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W ritten and Visual Critiqu e Accent November 23, 2009 Issue By Matthew Connolly, Adviser POOR NEEDS IMP. GOOD VERY GOOD EXCELLENT (3.6)

Written and Visual Critique Accent November 23, 2009 Issue

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11/09/09 Issue 11/23/09 Issue Change Average

Excellent (5) 26 16 -10 21

Very Good (4) 18 21 +3 19.5

Good (3) 9 12 +3 10.5

Needs Improvement (2) 2 5 +3 3.5

Poor (1) 6 6 0 6

None (-) 2 2 0 2POOR

NEEDS

IMP.

GOOD

VERY

GOOD

EXCELLENT

OVERALL

11/09/09 Issue 11/23/09 Issue Change Average

Excellent (5) 4 1 -3 2.5

Very Good (4) 5 4 -1 4.5

Good (3) 1 5 +4 3

Needs Improvement (2) 0 0 0 0

Poor (1) 1 2 +1 1.5

None (-) 0 0 0 0POOR

NEEDSIMP.

GOOD

VERYGOOD

EXCELLENT

1. COVERAGE

11/09/09 Issue 11/23/09 Issue Change Average

Excellent (5) 2 0 -2 1

Very Good (4) 3 4 +1 3.5

Good (3) 3 3 0 3

Needs Improvement (2) 2 4 +2 3

Poor (1) 2 1 -1 1.5

None (-) 0 0 0 0POOR

NEEDSIMP.

GOOD

VERYGOOD

EXCELLENT

2. WRITING / EDITING

11/09/09 Issue 11/23/09 Issue Change Average

Excellent (5) 8 9 +1 8.5

Very Good (4) 4 2 -2 3

Good (3) 4 2 -2 3

Needs Improvement (2) 0 0 0 0

Poor (1) 0 1 +1 .5

None (-) 0 0 0 0POOR

NEEDSIMP.

GOOD

VERYGOOD

EXCELLENT

3. PHOTOS / ART

11/09/09 Issue 11/23/09 Issue Change Average

Excellent (5) 7 5 -2 6

Very Good (4) 4 7 +3 5.5

Good (3) 0 0 0 0

Needs Improvement (2) 0 0 0 0

Poor (1) 1 0 +1 .5

None (-) 0 0 0 0POOR

NEEDS

IMP.

GOOD

VERY

GOOD

EXCELLENT

4. LAYOUT / DESIGN

POOR EXCELLENT

11/09/09 Issue 11/23/09 Issue Change Average

Excellent (5) 5 1 -4 3

Very Good (4) 2 4 +2 3

Good (3) 1 2 +1 1.5

Needs Improvement (2) 0 1 +1 .5

Poor (1) 2 2 0 2

None (-) 2 2 0 2

NEEDSIMP.

GOOD

VERYGOOD

5. LEADERSHIP

(3.2)

(2.8)

(4.3)

(4.4)

(3.1)

(3.6)

Dashboard OverviewAccent, November 23, 2009

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Issue Critique - Nov. 23, 2009 Issue

(Modied from ACP Newspaper Guidebook)

Part One: Coverage and Content

Page one content has either signicant news value or provides a mix of features and news.

Very good - There is a good mix of soft news (EAST), an important issue (Gallery space), and an organizationupdate (CSPS). Keep striving for hard, well researched, in-depth news and true features.

Academic-related news and features reect the diversity of the campuses. They are promi-nently displayed on page one or elsewhere in the paper, and show reporting initiative.Good - There is Excellent coverage of RGC events and issues. We NEED to reach out and show initiative in covering other cam-

puses. Research what is happening on other campuses, and try to nd reporters who can cover the events / issues. What is happening

with the RR construction? What is happening on the other campuses? When’s the last time someone called a campus manager, student

leader, or SL coordinator on another campus just to check in and show the initiative looking for stories?

Content reects the diversity of co-curricular and extra-curricular student activities oncampus. The content is given prominent display. Excellent - Great mix of stories about student activities.

