Qualification - Diploma in Publishing And Journalism

ONLINE COURSE PUBLISHING AND JOURNALISM

" Thanks for the tips you gave me on the journalist job... I was given the job of writing an article... the experience was great and at least I will be published for the first time"
- Gavin, studying journalism

Modules

Note that each module in the Qualification - Diploma in Publishing And Journalism is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.

Forms of Writing

Writing comes in many forms, all of which can be creatively employed and manipulated by the creative writer, regardless of the genre (novel, poetry, travel guide etc) in which she or he is writing.  One form of writing is rarely used on its own. Common forms of writing are:

• Reflection - an internal process of reviewing and making meaning from one's own experience;
• Exposition or Reporting - covers a wide area of writing. Events, thoughts and situations are exposed or shown to the reader, as in textbooks, magazine articles or news stories, but also when the narrator or a character takes an informing role. One very important form of reporting or exposition for writers is description, and to emphasise its importance, we will consider it separately;
• Description - is the reporting of information to convey an impression or feeling about a place, person, thing or idea, rather than facts. Description can be a small part of a particular narrative, or the main part of it. A lot of good travel writing is descriptive, as is a lot of fiction. Consider the heavy overlapping of description and exposition in this description of a circle performer by E.B. White (not in one of her novels, but in a newspaper article!):  
  • The richness of the scene was in its plainness, its natural condition - of horse, of ring, of girl, even to the girl's bare feet that gripped the bare back of her proud and ridiculous mount. The enchantment grew not out of anything that happened … but out of something that seemed to go round and round with the girl, attending her, a steady gleam in the shape of a circle …
• Explanation - is a process of leading another person to a particular understand or perception through information and reason, rather than through persuasive language. It includes instruction, rules and guidelines, argument, and analysis. Explanation and argument were very widely used in literature in previous centuries. Remember Portia's speech, 'The quality of mercy', in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice?
  •  The quality of mercy is not strained
     It droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven
     It is twice blessed: it blesseth him that gives
      and him that receives ….
• Argument  - aims to persuade the reader to change their viewpoint or attitude about on idea or situation. It is often quite rhetorical in nature. Rhetoric is the art of persuading through emotion, but using elements of logic or reason (often quite illogically). Most political speeches are rhetorical in nature. Argument typically presents two points of view, then builds a case for one of them, and either refutes or overwhelms the other.
• Narration - is the most widely used form of human expression, so much so that it is believed that, as a species, we are programmed to tell stories. Narration tells a story of an event or a series of events that take place over time, no matter how brief the time or how short the story. The two short excerpts about a puppy at the very start of this lesson are narrative, as is this sentence: "Every time she looked at him, she remembered her dead mother, until she could no longer look at him." This is a narrative sentence because of the sequencing in time suggested by "every time" and "until".

What's Different About this Diploma?

• Options to choose electives that you don't find in similar diplomas elsewhere.
• A longer, more in depth diploma than what is offered at many other colleges (Compare the duration -2100 hours). Study more, learn more, go further in your career or business.
• A stronger focus on learning (some colleges focus more on assessment than we do -but we believe that what you learn is what makes the difference)
• Exceptional tutors...compare the qualifications and experience of our staff (see staff profiles at ... http://www.acsedu.com/about-us/our-staff.aspx)  ....after all, it doesn't make sense to choose where to study if you don't first know who will be teaching you.