It's spring, and that means it's time to break out the allergy meds ...
THE GOOD
- Excellent story on the new textbook rental program on the front page from Amy. A couple of pricing examples might have been helpful, but it's a subject that you can touch on, in more detail, again this fall when classes begin.
- Page 2 is filled with invigorating first-person banter from Amy, Jed, Kasi and Sam. Especially liked Sam's graph showing the relationship of amount of studying done to days of the weekend (in your adviser's day, Friday's chances of seeing any studying done were absolutely zero).
- Katy peppers her "Date Night" movie review with some interesting analysis of the marriage/relationship dynamic. It could have used a dash more extrapolation of what makes Carell and Fey the hottest comedic actors going, but it's more than enough to make me think briefly about shelling out the $657 it would cost to take my family to see it.
- I'd never heard of the John Butler Trio before reading Jeremiah's album review and it definitely piqued my interest. Nice breakdown of the group's sound experimentation.
- It's not fun to run letters to the editor that slam the time and effort you put into your work, but quality newspapers are willing to allow their readers a chance to be critical of what they've read, for better or worse. In this case, the writer seems to have some statistical data to support her arguments; at the very least it gives the other readers a chance to explore the issue for themselves, and that's really what you're aiming for. For more on this rather uncomfortable topic, see the not-so-hot entry below.
- Segueing right into Lindsey's latest Student Health column, it is once again outstanding, and makes we want to swear off fast food for the rest of my days. Or at least until I get an undeniable craving for a Sharp's ranch burger and fries with special sauce.
- Like Warrior hoops star Jasmine Stohr, I am a big fan of Jed's Sports Shorts column. I could also become a really big fan of personality profiles on some of the L-C athletes whom he talks about in his column, such as graduating senior golfer Cortney Shrout. Just sayin'.
- It's either the Lasik surgery I had done last week or the font is bigger, but I can finally read my beloved Word on the Street feature. Hallelujah! I just want to point out that, at five to six interviewees an issue, over the course of 32 issues, you've briefly introduced between 160 and 192 of your fellow students to the rest of the campus population.
THE NOT-SO HOT
- I know we don't have it at our disposal, but the photo on the front page really cried out for some color. And some people. Here's a tip for Largent and all other aspiring Pathfinder photogs: Unless you're Ansel Adams, people are going to be your most interesting subject matter, so try very hard to work humans — identifiable humans, and by that I mean getting their names — into your pictures.
- With a wife who works as a school crossing guard near Orchards Elementary, I would hope Kasi has more concern for human life than to continue hot-rodding through school zones. Or at least less inclination to boast about it in her columns.
- It's OK to let readers know they have a forum via letters to the editor, but pleading for positive feedback is a bit, shall we say, unseemly. Trust me, you're doing fine. But positive reinforcement, particularly from readers, is not and never has been a big part of the journalism game. If you ply this trade long enough, you'll get some; it won't be much and most of it will be begrudging, but you'll have to learn to be satisfied with the reality that you got things right more often than you screwed them up.
- The jump from Kasi's story says "Price" although that word wasn't in the headline. Usually, jump tags employ a word from the original headline to make the connection. "Law" would have been a better jump tag in this case.
- Various typesetting problems with the two news releases on Page 8 make them a challenge to get through.
THINGS TO WORK ON
Wrong Right
Fall (the season) fall
have the potential to can
the Bookstore The LCSC Bookstore/the bookstore
Ok OK (both capitalized)
tattle-tale tattletale
one in the morning 1 in the morning (times are numerals)
for over two miles for more than two miles
spewing off spewing
60's psychedelic rock '60s psychedelic rock
riff driven style riff-driven style
websites Web sites
Lebron James LeBron James
Brandon Marshal Brandon Marshall
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