Off-campus news - city, state, regional, national, world, is included either in a capsulereview form or as a stand-alone story, occasionally or regularly with an emphasis on local -ized angles.Very good - Austin Conservation Corps (NOT CORP), Dream Act, EAST all have good angles on city stories

Signicant issues, especially social concerns, are explored as news analysis, enterprise,investigative or special topic reporting. Local or campus tie-ins are evident.Good- Gallery space story is the closest thing to an “investigative” piece about a signicant issue. We can do better.

Features are varied, and include some or all of these types: human interest, informative,instructional, personality prole, entertainment preview, and humor. Poor - Plenty of soft news but no fully developed features.

Editorials frequently relate to events or topics reported on page one or on inside page of same edition.Good - Well written editorial, but it only tangentially deals with student issues, and it doe not tie in w/ pg. 1

Opinion content is diverse and signicant.Very Good - Both columns are strong, and the voices are diverse. Good holiday theme. Rant and Rave is well done.

Sports coverage reects both fairness to participants in the entire athletic program andthe readers‘ or fans‘ interests.Good - I like the golf story - It shows thinking out of the box to nd sports related topics. The soccer follow-up is ne, but that’s two

issues in a row with soccer coverage. What about the other intramurals? What about non-campus based sports?

Minority groups - racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, among others - and minor-ity opinion are represented in the stories, photos, and art.Good - While there is some diversity in the paper, there could be more. A quick scan of the faces in the photos illustrates this. The

ASL story is a good example of covering “minority groups.”

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Advance stories and future angles are emphasized when possible. Stories focus on tellingthe reader what is about to happen rather than what did happen.Very Good - The following have prominent future angles - Gallery space, Briefs, Turkey story, RGC ofce building, ASL event,

New, NN&L, CSPS (sort of), Opinion Pieces (Sort of). Some of the other stories could have easily been changed to focus on the

future angle.

Information graphics contribute facts not found elsewhere or in the same condensed formin a related story.

 Poor - No informative infographics - One sidebar

Part Two: Writing and Editing

All writing, with the exception of editorials, opinion columns, and analysis, is free of thewriter’s opinions.Very good- The 1940’s story has the tone of a review in spots. The turkey story only gives one side. All other objective coverage is

free of opinion. Remember that what you cover is as important as how you cover it. Strive to objectively cover more of the ACC com-

munity.

Stories include a sufcient number of appropriate sources to make coverage fair and ac-curate.Good- This is much better than the last issue. There is a variety of sources, and student voices in most stories. However most of the

sources are the easy choices. Examples - Why is Valerie Hope the best student to comment on the Gallery issue? Keep pushing your-

selves and your reporters to dig deeper and get to the important sources. - Why is Gary Webernick the rst person named in two front

page stories?

Stories are written in an appropriate journalistic form and structure.Very good - Good basic news and opinion style. I know that some of these stories took extensive work with the writers to craft

them into journalistic style. Thank you for all of your work in this area.

Writers use accepted journalistic style. Consistency is evident.Very good - Copy editing is poor - quote use and other journalistic formats are well done.

Story leads are concise and capture the reader’s attention. Needs improvement - There are fewer “ACC” and “When” leads, but there are still too many, especially in the briefs.

When writing a summary lead, each of the “who, what where, when, why, and how” an-gles in analyzed for news value. Generally, the writer begins the lead with the most impor-tant of these angles. Story leads avoid beginning with the “when” angle unless the “when”is unusual or especially important.

 Needs improvement - Still too many “when” leads and “ACC - where” leads.Good summary lead “what” choice - Left empty for 35 years . . .

Bad summary lead “who” choice - ACC’s choir program . . .

The “why” aspect of the story is reported adequately.Good - Generally, the surface “why” is covered, but there is very little depth in most of the stories. For example, in the Great Big

Green award, , Michael lists some of the areas that were considered by Austin Energy, but really doesn’t explain the signicance of a

three star rating. Why did we get this award? Is there something that could have been done better so we could earn a four or ve star

rating? Is there anything that ACC did in the construction that was truly outstanding and green to get them to the three star level? Your

readers need to understand the why.

