And we're off!

Welcome to Newzhound and Public Affairs Reporting. Your first assignment, due by 9 a.m. Tuesday, is to write a 100-word intro for the Krepinevich speech and give me your first and second choices for beats you'd like to cover this semester. If you're feeling a bit rusty on the speech story, remember that the lead should reflect the most newsworthy aspect of the speech, not the fact that someone your readers don't know spoke on a this or that topic. We call those "topic leads," and they're deadly dull. Look for something the speaker said that was controversial, startling, different from what you've heard before on the subject.

When you've finished, don't forget to edit your copy and make sure it conforms to AP style.

Newzhound makes its debut

Here goes for a newsblog for Journalism 331, Public Affairs Reporting. We'll use this as a vehicle to post news about the course, discuss issues and post the best student stories from the class. Once things get up and running, look to this log daily for announcements, deadlines and online resources of interest to beat reporters. Of course, your comments will keep the stew bubbling, so fire away. Who knows? This might even be fun.