Looking Ahead

Today we were able (aka required) to take two different "mini-courses" designed to give us a preview of what will be available in the spring ('cause that's what we're thinking about three weeks into the fall semester). I chose Science Reporting and Investigative Reporting.

Science Reporting was taught by a brand-new faculty member named Jonathan Weiner. Turns out he's the author of "The Tangle," a very cool piece that I vividly remember from The New Yorker. Prof. Weiner does what I think I want to do: write books and other long-form pieces of journalism, although by the end of the class, I was pretty sure I didn't want to take the class he's going to teach in the spring, mainly because it's going to be newspaper-style writing, and I think I'll be all set with that after RWI. So it was time well spent, I guess -- it was a pretty efficient way to rule out one of the options for next semester.

Investigative Reporting was taught by a long-time adjunct instructor and even-longer-time Village Voice writer named Wayne Barrett. It was a great mini-course because it was exactly that: a distillation of a much longer course into easily digestible highlights. I don't know if I'll take his class in the spring (depends on whether I get into Sam Freedman's book-writing seminar), but I'm definitely interested in investigative reporting in general, and I think I have a natural affinity for it. Prof. Padwe used to teach the Investigative Reporting class before he semi-retired, and I know it would have been great to take it with him. I'll just have to see how it plays out.

Meanwhile, the three-day weekend has begun!

Quotes of the day:

This is not easy to do no matter what. -- Jonathan Weiner

If you can write about science well, you can write about anything. -- Jonathan Weiner

All good investigative reporting starts with reasonable hypotheses. -- Wayne Barrett

We are detectives for the people. -- Wayne Barrett

Most investigative reporting in the U.S. is local investigative reporting. -- Wayne Barrett

Write when you have something -- don't wait to write until you have everything. -- Wayne Barrett

You can always find another story but can't reclaim a reputation. -- Wayne Barrett

It's remarkable what you can learn from public records. -- Wayne Barrett

Never lose a sense of outrage. -- Wayne Barrett