Research Article Open Access

Journalistic Writing Competencies of AB Communication Students: Basis for Development of Training Manual in Journalism

Abstract

Journalism is one of the most vital courses pursued by students enrolled in the AB Communication program. Hence, this research and developmental study was conducted to determine the competencies of the students in journalism particularly in the areas of editorial, feature, sports, news and headline writing; and, to develop a training manual to address the issues on students’ competencies. This research is employed the Communicative Competency Framework of Canale and Swain in 1987, which brought the study into analyzing the grammatical competencies of the students, specifically in terms of lexico-semantic and syntax; and, their discourse competencies in the areas of content writing and cohesion. Consequently, findings revealed that the AB Communication students have fair ability both in terms of their grammatical and discourse competencies. For this reason, there is a high need of training students in journalistic writing. Moreover, perceptions of the students and industry partners, in terms of the journalistic needs and factors contributing to the development of journalistic competencies were investigated. Results also showed that there is need for students to develop their interest in journalism and as perceived by the industry partners, a need for a sufficient and appropriate instruction, drills, trainings and related pedagogical intervention is a necessitate among AB Communication students to surmount the challenges they encountered vis-à-vis journalistic writing.

William Mel C Paglinawan

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