Story #6: Some Observations

There was one big problem about half of you had this week that will absolutely kill you in the real world: you missed your deadline.

And that really will kill you professionally: meeting your deadline is everything in the media business. 

The first reason is practical: of our first seven weekly stories, each is worth 7 percent of your final grade. That means missing just one story would make it impossible to get a 4.0 in this class, even if you 4-point everything else! And a 3.5 would be pretty much out of reach. It blows that big of a hole in your final grade, folks.

Now, the reason for that isn't that I'm trying to be mean; it's because in media, missing deadlines is an unforgivable sin. Have you ever flipped on the 11 o'clock news and seen the anchors say, hold on a minute; we're still finishing our scripts? Of course not. That's because anyone with even a whiff of missing deadlines is either fired right away or never hired in the first place. We must be perfect in this regard.

That means you're better off turning in a piece of hot garbage than nothing. Again, this reflects a real-world idea: an editor can work with a piece of junk and try to massage it to life, but an editor can't work with nothing. And either way, there is still a one-minute slot to fill for the news at 11. Your editor will be mad at you for turning in junk; your editor will fire you for turning in nothing.

Plus, in this class you're MUCH better off turning in less than stellar work than nothing! Everything we do in class adds to a points scale that determines our final grade. When we 4.0 we get 100 percent of possible assignment points; a 3.9 is 99 percent, a 3.0 is 90 percent, etc.

If you do the worst story imaginable but turn it in on time and get a 0.1 on the assignment -- I have never graded someone with a 0.1 but you never know -- they would still get 61 percent of assignment points. If you turn in nothing you get a 0.0 and zero points. So at a 0.1 you're closer to a 4.0 than a 0.0!

Again, that's to encourage a journalistic habit: never turn in nothing.

If you're having any problems and need an answer within 24 hours, email me at omars@msu.edu. If you are having issues you need fixed in an hour or two call or text me at 702-271-7983. If you need to go into detail about a need, schedule an appointment to see me at my office at CAS 360. Don't be shy; I'm here to help, remember?

Yes, I expect much out of you this summer. But I'm here to help you achieve that. I can't help you if I don't hear from you. And we're running out of time to turn things around if we're in a hole.

Next Tuesday is the deadline for the optional eighth and ninth weekly story pitches. If you missed a story or two this summer and don't want to flunk this class, I strongly suggest you send in two pitches by then and start working on those extra weekly stories.Good luck, everyone.