Students explore the role of a journalist in society. They enhance their knowledge of Canadian history and politics, world events and economics to better understand and report on current issues that include Indigenous peoples, gender bias, environmental, diversity and health concerns. Students analyze the importance of context in journalism. Current events are discussed and explored with a view to understanding how they should be covered with a critically minded and fully informed approach.

Students develop reporting skills with a focus on the courts, Indigenous issues and equality. They examine key legal and ethical issues facing Canadian journalists. The focus is practical and explains what a journalist needs to know to avoid legal problems (e.g. defamation). Students are taught what strategies should be adopted in dealing with ethical dilemmas associated with traditional and social media. They will also further refine their research and interviewing skills.

Students advance their skills in radio news and podcasting. They examine how to effectively use their voices to engage their audience. Students conduct interviews and gather natural sound on-location to create original content. They practice advanced writing and audio editing techniques and explore how background sound, sound-ups and interview clips can make stories more compelling. Students use these skills in their live newscasts on S@Y Radio and apply peer critiquing techniques to develop themselves and others. Students will learn to identify what makes for good audio story subjects and sources, and how to pitch their ideas to an outlet.

Students build on the writing skills they developed in semester one of The Writing Workshop - Mechanics. Students learn to develop stories and write for multiple formats including TV, radio, digital (online, mobile / social media). Students write with focus, length, story construction and tone in mind while writing for news, sports, entertainment or commentary for TV, radio and digital content.

All journalists investigate. Phone calls, in-person interviews, and digital research are the everyday stuff of storytelling. But as British media theorist Hugo de Burgh put it "It is often said that journalism is the first rough draft of history; by contrast, investigative journalism provides the first rough draft of legislation." This course examines the tools used by a watchdog press as it attempts to hold institutions, business, government and the powerful accountable, mainly for crime, fraud, exploitation, discrimination and other abuses.

Students will build on news gathering techniques to conduct in-depth investigations into issues of social relevance. Advanced journalistic tools to locate, analyze/interview and incorporate difficult-to-find facts and people are studied. Fact-checking, legal and ethical verification, and multimedia story structuring for investigative journalism are explored.

This intensive, 7-week course is a multifaceted opportunity to hone on-camera performance and interviewing skills. Students will examine the key areas of stress in their performance, from the psychological to script quality and connection to content and audience. After auditions, students will design a bespoke program for addressing individual performance challenges. Many aspects of the process - voice, delivery, physicality, story selection, script personalization, working with interactive on-air content, interviewing, handling guests and specialized reporting - will be addressed.

In this course students develop advanced skills in a sports and entertainment format. They work together to produce timely content for TV and social media by rotating through various roles. Emphasis is placed on performance, original writing and content production. Students learn how to write and perform advanced highlight packs, voice overs with direct joins to sound-ups and round-table discussions with anchor / reporter debriefs. They learn advanced adlibbing and entry level play-by-play skills. This is a portfolio development course.

Students develop their own demo website using Wordpress. They decide which reports, live hits and in-studio work best highlight their skills. Students learn how to write a strong resume and cover letter specific to industry needs. They experience mock job interviews to prepare for the market. Students explore the opportunities in the freelance market and how to create their own career path.

This intermediate level Accent Reduction course is designed for students who may have difficulty communicating clearly and effectively in spoken English. The course helps students with accent reduction through the identification of specific pronunciation problems. In this level, students learn correct pronunciation of English vowel and consonant sounds, as well as spelling patterns through the use of an English dictionary.

This advanced level Accent Reduction course is designed for students who are fluent in English but wish to acquire a more standardized North American speech pattern. The second level of Access Reduction emphasizes the development of sound production, rhythm, stress and intonation patterns in "real life" communicative contexts.

In this course, students develop proficient editing skills that enable them to identify grammatical weaknesses in their own writing. Through a focus on error analysis and guided practice, students will learn to become independent self-editors and be able to apply the strategies acquired beyond the duration of this course.

Students learn the rules of English grammar in a comprehensive, easy-to-follow manner. The course begins with a review of sentence parts, followed by an in-depth explanation of sentence structure, and culminates in a practical review of stylistic conventions in business and professional writing.

Effective and practical writing skills are important for successful communication in business. Students learn how to compose business correspondence including emails, memos, letters and reports with a focus on routine and persuasive messages. A review of basic grammar is also included.

Designed to meet the needs of business people who want to improve their written and verbal communication abilities, this course provides practical skills in writing core business documents and presenting information in a variety of settings.

This course teaches important skills for effective written and oral communications of technical information. It distinguishes between academic and technical (job-related) writing and guides the students through proven steps to enhance the effectiveness of their various written technical communications. The course also provides a practical approach for planning and structuring technical oral presentations. Students get to use this approach and to practise these techniques.