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Stories are developed with an accurate sense of the importance of each detail. Importantinformation is not buried in the story. Most stories are developed with the most importantand timely facts reported rst, and the least important facts reported last. Some storiesare developed in the narrative or storytelling form. In this case, a chronological order of events is used , often delaying the most important facts until the end of the story. Evenwith the traditional inverted pyramid form, some signicant fact or quote can be used atthe end of the story to sustain and satisfy readers.Good - There no narrative stories, but the inverted pyramid stories are acceptable with a few exceptions Examples- The Carnegie

Hall info in the 1940’ story should be in the rst or second graf. The future astronomy lecture should be in the lead of the planetariumstory. The future CSPS events should be higher in the story.

Reporters write all news, news-features, features and sports in the third-person, imper-sonal. Quotes with rst person pronouns do not contradict this rule. Staff editorials arewritten in the second person; opinion columns in the rst person; analysis, clearly labeledin the rst, second or third person. The narrative is an exception to this and may be writ-ten in the rst person.Very good - No serious problems with person (and I know some of the early drafts did). The 2012 review uses second person. I

don’t prefer the “you” construction ever. It is elementary and can come off preachy and turn off the reader. It also is not consistent

with the rest of the reviews.

Copy is edited and proofed carefully to check spelling , accuracy of numbers and facts,sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, grammar, usage, syntax, and AP style. Poor- The same problems keep happening in the same places. This means that the editors are not taking these problems seriously,

and are OK with these mistakes reoccurring. Remember that “small” errors deeply affect our credibility with the readers.

Problems

Headlines - Poor

“Students and instructors display artwork in East Austin Studio Tour” - The style is to replace the “and” article with a comma.•

“Dept. head petitions for more space” - This is completely redundant with the primary headline.•

“CSPS has been busy, it’s not slowing down” - Do not abbreviate or use acronyms unless the acronym is universally understood.•

CSPS is a new organization. Also, avoid “has been” in headlines. Use strong action verbs.

“New corp creates jobs for students” - Misspelling in 40 point font!!•“New RGC Ofce Building” - If you are going to write a primary head with no verb, it should be more interesting.•

“Gym turned into faculty ofce space” - This is not completely accurate. The lead states that it will soon be lled with students.•

The gallery space story notes that there will be an art space. Heads must be completely accurate, informative, and interesting.

“Twisters are the soccer champs” - Yawn. Focus on your verbs. The “are the” construction is possibly the weakest, most boring•

construction in the English language.

“Following Hellblazer and Lucifer, Michael Carey’s Unwritten is dissappointing” - Misspelling in large font!!•

“Hideous Men, captivating adaptation” - Implied verbs don’t cut it. You need real verbs in heads.•

“2012, mindless, fun, entertainment” - No verb•

Suggestions for improvement - Start caring about headlines. You are not doing your job as an editor if you spend hours with a writer

helping him or her to improve a story and then don’t display that story under a headline that the readers will understand, be intrigued

by, and that will lead them into the story. While headlines must be written toward the end of the process, they should not be rushed and

written at the last minute. The goal should be to improve your workow so you are not still working with content late on Thursday.

Cutlines - Poor

“ACC Art - Austinite” - Do we even know that this person is from Austin? Never make up information.•

“Energy Building” - What does this mean? There should be a second sentence with background info about the plaque here.•

“Going Greener - A n SGA Minority Senator . . .” Why is “A n” there?•

“Rio Buildlging - A construction vehicle moves dirt . . .” - Large, bold misspelling . This information is obvious in the photo.•

There should be more information.

“Getting Ready - Tiffany Leigh Coghill, Jenny Schmerber . . .” - Use “and”, not just a comma.•

“Four Bountineers - “ If you are going to use a made-up word, you must explain what it means.•

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All play cutlines - Need more information. Explain what they are actually doing in the photo, not just that they are playing a•

character.

