News

DCU's Journalism degree to put more emphasis on writing skills

DCU's BA in Journalism programme is to place greater emphasis on writing skills to help first year students overcome gaps in their grasp of basic English, including spelling, grammar, punctuation and word usage.

The amount of student time and feedback to students on this module is being increased by fifty percent because lecturers have noticed that a growing number of students are having difficulties.

Patrick Kinsella, Head of the School of Communications at DCU, said that the measures were vital if graduates are to meet the high standards of the journalism profession.

Kinsella, who is also chairman of the BA in Journalism programme, said that lecturers were spending an increasing amount of time correcting and improving the basic writing skills of the students.

Kinsella said: "CAO applicants for DCU Journalism must have a B in Honours English in the Leaving Certificate, and points for journalism rose last year to 445, so we're still getting very bright, creative and able students.

"But despite their great exam results, many students still have significant weaknesses when it comes to the basics. Punctuation and spelling are problematic for some, while others have gaps in their application of grammar or use words wrongly", he said.

"Common errors include mixing up 'quite' and 'quiet', 'libel' and 'liable', 'where' and 'were', 'there' and 'their', 'principle' and 'principal'", he added.

"From this autumn we'll be putting more effort into improving accuracy and awareness of grammar, and ensuring that as professional journalists, our graduates produce flawless copy", Kinsella said.

The changes in DCU School of Communications modules will mean more feedback on writing assignments in first and second semester, while in the second semester, the time students will spend on News Reporting is to be doubled.

This development follows last year's OECD PISA report on young people's numeracy and literacy skills, which demonstrated that Ireland fell from 5th place amongst 39 countries to 17th place between 2000 and 2009. One in six students in Ireland were also estimated to have poor reading skills.

This is one of two major changes introduced to the communications courses at DCU. Last week, the school announced, the introduction of a 'performance' strand in its BA in Communications degree, which will focus on the creative aspects of communications, including drama, in addition to the current options of audio, video and photography. The new module will also include the study of puppetry as a method of communication.