Magazine Writing C80 Syllabus Prof. David Abrahamson Fisk 305B (847) 467-4159 Office Hours: Mon. and Wed., 12:00-3:00 The swiftly done work of the journalist, and the cheap finish and ready- made methods to which it leads, you must try to counteract by writing with the most considerate slowness and on the most ambitious models. And when I say "writing" -- O, believe me, it is rewriting that I have chiefly in mind. --Robert Louis Stevenson (1887), in a letter to an aspiring young journalist. Description The subject of this course is the art and science of writing for what George Washington once called "such easy vehicles of knowledge" -- the American magazine; its aim, to encourage you to develop both a journalistic understanding of contemporary magazines and the practical skills required of a nonfiction magazine writer. We will examine a variety of conceptual, research, organizational and writing (and rewriting) techniques, as well as the editorial premises and positions of a range of magazine genres. We will also survey the efforts of number of magazine journalists, analyzing the relationships between form and content in the literary currents of the profession. The course's work load is both substantial and substantive, and includes in-class writing assignments, the completion of two potentially publishable magazine articles and extensive readings. Readings Copies of most of the magazines we will study are available at either the Resource Center or the Library, and some assigned readings will be either handed out in class or available for photocopying on reserve at the Resource Center. You will, however, need to purchase the materials listed below, available in Fisk 101A. Also please note that the list of optional books is rather short. Three reasons for this: (1) It must be safe to assume that you already own the basic reference works of a magazine professional, e.g. a dictionary, a thesaurus, an almanac and an atlas, plus perhaps a desk encyclopedia and usage references; (2) truly useful books about magazine writing are surprisingly scarce; and (3) the books below were chosen to meet a stern test -- that they be valuable additions to your personal library for years to come. Required: The "Magzine Writing" course packet/binder, on sale in Fisk 101A. Recommended (but not required) readings you may also want to purchase at the University Bookstore include: Sheridan Baker, The Practical Stylist (7th edition) Theodore Bernstein, The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage Betsy Graham, Magazine Article Writing (2nd edition) Kogan Page, Le Mot Juste, (1981) Lauren Kessler and Duncan McDonald, The Search Ken Metzler, Creative Interviewing (2nd edition) W. Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style The course will be conducted in seminar fashion, so you must be prepared to participate in the class discussion. It is essential that you complete all the assigned readings for each class meeting. We may not discuss every reading in class, but you will be responsible for all the readings on the exams and in occasional in-class written assignments. Midterm Examination The midterm exam is scheduled for Feb. 5. We will discuss the nature and format of the examination in some detail well before the exam date. Writing and Critique Assignments There will be two formal article assignments during the term: Article "A" of 1500-2000 words and "B" of 2000-3000 words. Each will be preceded by a formal written story proposal. You will also be required to submit written critiques of your fellow students' story proposals and article manuscripts. In addition, there will be a number of written homework assignments during the term; these will include recitations, magazine analyses, etc. All assignments will be submitted in multiple copies (number TBA) and posted to a listserv, MEDILL-W, via e-mail. All proposals, manuscripts and critiques will be written to assigned deadlines that should be considered inviolable (see "Grading" and "Article Deadlines" below). Grading Because participation in the discussions forms a significant part of the course, attendance is mandatory. Missing class will lower your final grade, as will lack of preparation. If, for some very important reason, you will be absent from class, you must let me know beforehand. There are more than a dozen deadlines in the course for story proposals, manuscripts, critiques and other written assignments in this course. I think it reasonable to expect that, as a journalist, you do whatever is necessary to meet, without fail, without exception, every one of these deadlines. Each assignment deadline assumes the work will be turned in at the start of class, so promptness is essential. No late assignments will be accepted. The penalties: Two (2) absences and/or one (1) missed deadline will, no matter what the quality of your other efforts, lower your final course grade one full letter grade. You will find me unusually intolerant of excuses, explanations, etc. Your final grade in the course will be calculated from a combination of a number of factors. A grade for your participation in the class discussion, which includes your critiques, as well as class exercises, recitations and other in-class assignments, will be assigned, and it will comprise 40 percent of your final grade. Your