Oct. 24 critique of Friday edition of The Parthenon

Oct. 24 issue of The Parthenon

 

Front page:

The front page continues to be filled with graphics and pull quotes to pull readers in. The design is good and the reader can read all the quotes. Highlighting D’Antoni’s quote with green to emphasize the important parts of his quote is a good touch.

 

Second page:

The two stories on the second page are about a concert in the Smith Recital Hall and about political leaders visiting the school. I would have reversed the stories and had the political leaders story above the fold as it is more important. Wordiness was the main issue for both stories and I delete a few phrases and sentences that weren’t needed in the copy and didn’t had anything to the story. In the concert story I would have put the location of the event in the lead and not the final paragraph and I would paraphrase a quote because it is extremely tough to read a quote listing what songs were played in the performance and isn’t worth quote material. And in the political story instead of simply saying the leaders spoke mention which high-profile ones, like Nick Rahall, spoke to students. The headlines and captions on the story are well-written.

 

Third page:

The sports page had two stories on it: football preview for FAU game and Thundering Herd Madness. As with the other page the football preview’s main issue was wordiness. The Herd Madness story had the same issue and had a few editorializing phrases saying the event was fun instead of quoting a participant or spectator saying it. The author should have made the story more about the men’s team participating earlier in the story as they were the main attraction of the event and mention what the women’s team did later in the event. Headlines, captions and pictures on the page are good.

 

Fourth page:

The two stories on the fourth page is about the Greek IMPACT retreat and the H.E.L.P. program raising awareness for ADHD. As with the other stories in the issue wordiness is the main problems in the stories. The Greek story needs to move the time element in the lead closer to the verb and not at the end of the sentence. The other half of the page is taken up the normal graphic going over events for the weekend.

 

Fifth page:

The jump page, so nothing new to edit on the page minus a couple of captions for random pictures on the page that do not have stories accompanying them. The captions do explain the pictures well, but stories, if could be related to MU, would be nice.

 

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:

The main issues with the paper were wordiness and a few AP Style issues. The pictures, headlines and captions were well-written for the most part. Another solid issue by the staff.