CQUniversity Unit Profile
COMM11007 Media Writing
Media Writing
All details in this unit profile for COMM11007 have been officially approved by CQUniversity and represent a learning partnership between the University and you (our student).
The information will not be changed unless absolutely necessary and any change will be clearly indicated by an approved correction included in the profile.
General Information

Overview

This introductory unit will develop student writing skills and apply those skills to the formats expected in the media industry. Students will learn how to differentiate media genres through audience and channel, and select appropriate techniques to produce professional documents suitable for publication or broadcast in traditional and online media. This unit introduces media writing skills, which contribute to the skills required in professional communication practice.

Details

Career Level: Undergraduate
Unit Level: Level 1
Credit Points: 6
Student Contribution Band: 10
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load: 0.125

Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

There are no requisites for this unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Offerings For Term 2 - 2017

Brisbane
Bundaberg
Cairns
Distance
Mackay
Rockhampton

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Class and Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Class Timetable

Bundaberg, Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Rockhampton, Townsville
Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Assessment Overview

1. Written Assessment
Weighting: 25%
2. Written Assessment
Weighting: 30%
3. Written Assessment
Weighting: 45%

Assessment Grading

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.

Previous Student Feedback

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from Student feedback. Reviewed at 2016 Professional Communication Annual Course Review.

Feedback

Students commented on workload. Comments ranged from positive (it was worth it) to negative (it was too much in a busy life).

Recommendation

The unit is set to require 10 - 12 hours per week. The assessment drives the learning, so each week's work is assessed, and there is limited 'additional' work required. The overall workload requirement will remain the same. Students will need to ensure they keep up with weekly requirements.

Feedback from Student feedback. Reviewed at 2016 Professional Communication Annual Course Review.

Feedback

Some students didn't like the blogging requirement.

Recommendation

Blogging is a critical media skill. It allows us to cover a lot of genres at introductory level within one format. The approach will be maintained.

Feedback from Student feedback. Reviewed at 2016 Professional Communication Annual Course Review.

Feedback

Overall structure and approach, including peer and staff engagement, was appreciated by students.

Recommendation

Maintain approach to peer and staff interaction as integral to course delivery.

Unit Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
  1. Write effectively across a range of media writing genres.
  2. Synthesise information and articulate it succinctly and accurately in formats appropriate to media writing.
  3. Use technology effectively to support writing tasks.
Alignment of Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Graduate Attributes
N/A Level
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Professional Level
Advanced Level

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes

Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Written Assessment - 25%
2 - Written Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 45%

Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes

Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Communication
2 - Problem Solving
3 - Critical Thinking
4 - Information Literacy
5 - Team Work
6 - Information Technology Competence
7 - Cross Cultural Competence
8 - Ethical practice
9 - Social Innovation
10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes

Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 - Written Assessment - 25%
2 - Written Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 45%
Textbooks and Resources

Textbooks

Prescribed

English for Journalists: Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Special edition (2013)
Authors: Wynford Hicks
Routledge
New York New York , New York , USA
ISBN: 978-0-415-66172-0
Binding: Paperback
Prescribed

MediaWriting: Print, Broadcast, and Public Relations

4th Edition (2012)
Authors: Whitaker, W.R., Ramsey, J.E., & Smith, R.D.
Routledge
New York New York , New York , USA
ISBN: 978-0-415-88803-5
Binding: Paperback

IT Resources

You will need access to the following IT resources:
  • CQUniversity Student Email
  • Internet
  • Unit Website (Moodle)
Referencing Style

All submissions for this unit must use the referencing styles below:

For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.

Teaching Contacts
Kate Ames Unit Coordinator
k.ames@cqu.edu.au
Schedule
Week 1 Begin Date: 10 Jul 2017

Module/Topic

Introduction to Media Writing

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 2 Begin Date: 17 Jul 2017

Module/Topic

Identifying News

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 3 Begin Date: 24 Jul 2017

Module/Topic

The Basic News Story

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 4 Begin Date: 31 Jul 2017

Module/Topic

Voice, Attribution, and Acknowledgement

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 5 Begin Date: 07 Aug 2017

Module/Topic

Writing for Social Media

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Vacation Week Begin Date: 14 Aug 2017

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 6 Begin Date: 21 Aug 2017

Module/Topic

The Art of Curation

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Assessment 1 - Blog (DRAFT) Due: Week 6 Friday (25 Aug 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 7 Begin Date: 28 Aug 2017

Module/Topic

Writing for Speech and Vision

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 8 Begin Date: 04 Sep 2017

Module/Topic

Media Releases

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 9 Begin Date: 11 Sep 2017

Module/Topic

Newsletters and Brochures

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 10 Begin Date: 18 Sep 2017

Module/Topic

Supporting the story: Packaging and Supplementing your Writing

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Assessment 2 - Writing for Media Due: Week 10 Monday (18 Sept 2017) 9:00 am AEST
Week 11 Begin Date: 25 Sep 2017

Module/Topic

Reviewing your work

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 12 Begin Date: 02 Oct 2017

Module/Topic

Review Week

Chapter

Details in the Study Guide Lesson - located on the unit website.

