Key dates
- Monday, Oct. 26: Launch
- Monday, Nov. 16: Draft of both due via email
- Monday, Nov. 30: Final version of both due via email
The assignment
Pretty straight forward. Because we want this class to have real-world applications, this assignment is simply your résumé — once in draft form, once in final form — along with a three-paragraph pitch email that explains why a publication should be interested in one of the pieces you’re writing in this class. I like Jason Fagone’s advice on the pitch email and recommend you follow it. If you’d like one example of a résumé, here’s mine.
Three short paragraphs will do it.
First paragraph: Hi, I’m so and so, and I have an idea I think would work well for you.
Second paragraph: Here is the idea, briefly, and here is why I am the appropriate person to write it.
Third paragraph: I’m happy to tell you more if the idea intrigues you. A bit more about me: [links to clips, or in the absence of clips, a tiny bio].
(After I posted this, I asked for editors to weigh in on Twitter, and a few made this important point: these three paragraphs should convey that you’ve read the publication you’re pitching and that you know what sorts of stories they need. The pitch has to be tailored to them. Editors don’t like it if they sense that the idea is generic and could be pitched anywhere. As an editor from Slate put it, the pitch should “include a real sense that you understand how the piece would fit into MY magazine and not some other magazine.”)
Rubric (250 points total)
- Résumé | 50 percent
- One page, written for media jobs
- Reverse chronological timeline
- Include work experience, education, honors and references
- Pitch email| 50 percent
- 500-word maximum
- Uses clear, conversational language
- Demonstrates knowledge, understanding of target publication
- Deductions
- Fact errors: -50 percent
- Spelling: -10 points
- Grammar, punctuation, AP style: -1 point each
Seth Prince 