articles will count for 20 percent of your grade, and each exam (midterm and final) will count for 20 percent. You'll note that your efforts in the classroom account for a substantial portion of your final grade, so quite clearly both class attendance and class participation are important. Course Schedule Jan. 6: Introduction: "In the Beginning, There Was the Word"; elements of effective non-fiction prose; writing vs. editing. Jan. 8: Analyzing Magazines: Persona and Structure. Readings: Stephen Crane, "The Man in the White Hat" and "Marines Signaling Under Fire at Guantanamo" from The Works of Stephen Crane. Recitation: Allure. Text Readings (optional): Betsy Graham, Magazine Article Writing, pp. 1- 32. Turn in Autobiographical Essay (two copies). Turn in four preliminary story ideas (50 words each, max.); two each for a 1500-2000 and a 2000-3000-word article (number of copies TBA). Jan. 13: Story Subject, Story Idea, Story Proposal. Readings: Richard Harding Davis, "The Death of Rodriguez" from Harper's Recitation: American Heritage. Text Readings (optional): Betsy Graham, pp. 33-75. Jan. 15: References and Resources. Readings: Lillian Ross, "The Yellow Bus" from New Yorker. Recitation: The Atlantic Monthly. Text Readings (optional): Graham, pp. 76-83; Lauren Kessler and Duncan McDonald, The Search, pp. 1-78. Turn in Story Proposal "A" (for a 1500-2000-word article). Jan. 20: Editorial Conference: "A" Story Proposals. Recitation: Details. Text Readings (optional): Graham, pp. 84-95; Kessler and McDonald, pp. 79-136. Turn in Story Proposal "A" critique. Jan. 22: Editorial Etiquette I. Readings: Ian Frazier, "Canal Street" from the New Yorker. Recitation: The Economist. Text Readings (optional): Ken Metzler, Creative Interviewing, pp. 1-49, 59-84; Kessler and McDonald, pp. 137-174. Jan. 27: Information Technology. Readings: Calvin Trillin, "Covering the Cops" from the New Yorker. Recitation: Esquire. Text Readings (optional): Metzler, pp. 85-142. Turn in Article "A" manuscript (1500-2000-word article). Jan. 29: Editorial Conference: "A" Manuscripts. Text Readings (optional): Sheridan Baker, The Practical Stylist, chapters 1-5, 10. Turn in Article "A" critique. Feb. 3: Editorial Conference: "A" Manuscripts (contd). Text Readings (optional): Baker, chapters 6-9. Feb. 5: Midterm examination Feb. 10: Historical Perspectives. Readings: Tom Wolfe, "The New Journalism" (Wolfe and Johnson, pp. 3-52). Recitation: Essence. Text Readings (optional): Graham, pp. 96-111; Baker, chapters 11-12. Turn in Story Proposal "B" (for a 2000-3000-word article). Feb. 12: Editorial Conference: "B" Story Proposals. Recitation: Harper's. Text Readings (optional): Graham, pp. 112-141. Turn in Story Proposal "B" critique. Feb. 17: Organization and Structure. Readings: Hunter S. Thompson, "The Hell's Angels, a Strange and Terrible Saga (Wolfe and Johnson, pp. 340-355). Recitation: Ms. Text Readings (optional): Graham, pp. 142-159. Turn in Article "A" rewrite (1500-2000-word article). Feb. 19: Style and Tone. Readings: Gay Talese, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" from Esquire; "Introduction" from Best American Essays, 1987 Recitation: The New Republic. Text Readings (optional): Graham, pp. 160-168. Feb. 24: Editorial Etiquette II. Readings: Sally Tisdale, "We Do Abortions Here" and "Talk Dirty to Me" from Harper's. Recitation: New York. Text Readings (optional): Graham, pp. 169-176. Turn in Article "B" manuscript (2000-3000-word article). Feb. 26: Editorial Conference: "B" Manuscripts. Recitation: The New Yorker. Text Readings: (optional): Kessler and McDonald, pp. 175-194. Turn in Article "B" critique. Mar. 3: Editorial Conference : "B" Manuscripts (contd). Recitation: New York Times Magazine. Text Readings: (optional): Kessler and McDonald, pp. 195-208. Mar. 5: Final Examination. Readings: Aaron Latham, "The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America's Search for True Grit" from Esquire. Readings: John Seabrook, "E-Mail from Bill" from the New Yorker. Recitation: Slate. Turn in Article "B" rewrite (2000-3000-word article). Mar. 10: Course conclusion, evaluation and review. Readings: Bil Gilbert, "Mirror of My Mood" from Sports Illustrated. Article Deadlines Jan. 8 Turn in four ideas Article "A" (1500-2000 words): Jan. 15: Turn in story proposal. Jan. 20: Turn in critique of story proposals. Jan. 27: Turn in manuscript. Jan. 29: Turn in critique of manuscripts. Feb. 17: Turn in rewrite Article "B" (2000-3000 words): Feb. 10: Turn in story proposal. Feb. 12: Turn in critique of story proposals. Feb. 24: Turn in manuscript. Feb. 26: Turn in critique of manuscripts. Mar. 5: Turn in rewrite Initial Assignments 1. Autobiographical assignment. Write an autobiographical essay. This is due the second class meeting, Jan 8. No more than two double-spaced typewritten (no faded dot-matrix, please) pages, 500 words or less, to include, but not limited to: Your age, nationality and ethnic background, hometown of your youth, parents and their occupations and influence on you, your major and why you chose it, jobs you've held, your future professional aspirations, your hobbies and interests, the three most memorable books you've read and what makes them so, the magazine you most admire (and perhaps might some day consider working for?) and why