Critique of the Friday Oct. 3 edition of The Parthenon

Critique of the Friday Oct. 3 edition of The Parthenon

 

Front page:

The staff continues to put out quality front pages for the Friday editions of the paper. The type and quality of graphics again are good. The light orange type on the left side of the page is a little difficult to read, but other than that not much to report on the front page when there are no stories on the page. The use of the color orange really brightens up the page and brings out the main point of the paper and that is to illustrate the beginning of fall and the football game on Saturday along with relevant Marshall student news.

 

Second page:

The top story on the page is about the Pumpkin Festival in Milton. The reporter definitely did their homework and researched the history of the event and what goes on during the event typically. The writer could have gotten better sources instead of a volunteer. Contact the director of the event or someone high up in the operations. A few lines in the story are a little hard to read due to them running along the edge of the photo. The picture isn’t really a good photo and certainly could have been shrunk to avoid the strain on the readers’ eyes in those certain spots. A few unnecessary words and a paragraph should be deleted in the story.

The bottom two stories regarding a new invention festival and the Thunder Cup make up the bottom part of the page. Both stories did not have many mistakes, a few unnecessary words and phrases, and a good amount of information and a quality of sources.

The headlines are okay. The use of pull quotes on the page is a nice touch though.

 

Third page:

The third page is specifically dedicated to the Marshall and Old Dominion game. The photos and graphic on the page are good. One of the captions in the left photo is a little difficult to read.

The preview story is too wordy to say the least. A lot of the transitions said exactly what the quotes did and aren’t needed. A few unnecessary words and phrases were also deleted. The preview was pretty good minus the wordiness.

 

Fourth page:

The top half of the page is a mess. It is extremely difficult to read the Unity Walk story. It was not worth editing because the strain on my eyes was bad. I’m not sure why the article was shaded in the first place. The pull quote on the right side of the picture is also difficult to read.

The B.B. King story does not answer the so what question. It is nice a musical legend is coming to the area, but not near Marshall. He is playing in Charleston. It would be more relevant in a Marshall newspaper if the school was sponsoring a concert or it was in Huntington. I would not have ran the story.

The Alzheimer disease story to the right was informative and well-written. The author did a good job, but could have used another source about the walk. Other than a confusing use of the acronym “AA” no major mistakes outside unnecessary words.

The Alzheimer graphic at the bottom of the page is a little difficult to read and could be a little lighter shade.

 

Page Five:

Unfortunately page five is filled with AP wire stories. Would have liked to see a few more Marshall-related stories. One wire story is okay, but to me three is just too many. A few smaller, maybe not so big stories in terms of news about Marshall related info could have been placed on the page. The wire story on Colorado students speaking out against curriculum form would have been good for the page. The other two about the suspect being captured in the missing UVA case and about the UN aren’t really relevant.

 

Sixth page:

The back page of this edition is ads for churches in the area. As long as the ads were created by the churches editors should not have to worry about grammar, but should check anyway to be certain the ads are 100 percent correct. The page is well layed-out and is fair as it provides information on a number of churches from different denominations.

 

Overall thoughts:

Another good Friday edition of The Parthenon. A few of the stories were wordy and could use some touching up in that regard. A few of the pictures led to unreadable type that should be fixed in order to increase the chance readers actually read the stories. A macro decision should have been made on the B.B. King story and it should have been axed. And the Unity Walk story should have not been shaded. It was unreadable. There were too many AP stories in the issue as well. One is good, two is okay, but three seems excessive. Outside of the wordiness and shading on the graphics near type not a bad issue.