JURIST Audition

January 24, 2009

General Instructions

The audition consists of three parts and will last for two hours. The suggested time allotment is Part 1 – 60 minutes, Part II – 40 minutes, Part III – 20 minutes, but you may divide your time however you like. This is a closed-source audition, and you are not permitted to use any materials other than the ones provided for you. You may not visit any Internet website besides the links you are provided. Any attempt to access outside materials will be considered a serious ethics breach, and you will be removed from consideration for JURIST staff. Please put all of your responses into a WordPad file and save it as your last name. Do not use any program that has spell check. Email your completed audition to jbelczyk@gmail.com.

Part I – JURIST news writing exercise (suggested time – 60 minutes)

This section is designed to test your ability to write a clear, concise, accurate news post.

Instructions

Below you will find a story assignment and links to several websites and documents that you will use to write your story. Use these materials to write a two-paragraph JURIST news post. You should compose a headline for your story that tells the reader what the story is about. Your first sentence should be a strong “lede” that provides the reader with the basic facts of the news development. In the rest of your first paragraph you should develop and “flesh-out” the basic facts of the story. Include quote(s) from primary sources if appropriate. Your second paragraph should provide the reader with background information from the JURIST archive and provide a context for the news development.

Note that while JURIST posts always contain hyperlinks to primary source documents and websites that readers can click for more information, you will not put links in this post, for the sake of simplicity. Instead, you will “link” to the sources you use by placing the number for the source in parentheses in your text. For example:

Sources:

(1) Link to text of speech

(2) Link to Barack Obama’s official profile

Your sentence: “President Barack Obama (2) gave a speech (1) Tuesday…”

You do not have to use all of the sources provided, and you should distinguish between credible and non-credible as well as primary and secondary sources, giving a preference to credible primary sources, but using credible secondary sources when necessary. You should only include sources that are relevant.

Your story assignment

A report has been released that says someone from the Department of Justice engaged in discrimination.

You have found the following sources online:

(1) http://www.usdoj.gov/

(2) http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/January/09-opa-029.html

(3) http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0901/final.pdf

(4) http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html

(5) http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/index.html

(6) http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/index.html

(7) http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2009/01/bush-doj-discriminated-when-hiring-antidiscrimination-lawyers.html

(8) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Schlozman

(9) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/washington/14justice.html

You have found the following background stories in the JURIST archives:

(10) http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/07/former-intern-sues-doj-for-partisan.php

(11) http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/12/supreme-court-takes-al-marri-detainee.php

(12) http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/07/ethics-group-files-bar-complaints.php

(13) http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/08/gonzales-resigns-as-us-attorney-general.php

Part II – General writing exercise (suggested time – 40 minutes)

This section is designed to test your general writing ability.

Instructions

Write a one-paragraph essay answering the following question:

What is your favorite book, and why?

Part III – Editing exercise (suggested time – 20 minutes)

This section is designed to test your editing abilities and your level of attention to detail.

Instructions

Copy and paste the following unedited JURIST post into your audition document. Then, edit the post. Be sure to watch for spelling and grammar errors. Also watch for “sensationalist” language that makes the story sound biased or takes away from the legal news value of the story.

Sudan hero arrested after calling for war-criminal Bashir to surrender to ICC

[JURIST] Sudanese authorites on Wednesday detained prominant political opposition figure and Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi in response to Turabi's calls for president Omar al-Bashir to turn hisself over to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Turabi, the leader of the Popular Congress Party (PCP), was expecting to be detianed after telling reporters Monday that terror mastermind Bashar is responsable for war crimes in Darfur. Amnesty International (IA) has condemned Turabi's detention, calling it "arbitrary."

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo applyed for an arrest warrant for Bashir in July, charging him with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for really making a mess of Darfur. The warrant was condemnded by the Arab League and criticized by South African President Thabo Mbeki. In Dec., ICC judges gave Moreno-Ocampo until 1/26 to provide supplemental information about a September 2007 attack on an African Union base in Haskanita. The events at the ICC were proceeded by a Security Counsel statement in June who urged Sudan to work with the ICC to "put an end to impunity for the crimes committed in Darfur." Sudan not a party to the ICC, but must cooperate to fulfill its obligations under Council Resolution 1593, which established jurisdiction over the Darfur situation. A bunch of people have allegedly been killed in Darfur by Sudanese military and janjaweed militia forces.