Curriculum · the ten subject chapters
How the ten subjects fit together
The curriculum is not a syllabus in the institutional sense. Nobody registers for it, nobody marks it and it leads to no award. It is simply the order in which the desk believes the elements of reporting are best examined, grouped into three strands: building the text, gathering the material, and the duties that sit around both.
The building strand covers the shapes a story can take, the way headlines and editing finish it, and the different spine a feature needs. The gathering strand covers interviews, checking, sources and field work. The duties strand covers law and ethics, multimedia obligations such as captioning and consent, and the newsroom planning that keeps all of it repeatable.
The inverted pyramid
Why hard news puts its heaviest fact first, how the shape is built paragraph by paragraph, and where it stops working.
Subject 02Interview technique
Deciding what an interview is for, building a question ladder, agreeing terms before you start, and handling silence.
Subject 03Fact-checking
Breaking a claim into checkable parts, ranking evidence, reading official records, and flagging what cannot be confirmed.
Subject 04Sources and confidentiality
Motives, agreed terms, protecting identity in a digital trail, and the Irish legal setting around notes and sources.
Subject 05Field reporting
Planning a day out of the office, safety and check-in protocol, observation discipline and filing from a difficult place.
Subject 06Headlines and editing
What a headline promises, how page furniture works, the editing passes that catch different faults, and how to word a correction.
Subject 07Law and ethics basics
The Irish instruments and bodies a reporter meets first, and the ethical questions that sit above them.
Subject 08Narrative structure for features
Scenes, sequence, the nut graf, and how a long piece keeps a reader without inventing anything.
Subject 09Multimedia basics
Choosing a format, the minimum standard for audio, stills and video, and the accessibility duties that come with each.
Subject 10Newsroom workflow and planning
The rhythm of a publishing day, forward planning, copy flow, sign-off and the correction audit trail.
| Subject | Strand | Reads well with |
|---|---|---|
| The inverted pyramid | Building the text | Headlines and editing |
| Interview technique | Gathering the material | Sources and confidentiality |
| Fact-checking | Gathering the material | Sources and confidentiality |
| Sources and confidentiality | Gathering the material | Law and ethics |
| Field reporting | Gathering the material | Multimedia basics |
| Headlines and editing | Building the text | The inverted pyramid |
| Law and ethics basics | Duties around the work | Sources and confidentiality |
| Narrative structure for features | Building the text | From notebook to feature |
| Multimedia basics | Duties around the work | Field reporting |
| Newsroom workflow and planning | Duties around the work | Headlines and editing |
What each subject chapter guarantees
- Eight numbered sections, each one specific to that subject rather than general advice.
- One comparison table that sets options against the situations they suit and the way they fail.
- One checklist written for the moment before filing, not for revision afterwards.
- Three questions with plain answers, and a short reading path to the next chapter.
- A marginal note wherever a claim needs a caveat that would clutter the main text.
Using the curriculum without a teacher
Self-directed reading fails in a predictable way: the reader finishes the material, recognises all of it and can apply none of it. The remedy is to attach each chapter to a task. Read the interview subject the day before an interview, not a month earlier. Read headlines and editing while your own draft is open. Read law and ethics before you write the sentence you are worried about, and again after.
Where the desk cannot help is judgement under pressure. Deciding whether a source is telling the truth, whether a detail identifies a vulnerable person, or whether a sentence carries a defamatory meaning is work that experienced editors do slowly and cautiously. The chapters describe the questions those decisions turn on; they cannot make the decision for you, and they are not a substitute for legal advice.
A four-week self-directed pass through the curriculum
- Week 1Building the text: the inverted pyramid, then headlines and editing. Rewrite one published story in three lengths.
- Week 2Gathering: interview technique and sources, with one real interview prepared, recorded with consent and transcribed.
- Week 3Testing: fact-checking and field reporting. Keep a verification log for every claim in your own draft.
- Week 4Duties and shape: law and ethics, narrative structure, multimedia basics, newsroom workflow. Rebuild the draft as a feature.
Checklist for planning your own reading
- Pick one real piece of work the reading has to serve.
- Match each chapter to the day you will actually need it.
- Mark every section that describes law for professional confirmation.
- Keep one page of unanswered questions and revisit it weekly.
- Stop and write something after every two chapters.