeting the deadlines listed in your syllabus.
Major assignments
• Student profile text Sept 3
• Student profile layout Sept 8
• PR release Sept 15
live event Sept 24
• Q & A Oct 6
• Interview feature Oct 11
• Mock magazine article Oct 16
• web version mock magazine Oct 27
• How to article Nov 12
• print version mock magazineDec 10
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