“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Mark Twain

Instructor:                  Dr. Johanna Cleary

                                    Telecommunication Department

                                    3062 Weimer Hall

                                    (352) 846-0226 (office)

                                    jcleary@jou.ufl.edu

Class Meeting Time:   TBA

                                    Other mandatory class meetings will be announced.

Dr. Cleary’s Blog:       http://voyages-venue.blogspot.com/

About the Course

Course Description: This course focuses on the techniques of quality feature and news travel reporting and explores how to capture the essence of a location and its people. The course includes reading, viewing and analyzing examples of travel journalism; practice with various information gathering strategies; and consideration of the ethics of travel reporting. Students will produce travel pieces on deadline in different styles and genres.

Required Textbooks:

A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives and Inspiration by Michael Shapiro. (San Francisco: Travelers’ Tales, 2004).

Best American Travel Writing 2008, edited by Anthony Bourdain. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008).

Travelers’ Tales: France edited by James O’Reilly, Larry Habegger and Sean O’Reilly. (San Francisco: Travelers’ Tales, 2002).

We will also have a required course pack for the class available through OBT on 13^th Street in Gainesville.

You will need either the AP Print Stylebook or the AP Broadcast Handbook if you do not already have one. You should select the manual appropriate to the format of the pieces you will produce.

Other Resources: In addition to the textbooks, there are other resources for good travel writing. You should also regularly search the media for good travel coverage. Some resources include the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Travel Weekly’s blog at http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/blogs/postcards-from-travel-weekly/ and Rick Steves’ Europe series aired on PBS.

Course Objectives: 

In this course, we will consider what makes good arts coverage and develop some perspective on how to apply those principles to our work. The course will include discussions, critiques and conversations with arts and media practitioners.

 What You Will Learn in this Class: 

• Fundamentals of travel coverage and marketing your travel journalism pieces.
• Critique of the current state of travel journalism.

Class Policies

Classroom Atmosphere:  Each of you plays a role in shaping the personality of this course.  I encourage you to be actively involved in class discussion and activities.  In fact, part of your grade will depend on your class participation.  Please be respectful of the contributions of others and help create a class environment that is welcoming and inclusive. Our class will include interactions with a number of guest speakers. You are expected to come prepared to ask questions. Thank you for expressing your appreciation for the time they are contributing to the class.

Cell Phones, Pagers and Computer Use in Class:  As a matter of courtesy to your fellow class members, please turn off all cell phones, PDAs and pagers prior to the start of class. 

Attendance:  Like the media profession, this class is fast-moving and demanding and your attendance and participation are important to making this class a success.  I expect that you will attend every class unless an emergency prevents you from doing so.  If you find that you do have to miss a class due to an emergency, let me know immediately.  Roll will be taken and I reserve the right to reduce grades due to excessive absences or tardiness.  We will all rely on your class participation to keep discussions lively and interesting. You should come to class ready to contribute and share your opinions and insights.

Missing Deadlines or Assignments:  In the communication field, completing assignments on deadline is vital.  The same holds true in this class.  If you believe you have an exceptional reason for missing a deadline, please discuss it with me immediately.  However, a missed deadline will generally be counted as a missed assignment. 

Honor Code:  As a student at this university, you have accepted a commitment to the Honor Code, and the principles of academic integrity, personal honesty, and responsible citizenship on which it was founded. As an instructor at this university, I am charged with its enforcement and take that responsibility very seriously. 

The Honor Code’s Preamble reads: “…the students of the University of Florida recognize that academic honesty and integrity are fundamental values of the University community. Students who enroll at the University commit to holding themselves and their peers to the high standard of honor required by the Honor Code. Any individual who becomes aware of a violation of the Honor Code is bound by honor to take corrective action.”

Specifically, plagiarism will be grounds for significant penalty, including potentially failing the course and being expelled from the program.  Plagiarism may include a failure to cite sourced material, copying portions of others’ work, and inappropriately reusing your own work from other courses.

I encourage you to talk with me about specific questions regarding the Honor Code and your responsibilities within this course.

Accommodations for Special Needs:  I am interested in working with you to accommodate legitimate special needs in the classroom. According to University policy, students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide appropriate documentation to you and you should provide this documentation to me when requesting specific accommodation.  It is your responsibility to initiate this conversation early in the semester.

Course Assignments

Course Grading

Grading Scale:             A                      92-100%

•                   90-91%

                                    B+                    87-89%

                                    B                      82-86%

                                    B-                     80-82%

                                    C+                    77-79%

                                    C                      72-76%

                                    C-                     70-71%

                                    D+                    67-69%

                                    D                      62-66%

                                    D-                    60-62%

                                    F                      below 60%

Your final grade will be determined by your performance on the following assignments:

Story Project 1            (News)                                    (1 x 25 percent)

Story Project 2            (Feature)                                 (1 x 25 percent)

Book Review                                                   (1 x 20 percent)

Travel Story Critique and Discussion              (1 x 15 percent)

Amazing Race Research Assignment             (1 x 15 percent)

Total                                                                100 percent

You will be asked to submit two examples of travel reporting during the course of the semester, including one of each: 1) a news story, and 2) a feature story. It is a goal of the class for the stories to appear in print, on the air, or online and you will receive an additional five points on the final assignment grade if you are able to successfully place your story with a media outlet. A list of potential sources for stories will be provided, but it’s up to you to make the contact and secure the assignment.

The news story should focus on a “hard news” aspect of travel reporting that is deadline driven and has differing opinions connected with it. You can choose the format from print, radio, television or online. This should be an individually generated assignment. Print stories should be 750 words long and broadcast pieces should be 2:30 minutes. The specifics of online assignments should be worked out with Dr. Cleary.

The feature story may take the form of a personality profile, a compilation piece or something else that you propose. You can choose the format from print, radio, television or online. Print stories should be 750 words long and broadcast pieces should be 2:30 minutes. The specifics of online assignments should be worked out with Dr. Cleary.

The book review asks you to write a 750-word review of the three books assigned for the class including A Sense of Place, Travelers’ Tales: France and The Best American Travel Writing 2008. Specific guidelines are provided in a separate handout. This assignment should be individually produced and should reflect only your own work.

The story critique will give class member teams the opportunity to lead a 15-minute discussion on specific travel stories. The team will provide the class with copies of the story and will lead us in a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the piece. More information is provided on a handout. This is a team-generated assignment and grading will be based on the content and effectiveness of the presentation and successfully navigating through the team process.

The Amazing Race assignment will challenge your research skills and your ability to work as a team. In the graded part of the assignment, you will be asked to create a guide that allows others to effectively navigate around an unfamiliar location while providing them with a fun travel experience. Additionally, you and your team will then “field test” the guide created by another team, competing to see who can successfully finish the race first.

Disclaimer: While it is my intention to follow this syllabus and schedule as closely as possible, I reserve the right to make adjustments as necessary.

Revised 3/10/2009