Looking forward to hanging with whoever shows up to see me in the classroom between 10 – noon on Tuesday for cookies and conversation.

And the final version of your final piece is due on Friday May 23 @ 11:59 PM. It goes in this folder.

I used to outsource the cookie making, but my (lovely, brilliant) daughter is a little messy!

Here’s the template for writing a book proposal

This is my book proposal for “Under the Skin”

As class winds down, focus on the final feature — worth 30 percent of your grade. Due dates:

Sunday May 11 @ 11:59 PM. First draft of your final newsy feature due date. It goes in this folder.

Friday May 23 @ 11:59 PM. Final draft of your final newsy feature due date.

Instructions for final newsy feature:

•You must write a headline, subhed and story lede for the assignment

•Follow feature story format exactly. In case aliens have wiped your mind clean and you’ve forgotten everything, refer to this 2-slide powerpoint.

•Pay extremely close attention to the grammar rules. Reminders in the two-slide powerpoint, linked above. Also, I care about these things.

•Make sure the “news” or trend is included in your nut graph.

•Interview at least five people who care about the issue – a mix of experts, advocates and affected people.

Very much looking forward to reading the pitches for your final articles. Reminder that this final, newsy feature should be about 1500 words, have at least 5 sources and will make up 30 percent of your grade. The stronger your pitch, the easier it will be to report and write the story.

Your pitch is due on Sunday April 27 @ 11:59 PM. Please post it in this google folder. It must have:

1. A headline and (also, preferably) a subhed.
2. A news angle of some sort — why this article at this time or what’s new/what’s changed? It’s critical to include evidence to back up the central argument of your story. The pitch, at best, can serve as a nut graph.
3. A reporting plan. Doesn’t need to be totally detailed but you should be thinking about who those 6 sources are.
4. Here’s an example of a pitch for a story about growing numbers of human-animal interactions for you to follow. Note, the amount of evidence and data to back up the central idea.

Personal essays: I’m looking forward to reading them. They can be reported, like my article on life expectancy. Or just personal. 800 words. The due date: Wednesday April 23 @ 11:59 PM. Please put them in this folder.

Here’s what’s expected in the personal essay — and grading rubric:

1. You must have a headline and a story lede.
2. Please pay attention to your grammar. I am hoping NOT to see passive voice, the “to be” verb overused (or at all, especially there is/there are) or repetition of words.
3. This is how I will grade:
   • A: you write a personal essay with a headline, story lede, you’ve followed the grammar rules and hit the deadline.
   • C: you’ve forgotten the headline, you skipped the story lede and/or you paid zero attention to the grammar rules.
   • F: you didn’t turn in the assignment or missed the deadline without an explanation.

Here’s the NYT vegan recipe — easy and so good

Enjoy yourselves!

Reading for Tuesday April 8: Frances will choose and lead the discussion

We will discuss first person writing

Come with topics you want to write about for first person story piece.

Final version of numbers story due: Wednesday April 16 @ 11:59 PM.

Wednesday March 19 @ 11:59 PM. First draft of numbers pitch. Instructions for the pitch, here. Place your pitch in this folder before the deadline.

Tuesday March 25: no formal class; instead, 10-minute speed advising. See your scheduled in-person slot, here.

Wednesday March 26 @ 11:59 PM: final draft of your profile with photo. Here’s the folder.

Monday March 31 @ 11:59 PM: first draft of #s article. Here are instructions and format for your numbers story. It should go in this folder.

What you need to know for our #s story. Your piece should be around 800 words. You’ll need to interview a minimum of one person (real person) and gather lots of evidence. The due date for the first draft is: Sunday March 30 @ 11:59 PM.

Numbers stories are generally formatted this way; here’s the published piece.

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.

Abortion care restrictions are also on her list of fears. 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 said, “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 the survey was conducted 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.

When asked why kids were not in their future, 57 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). Further 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 said having children was 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. This is 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, who is 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] For some, having children is simply not an option: 13 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 said that it was their partner or spouse who 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. For them, the top reason they hadn’t had children was 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, it was the men — not the women — who 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.

There is a “level of mistrust,” she said, where the women are skeptical that their male partners would be willing to sacrifice as much as they would to help raise their families. But there is also apprehension about losing their sense of self and worries about what pregnancy and childbirth would do to their bodies.

[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

Reminder that on Tuesday March 25, we will NOT have regular class. Instead you will meet with me 1 on 1 in room 442 for about 10 minutes. We can discuss anything you’d like: final version of profile, #s story, your grade, whatever.

And remember that the final version of your profile (with photo and extra quote) will be due the next day, Wednesday March 26 @ 11:59 PM. It goes in this google folder.

Here’s the schedule: