JOURN73104 Spring 2026
I hope you’re enjoying the break. Don’t forget: The first version of numbers story due: Monday April 6 @ 11:59 PM. It goes here. Shelby and I will hustle to get them back to you. The revision will due on Sunday April 19 in this folder.
Work on your first person stories. No revision, pay attention to grammar rules — only possible grades: A, C, F.
Due date for first-person pieces: Sunday April 12. Goes in this folder.
Friday March 27 @ 11:59 PM: final draft of your profile with photo due date. Here’s the folder.
How to prepare for class on March 31: Bring topics you might want to write about for first-person piece.
Read: “I Love Hitler,” Politico’s exclusive story on young Republicans racist text and Teresa Wiltz’s follow up: “I Don’t Regret My Vote,” Also, skim/read my reported first-person story on life expectancy in Chicago (if you haven’t already read it).
Down the road: First version of numbers story due: Monday April 6 @ 11:59 PM. It goes here.
Reminder: No formal class on Tuesday 3/24. Instead show up for your 15-minute advisement slow. The schedule is below.
Your profile story (with photograph of your subject, correctly shot): Due Friday 3/27 @ 11:59 PM. It goes in this folder.
Your numbers story, first draft: Due Monday April 6 @ 11:59 PM. It goes in this folder. It should be 800-1000 words and have at least one “real person” and two experts. You must write a story lede and including a photo of some kind will raise the chance of publication.
Thank you!
Reminders….
Monday March 16: First draft of your profile due @11:59 PM. Goes in this folder.
Tuesday March 17: No class (sorry, I’ll be away). Numbers story pitch. Goes in this folder. Use my AIDS pitch as a guide; don’t dial it in. Think about 800-1,000 words.
Tuesday March 24: No formal class, show up for your speed advising slot. (See times, below)
Please put your draft in this folder by Monday March 16 @ 11:59 PM.
Your final version goes in this folder by Friday March 27 @ 11:59 PM.
Reminders:
(Headline) Clara Villarosa: Still Down to Business
(Story Lede) Clara Villarosa remembers exactly when she hit rock bottom in her career: September 3, 1980. That was the day her boss called her into his office and fired her from her position as vice president of human resources of Colorado’s largest bank.
“I closed the door of my bedroom and cried my eyes out,” says Villarosa, who was then 52 and had spent many years climbing the corporate ladder. “I was crushed. I couldn’t believe I’d lost my job.”
(Transition sentence) But, as she says, you can’t keep a good woman down for long.
(nut graph; this part explains why the reader should care/what the news is) Villarosa picked herself up, dusted herself off and kept stepping. With her severance in hand, she reinvented herself as an entrepreneur and opened the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore a few years later. She would grow it into the country’s largest Black bookstore. Now 85, a time when most people have stopped working — and after a second, successful store in Harlem — she’s reinvented herself again, this time as author of the new book, “Down to Business: The First 10 Steps for Entrepreneurship for Women.”
(end nut graph with direct quote) “My personality was too big for the confines of corporate America,” says Villarosa. “The very traits that had irked my colleagues— being a pushy, assertive, independent thinker, fast on my feet, with a tendency to stir things up— were the qualities of which I was most proud. I hope others can recognize their own gifts through my story.”
(body, the first graph here should be about background of the person) Villarosa was born and raised and attended college in Chicago. Her own mother, Mollie Dee Alexander, started as a hat maker, then went to beauty school and worked as a hairdresser. In her 50s, she became a realtor, later a psychic. Villarosa says that though writing doesn’t come naturally to her, midlife change-up runs in her family. “Given the ways my mother pivoted, big life changes aren’t such a big deal to me,” she says.
Villarosa decided to write her book after getting so many basic questions from women and some men who wanted to open businesses. “People came to me with great business ideas, but what they needed was hard-core, real-world advice, information that was straightforward and easy-to-understand,” Villarosa explains. “I have lots of that after so much experience and so many years at it.”
“Down to Business” highlights a number of Harlem entrepreneurs. Villarosa says she did this by design, honing in on small businesses with less than $1 million a year in revenue, some with less than $100,000. “This vital community was a microcosm of what was happening in cities, suburbs and small towns all over the country,” she explains. “This is where I live, am entertained, and shop, so these are dynamic entrepreneurs from my community. Because I know them and they know me, I was able to sit and talk intimately about their businesses. “
(comment from someone else) Izzy Best, a would-be entrepreneur, says that the advice in “Down to Business” proved invaluable as she put together a business plan to open a video production company. “Clara is an inspiration, especially at her age, and all of her suggestions were practical and grounded in reality,” says Best, who lives in Harlem and plans to launch next year. “The book didn’t sugar coat anything but allowed me the courage to take entrepreneurial baby steps.”
