Info on upcoming assignments

Campus speaker assignment

Assignment: SJSU hosts numerous speakers throughout the semester. I want you to attend an on-campus event involving a speaker or speakers and writer a feature story on it. At least three people should be quoted in your story including the main speaker. Check the Campus Events section of the SJSU.edu home page for listings of upcoming speakers.

You can talk to people attending the event and get their reaction for additional quotes. Story deadline: Nov. 5 before 11 a.m. Word count: 300-350 words. (Important: Let me know ahead of time which event you plan to intend to attend). Point value: 50 points.

NPR Fresh Air Terry Gross

Below is an example from a feature story on  Terry Gross’ radio interview with rock star Bruce Springsteen. You will have an upcoming assignment where you listen to a Terry Gross interview and write a feature story on what you heard. This is a catchy beginning for the feature on her interview with Springsteen. This is a good way to start your story.

As a young musician coming up in the early 1970s, Bruce Springsteen played in the bars of Asbury Park, N.J., a hardscrabble urban beach town full of colorful characters.

The town fired his imagination and inspired him musically, but still he found himself longing for more.

Springsteen tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he knew that if he was ever going to make his mark on the larger world, it would be through his words.

"I looked at myself and I just said, 'Well, you know, I can sing but I'm not the greatest singer in the world. I can play guitar very well but I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world,' " Springsteen remembers. "So I said, "Well, if I'm going to project an individuality, it's going to have to be in my writing."

Springsteen went on to record the album Born To Run in 1974. Its title track paved the way for his mainstream popularity.

The album also lends its name to his new memoir, in which Springsteen reflects on how he and his music were shaped by home, roots, family and community.