News Synopsis Assignment

For one week during the term (assigned during the first class meeting), each student is to summarize 3 or 4 articles, each with a single paragraph from news articles from the previous week. The articles should come from the popular media (as opposed to trade magazines) -- for example, "The Post Gazette", "Newsweek", and "The Economist", are acceptable sources, while "Byte", "Datamation", and "Wired" are not. Be sure to include the source (periodical and date) for each synopsis. Also, you should write an editorial of approximately 500 words on one of the articles to be presented orally.


An example of the news synopsis assignment


Schedule for news synopses