Retired from the day-to-day running of Hue-Man in Harlem, Villarosa says she’s already got her eye on another career. “I’ve been doing workshops at banks for entrepreneurs to publicize the book,” says Villarosa. “Being a career coach might be my third act.”
(kicker) She flashes her smile. “Or is it my fourth?” she says. “I can’t even keep up with me!”
Reminder that the final version of your newsy feature story is due on Friday, Feb. 27 @ 11:59 PM. (Earlier is GREAT, too.) Please put your revised pieces in this folder by the deadline. And raise the chance of publication with a photo; it needs to be horizontal, not vertical.
Here are the powerpoints from class.
And for class on Tuesday March 3:
French novelist, critic and essayist Marcel Proust, 1871-1922
We will gather remotely on Tuesday Feb. 24 @ the usual time, 9:30 AM
Linda Villarosa is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Feature Writing
Time: Feb 24, 2026 09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 829 5610 1722
Passcode: 578697
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My front and backyards!
First draft of your newsy feature is due Sunday 2/15 @ 11:59 PM. It goes in this folder. The final version will be due on Friday 2/27 @ 11:59 PM. Post the final in this folder. Here are the guidelines:
Some people have very specific food preferences. “I hate strawberries,” says Linda Villarosa, a New York City based journalism professor. “I don’t like red food or little seeds. I know it’s weird.”
Here’s a super basic newsy feature — I formatted it for you (and edited out the things I don’t like).
Headline Kids? A Growing Number of Americans Say, ‘No, Thanks.’
Subhed A new study breaks down the reasons more U.S. adults say they are unlikely to have children.
Story Lede
When Jurnee McKay, 25, imagines having children, a series of scary scenarios pop into her mind: the “horrors” of childbirth, risks associated with pregnancy, a flighty potential partner, exorbitant child care costs.
Also on her list of fears: abortion care restrictions. So Ms. McKay, a nursing student in Orlando, decided to eliminate the possibility of an accidental pregnancy. But the first doctor she consulted refused to remove her fallopian tubes, she said, insisting that she might change her mind after meeting her “soul mate.”
“For some reason,” she says, “society looks at women who choose not to make life harder for themselves as crazy.”
Next week, she will speak with another doctor about sterilization.
Like Ms. McKay [nut graph with a transition to link story lede], a growing number of U.S. adults say they are unlikely to raise children, according to a study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center. When researchers conducted the survey in 2023, 47 percent of those younger than 50 without children said they were unlikely ever to have children, an increase of 10 percentage points since 2018.
Why no kids? Fifty-seven percent said they simply didn’t want to have them. Women were more likely to respond this way than men (64 percent vs. 50 percent). Other reasons included the desire to focus on other things, like their career or interests; concerns about the state of the world; worries about the costs involved in raising a child; concerns about the environment, including climate change; and not having found the right partner.
[earlier Pew study to bulk up evidence] The results echo a 2023 Pew study that found that only 26 percent of adults identified having children as extremely or very important to live a fulfilling life. The U.S. fertility rate has been falling over the last decade, dipping to about 1.6 births per woman in 2023 — the lowest number on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And it is less than what would be required for the population to replace itself from one generation to the next.
[Anastasia Berg, researcher: Her quote supports nut graph data] The decision to raise kids is shifting from “something that’s just an essential part of human life to one more choice, among others,” said Anastasia Berg, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine.
[Dr. Berg’s study and her quote ends nut graph] She and Rachel Wiseman, a magazine editor, surveyed nearly 400 people for their new book, “What Are Children For?” and found that many younger people without children were cautiously weighing the pros and cons, worried about how a child would affect their identity and their choices. Many were “averse to embracing the kinds of risks that having children implies,” said Dr. Berg, a millennial and a mother of two.
[body starts here]
[point to support your central idea: not a surprise b/c working women tired of the burden according to Jennifer Glass research] America’s waning desire for children should not come as a surprise, said Jennifer Glass, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research, published in 2021, showed that about 70 percent of American mothers would be their household’s primary earner at some point during their first 18 years of motherhood. At the same time, they also devote more time to caregiving than men.
[quote from Dr. Glass] “It’s really an impossible burden,” Dr. Glass said. For some, she added, it can feel as though “there is no way out except a birth strike.”
