Feature Writing students flourish in JRN3120 class

An amazing class of young writers worked on honing their reporting skills in Special Lecturer Kate Roff’s fall Journalism 3120 class on Feature Writing.

This class is dedicated to writing human interest, trend, and review features for newspaper, magazine, and online publications. It is a study of the styles, categories, techniques, and structures of feature writing, and students interested in this class either need to complete JRN 2000 or have permission from the instructor.

Roff selected three of her students’ articles to highlight, and serve as representatives for the talent exhibited in the class of 18. The selected stories feature the work of Sarah Gudenau, Dalia Iskander and Blake Woodruff. Two of the stories have already garnered outside attention and been published. Gudenau’s story was published by the Oakland University student newspaper, The Oakland Post. Woodruff’s story was published by Metro Detroit media outlet Metromode.

For her story, Gudenau asked the question: “Is TikTok shrinking students’ attention spans?” In her investigatory piece, Iskander researched “Summer’s Real Estate Boom: A Bubble or a Trend?” and Woodruff documented the toll that COVID-19 has taken in his article titled “Direct care workers struggle through pandemic”.

Kate Roff, Special Lecturer, Dept. of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations, was impressed by the talent of her Journalism 3120 class this fall.

“I am really proud to share with the campus community some of the high-level thinking, research, writing, and reporting that our students displayed during the fall semester,” said Roff. "I have witnessed journalists in the field battling to get interviews during COVID-19 pressures, and meet pandemic restrictions, so to watch OU students overcome the same hurdles — in real-time — and come away with such a high standard of work is nothing short of impressive.”

“We have all wondered how this pandemic will shape the next generation, and I can attest to the growth in resiliency. These students give me hope for the future of my profession."

Learn more about the Department of Communication, Journalism and Public Relations by visiting their department webpage.