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2012 Summer Reading List

Posted May 9th, 2012 in Bridgewater State University by davecopeland

Update, 5/9/12, 6:19 pm: This auto-published before I could finish it. Ill update it eventually but for now I figure the partial list is better than hiding it until it’s done.

Spring semester finals ended yesterday at Bridgewater State University….

Sometimes I have students who want to keep learning over the summer. For students who have taken classes with me in the past, will be taking classes or working on the Comment with me in the fall, or for anyone who is just looking for something good to read, I offer the following 2012 Summer Reading List…

Just Good Writing

On Writing Better

Journalism

Reporting Know-How

Social Media Basics and Best Practices

General

Twitter

Facebook

Google+

LinkedIn

Blogging Basics and Best Practices

Content Creation
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A different kind of final exam: The Twitter Scavenger Hunt

Posted May 2nd, 2012 in Bridgewater State University by davecopeland

To test the digital reporting skills they developed over the course of the semester, I assigned my Intro to Journalism students a Twitter scavenger hunt instead of a traditional final exam. They had a week to collect quotes and photos on campus and post them to the #fin240 hash tag.

Here’s the full assignment.

And here’s a link to a Storify highlighting some of the words and pictures they collected at Bridgewater State University.

This is as scenic as BSU gets. Taken outside Moakley/Hart Hall by Sean Kierman.

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In case you read anything about me today…..

Posted April 28th, 2012 in Bridgewater State University by davecopeland

Adam Kissel of FIRE

The Boston Globe probably has the best take about what has been happening to the student newspaper I advise, and what my response has been thus far. The why, however, is perhaps best characterized by the introduction I gave for Adam Kissel of the Foundation For Individual Rights In Education when he spoke on campus Friday in response to the recent controversy:

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One Of My Students Was Attacked Because She Wrote In Support Of Gay Marriage

Posted February 16th, 2012 in Bridgewater State University, Journalism by davecopeland

This opinion piece about Prop 8 is from the college newspaper that I serve as faculty adviser to at Bridgewater State University. The student who wrote this article was attacked on campus after being confronted by a man and a woman who asked her if she had written the article, which appeared on the opinion page of this week’s paper.

Here’s the spot news article the students posted on Facebook tonight. They’ll be updating their Web site tomorrow and as the story develops.

Fortunately, she is okay but understandably shaken up. If you’re on the BSU campus and have information on the incident, which happened around 6 pm tonight in the Chapel Parking Lot, please contact the Bridgewater State University Police, who are investigating it as a hate crime, at (508) 531-1212.

If you believe in free speech and that people should be able to express their views and opinions without the threat of violence — regardless of how you feel about those views or opinions – please share/retweet/+1/like this post.

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Better Than The Book? “Everything Must Go” Vs. “Why Don’t You Dance?”

Posted January 24th, 2012 in Books, Bridgewater State University, Movies, Teaching by davecopeland

This blog post is a slightly-fleshed out version of the notes for a lecture I gave in my “Better Than The Book?” class at Bridgewater State University this evening. The class explores films based on books, short stories and news articles and tries to help students understand the two different mediums. It is a writing intensive class designed to fill Bridgewater State’s second-year seminar class.

Today was our first class meeting: after going over course policies I introduced tonight film, “Everything Must Go” starring Will Ferrell and based on the Raymond Carver short story “Why Don’t You Dance.” Students are also encouraged to tweet in and out of class and particularly during screenings. For more insight check out the #299ENGL hash tag on Twitter.

This is a film class. Or maybe you signed up for it because you thought it was a literature class. Either way, you love films or books, and, hopefully both. But to me, this is really a class about storytelling.

My theory — or I should say a theory I share with a lot of people who are a lot smarter than me — is that storytelling as well as story-listening are nearly genetic, something we’re born with as a way to make sense of a big and, at times, fucked up world that we live in.

Here are some things I know about people who write and tell stories for a living. These are broad generalizations, but every time I share them with a group of writers, there’s a lot of head nodding:

  • They suck at math and science

  • They suck at math and science because they’re uncomfortable with the concept of infinity. They like “the end” and “happily ever after.”