 

Suggestions for improvement - Keep pushing your photographers to collect as much information as possible when they shoot. You

also need to choose 4-6 photos and get them back to the photographer within hours of the photos being uploaded from a shoot. This

will give the photographer some time to write cut lines and possibly nd people from the event to give them more information. Pho-

tographers should be encouraged to “re-interview” to get more information just like writers are.

Body text - Poor

East Meets ACC

“Four groups of ACC artist . . .” -Number problem•

“Art Department Chair Gary Webernick and Art Studios and Exhibition Specialist, Julie Isaacson, “ -No commas needed around•

name.

“students and faculty, as well as interact” - No comma needed•

“Art student, Austin DeCaulp,” -No commas needed around name.•

“until this years EAST.” - Apostrophe needed in year’s•

Art Dept. lobbies

“average classroom at Rio Grande Campus,” - Drop “campus” after rst mention•

“the Art Department is forced to display art in the HBC lobby” - Spell out HBC, do not abbrevite campus names•

“Phase 2 of Riverside Campus in 1992” - Should be “phase two”•

CSPS“ Parliamentarian, Avy Gonzalez, “ - Title not capitalized when name is parenthetical.•

Editorial

“President of the Texans for Life Coalition, Kyleen Wright, while” - No commas around name. Comma after “Wright” should be•

a period. This is a comma spliced run-on.

“He also rallies against anti-hate crime legislation, he supports the impeachment of liberal judges, because it would scare other•

 judges into “doing what they were put there to do,” and has publicly expressed concern that Obama is not really an American

citizen. - Huge comma spliced mess.

“Rick Perry, because” - Don’t split clauses with comma if second clause is subordinate (starts with because, unless, when, while,•

after, etc.).

“homo phobic,” - Should be “homophobic”•

“Election Day” - No caps.•

News BriefsFire Academy

“Paul Menches, Chair of the “ - don’t capitalize titles after names.•

“ 10:30 am “ - a.m.•

Rio Review

“said Charlotte Gullick, Chair of the Creative” - don’t capitalize titles after names.•

Dream Act

“a DREAM. Act Committee” - No Period•

“ DREAM act” - Capitalize Act•

“Jose Torres, President of “ - don’t capitalize titles after names.•

“This committee was formed after Jose Torres, President of the University of Leadership, a group that is trying to mobilize sup-•

port for the DREAM Act at colleges, made a presentation about the DREAM act at an SGA meeting on Oct. 30. - Don’t nest

parenthetical information like this. It is very confusing.“DREAM act Chair Blanca Gonzalez” - “Act” should be capitalized. “Chair” in this instance is not, I believe, a formal title.•

Check with SGA.

“ affected.” Director - should be a comma - not a period•

Big Green

“material, and” - extra space•

“construction debris were “ - should be “debris was”•

In ve years ACC could be the largest community college in Texas, with more campuses being built and current campuses under-•

going renovation, Kinslow said. - Is this a direct quote?

Turkeys

“there are some meat eaters like ACC student and staff member Xochitl Gostomski that support the project.” - Misplaced modi-•

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er. “that support the project” modies “meat eaters” , so it should be next to it.

New Corps creates jobs

“Austin Conservation Corp” - should be “Corps” - Corps is singular. PLEASE don’t misspell the name of an organization.•

“offers students the job opportunities maintaining and building parks” - “the” is extranneous.•

“The corp will work” - corps•

“ future for the corp.” - corps•

“one must be and ACC student “ - “and” shuold be “an” - “one” sounds archaic and overly formal. Avoid it.•

RGC Gym

“the Shoal Creek” - no “the” needed•

Twisters

“on Nov. 19 to win rst place.” - You already stated that they won the championship game - “to win rst place” is redundant.•

“Student Life Coordinator Jennifer Flowers” - Jennifer Flowers needs a functional title so the reader knows her part in the intra-•

murals program.