you believe it worthy of admiration. Please conclude your essay with an attempt to write one perfect English sentence that includes the word "love." 2. Recitation assignments. There are two types of recitations: one related to specific magazines, one related to specific magazine writers. You will be required to do both. Magazine recitations: During the term, you will be responsible for one or two brief (five-minute) class presentations on specific magazines. A sample magazine recitation is included below; please follow its format. In addition to a summary of the basic economic data (circulation, staffing, ad page rates, cpm, publishing history), recitations should include your analysis of its current editorial persona/premise/positioning and a brief biography of its chief editor. To prepare for these presentations, you should look very closely at perhaps six recent issues of the publication. You should also use both general reference sources (the Oxbridge Directory of Magazines, the Standard Rate and Data directories, ABC compilations, Who's Who, biographical dictionaries, etc.) and specific news sources in the daily and trade press. You may also want to call the publication for information. After your recitation, you will turn in two (2) copies of your presentation (typed, with bibliography) for evaluation. Allure American Heritage The Atlantic Monthly Details The Economist Esquire Essence Harper's Ms. The New Republic New York The New Yorker New York Times Magazine Slate Author recitations: During the term, you will also be responsible for one or two brief (five-minute) class presentations on the authors on the reading list. In addition to general biographic information, these recitations should include summaries of their journalistic careers (see sample below). To prepare for these presentations, you should use both general reference sources (encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, etc.) and specific biographies and/or works of literary criticism. The day of your assigned recitation, you will bring an original and two (2) copies of your presentation -- typed, with bibliography -- to class, and turn in two copies at the beginning of the class period for evaluation. Stephen Crane Richard Harding Davis Lillian Ross Ian Frazier Calvin Trillin Tom Wolfe Hunter S. Thompson Gay Talese Sallie Tisdale Aaron Latham John Seabrook Bil Gilbert 3. Sample Recitations a. Magazine Recitation Title: New York Woman Editor: Betsy Carter Owner: American Express Publishing (since 1987) Frequency: 10x Typical Book Size: 180 pages Circulation: 110,000 Cover Price: $2.50 Ad Rate (1xB&W): $3,150.00; CPM: $28.64 Founded: 1986 (ceased publication 1992) Audience: NYW has a unique bi-polar female readership; in effect, two median readers: a 25-year-old, over-worked urban professional with a strong feminist outlook, a large social conscience, but little genuine political activism; and a 50-ish suburban matron with a compelling but vicarious interest both in urbanity and the trendier aspects of city culture. The unifying element between these two readers is a certain discomfort with most traditional women's magazines. Persona/Premise: NYW is a college educated, 37-year-old female, married to a New Age, non-assertive husband and living in a charming West Village brownstone. She doesn't have a driver's license and drinks white wine spritzers. A bit world-weary and at times confused by her love/hate relationship with the city, her best defense is her sense of humor and a well-developed appreciation of the absurd; she sometimes sees herself as a slightly more chic version of the smart, funny character played by Julie Kravner, the sister on the television show, Rhoda. Though NYW genuinely loves ideas and thinks that most conventional women's magazines are at best banal and at worst demeaning, she is certainly not an intellectual. She occasionally imagines herself to be the female equivalent of Esquire (with all the literary pretension that implies), but she knows that, at heart, she is far more compelled by the explicitly emotional dimension of stories. She has a wide, almost manic, range of interests, and certainly enjoys the arts, theatre and museums the city has to offer. But despite a willingness to deal occasionally with heavier subjects, her real forte is coming up with truly original ways to talk about celebrities and celebritude. Structure: NYW is a departmentally driven magazine, but the dozen departments in each issue change somewhat from issue to issue. The most representative include "Power of the City," profiles of successful women; "Neighbors," a sort of celebrities-in-the-laundromat department; "Neighborhoods," NYW's way of looking at the city as a collection of hometowns; and "Loose Lips," a gossip column. Feature titles from a typical issue include "Their Town: Actresses Swoozie Kurtz and Judith Ivey Have an Intimate Chat," "Anna's Tangled Destiny: A Defiant Woman's Pride Defines Her Harsh Existence," "Getting Done: The Tyranny of Hairdressers," "The Eyes Have It: Mary Alice Williams Makes It Big at CNN" and "What We Won't Tell our Children: Forget About Sex, Today's Real Taboo Is Much Dirtier." There also is a separate "Style" section focusing on fashion. Graphics: A certain stylishness in its art direction is an important element in NYW's