English 1102, Spring 2017,
Foryour fourthessay, you are asked to write a “Fake News” (FN) report, creating a story that seems real for some readers. You will follow up by analyzing your methods and proposed audience, and conclude by reacting to the FN phenomenon in general.You will also prepare a short presentation to share with the class. You should first read all the linked pages in the Materials for Essay Four, Fake News Report folder in Handouts on Bb. Then you might check through one or two of the articles linked to in the Additional Materials for this unit on Bb. You may wish to read a few real news stories to understand a reporter’s style. Finally, you should search through your social media and/or the web and try to find a FN article to share.
Your written report will consist of three sections.First, you will write a 500 – 700 word news story.We will discuss this process in class, but you should follow the genre expectations of creating an enticing headline, a tagline, and an interesting lead. Be sure to cover the 5W’s and 1H as in all news stories. You may use visuals, but you must caption them. Thenarticulate the style of lead you chose and why, and also say whom you believe your audience to be. Concludeby discussing an article of FN that you found along with your thoughts and reactions on FN matter in general.
Your presentation will be very brief and informal, less than ten minutes in length please. There will be time for discussion after each presentation, but basically, you need to create a 3 – 5 slide PowerPoint for your presentation; it does not need to be fancy. Please review the presentation materialsposted in the Essay Four folderbefore creating your PowerPoint. Your goal is to inform (and/or entertain) your audience while revealing the interesting aspects of the text/article that you found. These presentations earn up to 25 points of the total project grade and should be relaxed but practiced and planned. Some pointers follow.
Qualities of Effective Presentations:
• grab the viewer’s attention
• help the viewer remember (makes ideas stick)
• make issue real for viewer
• stir emotions with concrete image
• clarify the information or issue
Possible Article/PostLocations:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Websites, blogs, opinion forums
• Instagram
• YouTube
Each of the following portions contribute to this assignment’s grade:
• Presentation(25 points or 2.5% of assignment)
• Written report (100 points or 10%of assignment— FN story = 50 points, Analysis of methods = 25 points, Reflection = 25 points. Entire total together is 125 points or 12.5% of course grade)
Your presentationmay include relevant visualsor media, but you must include captions for any suchelements. Typeyourreport in 12-point font and double-space it; it should be at least two pages in length.Placethe standard MLA left-justified heading at top left of first page, and put your last name and page numbers on all subsequent pages (top right in header).Properformatting, grammar, and mechanics will be considered highly in the grading of this essay, as will all criteria mentioned above.