“That practice paid off as they worked well together as a team “ - borderline editorializing•

Planetarium•

“Heath, professor of Astronomy and Physics” - should be “, a professor . . .”•

Golf 

“scholarships to and look forward” - Needs comma before “and”•

“Shari Rodriquez, President of Texas Association” - don’t capitalize titles after names.•

“Laura Juarez, Associate Professor of Biology and former ACC TACHE President.” - don’t capitalize titles after names.•

1940’s musical“ran from Nov. 17 to19.” - Missing space•

“integrating both theatre and choir” - use “theater” unless “theatre” is in the proper name of a building.•

“best in the theatre portion “ - See above•

ASL Show

“before she had ever studied ASL she had always wondered” - Needs comma “ASL, she had . . .”•

There Will Be Blood, Gerald, and Signage - I know that I put quotes around these movie titles and they were removed. I thoug•

we decided that we would stick with AP style (quotes around composition titles) everywhere except in David’s section.

New, Notable, and Live

“Food writer and sports journalist, Andrew Friedman,” - no commas needed arounfd the name•

“Perkins is a legend and Carolyn Wonderland “ - comma needed before “and” - When joining two independent clauses, you need•

a comma plus a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon.

“doors open at 7 p.m. and tickets range from $15 “ - comma needed before “and” - See above•“The doors open at 9 p.m., it is an all ages “ - comma splice - see above•

“The doors open at 9 p.m. and tickets are $15” - - comma needed before “and” - See above•

“a young teenager and they were amazing” - comma needed before “and” - See above•

“ in everything and his latest is Defendor” - comma needed before “and” - See above•

“things other photo-journalists could not” - photojournalists•

Unwritten

“hit the shelves July 9, and is currently” - no comma or space needed•

“unstable fan, who really thinks he is the book’s arch villain,” - delete rst comma, and make second comma a period, ending the•

sentence.

“he is then later saved by another equally as disturbed enthusiast.” - Should read “He is later saved by an equally disturbed enthu-•

siast.” - Keep the writing tight.

“And what about Tom’s father, “ - Should read “And, what about Tom’s father?•“worth the gas, and the drive to the comic” - No comma needed•

“issues 1 through 5 “ - spell out•

Captions are written with a present tense verb, identify all prominent and recognizablepersons, and give information that is not found an accompanying story. Needs Improvement - Better, but still need work - All cut lines must identify people in the photo and give relevant, new informa-

tion. See above

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Recommended headline styles of either sentence or feature are used. Sentence style, themost often used, include a subject, verb, and object. The verb is usually in the present orfuture tense. Articles, conjunctions, and some punctuation are omitted. Feature headlinesdon’t follow the subject-verb-object rule, but use a reasonable phrase, question, or wordsand are clever or playful. Feature headlines should be followed by sentence headlines as asub-head or deck. Passive voice is not encouraged. The style of headline should match thestyle of the story. Needs improvement - Better use of decks, but lots of improvement needed- Plan for more decks and sub heads so the primary

head can be more playful. Headline hierarchy also still needs work. More important stories need bigger heads and the size of theheads, in general, should get smaller as you work down the page. See above.

Part Three: Photos, Art & Graphics

A variety of photos – action (unposed), mugs, groups, illustration – is published if relevant.Overuse of mugs or posed groups is discouraged. There is evidence of on-the-spot photocoverage of news and sports events.Good -Some good action shots for 1940’s, ASL, Green Award, and Fun Fun Fun. Send these shots out to photographers as good

examples. Twisters and EAST shots are disappointing. There seem to be fewer photographers, and they aren’t being pushed to capture

compelling images. Push them to work more with composition, lighting, and subject matter to get compelling shots, not just usable

snapshots.

Photos are cropped to emphasize the center of interest in each one. Excellent- Cropping has improved tremendously.

Photo content is newsworthy, signicant or unusual.Good- We need more high interest photos that use techniques like selective focus, leading lines, dramatic angles, rule of thirds, sim-

plicity, framing, etc.

Photos have the proper contrast, and are neither too dark nor too light. Excellent - Levels look good.

Color photos are reproduced with accurate color values. Excellent- Reproduction looks good.

Photos are free of scratches, dust, lint, water spots or other technical aws. Excellent - No technical aws.