  • The concept of infinity is closely related to death, so writers tend to obsess on their own mortality more than other people.

  • The concept of a big, complex world is also intimidating to writers, because writers tend to be control freaks.

  • And the best way to control the world is to create it: whether they are writing a short story or a trilogy of complex films, writers are trying to grab a small piece of the world and control it. This holds true for the newspaper reporter trying to get all the facts straight in a routine, Friday night shooting story on deadline, the blogger who likes to over-generalize in summing up the current state of the world and the novelist who creates plot twists so thick and complex you wouldn’t dare question their realism

Whether we consider ourselves storytellers is irrelevant. Writers and filmmakers make stories and we consume them because — I would argue — we need them. We need the universal truths within these stories to know we’re not alone in this world, that there really is a human culture that transcends across cultures and makes us feel a little more connected and a little less unique.

If you read the course description, the premise of this class is that books are always better than the films they’re based on, but — spoiler alert — I’m going to fast forward to our class when we’ll screen “Leaving Las Vegas” and tell you that premise is not true: sometimes the film is better than the book, sometimes the book is better than the film, and sometimes both are great on their own merits. And a lot of times, the book and the film suck, but I have tried to avoid those films and books as I designed this class. All of this comes down to personal taste: you may like a film better than the book when I say the book is better, and while all of these are films and books I either like or outright love, you’re allowed (and even encouraged) to hate them.

This is really a class about story-telling medium: for young writers starting out, one of the most frequently-heard (and discouraging) reasons for rejecting your book idea is that it works better as an article (non-fiction) or short story (fiction). Sometimes, stories work better as books. Sometimes they work better as films. Often a good story is just something you tell over drinks at a bar or around a campfire. Picking the medium — and understanding the advantages and disadvantages of telling a story in that medium — is crucial for people who tell stories. But it also can help those of us who consume stories.

We’re going to start this class by playing Hollywood producer. I’m going to give you a short story to read and then I’m going to break you into small groups. This is your movie studio, and a big-name actor has told you he (or she) has bought the film rights to this short story.It’s your job, as a group, to figure out how you’re going to make it into a film. Be creative: is this Hollywood blockbuster or small independent film? Who are you going to cast in the key roles? Who do you want to direct it? Most of all, give me a beginning, middle and end — does this film have a happy or sad ending?

Have them read Why Don’t You Dance?

Have them present their film ideas.

Intro film “Everything Must Go,” noting that it is based on the story they just read. 

Trailer:

John Updike, who has a style often compared to Carver’s, defined a grown man as “a failed boy” and that is what I think you will see in this film. But this is a sad failed boy: not the guys from the Hangover, and not even the Will Ferrell you’re used to seeing in a lot of other films. One of the things we see a lot ion American literature and film is the American Dream gone horribly wrong, and you will see that, both literally and figuratively in this film.

This is about a functioning alcoholic, which Roger Ebert called “the kinds of alcoholics who break your heart: They mean to do well, they’re not mean or violent, but over the years, the need for booze has moved into the foreground.” Nick has done a lot of bad things and you will see him do some more throughout the film, but think about whether you like him or not at the END of the movie, and think about why you feel this way.

Talk about Kenny, and his flaws: Spike Lee’s “Magic Negro;” see Ebert review.

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Mass Censorship

Posted December 7th, 2011 in Bridgewater State University, Journalism, Newspapers, Umass by davecopeland

After the night I had Tuesday in my role as faculty adviser to the Bridgewater State University Comment, it seemed appropriate to revisit the last column I wrote for my own college newspaper at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1996. The importance of free speech — and its importance both in newspapers and in college campuses — is one of the few views I hold that hasn’t changed much since I was in college:

“Mass censorship”
from the Massachusetts Daily Collegian
May 15, 1996

by Dave Copeland

“Censorship cannot be employed selectively; when anyone’s freedom of speech is denied, everyone else’s is threatened.”

- Alan M. Dershowitz

“And stupid stuff, it makes us shout.”

- line from the song “UMass” by the Pixies.