identity. The design is chic and elegant, but not arch or over-refined. Touches of four-color, bold headlines, and generous white space around the text give it an urbane look. It can be argued that, in a way, the magazine's art direction is more refined than its contents -- in a sense, it is an almost highbrow presentation of often somewhat middlebrow subjects. Editor bio: Betsy Carter: Born and raised in Miami (1946); B.A. University of Michigan (1967); editorial assistant, McGraw Hill (1967- 1968); editor of a Washington, DC bank's in-house magazine (1968-1969); editorial assistant, Atlantic Monthly (1969-1970); researcher, assistant editor and associate editor, Newsweek (1971-1980); senior editor, executive editor, senior executive editor, Esquire (1980-1983); editorial director, Esquire (1983-1985); editor in chief, New York Woman (1986-1992); in 1993, after the demise of NYW, Carter became executive editor of Harper's Bazaar, and in 1994 took over as editor of New Woman. Also freelance contributor to Atlantic, the Washington Post Magazine and Glamour. Bibliography: "American Express Company Is Hoping to Sell New York Woman Magazine," Wall Street Journal, 15 November 1991, sec. B, 5. Carmody, Deidre. "New York Woman Opens its Gold-Card Mine." New York Times, 1 July 1991, sec. D, 8. Carter, Betsy. Interview with author. New York, NY, 24 September 1992. Daniels, Lee A. "Hearst Gets Esquire Magazine." New York Times, 1 January 1987, sec. 1, 43. Donaton, Scott. "Amex Talks to Time Warner," Advertising Age. 11 November 1991, 1, 74. Dougherty, Philip H. "Promoting New York Woman." New York Times, 29 October 1987, sec. D, 26. Dougherty, Philip H. "New York Woman Magazine." New York Times, 17 April 1986, sec. D, 25. Fabrickant, Geraldine. "New Publisher Named at New York Woman." New York Times, 30 August 1988, sec. D, 39. Goldman, Kevin. "American Express Shuts Magazine, New York Woman." Wall Street Journal, 13 January 1992, sec. B, 6. Rothman, Andrea. "Amex Goes for the Glossies." Business Week, 23 October 1989, 66. b. Author Recitation Mark Twain (b. Samuel Clemens, 1835-1910) was perhaps the best known American novelist of his time. Though the early death of his father, a Hannibal, Mo. shopkeeper, left the family destitute, Twain had two advantages: One was his mother's belief in education. "A Harvard or Yale graduate of Twain's time would have regarded him as unschooled," wrote biographer Oliver Howard, "but he had ten years of formal schooling from age four through 14, far more than the average person of his generation." The second was his older brother, Orion, owner of the Hannibal Journal, who introduced him to the world of newspapers. Starting as a 12-year-old assistant on the Journal, Twain quickly learned the typesetting craft and became a journeyman printer, traveling as far east as New York before he was 19. When the Civil War closed the river trade in 1861, ending a brief stint as a Mississippi pilot, Twain went west. Having occasionally contributed satirical pieces to his brother's Journal, Walt Whitman's New Orleans Crescent and the Keokuk (Iowa) Post in his late teens and early twenties, Twain soon decided on a career in journalism. Presenting himself to the owner of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise in September 1862, he declared, "My name is Clemens, and I've come to write for the paper." Clearly, the raw, violent world of the Comstock Lode did not daunt him. Though short on actual journalistic training, he promptly found his way. Recalling his very first reporting assignment in Virginia City, Twain would later write, "I felt that I had found my legitimate occupation as last." Later he would work as a reporter for the Placer (Nev.) Weekly Courier, the San Francisco Call and the San Francisco Alta California, as a traveling correspondent for a number of California and New York newspapers and as a contributor to Harper's, The Atlantic and Galaxy magazines. Almost 25 years after beginning his newspaper career as a "printer's devil," Twain found his fictional voice, publishing his first narrative work, Roughing It, in 1872. This was followed by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court. These later novels not only established Twain's position as the master folk-writer of his era, but also secured the place of the colloquial voice of the Western frontier in American literature. Bibliography: Branch, Edgar M., ed. Clemens of the Call. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1969. Budd, Louis J. Our Mark Twain: The Making of his Public Personality. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. Connery, Thomas Bernard. Fusing Fictional Technique and Journalistic Fact: Literary Journalism in the 1890s Newspaper. Providence, R.I.: s.n., 1984. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1953 ed. S.v. "Twain, Mark." Hicks, Granville. The Great Tradition. New York: Biblio, 1967. Howard, Oliver N. and Howard, Goldena. The Mark Twain Book. New London, Mo.: Ralls County Book Co., 1985. Lauber, John. The Making of Mark Twain. New York: American Heritage, 1985. Sanborn, Margaret. Mark Twain: The Bachelor Years. New York: Doubleday, 1990. Weber, Ronald. The Literature of Fact: Literary Nonfiction in American Writing. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1980. 9