Literary Journalism

As you have learned in this topic, Truman Capote's nonfiction novel In Cold Blood had a lasting effect on literature. The narrative reporting style of literary journalism reflects its influence in both Into the Wild and The Color of Water. Books such as these employ writing styles that make nonfiction just as captivating as fictional works.

For this topic application, you will have a chance to create your own piece of literary journalism that could be published in a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical. Your journalistic article will portray a real life event in the nation or your local community using the conventions of literary journalism such as scene-by-scene construction, dialogue, first-person viewpoint, and character motivation. As a literary journalist, your focus is not only on presenting the facts but telling a story in an intriguing way using elements of narrative fiction.

To begin your literary journal piece, review national or local news sources and conduct research to gather factual information about a person or event which you are interested in reporting. If the person or event is in your local community, you may even be able to conduct an interview and incorporate the story of your first-hand investigation. Whichever story you select, be sure to retell that story in an article of at least five hundreds words in the style of literary journalism. Feel free to use some artistic license in the narrative style of your writing to make the story interesting, but make sure your information is professional as well as factual and accurate.

You will need to use resources outside of this course to complete this assignment, so please submit a Works Cited document with your assignment submission. If you need assistance, visit the Developmental Module for information on citing resources. Before you begin the assignment, review the Literary Journalism Article Rubric to help you complete your assignment and understand how your work will be graded.

Once you have completed your literary journalism article, please submit your work to the dropbox.