The center of interest in each photo is in focus. Excellent - Everything is sharp.

Photos are not manipulated electronically to alter the reality or essential truth of the pho-to. Excellent - Nothing is unethical

An information graphic includes illustrations or graphics to represent and visually inter-pret the accompanying facts and gures. Poor - None

Editorial cartoons are sufciently simple with concise text to quickly convey a message.Very Good - Cartoon may not be instantly understood by many readers before they read the editorial because the caricatures are not

of people that they will instantly recognize. Caricatures are only clear when the subject is very recognizable.

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Graphics support but don’t overwhelm and detract from editorial or pictorial content.Screens placed over copy are light enough to allow for easy reading. Excellent - Clean and readable presentation.

Column headings are consistent in design, use the same typeface to support overall news-paper design continuity. Typeface family variations, such as weight and posture are ac-ceptable. Excellent - Consistent throughout.

Original story art is attractive, appropriate for the content, and contributes to the reader’scomprehension of the story.Very Good - Nice Turkey!

Clip art and stock photography are appropriate for the age of the readers and matchescurrent styles, unless otherwise intended. Excellent - No clip art used, and the stock entertainment images are appropriate. I’m not crazy about the tilted book shots. They just

look poorly cropped.

Part Four: Layout & Design

Elements such as text, headlines, photos, graphics and art are balanced informally toavoid a page that is top-bottom, right-, or left-heavy or off balanced. Photos, rules, head-lines, screens and art carry heavy or black weight. Text is grey weight or medium. Blankspace, such as column gutters, is white space or weight. Balance is achieved by a pleasingdistribution of all of these elements. Sometimes the placement of the lead and second storyon a newspaper page creates a top-heavy look. That may be unavoidable, and it is accept-able.Very Good - Balance is top heavy on page 1. More white space is needed between horizontal rules.

A centerpiece (sometimes called a poster) showcases a special news feature, feature orbegins in special news-feature, feature or begin in a special series, which jumps inside.The designer takes a signicant portion of the page-within-a-page design or centerpiece. Itbecomes a package, often with a photo (or several photos), a catch line (which is a headlineexclusively for the photo), a headline (often set in a typeface that is different from the oneused for headlines on the rest of the page) and the story (often jumped inside). The center-piece package may also include some art and an information graphic. All these elementsare usually set off visually from the rest of the page with rules, a screen or some othergraphics. The shape is always a rectangle or a square. A centerpiece is usually presentedon page one, although they can be used on inside pages or the rst page of other sections.

Very Good - Good clear poster on page 1. The most visually interesting part of it is Ward Walker’s creation. It would be better if oneof our photographs was compelling enough to carry the page.

Ads should be placed on inside pages, building in modular blocks from the lower cornersupward. The newspaper’s grid should be able to accommodate standard ad width sizes. Excellent - Ads are all well placed.

A photo or art should not separate a story from its headline. Excellent - All headlines lead to stories.

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Photo display, especially on page one, features at least one multi-column large photo.Very good - Photos are run large where appropriate. The Gallery space box helps break up the text on bottom of P. 1, but there

should be at least one more small photo.

Multiple deck headlines or summary decks provide readers with more information than asingle deck headline.Very Good - While some of the decks can be better written, there are several of them, and they are mostly helpful to the reader.

Facing pages inside a newspaper should be designed as one unit for overall balance eventhough the content may not be related. Excellent - No conicts between facing pages. Everything works well together.

Rules may be used for weight balance, to separate elements or to highlight an elementsuch as a story, pulled quote or centerpiece.Very Good - Rules are used well, but there should be more white space around V rules.

Nameplates or ags are placed on the upper half of page one. Horizontal placement is pre -ferred.

 Excellent - Properly placed. Consider doing skybox or other type of non-tarty teasers near nameplate.

Opinion pages vary in design from the other pages to signal the shift from objective tosubjective writing. Excellent - Section head, column standing heads and editorial poster give this page a distinctive look.

