Out-of-Class #1: Your Topics ...

... include:

Greek life pros and cons
Drones at MSU
Water shortages out West
Police bike patrols in Flint
Tuition hikes at MSU; why?
Do Detroit schools adequately prepare students for college?
Urban redevelopment in a struggling town
Road work headaches in West Bloomfield
What a proposed road project will mean to another town
Study-abroad; how does it benefit you?
"Hard" water in MSU dorms
Minimum wage increase in Los Angeles; what does it mean?

Overall, I think it's a very strong set of topics. These are all ones that can be locally reported (the ones in out-of-area locales are in places where students taking this class actually are this summer); they all regard trends and issues in that they're not hooked simply on the fact that something's happening; they seek context through looking at pros and cons and who's affected and in what ways. Really nice bunch.

A couple of you did NOT send in a tip sheet. Big mistake. Each of these out-of-class stories are worth around 10 percent of your final grade, so these are the projects on which we have to be perfect. The deadline clock is already ticking (see related blog post); you need to get me a tip sheet ASAP. I'm not available on Saturdays or Sundays so if you get me a tip sheet after I leave on Friday, you'll lose a couple of more days to get started. You will also be docked on your final assignment grade for missing the tip sheet deadline.

Still, it's better than blowing off your assignment. If you miss your story deadline, you will blow a hole in your final semester grade that will be so severe you will be hard-pressed to do better than a 2.5, at best and potentially much worse, in this class.

That's by design. In journalism, an editor can work with a piece of junk story that's submitted before a deadline. An editor can print, post or air something that's never turned in. And in this business, along with getting facts wrong it's an unforgivable sin.

Let's get on it, folks.