This document provides advice for teaching business journalism courses to avoid common rookie mistakes. It outlines strategies for focusing classes on practical skills like writing earnings stories, using active learning exercises to promote student engagement, gradually increasing assignments in difficulty, and emphasizing key financial concepts like bonds, economic indicators, and corporate SEC filings. Sample class elements are proposed, such as discussing a company's income statement, navigating the SEC website to find filings, and connecting economic data to retailer performance. The goal is to give students basic financial literacy and skills in retrieving and reporting on business information.

1. Avoid Rookie Mistakes
Title Slide
Rob Wells, Jan. 3, 2013

2. Rob
Wells
Adjunct Faculty, University of Maryland,
Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Ph.D. student
Reynolds Visiting Professor of Business
Journalism, University of South Carolina,
Columbia.
Former Deputy Bureau Chief, Dow Jones/
Wall Street Journal, Washington, D.C.
Reporter for Dow Jones, Bloomberg,
The Associated Press

3. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Active Learning
Exercises For Business
Journalism Classes
How To Create A Basic
Business Reporting Class
Strategies To Focus
Classes
A Sample Finance Class
Session

4. Rookie Mistake #1:
Slow Down
They Won’t Get It
The First Time!
Be Patient.
Teach From Several
Angles

5. Rookie
Mistake
#2:
Don’t Overreach
Focus on Financial Literacy
Explore The Business Journalism
Genre
Convey Practical Skills: Earnings
Stories
Don’t Expect Students to Produce
Print-Quality Work in First
Semester

6. My Course Objectives
1-Corporations
2-Markets
3-Economic Policy

7. Course Elements
1-Basic corporate financial statements, SEC
filings.
2–Differences between stock, bond and
currency markets.
3—U.S. economic data, impact on markets,
economic policy.
Cont…à

8. Course Elements
4–Business regulation, documents, lawsuits
5—How The Fed, White House, Congress,
Corporations Shape Economic Policy
6—Quick Overview of Trade, International
Markets

9. Rookie
Mistake
#3:
Limit Your Lectures
Get Them Talking

10. Promote Active Learning
--Ungraded quizzes
--Fact Boxes: Split Up
Complex Material
--Blog entries
--In-class writing
exercises, ungraded,
instructor assists

11. Fact Box Example

12. YOUR TURN:
WRITE DOWN TWO ACTIVE
LEARNING EXERCISES YOU’VE
USED IN CLASS.
HOW WOULD YOU APPLY THESE
TO BUSINESS JOURNALISM?

13. Corporate Research
Step-by-Step
—Extract and write a basic earnings story by the end of the
semester
—Achieve basic financial literacy and be able to understand
an income statement
—Know how to navigate and retrieve basic information
from SEC filings
—The concept of public disclosure and its role in the
securities markets

14. Company Research
1) Assign students companies to follow
during semester, ones they understand.
McDonald’s. Target, Boeing. etc
2) Check Income Statements for
Curveballs
3) Avoid Banks, Foreign Cos.
4) Stick To Four SEC Forms: Major Events,
Quarterly, Annual, Proxy (8-K, 10-Q, 10-K, Def
14a)

15. Your Turn
Go To SEC’s Website, Retrieve Apple 10-Q, Check Income
Statement, Management Discussion and Analysis
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/
companysearch.html
Discuss: Active Learning Ideas.
--Financial Concepts?
--Business Concepts?

16. MATERIALS
1) Jimmy Gentry handout on
finance
2) “Guide To Money & Investing”
--Morris. 2011 Lightbulb Press
3) SEC Edgar website
4) Google Finance website
5) Investopedia videos
6) Daily WSJ, AP coverage

17. Rookie Mistake #4:
Move Gradually
Tip: Set aside two weeks to drill and build
confidence, a lightly graded test to focus their
attention and then the assignment.
Tip: Work with them on ungraded in-class drills.
Tip: Iterative Assignments: Split It In Two.
First assignment, a memo, 15% of assignment
grade. Suggest changes, fix a few things.
Second assignment is 85% of grade
Students get opportunities to improve.

18. Rookie Mistake #5:
Use Free Websites
Tip: I showed them proprietary financial
databases but Google Finance actually will fit
your needs. https://www.google.com/finance
Assignment Idea: Calculate Percentage Change in
Stock Price for Apple Over Last Year, Compare to
S&P 500 and Microsoft Corp.

19. Economic Data
Main goals for this unit:
--Discover government economic data and
understand how it affects financial markets and
economic policy.
—Extract and write a basic economic indicators
story by the end of the semester
—Understand why economic data
moves the markets
—Why bond and stock markets
react differently to economic data

20. Rookie Mistake #5:
Don’t Bite Off Too Much
Use Extended Discussion of
Employment Report To Make Broader
Points About All Economic Data
—Start with the employment indicator. Kids understand
jobs.
—Drill in class, build to a deadline writing assignment

21. YOUR TURN:
REVIEW LIST OF MAJOR ECONOMIC
INDICATORS.
http://www.nber.org/releases/
IDEAS ON INDICATORS YOU MAY WANT TO
TEACH?
ALTERNATE WAYS TO TEACH TOPIC?
ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISES?

22. Rookie Mistake #6:
Be Prepared: Bond Market
Students Struggle With Basic Bond
Market Concepts.
Emphasize:
--Ratings, S&P etc
--Muni bonds finance schools, roads
--Yield moves inverse to Price
--Inflation is a bond killer
--For Floating Rate Discussion,
Discuss Credit Card Interest Rate
Formulas
--Size of Bond Vs Stock Markets

23. SUCCESSFUL ASSIGNMENTS
PROPOSE YOUR OWN ECONOMIC INDICATOR,
COMPARE TO EXISTING DATA, DEFEND IT
--PROMOTES CRITICAL THINKING
--SLEEPING PILL INDICATOR
--BAR FIGHTS INDEX
--ABANDONED PUPPY INDICATOR

24. SUCCESSFUL ASSIGNMENTS
FIELD REPORTING: Blend the Economic Data and
Corporate Reporting
1) Review consumer confidence: Univ. of Michigan
Consumer Sentiment survey
2) Pick a publicly traded retailer, like Target, review
its SEC filings.
3) Go to store, interview customers.
Any parallels to the Univ. of Michigan Survey?
Differences?. Write a story that compares the Univ. of
Michigan survey to your company and what customers
are saying on the ground.

25. QUESTIONS?
ROB WELLS
robwells@umd.edu