Syllabus: Business, Finance & Economic News

Instructor: Bret Putnam

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Class Location: Zoom 

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Course Profile: Introduction to American print journalism, with study of three legacy newspapers: The Wall Street Journal, TheNew York Times, and The Los Angeles Times.

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Course Goals: Perfect reading comprehension and fluency, especially in the area of business, finance and economic news. Practice expressing complex and nuanced ideas in conversation and in writing. Improve pronunciation and reduce accent. Deepen knowledge of contemporary American culture, with a focus on geography, social history, politics and economics.

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Format: Each week students will be assigned the reading of three news articles, one each from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. In class we will read and analyze one or two stories in depth. Students may improve their writing skills by completing (optional) writing assignments.

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Course Materials: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times. The instructor will send students the news stories by email weekly.

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Course Calendar (Subject to change, depending on news events):

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Week 1) Public Health

Week 2) The Market

Week 3) Technology

Week 4) Art and Music

Week 5) Politics;  Editorials and Op-Eds

Week 6) Obituaries; writing assignment: news story, opinion piece or obituary

Week 7) Crime and Criminal Justice

Week 8)  Economics, Finance, Trade

Week 9) International News

Week 10) Science, Climate and the Environment