Writing assignment for 3 pages.
Assignment3
Robert C. Maynard—an African-American newspaper editor, publisher, writer, and social commentator; and the national leader for whom a leading journalism education institute is named—articulated the theory of the “fault lines.” According to Maynard, this theory is based upon the notion that our nation sees social events through the “viewfinder” of the five Fault Lines. His choice of term—Fault Lines—is no mistake. These are the geographical spaces that shift, move, and often open up in fissures across the land. They are, of course, where earthquakes happen. The Fault Lines Maynard defined include:
race
class
gender
geography
generation
These components of our social experience and realities make up who we are, and serve as the lenses through which we see and interpret social reality. For journalists (but in reality for anyone no matter his or her profession), they also create the potential hazards of bias and loss of objectivity.
Because I believe that the first order of business for any new journalist is to know oneself and then know the community, our first responsibility is also to acknowledge where our potential for bias actually lies. That means we need to inventory where our own unique fault lines lie so that we can use that knowledge to help us make decisions about sources and questions that help us avoid falling into the cracks.
For this first assignment, I am asking you to write a brief, descriptive essay that examines your personal background according to the fault lines. Your goal is to not only evaluate your race, class, gender, geography, and generation, but to also anticipate how the realities of your own experiences may lead to bias in those directions.
Your goals are: to describe your own fault lines, and choose one to carefully illustrate how that fault line could cause you blindness and therefore risk in your reporting.
This paper should be about 3 typed and double spaced pages, but use the space intelligently. While I do want to see description of your history/background for each of the fault lines, save the latter part of the paper to really develop one of those areas as something you know you need to pay attention to.
This is really one of the few assignments you’ll do for me that won’t require outside sources. You are the primary source. So write from the heart and head on this one.
I’ll be looking for the following as I evaluate your work:
Logical organization—don’t be afraid to use tools like boldface and/or headings to help cue me as to the topic you are discussing.
Signal shifts in topic using good transitions
Clear, fluid prose—because this is your first writing assignment in this class, it is also my first introduction to your writing skills. I’ll be looking for appropriate word choice, logical connections, honesty in tone, and a reflective stance.
Good mechanics—A journalist, just like any writer, earns credibility if they know the basics of good grammar, good sentence structure, and good spelling. Yeah, that’s why we have copy editors, but you don’t have that luxury in this class, so I expect your work to be mechanically error-free.
Clear argument—You are working to illustrate your perspective, your stance know yourself, your limitations, and how you might address those in the field.
This paper is worth 20 points.