What is Intensive Journalistic Writing?

In the summer of 1988, 15 English teachers certified to teach journalism met at Marquette University under the auspices of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. They were selected to create a course which would receive English credit, be of an Advanced Placement or honors English level and use journalistic modes to teach composition.

This Intensive Journalistic Writing approach was supported by studies of Dr. Jack Dvorak at Indiana University. In 1989 a second group of 12 teachers returned to Marquette for training, and in 1990 a Virginia-only IJWI was held at Virginia Commonwealth University. Since the third year of the course, students enrolled in ijw courses taking the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Examination have exceeded the scores of those students trained in a more traditional manner.

Let us emphasize that Intensive Journalistic Writing is an Advanced Placement English Language and Composition course which uses journalistic techniques and models to teach composition. It is not meant to be a production class. There is more than enough content to teach every year without newspaper production vying for attention.

Many of the newspaper editors, as well as yearbook and literary-art magazine editors, take the course. So do students who would never find time to take journalism. Several students who are pursuing careers in journalism or editing come from this latter group - they discovered they could be writers when they were free to explore their world.

Is there an Advanced Placement Journalism course?

In Virginia there is.

The State Department of Education gave their full support in 1989. J. Kenneth Bradford, then Associate Director for English Language Arts/Reading, wrote to Virginia English supervisors on November 27, 1989, the following:

I know that you are well along with your plans for the 1990-91 school year’s course offerings, but I would urge you to consider adding to your course listing a new and exciting English class titled Advanced Placement Journalism.

A national foundation, the College Board, and the Virginia Commonwealth University have joined efforts to create this new course. Virginia has been selected by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, a foundation supported by the Wall Street Journal, as a model for statewide implementation of this full-year academic English course. …

This new course should not be confused with existing journalism courses that are sometimes used to produce school newspapers and yearbooks. This course is fully academic and equates to other Advanced Placement English composition courses endorsed by our office. Advanced Placement Journalism has a substantial emphasis on the reading and analysis of literature, both traditional and contemporary. That study of literature will be uniquely combined with daily writing that employs a variety of journalistic styles.

The course is open to sophomores, juniors or seniors and can be designed to fit into your existing curriculum, either as a new coursed, as a substitute for a similar English composition course, or in combination with literature and composition courses. In fact, it opens the option of having three AP English courses — Language and Literature, Language and Composition, and Journalism — available at a school over grades 10-12.

Schools may use course numbers for the standard Advanced Placement English Language and Composition course, for Advanced Placement Journalism (title recognized in Virginia) or for an elective fine arts credit.