Archived Webinar: How Students Can Tell Better Stories

Vince Filak

One of the most frustrating things media instructors face is the lack of quality writing that their students produce. While instructors aren’t looking for the next Shakespeare, they are looking for at least a noun and a verb. Each year, the gap seems to grow between expectations and realities, leaving instructors frustrated and students confused. At the end of the day, instructors often feel as though their students are horrible learners, they are horrible teachers or both of these things are true.

The fact is, those students don’t stink and neither do you. It’s all about finding a way to get students to think differently about their writing and getting them to see how best to communicate.

To that end, watch the webinar below, “Improving Journalistic Writing: How Students Can Tell Better Stories.” Guest speaker Vince Filak, a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, details how instructors can help students improve their writing skills. Filak, the author of Dynamics of Media Writing: Adapt and Connect and Dynamics of News Writing and Reporting: Foundational Skills for the Digital Age, has worked with a wide array of news, PR, advertising, integrated web management and photography.

In this webinar, he summons up Big Macs, house fires, the Muppets and the Simpsons to break through the fog that consumes your students and help you help them. He cites four of his famous “Filak-isms” to create memorable examples and ideas for ways to get your message through to your students.

This webinar aired on September 21, 2018.