Photo essays can be handled as posters – a related collection with accompanying text andcaptions placed in the center of the page, and set off by a screen, rules or color – or as afull page or spread collection. Photos of various sizes, with one clearly the focal point be-cause of its dominant size, are grouped with consistent margins among them. A headline,some text and captions complement the photos.Very Good - Fun Fun Fun essay has good variety, but it should have a dominant element.

A serif typeface for text is preferred by readers according to various reader studies. Head-lines can be a complimentary serif or sans serif typeface. Text is often set in ether 9- or 10-point type, with one or two points leading between lines. Captions are often set in either asize one point larger than text or in a contrasting bold or medium face. Headlines are oftenset in a point size ranging from 16 to 60 points. The paper’s format, tabloid or broadsheet,is a factor in the point size of headlines.Very good- Use of fonts throughout is well done, except some of the kerning / tracking / leading adjustment are taken too far and are

noticeable.

Original, student produced ads include a simple, direct and creative selling message rel-

evant to the readers, a visual such as a photo or art, and a complete advertiser name, ad -dress, phone number, and if appropriate, hours of operation. None

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Part Five: Leadership

The newspaper staff publishes responsible commentary on the editorial and opinion pages.Good - While everything on the opinions pages is well written, there is not a strong student focus.

The staff demonstrates an awareness of its leadership role on campus by commenting ineditorials and opinion columns on signicant topics. Needs improvement - The important student issue focus of last issue is simply not there. Topics are either uffy or deal with state

level, not student focused, topics.

Editorials are unsigned and represent the voice of the paper. Consensus is unnecessaryamong the staff regarding editorial opinion. Opposing views can be expressed in opinioncolumns or guest editorials, which are signed. Excellent - Properly done.

The editors express their appreciation for extraordinary accomplishments by students,faculty and staff in others in editorials of commendation. None - Not in this issue

Argumentative editorials are constructive and suggest reasonable courses of action as asolution, or offer a carefully reasoned alternative viewpoint.Good - Strong and reasonable voice, but no clear course of action for reader or specic advocacy for alternatives.

The staff shows their good news judgment in the selection and display of content, especial-ly on page one.Very good - Everything on page one is student centered and relevant.

Regular, beat and spot news reporting is augmented by in-depth, investigative or enter-prise reporting or analysis. Poor - No in-depth or investigative pieces in this issue.

Coverage is expanded or departmentalized, and specialty areas such as business, health,technology and entertainment are included on single topic pages, separate sections orsupplements.Very good - Sections are clearly departmentalized. No single topic pages in this issue.

Students use accepted journalistic forms and style. Deviations for the purpose of betterpresentation of content are acceptable.Very good - Good journalistic product.

Students follow ethical practices, accept professional standards and adhere to press law inall aspects of their work.Very good - Copy editing needs serious improvement and there can always be more research. Other than that, the product is profes-

sional and ethical throughout.

The staff invites submissions of opposing viewpoints and various forms of reader feedbacksuch as guest columns and letters. Poor - There needs to be more overt and prominent invitations made to the readers to get involved.

There may be some opportunity to do some civic journalism; invite students in other com-munity members to forums and then report the opinions expressed during these forums. None - Hmmm, any ideas? Any topics we should form forums around?

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Free press can, of course,be good or bad, but, mostcertainly without freedom,the press will never beanything but bad.--Albert Camus (1913-1960) French novelist, essayist and dramatist

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Good poster, but wouldbe better with moredynamic photos.

Good Art Head

Good white space

Good variation in columnwidth

Redundant headline

Insert another pica of white space if storiesbump like this

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Very well drawn car-toon. Some of thesefaces aren’t recogniz-able enough for ourreaders.

Overall, a well built page.

White space at bot-tom should matchWS at top and side.

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Font size too large forstory this low on page.And, it’s not spelledcorrectly!

Nicely balanced page

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Good headline heirarchy here.

This graphic should beexplained

This works well at thissize. The question shouldbe a bit more prominant.

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Good variety of photos.

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Overall a good layout, butno real dominant element onthe page

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Good photos. The website should be moreprominant since this is

primarily a web teaser.

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