Summative assessment
(a) 1 x academic essay (1250 words) - 50% [Learning Outcomes 1 & 4]
(b) 2 x political columns (c. 600 words each) - students must produce two columns in a different style (from broadsheet, tabloid, mid-market, parliamentary sketch, humorous, local sage, socialcommnetary) [Learning Outcomes 2 & 3]

Formative learning
Independent learning via guided readings, literature searches via Web and library.

Origins of the political commentator; pamphlets and pamphleteers; the columnist as propagandist - war-time columns; constraints on comment - press barons, editors and politicians; the impact of television on the role of the political columnist; the modern columnists - from Cassandra to Littlejohn, from Fairlie to Marr; workshops exploring the art of writing a political column; the parliamentary sketchwriters; broadsheet columnists; tabloid columnists; the commentator in political journals.

2 Lecture/Workshops (2 hours\ - 4 hours
To introduce key theoretical and historical developments

10 Workshops (2 hours) - 20 hours
Skills developed will include self and peer assessment and communicating ideas

Guided independent reading - 40 hours
Developing research skills and independent learning

Assessment Preparation - 86 hours
Preparation of political columns for discussion in workshops (20 hours), research and writing up of essays and columns (66 hours)

Folder of political columns (provided by lecturer)
The Newsroom
Internet
Newspapers and Journals

Steven Barnett & Ivor Gaber (2001) Westminster Tales: The 21st Century Crisis in British Journalism
Jeremy Tunstall (1996) Newspaper Power: The New National Press in Britain
Keith Waterhouse (1995) 'Climbing the column' in British Journalism Review, Vol. 6 (3)
Richard Keeble (1998) The Newspapers Handbook
Dan Nimmo & James E. Combs (1992) The Political Pundits (New York: Praeger)
Brian McNair (2000) Journalism & Democracy: An evaluation of the public sphere (London: Routledge)