[Another point: people who don’t have kids seems to be happier than parents] In addition, research has shown that in the United States, people who aren’t parents are generally happier than those who are. Dr. Glass’s 2016 study,which examined the happiness gap in 22 countries, found that the disparity was larger in the United States than in any other industrialized country.
[Another point: having kids = expensive; non parents have more free time and money] In the Pew study, most of those surveyed said that not having kids had made it easier for them to afford the things they wanted, make time for their interests and save for the future.
[Another point: infertility prevents having kids] Others simply don’t have the option of birthing and raising children. Thirteen percent of those surveyed by Pew who were under age 50 said they didn’t plan to have children because of infertility, and 11 percent noted that their partner or spouse did not want kids.
[More on infertility — waited too long; just didn’t happen] The study also included responses from adults 50 and older without kids. The older respondents generally said they didn’t have children because “it just hadn’t happened.”
[This example supports infertility point]“I never actively made a choice to not have children,” said Therese Shechter, a 62-year-old filmmaker in Toronto who spoke to child-free women in the United States and Canada about reproductive freedom and the pressure to have children in her recent documentary “My So-Called Selfish Life.”
In her case, she had a list of things she wanted to accomplish, but being a mother wasn’t on it. Even so, she assumed that one day it would happen.
“I just always felt like that was the thing hanging over my head,” she said. By the time she entered her late 30s, “I realized that, no, I actually didn’t have to do that.”
[Counterpoint: not having kids uncommon] Trey Simmons, 54, said being child-free in his hometown, Augusta, Ga., made him a rarity.
“Most people think I’m off my rocker,” he said. After he and his wife divorced — she also did not want children — he had difficulty finding someone else to date who did not already have kids. Finally, he met someone online who lives in Detroit, and he plans to move there.
“I’ve just never been fond of children at all,” he added.
[Adjacent point: men have fewer qualms and prefer parenthood] On average, research has shown that men appear to have fewer qualms about parenthood. Earlier this year, another Pew study found that among young adults without children, the men — not the women — were more likely to want to be parents someday.
[this expert supports the point about men v women] Corinne Datchi, a professor of psychology at William Paterson University and a couples therapist, said that in her private practice, she was seeing a growing number of women in their 30s who were starting to question whether they should ever have children, while their male partners seemed more open to the idea.
She noted a “level of mistrust,” where the women feel skeptical that their male partners would be willing to sacrifice as much as they would to help raise their families. But apprehension about losing their sense of self and worries about what pregnancy and childbirth would do to their bodies also play a role.
[swing back to the opening example as kicker. Always nice/easy to end with strong quote] As for Ms. McKay, who has already made up her mind to remove her fallopian tubes, she said she would feel relieved when she no longer had to think about the implications of becoming pregnant or raising children.
Getting the procedure “will be a weight off my shoulders,” she said. “I think I’ll feel at peace.”
Christina Caron is a Times reporter covering mental health. More about Christina Caron
Please post your fishing story lede in this folder by Tuesday 2/10 just before midnight. I will read them to make sure you get the idea of writing this kind of lede. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
Headline: Fishing reels in a growing number of enthusiasts
Write a Story lede: (story lede generally ends with direct quote from the subject)
Write a transition (if necessary to segue between story lede and nut graph):
Nut graph: A post-pandemic surge in participation in fishing continues to attract record numbers of Americans to the water, notes a new survey from the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF). Some 57.9 million U.S. participants ages 6 and older picked up a rod and took a cast in 2024, an all-time high. This growing group of enthusiasts includes 21.3 million women — the greatest number on record.
(Nut graph generally ends with a direct quote:) “Fishing is a family-friendly way to enjoy spending time outside,” said RBFF CEO Dave Chanda “We are excited to see people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and walks of life taking part in the sport.”
What’s due Friday 2/6 @ 11:59 PM: your final feature pitch, about 100 to 200 words. It should look like an abbreviated version of my HIV/AIDS in the South pitch, and be sure to add links to the news/evidence/data that grounds your pitch. Please put it in this google doc and make it shareable to Shelby and me so we can get back to you with comments and suggestions. Feel very free to post it before the deadline.
What to read for 2/10: “His wife was dying, his federal job crumbling. It tested his faith — in God and Trump,” The Washington Post. If you don’t subscribe to the Post (I’ve quit several times), try this link.
What’s due in class on 2/10: We will discuss story structure. In preparation, come with an outline/reporting plan for your article in digital form. It should have:
CUNYJfeaturewriting 