A few weeks ago I was sitting in on a friend’s radio show and we got to talking about a guy he had met who had one of those crappy jobs you inevitably end up taking at one point or another to make your way through school. His job wasn’t as nasty as shoveling out septic tanks or as tedious as telemarketing, but it wasn’t the type of thing you’d want to do for the rest of your life, either.

One of us made a comment on the air along the lines of “That guy’s job sucks.” We didn’t say the guy sucked, we didn’t say his mother sucked — if anything, we were sympathizing with a guy whose job entailed sitting alone in a barn on the outskirts of campus. But no sooner had we made our comment then the phone line lit up with a complaint from a caller who felt we were being unfair to the guy.

“I think what you said about that guy is pretty disrespectful and you probably shouldn’t be saying it.”

And this is the stupid stuff at UMass that makes people shout. One of the only reasons why I am looking forward to getting away from here for good is to finally be liberated from a consolidation of people like this caller who feel it is their right to tell others what they should be saying and thinking.

Pretty much anything that is considered controversial that manages to find a way not this paper gets there only after the already overworked editors ask the question “Will our office get stormed if we run this?” and “How can we cover our asses on this one?”

Two years ago the Collegian was heavily criticized for running a pro-life advertisement that clearly stated it did not reflect the view of the paper. Last year, people couldn’t believe the paper would run an anti-Semitic letter from a retired professor. Another racist letter from a member of the campus community never made it to the pages of the paper this semester.

A satirical piece I wrote on Amherst “townies” last year was greeted with a slew of letters asking “How could the Collegian run this?” even though it explicitly states at the top of this page that the opinions expressed here are those of the individual writer.

No newspaper should be subjected to demands to suppress information. It’s contrary to their only public purpose. As a society, we have created a cruel and twisted world, and for me, information has been the only defense I’ve had against the bitter truth that reality doesn’t always have a happy ending.

But there remains an abundance of people in these parts who are brimming with dopey optimism and would rather not know that there are indeed racists, bigots and other wretched people thinking bad thoughts not just in this world, but right here in the “happy” valley. It is a lot easier to nix the thoughts and ideas of the wicked and mean than it is to actually deal with them.

Other denizens of the valley run around like the cast members of “The Simpsons,” making a knee-jerk crisis out of every little issue before they’ve even taken the time to get information on it. “If we don’t like it, we’re not gonna think about it! We’re going to storm Mayor Quimby’s office!”

The First Amendment is the only right you have that ensures the protection of all your other rights. To attack that right in any shape or form is to attack your own freedom.

When I leave next week, the greatest advantage I take away from UMass is the ability to express myself and speak freely in a way that is drastically more effective than plastering my politics in the form of lame cliches on the bumper of my car. To me, that is the price of admission I paid to toil away here for eight semesters and five years.

And if there is anybody out there who wants to take that right away from me, I’d have to say that they suck.

Dave Copeland is a Collegian columnist.

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Course Preview: Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop

Posted December 2nd, 2011 in Bridgewater State University, Journalism, Teaching, Writing by davecopeland

This, among other surprises, is what’s happening in the English 371 class I’m teaching at Bridgewater State University next semester:

 

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Building demolition at Bridgewater State University

Posted October 11th, 2011 in Bridgewater State University by davecopeland

This was the first building I taught in at Bridgewater State College (now University) in the fall of 2007.

If my guess is right, our classroom was right behind where the bucket of the backhoe is (and, by this writing, probably a pile of rubble by now).

I’m almost certain all of the students — some of whom later told me they were worried about how nervous I was on that first day — have moved on. Even the freshmen I had that year (none were in that class) should have graduated by now if they stayed on track.

Question is, when do I move on?

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The Sidewalk Memoir Project

Posted September 16th, 2011 in Bridgewater State University, Teaching, Writing by davecopeland

Graffiti worth reading is rarely written on walls worth writing on.

Like a lot of teachers, I make an annual trip to Target and Staples in August. But I always like the look on the clerk’s face when I respond to the question: “What grade do you teach?”

“I teach college writing,” I’ll say. “Now can you tell me where the Play-Doh is?”