Events and Submissions/Topic

Review/Exam Week Begin Date: 09 Oct 2017

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Assessment 3 - Blog (FINAL) Due: Review/Exam Week Monday (9 Oct 2017) 9:00 am AEST
Exam Week Begin Date: 16 Oct 2017

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Assessment Tasks

1 Written Assessment

Assessment Title
Assessment 1 - Blog (DRAFT)

Task Description

This assessment is a draft of your main assignment for this term, which is the Blog (Ass 3) and aims to provide feedback on specific activities and guide you as to where you can make improvements prior to your final submission.

You will be required to complete activities to Week 6 for this submission.

This submission will be graded as for Assessment 3.

Your final submission will be one file, comprising:

  1. A cover page that includes your student details and the URL of your blog address;
  2. Evidence of peer commenting and review by you on your peer sites;
  3. Your self-assessment.


Assessment Due Date

Week 6 Friday (25 Aug 2017) 11:45 pm AEST


Return Date to Students

Week 8 Friday (8 Sept 2017)


Weighting
25%

Assessment Criteria

A detailed marking rubric will be available on the unit website, but the blog will be assessed against the following criteria:

  • Overall attention to requirements of the task
    Technical ability
    Practical skills
    Inquiry and reflection
  • Blog presentation
  • Standard of writing
  • Referencing
  • Peer review
  • Response to feedback
You will be required to self-assess your work prior to submission, and should review the assessment criteria, complete this, and submit with your final assessment piece.


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Submission Instructions
Submit all documents in one file.

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Write effectively across a range of media writing genres.
  • Synthesise information and articulate it succinctly and accurately in formats appropriate to media writing.
  • Use technology effectively to support writing tasks.


Graduate Attributes
  • Communication
  • Problem Solving
  • Critical Thinking
  • Information Literacy
  • Cross Cultural Competence
  • Ethical practice

2 Written Assessment

Assessment Title
Assessment 2 - Writing for Media

Task Description

Assessment 2 - Writing for media (Written Assessment)
This assessment requires students to write and collate for media (print and social). It comprises four phases.

Phase 1: Research and record the story (Twitter)
You will have set up a Twitter account as part of your blogging activities (Assignment 1).
For this assignment, you need to attend an event in your local area. This can be any event but you will need to ensure that it occurs within a time frame that allows you to meet the deadlines for this assessment.
You will record activities of the event via Twitter. This means that throughout the event, you will tweet facts and quotes from attendees via your Twitter account. You should include photos and videos of the event. One tweet should be of you at the event (ie. a selfie or photo taken by someone else).
You should use the hashtag/twittercue/or Twitter name of the event in your tweets. If one doesn't exist, make up your own. You will need to include #profcomm and @CQUni in your first tweet, so that this can be registered in our study twitter feed.
You must record a minimum of 15 tweets on which you will base Phase 2.

Phase 2: Write the story (Print - Microsoft Word)
Write a short 250 word news story about your event. This must be written using the inverted pyramid, and have a strong lead paragraph/s that are based on the 5Ws and H. You will need to include some quotes from attendees or organisers. This should be posted on the student writing forum for feedback during Week 9 for peer and staff feedback.

Phase 3: Curate the story (Social media - Storify)
You will have set up a Storify account as part of your blogging activities (Assignment 1). For this assessment, you will curate a story about your Phase 1 event on this Storify account.
You will need to write the story and link your tweets so that readers will have an understanding of the event.
You may use the print story as the basis of this narrative, but will have to adjust it so you can integrate social media.
You do not need to include all of your tweets but should have a minimum of six (6) that are your own. You may include other people's tweets of the same event.
You must:
  • Have a strong introductory lead based on the 5WS and H.
  • Conclude the story appropriately;
  • Transition between tweets and narrative so that the story moves forward; and
  • Attend to grammar, spelling, and punctuation so that your work is technically correct;

Once your Storify page is completed, post it on the Assessment 2 forum.

Phase 4: Submit your story for assessment
Submit one file that contains:
  • a cover page
  • your news story (250 words)
  • a URL for your Storify
  • self-assessment.
Self-assessment
You will self-assess your work prior to submission. This means you will need to fill out the assessment marking criteria based on how you think you addressed each element (line on the criteria sheet). This will be new to many people, but it's valuable. You will become familiar with the assessment requirements, and we know that you'll possibly be tougher on yourself than we will. Overall, we find students to be very accurate when they self-assess. A video will be available via the Assessment 2 section of the website to explain this further.

