JRN 200: Extra Credit ...

. . . because it never hurts to get extra credit:

FOR GETTING AN OUT-OF-CLASS STORY PUBLISHED, if you email me a link proving that you've been published, then per the syllabus your final class grade will go up by 0.15 points for every published story. That means if you get all three published, your 3.5 final grade would turn into a 4.0.

The benefit to you is two-fold: first, you get a better grade. Duh. Second -- and probably more important to your long-term prospects -- you start building a portfolio. This is very much a field of demonstrated ability; that is, an employer doesn't want to see that you're capable of doing something; they want to see that you've already done it. Like, write a real story and get it published.

Plus, then you get to add to your resume a line that you worked as a free-lance contributor to whatever publication in the fall of 2013. Even if you get just one story published, that is an accurate line in your resume.

Again, for me to count your extra credit, you need to submit to me a published copy of your work and/or email me a Web link to your work, along with an email request to have it applied to extra credit.

FOR DOING A FOURTH OUT-OF-CLASS STORY, for your final grade the three out-of-class stories that go into that grade will be the three (of four) with the highest grades. So if you did four out-of-class stories and one included a fatal, you are making that fatal go bye-bye.

Plus, in the event you are on the borderline of receiving a higher grade, I will take into account whether you applied extra effort, including whether you did a fourth out-of-class story. 

FOR DOING AN OUT-OF-CLASS MINI-STORY -- which can be between 300 and 500 words, with a minimum of two human sources, in which you can cover ANY sort of event (subject to my approval) like a student group meeting or a speaker on-campus -- I will replace your two lowest practice story grades with 4.0s.

FOR GETTING THE MINI-STORY PUBLISHED, I will replace two more lowest-scoring practice stories with 4.0s.

I will also consider other extra-credit projects on a case-by-case basis. Please see me during my office hours to work out other extra-credit assignments.

THE COMMON DENOMINATOR IN ALL EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENTS is that you are demonstrating to me that you can now correctly apply skills learned in this class that at one time you did not apply as well; that you went above and beyond what we are learning in this class to further educate yourself in journalism; and/or you are demonstrating ability learned on your own prior to this class but applicable here. You can expect any ad hoc extra credit beyond the assignments listed here to include at least one of those components.

I don't care if you messed up earlier; show me you can get it right now and I'm happy to replace earlier grades with something more accurately reflecting where you are at NOW.

I just want to be clear on this one point regarding extra credit: extra credit will be applied to replace the grades of assignments you have actually done, including fact-fataled assignments.

Extra credit will NOT be applied to assignments that you did not turn in, or in which you had a time fatal.

So if you were thinking of skipping an assignment or two toward the end of the semester by pre-emptively turning in some extra credit, that plan won't work.