“For your kids?”

“No, I don’t have kids. I’m also going to need to know where you keep your sidewalk chalk.”

I’m teaching an 8 a.m. session of Writing Rhetorically this semester, which is Bridgewater State’s equivalent on Writing I. You need to be a little innovative when you’re trying to hold a class’s attention that early in the morning, so here’s what we ended up doing Thursday. The exercise — which doubled as a lesson in brevity as well as audience — ended up going much better than I thought it was.

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Saving a College Newspaper, Part One

Posted August 15th, 2011 in Bridgewater State University, Journalism, Newspapers, Teaching by davecopeland

First in an occasional series.

I was asked to serve adviser for The Comment, the student-run newspaper at Bridgewater State University for this coming academic year. Yes, they still exist, but most are, sadly, like The Comment: they have seen better days and are kept alive with student activity fees because it’s an easy checkbox to tick off when it comes time for the school in question to renew its accreditation. But in terms of learning outcomes, in terms of teaching students critical thinking skills they can move to their career of their choosing and, most importantly, as a place to serve as the minor leagues of big-time, professional journalism, the typical student-run newspaper is about as effective as using a handful of pine needles as toilet paper.

Too many college newspapers look something like this:

  • A “news section” which amounts coverage of events that often happened a week or more ago.
  • An arts section where students review albums, video games and films long after they have been released and scant coverage about cultural events on campus and in the surrounding community.
  • A sports section where coverage is given to more popular (read: men’s sports) and the rest of the page is filled with “columnists” doing really poor Bob Ryan impersonations.
  • There is an op-ed page which can run the gamut from an aspiring politician writing a very detailed analysis of the debt-ceiling debate to a trite rant about why professors should allow students to complete homework in class.
  • And, of course, a polic log that is often the most interesting part of the paper but also more or less a list of stories that would make for great reading if someone took the time to report them.

And those are, frankly, the better college newspapers. Because accreditation requirements still call for a print product, the typical staff is composed of people who feel that they have paid their dues and moved into the editor slots and feel they should be rewarded with the most byline real estate. There are very few college newspapers that I don’t have a clique-like atmosphere so — like the mainstream papers they mimic — longevity usually trumps talent, ingenuity and reporting chops.

There are other problems. At schools without a journalism department there is usually an utter lack of consistency in style and often very little concept of basic news writing and reporting. Ethics are also seldom a priority: Past sins at The Comment have included staging photos and editors responding to “reader” polls when few readers actually responded.

Readership has been dismal and The Comment, like most college papers, can never truly perform the community watchdog role because its funding comes from the administration. That’s not entirely that fault: on a campus like BSU, where about half the students commute, it’s harder to penetrate. And frankly, a lot of college students just don’t care about news. Period,

I have been asked to be adviser before, mainly because the student editors need an adviser if they want to attend a conference for student journalists in New York City each spring. In the past when I have suggested maing some changes to reflect what is happening in the industry and develop a product that has better campus penetration than eight percent, the offers have been taken away.

So last year I had my own students report on campus events and we routinely scooped The Comment, including on what was probably the biggest story of the year, a campus-wide smoking ban (including residence halls) that takes effect this fall.

So here’s why I decided to accept when the incoming editor asked me if I’d be the adviser for this year:

  1. I like the new editor. I had Mary Polleys in a feature-writing class and she “gets” it. She doesn’t want to put her name on a paper she can’t be proud of and she wants to make more positive changes than I frankly think is possible in a single academic year. But if her goal is to make the paper better and better serve the readers and staffers, that’s something I think I can help her with.
  2. It may not be perfect but The Comment is the only game in town for students who want to get clips to get an internship that will be so crucial for getting a job. That’s ultimately why I teach so being against them is being against my own goals.
  3. If I truly believe newspapers (or some form of newspapers) are worth saving, might as well start from the bottom and build up. There’s only so much an adviser can do, but it’s better than doing nothing.

From time to time I’ll be updating you on the overhaul, talking about what has worked and what hasn’t worked and trying to answer my own burning question on whether or not college newspapers are worth the effort anymore. Stay tuned….

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