'Study-buddies'
We know that this assessment can be challenging - it's one thing to enjoy an event; another thing entirely to report on it and have to talk to people and take photos. You may like to attend events together if you can, but you must ensure that your stories are not overly similar. They must include different photos/videos/quotes for example.
Distance education students will be grouped in 'Study Groups' which will be postcode-based groups. It will be up to you as to how you communicate with one another. We recommend UCROO (www.ucroo.com) for making initial contact. Your ability to work in groups will NOT be assessed, and you may engage as you wish with your colleagues. We believe that this type of collaboration will assist learning, however, and encourage you to interact with your peers.


Assessment Due Date

Week 10 Monday (18 Sept 2017) 9:00 am AEST


Return Date to Students

Monday (2 Oct 2017)

Students should expect feedback within two weeks of submission.


Weighting
30%

Assessment Criteria

The assessment criteria for this assessment is in the form of a rubric, which is available on Moodle.

You will be assessed on:

  • attention to requirements of the task;
  • attention to structure of narrative;
  • overall effectiveness of storytelling as appropriate to the genre;
  • writing quality as appropriate to the genre;
  • effective use of technology; and
  • quality of justification/reflection.

You will be required to self-assess your work, and submit a copy of the marking criteria, completed by you, with your assessment submission.


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Submission Instructions
Submit all documents in one file.

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Write effectively across a range of media writing genres.
  • Synthesise information and articulate it succinctly and accurately in formats appropriate to media writing.
  • Use technology effectively to support writing tasks.


Graduate Attributes
  • Communication
  • Critical Thinking
  • Information Literacy
  • Information Technology Competence
  • Ethical practice

3 Written Assessment

Assessment Title
Assessment 3 - Blog (FINAL)

Task Description

You will be required to maintain a blog throughout the term. This assessment is the MAIN assessment for you and is the largest task. It is due at the end of term. You will be required to submit a draft of your blog in Week 6 as a separate assessment piece (Assessment 1).

Your study guide will list two to three activities you need to complete each week as part of your blogging journey. These activities will be specifically associated with that week’s content and may comprise an inquiry-based activity (for example, find a piece of media writing you like, and reflect on this); a technically based activity (which will ask you to work on a writing skills based task, or complete a grammar/punctuation quiz); or a practical activity (which will ask you to do something in support of your media writing journey). The activities are scaffolded. For example, in Week 2, you will set up a Twitter account (if you don’t already have one), which then sets some foundations for your second assignment. Most of the activities aren't huge, but will encourage you to work progressively throughout the term. An activities list will be provided against which you can assess your progress.

In addition to completing the activities, you are also required to:

  • review and constructively comment on other student blogs (because all media work is public, and anyone who works in this area has to deal with public comment); and
  • self-assess your work prior to submission whereby you will fill in the assessment criteria rubric based on how well you think you achieved each outcome (because learning how accurate you are, or learning to be more accurate, can build your confidence).

More specific details about setting up your blog and weekly requirements will be provided in the ‘Assessment 1 - Blog’ page on the unit website.

Your final submission will be one file, comprising:

  1. A cover page that includes your student details and the URL of your blog address;
  2. Evidence of you commenting on and reviewing fellow student sites;
  3. Your self-assessment.

Prior to submission, you should ensure that you have reviewed your blog against the blog checklist provided on the unit website.


Assessment Due Date

Review/Exam Week Monday (9 Oct 2017) 9:00 am AEST


Return Date to Students

Monday (16 Oct 2017)

Assignments are normally returned within two weeks of submission.


Weighting
45%

Minimum mark or grade
Pass

Assessment Criteria

A detailed marking rubric will be available on the unit website, but the blog will be assessed against the following criteria:

  • Overall attention to requirements of the task
    Technical ability
    Practical skills
    Inquiry and reflection
  • Blog presentation
  • Standard of writing
  • Referencing
  • Peer review

You will be required to self-assess your work prior to submission, and should review the assessment criteria, complete this, and submit with your final assessment piece.


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Submission Instructions
One files that includes your student details; the URL of your blog address; evidence of peer commenting and review by you on your fellow student blogs; and your self-assessment.

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Write effectively across a range of media writing genres.
  • Synthesise information and articulate it succinctly and accurately in formats appropriate to media writing.
  • Use technology effectively to support writing tasks.


Graduate Attributes
  • Communication
  • Problem Solving
  • Critical Thinking
  • Information Literacy
  • Information Technology Competence
  • Cross Cultural Competence
  • Ethical practice

Academic Integrity Statement

As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.

Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.

When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.

Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.

As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.

What is a breach of academic integrity?

A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.

Why is academic integrity important?

A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.

Where can I get assistance?

For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.

What can you do to act with integrity?